Method and apparatus for providing adaptive configuration on base station in a communication system

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting higher data transmission rates and satisfying various service requirements. The disclosure provides a method performed by a DU in a communication system. The method includes: acquiring first information required to configure a signal processing mode of an RU of the base station; generating second information including indication information based on the first information, wherein the indication information indicates the signal processing mode for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal; and transmitting the second information to the second node, wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of: non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal, channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal, data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, or partial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ADAPTIVE CONFIGURATION ON BASE STATION IN A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The disclosure relates to the operations of network node and / or a terminal in a communication system, and in particular, relates to a method performed by a node in a wireless communication system and a device for providing adaptive configuration.

[0002] Considering the development of wireless communication from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5G (5th-generation) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6G (6th-generation) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems. For these reasons, 6G communication systems are referred to as beyond-5G systems.

[0003] 6G communication systems, which are expected to be commercialized around 2030, will have a peak data rate of tera (1,000 giga)-level bps and a radio latency less than 100μsec, and thus will be 50 times as fast as 5G communication systems and have the 1 / 10 radio latency thereof.

[0004] In order to accomplish such a high data rate and an ultra-low latency, it has been considered to implement 6G communication systems in a terahertz band (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands). It is expected that, due to severer path loss and atmospheric absorption in the terahertz bands than those in mmWave bands introduced in 5G, technologies capable of securing the signal transmission distance (that is, coverage) will become more crucial. It is necessary to develop, as major technologies for securing the coverage, radio frequency (RF) elements, antennas, novel waveforms having a better coverage than orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), beamforming and massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and multiantenna transmission technologies such as large-scale antennas. In addition, there has been ongoing discussion on new technologies for improving the coverage of terahertz-band signals, such as metamaterial-based lenses and antennas, orbital angular momentum (OAM), and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS).

[0005] Moreover, in order to improve the spectral efficiency and the overall network performances, the following technologies have been developed for 6G communication systems: a full-duplex technology for enabling an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission to simultaneously use the same frequency resource at the same time; a network technology for utilizing satellites, high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and the like in an integrated manner; an improved network structure for supporting mobile base stations and the like and enabling network operation optimization and automation and the like; a dynamic spectrum sharing technology via collison avoidance based on a prediction of spectrum usage; an use of artificial intelligence (AI) in wireless communication for improvement of overall network operation by utilizing AI from a designing phase for developing 6G and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; and a next-generation distributed computing technology for overcoming the limit of UE computing ability through reachable super-high-performance communication and computing resources (such as mobile edge computing (MEC), clouds, and the like) over the network. In addition, through designing new protocols to be used in 6G communication systems, developing mecahnisms for implementing a hardware-based security environment and safe use of data, and developing technologies for maintaining privacy, attempts to strengthen the connectivity between devices, optimize the network, promote softwarization of network entities, and increase the openness of wireless communications are continuing.

[0006] It is expected that research and development of 6G communication systems in hyper-connectivity, including person to machine (P2M) as well as machine to machine (M2M), will allow the next hyper-connected experience. Particularly, it is expected that services such as truly immersive extended reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and digital replica could be provided through 6G communication systems. In addition, services such as remote surgery for security and reliability enhancement, industrial automation, and emergency response will be provided through the 6G communication system such that the technologies could be applied in various fields such as industry, medical care, automobiles, and home appliances.

[0007] The disclosure relates to a method performed by a node in a wireless communication system and a device for optimizing the configuration of base station performance.

[0008] Accordingly, an aspect of the disclosure is to provide methods and apparatus for dynamically adjusting a signal process mode of the RU based on the actual wireless communication environment.

[0009] The technical problems to be achieved in the various examples of the disclosure are not limited to those mentioned above, and other technical problems not mentioned can be considered by a person having ordinary skill in the art from the various examples of the disclosure described below.

[0010] According to an aspect of the disclosure, a method performed by a DU in a communication system is provided. The method includes: acquiring first information required to configure a signal processing mode of an RU of the base station; generating second information including indication information based on the first information, wherein the indication information indicates the signal processing mode for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal; and transmitting the second information to the second node, wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of: non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal, channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal, data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, or partial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.

[0011] According to an aspect of the disclosure, a method performed by an RU in a communication system is provided. The method includes: receiving, from a distributed unit (DU) of the base station, second information including indication information indicating a signal processing mode of the RU for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal, wherein the second information is received based on first information being required to configure the signal processing mode of RU; and performing a signal processing based on the second information, wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of: non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal, channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal, data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, or partial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.

[0012] According to an aspect of the disclosure, a distributed unit (DU) of a base station in a communication system is provided. The DU may includes: at least one transceiver; at least one processor coupled to the transceiver; and memory coupled to the at least one processor storing instructions executable by the at least one processor, wherein the instructions cause the DU to: acquire first information required to configure a signal processing mode of a radio unit (RU) of the base station, generate second information including indication information based on the first information, wherein the indication information indicates the signal processing mode for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal, and transmit, to the RU, the second information, wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of: non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal, channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal, data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, or partial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.

[0013] According to an aspect of the disclosure, a radio unit (RU) of a base station in a communication system is provided. The RU may includes: at least one transceiver; at least one processor coupled to the transceiver; and memory coupled to the at least one processor storing instructions executable by the at least one processor, wherein the instructions cause the RU to: receive, from a distributed unit (DU) of the base station, second information including indication information indicating a signal processing mode of the RU for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal, wherein the second information is received based on first information being required to configure the signal processing mode of RU, and perform a signal processing based on the second information, wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of: non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal, channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal, data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, or partial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.

[0014] According to an aspect of an example of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, comprising: acquiring first information, wherein the first information includes at least one of capacity information of a communication link between the first node and a second node, information related to computing resources of the first node, information related to computing resources of the second node, or information related to energy efficiency of the second node; obtaining second information based on the first information, wherein the second information includes information for indicating a signal processing mode used by the second node for at least one terminal, wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal, channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal, data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, or partial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal; and transmitting the second information to the second node.

[0015] In an example, the first information further includes at least one of: uplink transmission scheduling information; or channel status information of the at least one terminal.

[0016] In an example, the second information further includes at least one of: antenna port information of a first signal and / or a second signal, wherein the first signal is a signal received by the second node, and the first signal includes uplink data of the at least one terminal, wherein the second signal includes a signal which is obtained by the second node performing signal processing on the first signal based on the second information; channel status information of the at least one terminal; parameters used for performing signal processing based on the signal processing mode; a channel equalization matrix; a partial channel equalization matrix; or a compression ratio of data.

[0017] In an example, the obtaining second information based on the first information comprises: determining, through a neural network, for at least one second node and based on the first information, information included in the second information for indicating the signal processing mode used by each second node for each terminal, the information meets a preset first condition, wherein, the first condition includes at least one of: the energy required for each second node to use the signal processing mode indicated by the information for each connected terminal is a minimum value of energy consumption of the corresponding second node; the capacity of the communication link required for each second node to use the signal processing mode indicated by the information for each connected terminal is not greater than that of the communication link of the corresponding second node; computing resources required for each second node to use the signal processing mode indicated by the information for each connected terminal are not greater than those of the corresponding second node; computing resources required for the first node to use for each terminal in the signal processing mode indicated by the information are not greater than those of the first node; or service quality of each terminal in the signal processing mode indicated by the information meets a minimum requirement.

[0018] In an example, under a preset second condition, the first information is updated, and the second information is re-obtained based on the updated first information; the second condition includes at least one of: uplink transmission of the terminal scheduled by the first node has changed; the terminal served by the second node has changed; or the second information is obtained for a preset duration.

[0019] In an example, the method further comprises: receiving a second signal transmitted by the second node, wherein the second signal includes a signal obtained by performing signal processing on a received first signal based on the second information, and wherein the first signal includes uplink data of the at least one terminal; fusing the second signal transmitted by at least one second node corresponding to the second information; and performing a signal detection on the fused second signal based on the second information.

[0020] In an example, the first node includes a distributed unit (DU) of a base station, and the second node includes a radio unit (RU) of the base station.

[0021] According to another aspect of an example of the present disclosure, a method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system is provided, the method includes: obtaining second information transmitted by a first node, wherein the second information includes information for indicating a signal processing mode used by the second node for at least one terminal, wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal, channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal, data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, or partial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal; and performing signal processing based on the second information.

[0022] In an example, the first information further includes at least one of: uplink transmission scheduling information; or channel status information of the at least one terminal.

[0023] In an example, the performing signal processing based on the second information comprises: performing signal processing on a received first signal based on the second information to obtain a second signal, wherein the first signal comprises uplink data of the at least one terminal; wherein, the second information further includes at least one of: antenna port information of the first signal and / or the second signal; channel status information of the at least one terminal; parameters used for performing signal processing based on the signal processing mode; a channel equalization matrix; a partial channel equalization matrix; or a compression ratio of data.

[0024] In an example, the obtaining second information based on the first information comprises: determining, through a neural network, for at least one second node and based on the first information, information included in the second information for indicating the signal processing mode used by each second node for each terminal, the information meets a preset first condition, wherein, the first condition includes at least one of: the energy required for each second node to use the signal processing mode indicated by the information for each connected terminal is a minimum value of energy consumption of the corresponding second node; the capacity of the communication link required for each second node to use the signal processing mode indicated by the information for each connected terminal is not greater than that of the communication link of the corresponding second node; computing resources required for each second node to use the signal processing mode indicated by the information for each connected terminal are not greater than those of the corresponding second node; computing resources required for the first node to use for each terminal in the signal processing mode indicated by the information are not greater than those of the first node; or service quality of each terminal in the signal processing mode indicated by the information meets a minimum requirement.

[0025] In an example, the method further comprises: acquiring new second information transmitted by the first node, wherein the new second information is obtained based on the first information updated under a preset second condition; the second condition includes at least one of: uplink transmission of the terminal scheduled by the first node has changed; the terminal served by the second node has changed; or the second information is obtained for a preset duration.

[0026] In an example, the method further comprises: transmitting a second signal to the first node, wherein the second signal is used by the first node so that after being fused with a second signal transmitted by at least one second node corresponding to the second information, a signal detection is performed on the fused second signal based on the second information;

[0027] wherein, the second signal is obtained by performing signal processing on a received first signal based on the second information, wherein the first signal includes uplink data of the at least one terminal.

[0028] In an example, the first node includes a distributed unit (DU) of a base station, and the second node includes a radio unit (RU) of the base station.

[0029] According to a further aspect of an example of the disclosure, there is provided a first node device comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform the method performed by the first node in the wireless communication system according to the example of the disclosure.

[0030] According to a further aspect of an example of the disclosure, there is provided a second node device comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform the method performed by the second node in the wireless communication system according to the example of the disclosure.

[0031] According to a further aspect of an example of the disclosure, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, that when executed by a processor, implements the method performed by the first node or the second node in the wireless communication system according to the example of the disclosure.

[0032] According to a further aspect of an example of the disclosure, there is provided a computer program product having stored thereon a computer program, that when executed by a processor, implements the method performed by the first node or the second node in the wireless communication system according to the example of the disclosure.

[0033] The method performed by the node in the wireless communication system and the device according to the examples of the disclosure can optimize the configuration and improve the performance.

[0034] According to the examples of the disclosure, the DU can reduce the delay due to energy consumption, load, and computation time of the RU by determining the signal processing mode by considering the wireless environment between the base station and at least one terminal.

[0035] The effects that can be obtained from the disclosure are not limited to the effects mentioned in the various examples, and other effects that are not mentioned can be clearly understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the disclosure belongs from the description below.

[0036] To more clearly explain the technical solutions in the examples of the disclosure, the drawings to be used in the description of the examples of the disclosure will be briefly introduced below.

[0037] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless network according to an example of the disclosure;

[0038] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a base station according to an example of the disclosure;

[0039] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a user equipment according to an example of the disclosure;

[0040] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of an access network structure according to an example of the disclosure;

[0041] Figure 5 is a flowchart of a method performed by a communication device according to an example of the disclosure;

[0042] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a neural network structure according to an example of the disclosure;

[0043] Figure 7 is a flowchart of a method performed by a first node according to an example of the disclosure;

[0044] Figure 8 is a flowchart of a method performed by a second node according to an example of the disclosure; and

[0045] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of a structure of an electronic device according to an example of the disclosure.

[0046] Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document. The term "couple" and its derivatives refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether those elements are in physical contact with one another. The terms "transmit," "receive," and "communicate," as well as derivatives thereof, encompass both direct and indirect communication. The terms "include" and "comprise," as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation. The term "or" is inclusive, meaning and / or. The phrase "associated with," as well as derivatives thereof, means to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, or the like. The term "controller" means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation. Such a controller may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software and / or firmware. The functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. The phrase "at least one of," when used with a list of items, means that different combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used, and only one item in the list may be needed. For example, "at least one of: A, B, and C" includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C. Likewise, the term "set" means one or more. Accordingly, a set of items can be a single item or a collection of two or more items.

[0047] Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented or supported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed from computer readable program code and embodied in a computer readable medium. The terms "application" and "program" refer to one or more computer programs, software components, sets of instructions, procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or a portion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computer readable program code. The phrase "computer readable program code" includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code, and executable code. The phrase "computer readable medium" includes any type of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or any other type of memory. A "non-transitory" computer readable medium excludes wired, wireless, optical, or other communication links that transport transitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computer readable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored and media where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as a rewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

[0048] Definitions for other certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

[0049] The figures included herein, and the various examples used to describe the principles of the disclosure are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Further, those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged wireless communication system.

[0050] Figures 1-3 below describe various examples of the disclosure implemented in wireless communications systems. The descriptions of Figures 1-3 are not meant to imply physical or architectural limitations to the manner in which different examples may be implemented. Different examples of the disclosure may be implemented in any suitably-arranged communications system.

[0051] Figure 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to examples of the disclosure. The example of the wireless network shown in Figure 1 is for illustration only. Other examples of the wireless network 100 could be used without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

[0052] As shown in Figure 1, the wireless network includes a base station (next generation nodeB, gNB or gNodeB) 101, a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. The gNB 101 communicates with the gNB 102 and the gNB 103. The gNB 101 also communicates with at least one network 130, such as the Internet, a proprietary Internet Protocol (IP) network, or other data network.

[0053] The gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of the gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may be located in a small business; a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R1); a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence (R2); and a UE 116, which may be a mobile device (M), such as a cell phone, a wireless laptop, a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like. The gNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of the gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs includes the UE 115 and the UE 116, as well as subscriber stations (SS, for example, UEs) 117, 118 and 119. In some examples, one or more of the gNBs 101-103 may communicate with each other and with the UEs 111-116 using existing wireless communication techniques, and one or more of the UE 111-119 may communicate directly with each other (e.g., UEs 117-119) using other existing or proposed wireless communication techniques.

[0054] Depending on the network type, the term "base station" or "BS" can refer to any component (or collection of components) configured to provide wireless access to a network, such as transmit point (TP), transmit-receive point (TRP), an enhanced (or "evolved") base station (eNodeB or eNB), a 5G base station (gNB), a macrocell, a femtocell, a wireless fidelity (WiFi) access point (AP), or other wirelessly enabled devices. Base stations may provide wireless access in accordance with one or more wireless communication protocols, e.g., 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced (LTE-A), high speed packet access (HSPA), Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, etc. For the sake of convenience, the various names for a base station-type apparatus and functionality are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access to remote terminals. Also, depending on the network type, the term "user equipment" (UE) can refer to any component such as a mobile station (MS), subscriber station (SS), remote terminal, wireless terminal, receive point, or user device. For the sake of convenience, the various names for a user equipment-type device and functionality are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to remote wireless equipment that wirelessly accesses a BS, whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile telephone or smartphone) or is normally considered a stationary device (such as a desktop computer or vending machine).

[0055] Dotted lines show the approximate extents of the coverage areas 120 and 125, which are shown as approximately circular for the purposes of illustration and explanation only. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending upon the configuration of the gNBs and variations in the radio environment associated with natural and man-made obstructions.

[0056] As described in more detail below, one or more of the UEs 111-119 include circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof. In certain examples, and one or more of the gNBs 101-103 includes circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof.

[0057] Although Figure 1 illustrates one example of a wireless network, various changes may be made to Figure 1. For example, the wireless network could include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement. Also, the gNB 101 could communicate directly with any number of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband access to the network 130. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 could communicate directly with the network 130 and provide UEs with direct wireless broadband access to the network 130. Further, the gNBs 101, 102, and / or 103 could provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0058] Figure 2 illustrates an example base station according to examples of the disclosure. The example of the gNB 102 illustrated in Figure 2 is for illustration only, and the gNBs 101 and 103 of Figure 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, gNBs come in a wide variety of configurations, and Figure 2 does not limit the scope of the disclosure to any particular implementation of a gNB.

[0059] As shown in Figure 2, the gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 200a-200n, multiple radio frequency (RF) transceivers 201a-201n, transmit (TX) processing circuitry 203, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 204. The gNB 102 also includes a controller / processor 205, a memory 206, and a backhaul or network interface 207.

[0060] The RF transceivers 201a-201n receive, from the antennas 200a-200n, incoming RF signals, such as signals transmitted by UEs in the network 100. The RF transceivers 201a-201n down-convert the incoming RF signals to generate intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signals. The IF or baseband signals are sent to the RX processing circuitry 204, which generates processed baseband signals by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signals. The RX processing circuitry 204 transmits the processed baseband signals to the controller / processor 205 for further processing.

[0061] The TX processing circuitry 203 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, web data, electronic mail, or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 205. The TX processing circuitry 203 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate processed baseband or IF signals. The RF transceivers 201a-201n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signals from the TX processing circuitry 203 and up-converts the baseband or IF signals to RF signals that are transmitted via the antennas 201a-201n.

[0062] The controller / processor 205 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of the gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 205 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceivers 201a-201n, the RX processing circuitry 204, and the TX processing circuitry 203 in accordance with well-known principles. The controller / processor 205 could support additional functions as well, such as more advanced wireless communication functions.

[0063] For instance, the controller / processor 205 could support beam forming or directional routing operations in which outgoing signals from multiple antennas 200a-200n are weighted differently to effectively steer the outgoing signals in a desired direction. Any of a wide variety of other functions could be supported in the gNB 102 by the controller / processor 205.

[0064] The controller / processor 205 is also capable of executing programs and other processes resident in the memory 206, such as an operating system (OS). The controller / processor 205 can move data into or out of the memory 206 as required by an executing process.

[0065] The controller / processor 205 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 207. The backhaul or network interface 207 allows the gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems over a backhaul connection or over a network. The interface 207 could support communications over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when the gNB 102 is implemented as part of a cellular communication system (such as one supporting 5G, LTE, or LTE-A), the interface 207 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs over a wired or wireless backhaul connection. When the gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the interface 207 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate over a wired or wireless local area network or over a wired or wireless connection to a larger network (such as the Internet). The interface 207 includes any suitable structure supporting communications over a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or RF transceiver.

[0066] The memory 206 is coupled to the controller / processor 205. Part of the memory 206 could include a random access memory (RAM), and another part of the memory 206 could include a Flash memory or other read only memory (ROM).

[0067] Although Figure 2 illustrates one example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to Figure 2. For example, the gNB 102 could include any number of each component shown in Figure 2. As a particular example, an access point could include a number of interfaces 207, and the controller / processor 205 could support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another particular example, while shown as including a single instance of TX processing circuitry 203 and a single instance of RX processing circuitry 204, the gNB 102 could include multiple instances of each (such as one per RF transceiver). Also, various components in Figure 2 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs.

[0068] Figure 3 illustrates an example user equipment according to examples of the disclosure.

[0069] The example of the UE 116 illustrated in Figure 3 is for illustration only, and the UEs 111-115 and 117-119 of Figure 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, UEs come in a wide variety of configurations, and Figure 3 does not limit the scope of the disclosure to any particular implementation of a UE.

[0070] As shown in Figure 3, the UE 116 includes an antenna 301, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 302, TX processing circuitry 303, a microphone 304, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 305. The UE 116 also includes a speaker 306, a controller or processor 307, an input / output (I / O) interface (IF) 308, an input device 309, a touchscreen display 310, and a memory 311. The memory 311 includes an OS 312 and one or more applications 313.

[0071] The RF transceiver 302 receives, from the antenna 301, an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the network 100. The RF transceiver 302 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an IF or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is sent to the RX processing circuitry 305, which generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuitry 305 transmits the processed baseband signal to the speaker 306 (such as for voice data) or to the processor 307 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

[0072] The TX processing circuitry 303 receives analog or digital voice data from the microphone 304 or other outgoing baseband data (such as web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the processor 307. The TX processing circuitry 303 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 302 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuitry 303 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via the antenna 301.

[0073] The processor 307 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 312 stored in the memory 311 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116. For example, the processor 307 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceiver 302, the RX processing circuitry 305, and the TX processing circuitry 303 in accordance with well-known principles. In some examples, the processor 307 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0074] The processor 307 is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the memory 311, such as processes for CSI reporting on uplink channel. The processor 307 can move data into or out of the memory 311 as required by an executing process. In some examples, the processor 307 is configured to execute the applications 313 based on the OS 312 or in response to signals received from gNBs or an operator. The processor 307 is also coupled to the I / O interface 308, which provides the UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptop computers and handheld computers. The I / O interface 308 is the communication path between these accessories and the processor 307.

[0075] The processor 307 is also coupled to the touchscreen display 310. The user of the UE 116 can use the touchscreen display 310 to enter data into the UE 116. The touchscreen display 310 may be a liquid crystal display, light emitting diode display, or other display capable of rendering text and / or at least limited graphics, such as from web sites.

[0076] The memory 311 is coupled to the processor 307. Part of the memory 311 could include RAM, and another part of the memory 311 could include a Flash memory or other ROM.

[0077] Although Figure 3 illustrates one example of UE 116, various changes may be made to Figure 3. For example, various components in Figure 3 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs. As a particular example, the processor 307 could be divided into multiple processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Also, while Figure 3 illustrates the UE 116 configured as a mobile telephone or smartphone, UEs could be configured to operate as other types of mobile or stationary devices.

[0078] In order to make the purposes, technical solutions, and advantages of the disclosure more clear, a further detailed description of the examples of the disclosure will be provided below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The text and figures are provided as examples only to assist readers in understanding the disclosure. They are not intended for and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the content disclosed herein, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

[0079] In wireless communication systems, information transmission (such as physical downlink control Channel (PDCCH), physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), etc.) may occur on at least one resource element (RE) (e.g., multiple time points, multiple frequency points, multiple antennas, and various combinations of time, frequency, and antennas) of physical resources. The physical resources refer to resource entities that can be used for signal transmission in the communication systems, and for example, may be time-domain physical resources, frequency-domain physical resources, and antenna-domain physical resources. The state of RE(s) occupied by a signal will have a comprehensive impact on the amplitudes and phases of signals transmitted over the entire wireless communication link.

[0080] With increasing popularity and continuous evolution of wireless communication networks, the operators hope that the 5G access network structure can increase structural flexibility while reducing deployment costs. In this regard, when designing 5G communication systems, a traditional integral base station can be divided into a radio unit (RU), a distributed unit (DU), and a centralized unit (CU), for example.

[0081] Figure 4 illustrates an example access network structure (network architecture) according to an example of the disclosure.

[0082] The RU includes a radio frequency (RF) transceiver and a simple physical layer (PHY) process with low computational requirements, and is responsible for implementing signal transmission and reception related processing processes with a delay of less than 1 ms. The main components of the DU are a radio link controller (RLC), a media access controller (MAC), and remaining complex physical layer (PHY) processes, and are responsible for handling real-time services and conducting round-trip data transmission with the RU through a fronthaul link. The CU consists of one control plane (CP) and one user plane (UP), is responsible for handling non-real-time protocols and services, and it interacts with the DU through communication links and is connected to the core network through backhaul. The operators can flexibly deploy the RU, the DU, and the CU at different positions as desired to meet various cost and traffic requirements. For example, a network that requires low edge delay can deploy the RU, the CU, and the DU together at the edge, which will maximize the performance of remote connected user applications. For another example, one DU can serve multiple RUs, and multiple DUs can share one CU, thereby providing sufficient performance within an acceptable maximum delay range while minimizing network deployment hardware costs. The operators can deploy different architectures for different markets and regions.

[0083] With the development of hardware technology, the computing capability of the RU has been significantly improved, and the RU will be able to complete complex signal processing processes such as channel estimation and channel equalization that were previously impossible to handle. This change not only significantly reduces the loads of the fronthaul link, but also effectively shares the computing burden of the DU. However, each RU adopts a fixed signal processing mode, which makes it difficult to achieve an optimal configuration of base station performance.

[0084] After analyzing the signal processing mode of the RU by the inventor(s), the following additional issues were discovered.

[0085] Firstly, the RU needs to perform the complex signal processing processes such as channel estimation and channel equalization, etc., resulting in a significant increase in energy consumption compared to only performing simple signal processing processes. That is, in the absence of fronthaul and DU processing pressures, the energy efficiency of the structure is lower.

[0086] Secondly, the computing capability of the RU is much weaker than that of the DU, and it will result in a longer processing latency in completing the complex signal processing processes such as channel estimation and channel equalization. That is, when one RU serves a large number of terminals, it will result in an excessively long processing latency, significantly reducing the user experience.

[0087] Thirdly, a terminal can receive downlink signals from multiple RUs, but its uplink signals are only processed by one RU, and the antenna gain during the uplink procedure may be lower than that during the downlink procedure. That is, the problem of unequal coverages of uplink and downlink in a cell may worsen.

[0088] Therefore, the disclosure provides a method performed by a node in a wireless communication system and a device, so as to ensure optimal configuration and performance of the base station in complex and changing traffic environments.

[0089] The following describes several exemplary examples to illustrate the technical solutions of the examples of the disclosure and the technical effects resulted therefrom. It should be noted that the following implementations can be referenced by, learned from, or combined with each other. For the same terms, similar features, and similar implementation steps in different implementations, they will not be repeatedly described.

[0090] The term "based on" used in various examples of the disclosure may be interpreted as the premise, condition, or information relied upon being not unique, but at least one or a part of them. This means that there is at least one explicit basis and not excluding other possible bases.

[0091] Figure 5 is a flowchart of a method performed by a communication device according to an example of the disclosure.

[0092] Optionally, the communication device can be any device capable of acquiring signals and performing a signal detection. For example, the communication device can be a base station, but is not limited thereto. It can even be a user equipment with massive antenna ports, and so on. Hereinafter, by taking the communication device as a base station as an example, the method of the example of the disclosure will be described.

[0093] Optionally, as shown in Figure 5, the method includes steps S510 to S530.

[0094] At step S510, the first node obtains second information based on first information and transmits the same to at least one second node, wherein the first information includes requirement information required to configure a signal processing mode of the second node, and the second information includes information for indicating a signal processing mode used by the second node for at least one terminal.

[0095] At step S520, each second node performs signal processing on a received first signal based on the second information, to obtain a second signal and transmit it to the first node, wherein the first signal is a radio signal that the communication device needs to process, including uplink data of the at least one terminal.

[0096] At step S530, the first node performs a signal detection on the second signal based on the second information.

[0097] In an example of the disclosure, the communication device may be a base station including the DU and the RU, and correspondingly, the first node may be the DU of the base station and the second node may be the RU of the base station. The DU of the base station can configure a signal processing mode (also known as processing mode of signal or processing mode of data) of the RU of the base station more reasonably based on global information (such as the acquired first information). Based on this, compared with the fixed signal processing mode maintained by the RU, the base station can effectively reduce the overall operation energy consumption, reduce the processing latency, and improve the overall performance.

[0098] The following describes the contents involved in the preceding steps S510 to S530 in detail.

[0099] With reference to Figure 5, at step S510, the first node obtains second information based on first information and transmits the same to at least one second node. This step can be performed by the first node.

[0100] Optionally, regarding the method performed by the first node, as shown in Figure 7 the method includes steps S701 to 703.

[0101] S701: acquiring first information;

[0102] S702: obtaining second information based on the first information, wherein the second information includes information for indicating a signal processing mode used by the second node for at least one terminal; and

[0103] S703: transmitting the second information to the second node.

[0104] Optionally, the first information includes requirement information required to configure the signal processing mode used by the second node for each terminal, for example, information such as uplink traffic and fronthaul link capacity of the current system. The second information includes information for indicating the signal processing mode used by the second node for at least one terminal and / or a group of terminals, for example, it may indicate that the second node does not perform the signal processing on the first terminal, or that the second node performs signal processing processes such as channel equalization on the first terminal. Exemplarily, the information included in the second information for indicating the signal processing mode may be for one terminal, or may be also for a group of terminals including at least two terminals, that is, the same signal processing mode can be used for the at least two terminals.

[0105] In an example of the disclosure, the first node provides the second information to the second node, which can fully utilize global information mastered by the first node, enabling the second node to be in an optimal signal processing mode and improving the performance of the base station.

[0106] In some examples, the first information may include but is not limited to at least one of the following (1) to (6):

[0107] (1) uplink transmission scheduling information at future time, exemplarily, it may include the number of terminals scheduled for uplink transmission, the amount of data in uplink transmission by each terminal, a modulation method and coding rate for uplink transmission by each terminal, etc.;

[0108] (2) capacity information of communication links between the first node and the second node, exemplarily, it may include the free capacity of fronthaul link, the free capacity of fronthaul link corresponding to each second node, etc.;

[0109] (3) information related to computing resources of the first node, exemplarily, it may include free computing resources of the first node, the total of computing resources of the first node, etc.;

[0110] (4) information related to computing resources of the second node, exemplarily, it may include free computing resources of the second node, the total of computing resources of the second node, etc.;

[0111] (5) information related to energy efficiency of the second node, exemplarily, it may include a correspondence between computing tasks and energy consumption in the second node; and

[0112] (6) channel status information of each terminal, exemplarily, it may include the second node to which each terminal is connected, a channel correlation between respective terminals, and so on.

[0113] In an example of the disclosure, "at least one" may mean one, or may also mean a combination of two or more. The content of the first information above is only exemplary, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0114] In some examples, the second information includes information for indicating the signal processing mode used by the second node for at least one terminal and / or a group of terminals. The above signal processing mode may include at least one of:

[0115] - non-processing for signals of at least one terminal and / or a group of terminals;

[0116] - channel equalization for signals of at least one terminal and / or a group of terminals;

[0117] - data compressing for signals of at least one terminal and / or a group of terminals; or

[0118] - partial channel equalization for signals of at least one terminal and / or a group of terminals.

[0119] In some examples, the second information may also include auxiliary information required to determine the signal processing mode. The auxiliary information is generated by the first node and transmitted to the second node. The auxiliary information may be:

[0120] - antenna port information of the first signal and / or the second signal (e.g., the number of antenna ports, a correlation matrix, a relationship between the terminals and the antenna ports, etc.);

[0121] - channel information of each terminal (e.g., channel status information, interference signal strength, etc.);

[0122] - parameters used for performing signal processing based on the signal processing mode (e.g., reference signal sequence and / or generation parameters, denoising filter related parameters, etc.);

[0123] - a channel equalization matrix;

[0124] - a partial channel equalization matrix;

[0125] - a compression ratio of data, or the like.

[0126] The specific content is related to the specified signal processing mode, as detailed in step S520.

[0127] In an example of the disclosure, by providing the auxiliary information to the second node, it is possible to avoid handling the complex signal processing processes by the second node, fully utilize the computing resources of the first node and the global information mastered by it, and reduce the energy consumption of the second node.

[0128] According to an example of the disclosure, the term channel status information is merely an example and is not limited to the term itself, and may be referred to by other terms that perform the same / similar function. For example, the channel status information may refer to channel state information (CSI), or may be referred to by any other term associated with information on a channel.

[0129] According to an example, the channel status information may include direct impacts (such as amplitude and phase impacts) and / or indirect impacts (such as signal-to-noise ratio) of the wireless communication environment on the carried signals. Without loss of generality, the channel status information in the disclosure may be a comprehensive impact of the entire wireless communication link on all physical resources occupied by its transmission with regard to the amplitudes, phases and / or signal-to-noise ratio of the signals. Optionally, the channel status information may also include information obtained through a specific processing such as interpolation, denoising, filtering, and the like. In some examples, the channel status information is filtered using a minimum mean square error (MMSE) algorithm to obtain new channel status information. In some examples, the channel status information undergoes an eigenvalue decomposition to obtain a pre-coding matrix indication (PMI) matrix and an eigenvalue, where the PMI matrix can be used as new channel status information. In some examples, sliding averaging is performed on the channel status information in the time domain (multiple OFDM symbols), and the averaged result is used as the channel status information, i.e. H = (1-α)Hold+ αHnew, where Holdis the previously stored channel, Hnewis the newly obtained channel, and α is an averaging coefficient.

[0130] In an example, a result (e.g., information for indicating the used signal processing mode) of obtaining second information based on the first information meets a preset first condition. Optionally, the preset first condition includes at least one of:

[0131] - the energy required for each second node to use the indicated signal processing mode for each connected terminal is a minimum value of energy consumption of the corresponding second node;

[0132] - the capacity of the communication link required for each second node to use the indicated signal processing mode for each connected terminal is not greater than that of the communication link of the corresponding second node;

[0133] - computing resources required for each second node to use the indicated signal processing mode for each connected terminal are not greater than those of the corresponding second node;

[0134] - computing resources required for the first node to use for each terminal in the indicated signal processing mode are not greater than those of the first node; or

[0135] - service quality of each terminal in the indicated signal processing mode meets a minimum requirement.

[0136] In some examples, a specific way of obtaining second information based on the first information is to solve a corresponding combinatorial optimization problem. According to an example, the combinational optimization problem is an optimization problem that minimizes the capability consumption of the system under the premise of meeting the constraints of uplink data processing capability, fronthaul link capacity, etc., that is:

[0137]

[0138]

[0139]

[0140]

[0141]

[0142] where xi,jdenotes the processing mode (e.g., signal processing mode) of the i-th second node for data of the j-th terminal, and its value is an integer, with each value corresponding to a processing mode. For example, 0 is for non-processing, 1 is for direct transmission, 2 is for transmission after equalization, and so on. When i ∈ {1,2 ... N}, i corresponds to the first to N-th second nodes; when i = 0, it corresponds to the first node.

[0143] The mapping ei(.) may convert the processing mode for data of each terminal into the energy consumption on the corresponding i-th second node.

[0144] The mapping gi(.) may convert the processing mode for data of each terminal into the capacity information of the communication link of the corresponding i-th second node (e.g., the demand for fronthaul capacity). The value Giis an upper limit of capacity of the communication link of the i-th second node.

[0145] The mapping hi(.) may convert the processing mode for data of each terminal into the computing resources consumption on the corresponding i-th second node. The value Hiis an upper limit of the computing resources of the i-th second node.

[0146] The mapping h0(.) may convert the processing mode for data of each terminal into the computing resources consumption on the corresponding first node. The value H0is an upper limit of the computing resources of the first node.

[0147] The mapping fj(.) may convert the processing mode for data of each terminal into the service quality of the corresponding j-th terminal, which is a comprehensive score based on service indicators such as transmission data amount, processing latency, number of retransmissions, bit error rate, and the like. The higher the value is, the better the service quality for the terminal is. The value Fjis a minimum requirement for the service quality of the j-th terminal.

[0148] It should be noted that the above combinatorial optimization problem is only exemplary and may take various forms, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0149] In some examples, the above combinatorial optimization problem may use an optimization solving algorithm to obtain a corresponding optimization result as mode indication information. As an example, the optimization solving algorithm includes but is not limited to: precise solving algorithms such as branch and bound method, dynamic programming method, etc.; fuzzy solving algorithms such as greedy algorithm, local search algorithm, linear programming, relaxation algorithm, etc.; heuristic algorithm such as simulated annealing algorithm, taboo search, evolutionary algorithm, etc., to obtain the corresponding optimization result as the mode indication information.

[0150] Here, an exemplary solving algorithm is given. A suboptimal solution to this optimization problem may be obtained by greedily searching each terminal's processing mode one by one. The specific steps are as follows:

[0151] - selecting a terminal with the highest service quality requirement from among a set of terminals for which the processing modes are not determined;

[0152] - finding a processing mode with the lowest energy consumption while meeting the constraints of service quality requirements, computing resources, and fronthaul capacity of the terminal;

[0153] - taking the processing mode as the processing mode for the selected terminal and updating the corresponding constraints; and

[0154] - repeating the above steps until the processing modes for all terminals are determined.

[0155] It should be noted that the above solving algorithm is only exemplary, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0156] In some examples, the aforementioned combinatorial optimization problem may obtain the corresponding optimization result as the mode indication information by using a neural network.

[0157] In an example, in S702, the obtaining second information based on the first information comprises: determining, through a neural network, for at least one second node and based on the first information, information included in the second information for indicating the signal processing mode used by each second node for each terminal, the information meets the preset first condition shown in the above example.

[0158] In an example, in S702, the obtaining second information based on the first information comprises: determining, through a first neural network, for at least one second node and based on the first information, information included in the second information for indicating the signal processing mode used by each second node for each terminal, the information meets the preset first condition.

[0159] Optionally, the information included in the second information for indicating the signal processing mode used by each second node for each terminal is obtained by inputting the first information together with auxiliary information required by the neural network into the first neural network, and the information meets the preset first condition which is referred to in the above example, where the auxiliary information required by the neural network includes at least one of:

[0160] - information related to a channel environment corresponding to each terminal,

[0161] - encoding information corresponding to a terminal, information related to a position corresponding to a terminal, or the like.

[0162] In some examples, the auxiliary information may be the encoding information corresponding to the terminal, such as assigning different encodings to each terminal for differentiation. For a further example, the encoding of the second node to which each terminal is connected may also be affixed.

[0163] In some other examples, the auxiliary information may include information related to the channel environment of samples. As an example, the information related to the channel environment of samples may include at least one of:

[0164] - signal-to-noise ratio, or

[0165] - channel correlation time information.

[0166] For example, the signal-to-noise ratio may include SNR or SINR. For a further example, the channel correlation time information may be a relationship between the channel correlation of each terminal and its distance in time, such as a time correlation coefficient.

[0167] Compared to the aforementioned algorithms, the computing time required to use the neural network for solving is shorter, the total energy consumption after optimization is lower, and the real-time response to environmental changes is better.

[0168] Optionally, the first neural network may be one or more. In an example, one first neural network may be configured, and information of all second nodes is input into the neural network for processing. In another example, a plurality of parallel first neural networks may be configured to perform processing separately for different second nodes. That is, each of the first neural networks may be configured to process information of one second node. In yet another example, a plurality of first neural networks may be configured, where one first neural network may process information of one or more second nodes.

[0169] Optionally, for a terminal to which each second node is connected, its corresponding first information together with the auxiliary information required by the neural network are input into the first neural network to obtain a computing result of the corresponding part of that second node, where the auxiliary information required by the neural network is consistent with the previous content. Optionally, the different second nodes may use the same and / or different first neural networks.

[0170] A set of results output by all first neural networks (such as a set of the second information corresponding to each second node) is verified. As an example, when the amount of computing resources required for the set of results is greater than the upper limit of the computing resources of the first node, the first neural network is reused for solving after a penalty factor for the computing resources consumption is added in the auxiliary information of each first neural network. Optionally, the penalty factor may be a coefficient less than 1 to reduce a threshold of the corresponding constraint. For example, in the first computing, the upper limit of the computing resources of the first node is 1, and in the second computing, the upper limit of the computing resources of the first node is reduced by using a coefficient of 0.8. Until the amount of computing resources required for the set of results output by the neural networks is less than or equal to the upper limit of the computing resources of the first node, and the set of results is used as the mode indication information.

[0171] Compared to the aforementioned algorithms, the computing time required to use a plurality of neural networks for parallel solving is shorter, the sizes of the neural networks are smaller, and practical deployment is more convenient.

[0172] In an example, the signal processing mode may be determined in conjunction with the greedy algorithm. Optionally, in S702, the obtaining second information based on the first information comprises: determining, through a second neural network, for at least one second node and based on the first information and the auxiliary information required by the neural network, information included in the second information for the signal processing mode corresponding to at least one terminal, the information meets the preset first condition of the above example.

[0173] For at least one terminal for which the signal processing mode is not determined, the second neural network is used again for processing until the signal processing modes of all terminals are determined.

[0174] Optionally, a recommendation level for each signal processing mode of each terminal may be obtained by inputting the first information together with the auxiliary information required by the neural network into the second neural network, where the auxiliary information required by the neural network is consistent with the previous content, and the recommendation level refers to the probability that the result is an optimal result. For example, the probability of the recommendation level of 0 for the signal processing mode of certain terminal is 0%, the probability of 1 is 90%, and the probability of 2 is 10%.

[0175] For each terminal, a part whose recommendation level is higher than the threshold is selected from the output result of the second neural network as part of the result. For example, if the recommendation level of mode 1 for a terminal 1 is 80%, the signal processing mode of the terminal 1 is set to 1 in the result. In an example, if the output result of the second neural network does not include a result with the recommendation level higher than the threshold, the terminal will recompute through the second neural network; if the output result of the second neural network includes at least two results with the recommendation level higher than the threshold, the result with the highest recommendation level is obtained to determine the signal processing mode of the corresponding terminal (such as giving information for indicating the used signal processing mode).

[0176] Based on the determined part of the result, after various constraints of the optimization problem are updated, the second neural network is reused to compute on the terminals for which the signal processing modes are not determined.

[0177] The above steps are repeated until the obtained result contains the signal processing modes of all terminals, and the set of results is used as the mode indication information.

[0178] Compared to the aforementioned algorithms, the computing time required to use the neural networks for solving in conjunction with the greedy algorithm is shorter, the sizes of the neural networks are smaller, and the solving result is better.

[0179] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a neural network according to an example of the disclosure. The neural network as shown in Figure 6 may be the first neural network and / or the second neural network mentioned hereinabove, but their inputs and outputs are different for different neural networks.

[0180] The neural network may be jointly and / or independently implemented by the same physical entity or different entity units. The physical entity may be composed of hardware, software, or a combination thereof, and those skilled in the art may configure it according to actual needs.

[0181] As shown in Figure 6, the neural network may include an information processing unit and a plurality of neural network layers. The information processing unit may convert input information (such as the first information and the auxiliary information in Figure 6) into at least one of data vectors, matrices, and tensors that the neural network layers can use for computation. The neural network layers may include at least one of an input layer, a hidden layer / an intermediate layer, and an output layer shown in Figure 6. In addition, each neural network layer may be composed of multiple neurons n, and the neurons may be activated by using at least one activation function, by way of example only and not limitation, such as a tanh function, an ReLU function, an eLU function, a seLU function, a ceLU function, a preLU function, a geLU function, a LeakyReLU function, a Sigmoid function, a Softmax function, a Softplus function, or the like. Each neural network layer can perform operations on its input data, implementing functions such as matrix transformation, data dimensionality reduction, data feature extraction, and data feature combination. By way of example only and not limitation, the plurality of neural network layers may form different neural network structures through series or parallel connections, including but not limited to Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Multi-Layer Perceptron Mixer (MLP-mixer), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Deep Neural Network (DNN), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM), Deep Belief Network (DBN), Bidirectional Recursive Deep Neural Network (BRDNN), Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), Transformer, or the like.

[0182] For example, in a case where the neural network shown in Figure 6 is the first neural network mentioned above, the first information may be the channel status information corresponding to the samples, and the information processing unit may convert the channel status information and the auxiliary information into at least one of vectors, matrices, and tensors used for neural network layer computation. In some examples, the first neural network can adopt a deep convolutional neural network to stack and arrange the channel status information corresponding to multiple samples into a tensor form according to their physical resource positions, and input it to the first neural network, and the first neural network may output matrix data with a shape corresponding to the transmit and receive antennas as feature information. In some other embodiments of the example, the first neural network may adopt a Transformer structure, where the channel status information corresponding to multiple samples is overlaid with position Tokens corresponding to their physical resource positions, and then is input to the first neural network along with pre-trained query Tokens, and the network outputs data of the channel where the query Tokens are located as the feature information.

[0183] By way of example and not limitation, a set of channel status information is defined as CRS. Firstly, the information processing unit processes the known channel status information through a numerical mapping method (e.g., normalization, standardization, etc.) to make its numerical scale or distribution suitable for neural network computation. More specifically, by taking the Min-Max standardization as an example, the maximum value max(CRS) and minimum value min(CRS) of all elements in CRSmay be computed separately, and then each element in CRSmay be processed as follows:

[0184]

[0185] After performing the above numerical mapping, a set composed of the processed elements may be converted into at least one of vectors, matrices, and tensors corresponding to the input size of the neural network layer.

[0186] In some examples of the disclosure, the information processing unit may also perform position encoding on the input information and convert the position encoded information into at least one of vectors, matrices, and tensors for neural network computation. Optionally, the position encoding may be a process of adding and / or multiplying the first information to / by codewords in a predetermined codebook. By way of example only and not limitation, in case that the first information is the channel status information, the position encoding using a codebook may include the following processing.

[0187] Firstly, the set CRScomposed of the known channel status information is processed according to a numerical mapping method to obtain the set , that includes several elements which have undergone numerical mapping, and subsequently, the position encoded codebook is obtained according to the following equation.

[0188]

[0189] where n represents the position of the physical resource (e.g., in time domain, frequency domain, and spatial domain) where the channel status information is located, d denotes the total number of terminals, N is any positive number greater than the number of elements contained in the set , and i denotes the index of a terminal. Subsequently, the known channel status information element is position encoded by using the equation to obtain a set , and finally, the set composed of the processed elements is converted into at least one of vectors, matrices, and tensors corresponding to the input size of the neural network layer, and input to the neural network layer.

[0190] As shown in Figure 6, the information processing unit may process the input first information (e.g., the traffic scheduling situation of each terminal) and auxiliary information (e.g., the connection situation between the terminals and the second node described above), so that the neural network may obtain information hidden in them to assist the neural network in improving the accuracy and flexibility of obtaining results. The use of the neural network to obtain the feature information can make the obtained feature information more accurate. Optionally, the information processing unit may input its input directly into the neural network layers without any additional processing. Additionally, it should be noted that the operations in the aforementioned neural network units are only exemplary and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0191] In an example, under a preset second condition, the first information is updated, and the second information is re-obtained based on the updated first information.

[0192] The preset second condition includes at least one of:

[0193] - uplink transmission of the terminal scheduled by the first node has changed;

[0194] - the terminal served by the second node has changed; or

[0195] - the second information is obtained for a preset duration.

[0196] In some examples, this step only is trigged and performed under specific conditions. The specific conditions may include:

[0197] - a condition based on the first information (e.g., a change in the uplink transmission scheduling of the terminals, a change in the relationship between the terminals and the second node); or

[0198] - after certain period of time (e.g., timeslot, frame, minute, hour, etc.).

[0199] In some examples, after the first node generates a new scheduling decision, the second information can be re-obtained based on the updated first information.

[0200] In some examples, the triggering condition for this step is a significant change in the uplink transmission of the terminals scheduled by the first node. Specifically, when the change in scheduling for the terminals causes the amount of uplink data required to be processed by one or more second nodes to exceed or fall below certain threshold, new second information may be obtained based on new terminal scheduling information. For example, when most of the terminals served by certain second node are not scheduled for uplink transmission in a subsequent period of time (timeslot, frame) (i.e. the amount of data of the second node is below the threshold), the second information may be re-acquired and the second node may be switched not to perform the signal processing mode.

[0201] In some examples, the triggering condition for this step is a significant change in the terminals served by the second node. For example, when certain terminal leaves the coverage area of one second node, the second information may be re-obtained.

[0202] In some examples, the triggering condition for this step is that a certain amount of time (timeslot, frame, minute, hour, etc.) has passed. For example, every 100 frames, the first node will recompute the second information. For another example, the number of terminals served by the second node presents a significant difference between day and night, and the first node re-obtains the second information at a fixed time point (e.g., 8:00 AM, 6:00 PM, etc.) according to traffic change rules.

[0203] In an example of the disclosure, by an execution method triggered based on conditions, it effectively avoids significant computing resource overhead caused by frequent execution of this step, while also achieving timely response to environmental changes, and ensuring that the base station is in an optimal configuration state for most of the time.

[0204] In an example of the disclosure, in step S520 of the Figure 5, each second node processes a received first signal based on the second information to obtain a second signal and transmits it to the first node. This step may be performed by the second node.

[0205] Optionally, regarding the method performed by the second node, as shown in Figure 8, the method includes steps S801 to S802.

[0206] S801: acquiring second information transmitted by a first node, the second information includes information for indicating a signal processing mode used by the second node for at least one terminal; and

[0207] S802: performing signal processing based on the second information.

[0208] Optionally, the relevant description of steps S801 to S802 may refer to the relevant description of the various examples involved in S701 to S703 mentioned above, which will not be repeatedly described in the examples of the disclosure.

[0209] Optionally, in S802, the performing signal processing based on the second information comprises: performing signal processing on a received first signal based on the second information to obtain a second signal, wherein the first signal includes uplink data of the at least one terminal.

[0210] In some examples, the first signal may be a signal received by the second node, which carries data information transmitted by the terminal and may include at least one of:

[0211] - an RF signal received by an antenna port of the second node;

[0212] - a digital domain signal obtained by performing an analog-to-digital conversion on the aforementioned signal;

[0213] - a signal obtained after performing specific processing (e.g., amplification, denoising, filtering, whitening, fast Fourier transform, etc.) on the aforementioned signal.

[0214] In the disclosure, "at least one" may mean one, or may also mean a combination of two or more. In some examples, the first signal includes a digital domain wireless signal received by an antenna port of the base station, or a denoised signal obtained by processing the digital domain wireless signal through a bandpass filter. In some other examples, the first signal includes a signal obtained by multiplying the signal received by the second node with certain spatial basis matrix (e.g., an eigenvector matrix or a spatial Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) matrix of the channel). In some other examples, the first signal includes a signal obtained by whitening the signal received by the second node, such as estimating an interference covariance matrix in the current environment based on the reference signal in the signal received by the second node; performing a Cholesky decomposition or Principal Component Analysis (PCA) decomposition on the interference covariance matrix; and multiplying the inverse matrix of the decomposed matrix by the signal received by the antenna port of the base station to obtain the first signal. In some other examples, the first signal includes a new signal composed of signals on certain physical resources extracted from the first signal by the second node. For example, signals on the physical resources used by the first terminal are extracted and formed to be a new first signal.

[0215] In some examples, the signal processing mode indicated by the second information may be no signal processing, simple signal processing (such as amplification, denoising, filtering, whitening, fast Fourier transform, etc.), or complex signal processing (such as channel equalization, channel estimation, multi terminal multiplexing separation, etc.). The parameters used by the above signal processing may be preset by the second node, computed by the second node itself, provided in the second information, or obtained based on the second information.

[0216] In some examples, the signal processing mode indicated by the second information may also include signal processing methods such as data compression, partial channel equalization, etc., which consume a certain amount of computing resources in exchange for a decrease in the amount of fronthaul data.

[0217] In some examples, the signal processing mode used by the second node may be a channel equalization mode. Specifically, the channel equalization process includes: obtaining the channel status information corresponding to the first signal, which may be obtained from the first signal or may be from the second information; and obtaining the second signal by performing channel equalization on the first signal based on the channel status information. This signal processing mode may significantly reduce the computing resources consumption of the first node and has extremely low capacity consumption for the fronthaul link.

[0218] In some examples, the channel equalization may use a linear channel equalization algorithm, or may also be a non-linear channel equalization algorithm such as serial interference cancellation. In some examples, the channel equalization may be achieved by multiplying the first signal with the channel equalization matrix. For example, if the channel status information corresponding to the first signal is H1, the MMSE algorithm may be used to calculate the corresponding channel equalization matrix . The equalized signal may be obtained by multiplying the equalization matrix with the first signal. In some examples, the channel equalization matrix may also come from the second information, and the first signal is multiplied by the channel equalization matrix provided in the second information to achieve the channel equalization.

[0219] It should be noted that the above examples of the channel equalization are only exemplary, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0220] Optionally, the channel status information of the first signal may also be obtained, wherein the channel status information of the first signal includes at least one of:

[0221] - channel status information corresponding to the first signal obtained based on a reference signal corresponding to the first signal;

[0222] - pre-stored channel status information associated with the first signal; or

[0223] - the channel status information of the at least one terminal included in the second information.

[0224] According to an example, the obtaining the channel status information corresponding to the first signal may comprise:

[0225] - obtaining the channel status information corresponding to the first signal based on the reference signal corresponding to the first signal; or,

[0226] - using the pre-stored channel status information associated with the first signal as the channel status information corresponding to the first signal or the channel status information obtained based on the second information.

[0227] In some examples, the reference signal corresponding to the first signal may be a reference signal extracted from the first signal which is contained therein, or it may be a pre-stored reference signal corresponding to the first signal. In some examples, the reference signal (such as Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), Demonstration Reference Signal (DM-RS) in PUSCH or PUCCH) contained in the first signal may be extracted from the first signal, or the reference signal corresponding to the first signal which is stored by the second node and / or transmitted in the second information may be directly obtained, and then the channel influence can be computed as the channel status information based on relevant configuration information. The reference signal may be a transmission signal composed of a generated sequence, and its content and the RE(s) used to transmit it are shared by the transmit and receive ends. The reference signal may also be referred to as a pilot signal, a training signal, or the like. The reference signal includes, for example: an SRS, which is used for the terminals to estimate the uplink transmission channel and obtain uplink channel status information; a DM-RS in PUSCH or PUCCH, which is used for the terminals to demodulate the downlink shared channel; a Channel Status information Reference Signal (CSI-RS), which is used for the terminals to estimate the downlink transmission channel and obtain downlink channel status information. The reference signal may also be a signal obtained based on the SRS and / or DM-RS. In some embodiments of the example, the second node extracts a DM-RS signal corresponding to each transmission data stream from specific physical resources carrying the first signal based on the configuration information transmitted by the PUSCH, and then divides the received DM-RS signal by the transmission DM-RS signal specified in the configuration information to obtain the channel status information. In some other embodiments of the example, the second node obtains the channel status information corresponding to all physical resources for each data stream by linear interpolation, after obtaining the channel status information corresponding to the physical resource where the reference signal is located.

[0228] In some other examples, the channel status information corresponding to the first signal may be the pre-stored channel status information associated with the first signal. For example, the channel status information associated with the first signal may include, but is not limited to, channel status information included in auxiliary information of the second information (such as channel status information obtained and / or stored by the first node); channel status information stored by the second node and obtained based on the last received signal and / or the reference signal and / or information obtained after the channel status information being processed, or channel status information currently received and stored in the base station and / or information obtained after the channel status information being processed; channel status information obtained by the base station through a channel feedback process (such as channel status information (CSI) measurement reporting) of the terminal and / or information obtained after the channel status information being processed (such as channel status information corresponding to the first signal reported by the terminal); channel status information predicted by the base station based on the stored channel status information (such as past channel information) and / or information obtained after the channel status information being processed.

[0229] It should be noted that the above examples of obtaining channel status information are only exemplary, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0230] In some examples, the signal processing mode used by the second node may be a data compression mode. In some embodiments of the example, the second node will perform a matrix decomposition on the first signal, and use the decomposed dictionary matrix and the high-value part of the coefficient vector as the second signal, where the high-value part may be determined by comparing its coefficients with the threshold given in the auxiliary information in the second information. For example, the first signal is arranged in three dimensions: time domain resources, frequency domain resources, and antenna ports to form a three-dimensional tensor. A PCA decomposition is performed on the tensor to obtain a dictionary and corresponding coefficients. The coefficients are sorted from large to small, and only coefficients greater than the threshold and their corresponding dictionary parts are extracted as the second signal. In some other embodiments of the example, the second node will reduce the quantization accuracy of each data sample in the first signal. For example, in the second node, the number of bits used for storing the sampled data of the first signal is 16 bits. The last 4 bits may be erased, and only the first 12 bits of each sampled data may be extracted as the second signal. This signal processing mode may significantly reduce the capacity consumption of the fronthaul link and help reduce a transmission latency under high traffic data loads.

[0231] In an example, the signal processing mode used by the second node includes a partial channel equalization mode. The signal processing mode used by the second node may be a partial equalization mode based on antenna port pre-combining. The specific process includes: obtaining antenna port combining coefficients by the second node; and combining signals on antenna ports associated with each time-frequency resource in the first signal based on the combining coefficients, to obtain the second signal. The combining coefficients may include one or more sets of coefficients, each set of coefficients containing a complex number consistent with the number of antenna ports associated with the first signal (the combining coefficients may also be 0). For different time-frequency resource positions, their combining coefficients may be same, partially same, or completely different.

[0232] According to an example, the obtaining antenna port combining coefficients may comprise: obtaining the combining coefficients based on feature information corresponding to the first signal; or, obtaining the combining coefficients based on the auxiliary information in the second signal. The feature information may be one or more of: the auxiliary information from the second information; the first signal itself; the channel status information corresponding to the first signal; or a result of performing processing (sliding averaging, SVD decomposition, filtering) on the channel status information corresponding to the first signal.

[0233] In some examples, the auxiliary information in the second signal may include one or more indexes, each index corresponding to one or more terminals and / or time-frequency resources. The second node queries the rows and / or columns corresponding to its pre-stored table based on the indexes, so as to obtain the corresponding feature information and / or antenna combining coefficients.

[0234] In some examples, the auxiliary information in the second signal may include one or more sets of feature information and / or antenna combining coefficients, each set of feature information and / or antenna combining coefficients corresponding to one or more terminals and / or time-frequency resources. The second node obtains the feature information and / or antenna combining coefficients based on the corresponding relationship.

[0235] In some examples, a method of combining the antenna ports for the first signal based on the combining coefficients may include: weighting the signals of each antenna port based on the combining coefficient of each antenna port associated with each time-frequency resource, and obtaining the second signal based on the weighted signals. For example, the combining coefficient of each antenna port associated with each time-frequency resource may be a weight used in weighting, the second signal may be obtained by summing the weighted signals, or may be obtained by averaging the weighted signals.

[0236] In some examples, the obtaining the combining coefficients based on feature information corresponding to the first signal may comprise:

[0237] - calculating a norm of elements corresponding to each antenna port based on the feature information, and obtaining the combining coefficient of each antenna port based on the calculated norm;

[0238] - calculating energy information of each antenna port based on the elements corresponding to each antenna port, and obtaining the combining coefficient of each antenna port based on the energy information; or,

[0239] - obtaining the combining coefficient of each antenna port based on a mapping relationship between predefined elements and the combining coefficient. However, the way of obtaining the combining coefficient of each antenna port is not limited thereto.

[0240] In some examples, the obtaining the combining coefficients based on feature information corresponding to the first signal may comprise: calculating a L1 norm (i.e. absolute value) and / or L2 norm of elements corresponding to each antenna port based on the feature information, setting the combining coefficient of the antenna port corresponding to the element with the largest norm to 1, and setting the combining coefficients of the remaining antenna ports to zero.

[0241] In some examples, the obtaining the combining coefficients based on feature information corresponding to the first signal may comprise: calculating energy information corresponding to each antenna port based on the feature information, such as average energy and / or instantaneous energy, setting the combining coefficient of the antenna port corresponding to the element with the highest energy to 1, and setting the combining coefficients of the remaining antenna ports to zero.

[0242] In some examples, the obtaining the combining coefficients based on feature information corresponding to the first signal may comprise: directly using a conjugate of the element of the feature information as the combining coefficient of the antenna port corresponding to the element; and directly quantifying the element of the feature information to a corresponding combining coefficient. For example, when rounding the elements of channel status information, if the element is located in the range of -1 to 1, the combining coefficient of the antenna port corresponding to the element is 0; if the element is located in the range of 1 to 3, the combining coefficient of the antenna port corresponding to the element is 1, and so on.

[0243] In some examples, the obtaining the combining coefficients based on feature information corresponding to the first signal may comprise: when the combining coefficients are from certain codebook (such as spatial DFT oversampling codebook), finding the most suitable codeword based on the feature information, and using the selected codeword as the antenna combining coefficients. For example, the codeword in a fixed codebook that has the highest correlation with the element in the feature information is selected as the combining coefficient of the antenna port corresponding to the element. For another example, an eigenvalue decomposition may be performed on the feature information, and then the first a eigenvectors corresponding to the largest eigenvalue can be selected as the combining coefficients in sequence.

[0244] It should be noted that the above methods of obtaining the combining coefficients based on feature information are only examples, and the methods of obtaining the combining coefficients are not limited thereto.

[0245] In an example, the signal processing mode used by the second node includes a partial channel equalization mode. The signal processing mode used by the second node may be a partial equalization mode of the partial channel equalization matrix. According to an example, the second node will multiply the first signal by one or more partial channel equalization matrices to obtain the second signal. The partial channel equalization matrix may be obtained based on the first signal, or based on the pre-stored relevant information, or based on the auxiliary information in the second information.

[0246] In some examples, the partial channel equalization matrix is derived from decomposing the channel equalization matrix (e.g. SVD decomposition, Fourier decomposition, LU decomposition, QR decomposition, etc.), and a part of the matrix pairs is extracted as the partial channel equalization matrix. In some examples, the second node performs an SVD decomposition on the complete channel status information to obtain three corresponding matrices U, V, and Σ. The conjugate transpose matrix of the complete U matrix may be used as the partial channel equalization matrix. Alternatively, based on the range of eigenvalues in the Σ matrix, the columns of the U matrix corresponding to some larger eigenvalues may be selected to form a new matrix, and the conjugate transpose matrix of the new matrix may be used as the partial channel equalization matrix to be multiplied with the first signal to form the second signal. In some other examples, the partial channel equalization matrix comes from the auxiliary information of the second information. For example, the auxiliary information of the second information directly includes the partial channel equalization matrix, which is multiplied with the first signal to form the second signal. For another example, the auxiliary information of the second information includes a candidate matrix. The second node calculates a correlation metric between each column of the candidate matrix and the first signal, selects one or more columns of the candidate matrix based on the correlation metric to form the partial channel equalization matrix, and multiplies the partial channel equalization matrix with the first signal to form the second signal.

[0247] Here, an exemplary partial channel equalization process is given. According to the equalization algorithm, for the first signal y1, the corresponding channel status information matrix is H1, and the channel equalization matrix used in the complete channel equalization process is . Then, in the partial channel equalization process, the partial channel equalization matrix may be , which may come from the auxiliary information of the second information.

[0248] It should be noted that the above solving algorithm is only exemplary, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0249] In an example of the disclosure, by using signal processing modes such as data compression and partial channel equalization, the second node can compromise between the consumption of fronthaul transmission capacity and its own computing resources and energy consumption. Meanwhile, by using the auxiliary information in the second signal, the second node may avoid performing high consumption computational steps such as channel estimation, interference measurement, and matrix decomposition. By utilizing the computing resources of the first node as much as possible, the second node may significantly reduce its own energy consumption.

[0250] In an example, not illustrated in the Figure 7, the method performed by the first node further includes steps S704 to S705.

[0251] S704: receiving a second signal transmitted by the second node, the second signal includes a signal obtained by performing signal processing on a received first signal based on the second information, wherein the first signal includes uplink data of the at least one terminal; and

[0252] S705: performing a signal detection on the second signal based on the second information.

[0253] Correspondingly, not illustrated in the Figure 8, the method performed by the second node further includes S803: transmitting the second signal to the first node.

[0254] Optionally, after receiving the second signal, the first node may perform the above step S530, and the first node performs a signal detection on the second signal based on the second information. According to an example, the step S530 may include performing at least one of signal reconstruction, channel equalization, demodulation, and decoding on the second signal to obtain information included in the first signal.

[0255] In some examples, the signal reconstruction process will reconstruct the compressed second signal. In some examples, the second signal includes the dictionary matrix and the high-value part of the coefficient vector after decomposition of the first signal. The signal reconstruction process weights and sums each column of the dictionary matrix, with the weight of each column being its corresponding coefficient, and the result of the weighted sum is used as the new second signal. In some other examples, the second signal includes the first signal with reduced quantization accuracy. For example, the number of bits used for storing sampled data in the second signal is 12, and the signal reconstruction process may restore the quantized bits to 16 bits data by adding 4 bits of random data at the end of each sampled data, as the new second signal.

[0256] In some examples, the equalization process is similar to the step S520, specifically including: obtaining the channel equalization matrix; and performing channel equalization on the second signal based on the channel equalization matrix. The channel equalization matrix used for equalization on the second signal may be obtained from the channel status information corresponding to the first signal and / or the second signal. The obtaining the channel equalization matrix may comprise: obtaining the channel equalization matrix based on the channel status information corresponding to the first signal; performing channel estimation on the second signal to obtain the channel status information corresponding to the second signal, and obtaining the channel equalization matrix based on the channel status information corresponding to the second signal.

[0257] In some examples, the channel equalization matrix may be directly obtained through the channel status information corresponding to the first signal. For example, if the first signal is y1, the channel status information matrix corresponding to the first signal is H1, and the signal processing mode of the second node is a partial channel equalization process mode, the second signal is generated, and the corresponding channel equalization matrix used by the first node is .

[0258] In some examples, the channel equalization matrix may be obtained through the channel status information corresponding to the second signal. For example, if the channel status information corresponding to the second signal is H2, the second node may use the MMSE algorithm to calculate the corresponding channel equalization matrix , and the equalization matrix is multiplied by the second signal to obtain the equalized signal. In some embodiments of the example, the corresponding reference signal may be extracted from the second signal, and the channel status information corresponding to the second signal may be obtained based on the reference signal. In some other embodiments of the example, the channel status information corresponding to the second signal may be obtained through the channel status information or reference signal corresponding to the first signal. Specifically, based on the signal processing mode of the second node, the channel status information corresponding to the first signal is processed in the same way to obtain the channel status information corresponding to the second signal.

[0259] In some examples, the demodulation may include Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) demodulation, and the decoding may include, for example, Low Density Parity Check Code (LDPC) decoding, turbo decoding, polar decoding, but is not limited thereto. For example, the corresponding QAM modulation constellation may be searched based on the second signal, and the corresponding bit data may be obtained based on the corresponding constellation symbol. Then, the bit data may be input to the decoder to obtain the information transmitted by the terminal communicating with the base station. For example, the decoder may be an LDPC decoder, but is not limited thereto.

[0260] In some other examples, soft information (e.g. likelihood probability ratio) of each QAM modulation constellation symbol or bit information may be calculated based on the second signal, and then the soft information is input into a LDPC soft information decoder to obtain the information transmitted by the terminal communicating with the base station.

[0261] In an implementation, in the method performed by the first node, the performing a signal detection on the second signal based on the second information in S705, comprises: fusing the second signal transmitted by at least one second node corresponding to the second information; and performing a signal detection on the fused second signal based on the second information.

[0262] Correspondingly, the second signal which is transmitted by the second node to the first node is used by the first node, so that after being fused with a second signal transmitted by at least one second node corresponding to the second information, the signal detection is performed on the fused second signal based on the second information.

[0263] In some examples, the first node may fuse the second signals of multiple second nodes and use the fused signal as a new second signal to perform subsequent processes. In some examples, the second signals from different second nodes may be weighted and averaged, and a weighted and averaged result may be used as the new second signal for subsequent processing, where the weight of each signal may be from a preset value of the first node, or obtained after processing the feature information in the second signals. For example, two different second nodes transmit the signals after equalization to the first node. The first node first estimates the noise intensities σ1and σ2in the two signals, and takes an inverse ratio of the noise intensities as the weight of each signal, that is, and . Then, the weighted and averaged result is used as the new second signal. In some examples, the second signals from different second nodes may be combined, and the combined result may be used as the new second signal for subsequent processing. For example, the two different second nodes transmit, to the first node, unprocessed and / or antenna pre-combining signals as the second signals, with the number of antenna ports thereof being n1 and n2, respectively. The first node may combine these two second signals together in the dimension of antenna ports to form a signal with the number of antenna ports of n1+n2 as the new second signal. In some examples, serial interference cancellation may be achieved based on the second signals from different second nodes. For example, the second signals from two different second nodes are transmitted to the first node. The first node first extracts the information transmitted by the first terminal from one of the second signals. Then, based on the channel status information of the first terminal obtained from another second signal, the first signal of the first terminal is reconstructed. Finally, based on the reconstructed first signal, the influence of the first terminal is eliminated from the second signal, thereby obtaining the information transmitted by other terminals based on the principle of serial interference cancellation.

[0264] By fusing the second signals from multiple second nodes, the first node may obtain additional processing gain, which reduces the noise and interference intensity of the second signals and increases the receive antenna gain, significantly reducing the bit error rate of subsequent decoding processes and improving the data transmission performance of the terminal.

[0265] The method performed by the communication device according to the above example may be applied to the receivers on the side of base stations 101, 102, and 103 as shown in Figure 1. In some examples of the disclosure, the base stations 101, 102, and 103 may be macro base stations, micro base stations, pico base stations, femto base stations used for wireless access networks, backhaul base stations used for infinite backhaul, and base stations that integrate both access and backhaul functions. According to the method in the above example, the base station may more flexibly schedule the workload of various parts, more fully utilize a large of computing resources of the DU while ensuring traffic performance, and avoid the high energy consumption of the RU in low traffic scenarios or insufficient computing resources in high traffic scenarios. Through the global information mastered by the DU, it can more intelligently control its subordinate RUs according to the current state, which may not only improve the utilization efficiency of computing resources, but also significantly reduce the energy consumption of the base station.

[0266] An example of the disclosure provides an electronic device comprising a processor, and optionally, further comprising a transceiver and / or a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform the steps of the methods provided in any of the optional examples of the disclosure. Optionally, the electronic device may refer to a base station (such as a base station including the DU and the RU), and the processor is configured to implement the steps of various method embodiments performed by the base station. The detailed functional description and beneficial effects resulted therefrom may refer to the previous description of various method embodiments performed by the base station, which will not be repeatedly described here.

[0267] An example of the disclosure also provides an electronic device comprising a processor, and optionally, further comprising a transceiver and / or a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform the steps of the methods provided by any of the optional examples of the disclosure.

[0268] Figure 9 illustrates a schematic diagram of a structure of an electronic device to which the examples of the disclosure are applicable.

[0269] As shown in Figure 9, the electronic device 900 includes a processor 901 and a memory 903. The processor 901 is connected to the memory 903, such as through a bus 902. Optionally, the electronic device 900 may also include a transceiver 904, which may be used for data exchange between the electronic device and other electronic devices, such as data transmission and / or data reception. It should be noted that in practical applications, the transceiver 904 is not limited to one, and the structure of the electronic device 900 does not have a limitation on the examples of the disclosure. Optionally, the electronic device may be a device with interactive function modules, a server, and the like.

[0270] The processor 901 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It may implement or execute various exemplary logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor 901 may also be a combination for realizing computing functions, for example, a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, and the like.

[0271] The bus 902 may include a path to transfer information between the components described above. The bus 902 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, and the like. The bus 902 may be an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, the bus is represented by only one thick line in Figure 9. However, it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of buses.

[0272] The memory 903 may be read-only memories (ROMs) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, random access memories (RAMs) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, or may also be electrically erasable programmable read only memories (EEPROMs), compact disc read only memories (CD-ROMs) or other optical disk storages, optical disc storages (including compact discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, blue-ray discs, etc.), magnetic storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other media that can be used to carry or store computer programs and that can be read by computers, without limitation.

[0273] The memory 903 is used to store computer programs for executing the examples of the disclosure, and is controlled by the processor 901. The processor 901 is used to execute the computer programs stored in the memory 903 to implement the steps shown in the method examples described above.

[0274] An example of the disclosure provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, that when executed by a processor, implements the steps and corresponding contents of the foregoing method examples.

[0275] An example of the disclosure also provides a computer program product including a computer program, that when executed by a processor, implements the steps and corresponding contents of the foregoing method examples.

[0276] The terms "first", "second", "third", "fourth", "1", "2", etc. (if present) in the specification and claims of the disclosure and the accompanying drawings above are used to distinguish similar objects and need not be used to describe a particular order or sequence. It should be understood that the data so used is interchangeable where appropriate so that the examples of the disclosure described herein can be implemented in an order other than that illustrated or described in the text.

[0277] It should be understood that while the flow diagrams of the examples of the disclosure indicate the individual operational steps by arrows, the order in which these steps are performed is not limited to that indicated by the arrows. Unless expressly stated herein, in some implementation scenarios of the examples of the disclosure, the implementation steps in the respective flowcharts may be performed in other orders as desired. In addition, some, or all of the steps in each flowchart may include multiple sub-steps or multiple phases based on actual implementation scenarios. Some or all of these sub-steps or stages can be executed at the same moment, and each of these sub-steps or stages can also be executed at different moments separately. The order of execution of these sub-steps or stages can be flexibly configured according to requirements in different scenarios of execution time, and the examples of the disclosure are not limited thereto.

[0278] The above-mentioned description and the drawings are provided merely as examples to help readers in understanding the disclosure, and they are not intended for or should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any way. Although certain examples and examples have been provided, based on the content disclosed herein, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the examples and examples shown without departing from the scope of the disclosure, and other similar implementation means based on the technical ideas of the disclosure can also be adopted, which belong to the protection scope of the disclosure.

Claims

1.A method performed by a distributed unit (DU) in a communication system, the method comprising:acquiring first information required to configure a signal processing mode of a radio unit (RU) of the base station;generating second information including indication information based on the first information, wherein the indication information indicates the signal processing mode for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal; andtransmitting the second information to the second node,wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of:non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal,channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal,data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, orpartial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.2.The method of claim 1,wherein the first information includes at least one of:capacity information of a communication link between the DU and the RU;information on computing resources of the DU;information on computing resources of the RU;information on energy efficiency of the RU;scheduling information on the uplink transmission; orchannel state information (CSI) of the at least one terminal, andwherein the second information further includes at least one of:antenna port information associated with a first signal received by the RU based on the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal;antenna port information associated with a second signal including a processed signal obtained by the RU based on a signal processing for the first signal;the CSI of the at least one terminal;parameters used for the signal processing based on the signal processing mode;matrix information for the channel equalization;matrix information for the partial channel equalization; ora compression ratio of data associated with the data compression.3.The method of claim 1,wherein generating the second information based on the first information includes:determining, based on a neural network, whether the first information meets a first condition; andin case that the first information meets the first condition, generating the indication information,wherein, the first condition includes at least one of:energy required by the RU for a signal processing based on the signal processing mode corresponds to a minimum energy consumption of the RU;a capacity of communication link between the DU and the RU required by the RU for the signal processing is not greater than a capacity of the communication link for the RU;computing resources required by the RU for the signal processing are not greater than computing resources of the RU;computing resources required by the DU for the signal processing are not greater than computing resources of the DU; orservice quality of the at least one terminal associated with the signal processing meets a minimum requirement.4.The method of claim 1,wherein, in case that a second condition is satisfied, the first information is updated,wherein the second information is re-generated based on the updated first information, andwherein the second condition includes at least one of:the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal scheduled by the DU has changed;the at least one terminal served by the RU has changed; orthe second information is generated for a preset duration.5.The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving, from the RU, a second signal including a processed signal obtained by the RU based on a signal processing for a first signal, wherein the first signal is received by the RU based on the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal;fusing the second signal with a second signal transmitted from at least one RU of the base station; andperforming a signal detection on the fused second signal based on the second information.6.A method performed by a radio unit (RU) of a base station in a communication system, the method comprising:receiving, from a distributed unit (DU) of the base station, second information including indication information indicating a signal processing mode of the RU for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal, wherein the second information is received based on first information being required to configure the signal processing mode of RU; andperforming a signal processing based on the second information,wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of:non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal,channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal,data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, orpartial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.7.The method of claim 6,wherein the first information includes at least one of:capacity information of a communication link between the DU and the RU;information on computing resources of the DU;information on computing resources of the RU;information on energy efficiency of the RU;scheduling information on the uplink transmission; orchannel state information (CSI) of the at least one terminal, andwherein the second information further includes at least one of:antenna port information associated with a first signal received by the RU based on the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal;antenna port information associated with a second signal including a processed signal obtained by the RU based on the signal processing for the first signal;the CSI of the at least one terminal;parameters used for the signal processing based on the signal processing mode;matrix information for the channel equalization;matrix information for the partial channel equalization; ora compression ratio of data associated with the data compression.wherein, in case that the first information meets a first condition, the second information including the indication information is received, andwherein the first condition includes at least one of:energy required by the RU for the signal processing based on the signal processing mode corresponds to a minimum energy consumption of the RU;a capacity of communication link between the DU and the RU required by the RU for the signal processing is not greater than a capacity of the communication link for the RU;computing resources required by the RU for the signal processing are not greater than computing resources of the RU;computing resources required by the DU for the signal processing are not greater than computing resources of the DU; orservice quality of the at least one terminal associated with the signal processing meets a minimum requirement.8.The method of claim 6, further comprising:receiving, from the at least one terminal, a first signal corresponding to the uplink transmission; andtransmitting, to the RU, a second signal including a processed signal obtained based on a signal processing for the first signal,wherein the second signal is fused by the DU with a second signal transmitted from at least one RU of the base station,wherein, in case that a second condition is satisfied, updated second information is received based on an update of the first information, andwherein the second condition includes at least one of:the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal scheduled by the DU has changed;the at least one terminal served by the RU has changed; orthe second information is generated for a preset duration.9.A distributed unit (DU) of a base station in a communication system, the DU comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor coupled to the transceiver; andmemory coupled to the at least one processor storing instructions executable by the at least one processor,wherein the instructions cause the DU to:acquire first information required to configure a signal processing mode of a radio unit (RU) of the base station,generate second information including indication information based on the first information, wherein the indication information indicates the signal processing mode for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal, andtransmit, to the RU, the second information,wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of:non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal,channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal,data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, orpartial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.10.The DU of claim 9,wherein the first information includes at least one of:capacity information of a communication link between the DU and the RU;information on computing resources of the DU;information on computing resources of the RU;information on energy efficiency of the RU;scheduling information on the uplink transmission; orchannel state information (CSI) of the at least one terminal, andwherein the second information further includes at least one of:antenna port information associated with a first signal received by the RU based on the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal;antenna port information associated with a second signal including a processed signal obtained by the RU based on a signal processing for the first signal;the CSI of the at least one terminal;parameters used for the signal processing based on the signal processing mode;matrix information for the channel equalization;matrix information for the partial channel equalization; ora compression ratio of data associated with the data compression.wherein generating the second information based on the first information includes:determining, based on a neural network, whether the first information meets a first condition; andin case that the first information meets the first condition, generating the indication information,wherein the first condition includes at least one of:energy required by the RU for the signal processing based on the signal processing mode corresponds to a minimum energy consumption of the RU;a capacity of communication link between the DU and the RU required by the RU for the signal processing is not greater than a capacity of the communication link for the RU;computing resources required by the RU for the signal processing are not greater than computing resources of the RU;computing resources required by the DU for the signal processing are not greater than computing resources of the DU; orservice quality of the at least one terminal associated with the signal processing meets a minimum requirement.11.The DU of claim 9,wherein the instructions further cause the DU to:receive, from the RU, a second signal including a processed signal obtained by the RU based on a signal processing for a first signal, wherein the first signal is received by the RU based on the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal,fuse the second signal with a second signal transmitted from at least one RU of the base station, andperform a signal detection on the fused second signal based on the second information.12.The DU of claim 9,wherein, in case that a second condition is satisfied, the first information is updated,wherein the second information is re-generated based on the updated first information, andwherein the second condition includes at least one of:the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal scheduled by the DU has changed;the at least one terminal served by the RU has changed; orthe second information is generated for a preset duration.13.A radio unit (RU) of a base station in a communication system, the RU comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor coupled to the transceiver; andmemory coupled to the at least one processor storing instructions executable by the at least one processor,wherein the instructions cause the RU to:receive, from a distributed unit (DU) of the base station, second information including indication information indicating a signal processing mode of the RU for receiving uplink transmission of at least one terminal, wherein the second information is received based on first information being required to configure the signal processing mode of RU, andperform a signal processing based on the second information,wherein the signal processing mode includes at least one of:non-processing for signals of the at least one terminal,channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal,data compression for signals of the at least one terminal, orpartial channel equalization for signals of the at least one terminal.14.The RU of claim 13,wherein the first information includes at least one of:capacity information of a communication link between the DU and the RU;information on computing resources of the DU;information on computing resources of the RU;information on energy efficiency of the RU;scheduling information on the uplink transmission; orchannel state information (CSI) of the at least one terminal, andwherein the second information further includes at least one of:antenna port information associated with a first signal received by the RU based on the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal;antenna port information associated with a second signal including a processed signal obtained by the RU based on the signal processing for the first signal;the CSI of the at least one terminal;parameters used for the signal processing based on the signal processing mode;matrix information for the channel equalization;matrix information for the partial channel equalization; ora compression ratio of data associated with the data compression.wherein, in case that the first information meets a first condition, the second information including the indication information is received, andwherein the first condition includes at least one of:energy required by the RU for the signal processing based on the signal processing mode corresponds to a minimum energy consumption of the RU;a capacity of communication link between the DU and the RU required by the RU for the signal processing is not greater than a capacity of the communication link for the RU;computing resources required by the RU for the signal processing are not greater than computing resources of the RU;computing resources required by the DU for the signal processing are not greater than computing resources of the DU; orservice quality of the at least one terminal associated with the signal processing meets a minimum requirement.15.The RU of claim 13,wherein the instructions further cause the RU to:receive, from the at least one terminal, a first signal corresponding to the uplink transmission, andtransmit, to the RU, a second signal including a processed signal obtained based on the signal processing for the first signal,wherein the second signal is fused by the DU with a second signal transmitted from at least one RU of the base station,wherein, in case that a second condition is satisfied, updated second information is received based on an update of the first information, andwherein the second condition includes at least one of:the uplink transmission of the at least one terminal scheduled by the DU has changed;the at least one terminal served by the RU has changed; orthe second information is generated for a preset duration.

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