Communication method and communication apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and a communication apparatus. In the method, a sending end device acquires a first codeword sequence having a length of E and obtained by rate matching, E being the number of bits that can be carried by time-frequency resources used for sending a first signal; and sending the first signal, the first signal being a signal obtained by mapping a symbol sequence of a first part of the first codeword sequence to a first time-frequency resource, and mapping a symbol sequence of the remaining part of the first codeword sequence to resources, among said time-frequency resources, other than the first time-frequency resource, the first time-frequency resource being a resource, among said time-frequency resources, corresponding to a first bandwidth, and the first bandwidth being less than a bandwidth for sending the first signal. In the method, a specific part in the first codeword sequence can be mapped to the first time-frequency resource, thereby improving the decoding performance of narrowband scenarios and band-limited devices.

Description

Communication methods and communication devices

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202411999914.3, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on December 31, 2024, entitled "Communication Method and Communication Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

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

[0003] To support some devices receiving Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) data at 3 MHz and narrower bandwidths, and in accordance with the requirement in 3GPP Release(R) 18 to retain the primary synchronization signals (PSS) and secondary synchronization signals (SSS) within the synchronization signaling block / physical broadcast channel (SSB / PBCH), in one possible implementation, a receiver with a bandwidth of 12 Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) may not receive the PBCH data carried on the top four and bottom four PRBs of the SSB / PBCH block. However, this method results in a significant performance penalty for PBCH. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Embodiments of this application provide a communication method and a communication device that can improve decoding performance and thus improve communication quality.

[0005] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a first communication device, which is a transmitting device. Unless otherwise specified, the term "transmitting device" in this application can refer to a transmitting device (e.g., a network device, a terminal device), a component in the transmitting device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the transmitting device.

[0006] The method includes: acquiring a first codeword sequence of length E, wherein the first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of a codeword sequence of length N, where N is the length of the mother code, the codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits, and E is the number of bits that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry; transmitting the first signal, wherein a first part of the first codeword sequence is mapped to a first time-frequency resource, the first time-frequency resource is the resource in the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal that corresponds to a first bandwidth, and the first bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of transmitting the first signal.

[0007] Based on the above scheme, a specific portion (the first part) of the first codeword sequence can be mapped to a first time-frequency resource corresponding to a first bandwidth (less than the bandwidth for transmitting the first signal). This allows the receiving end to receive the specific portion of the first codeword sequence when using a bandwidth less than that for transmitting the first signal. In contrast, the encoding mapping process does not consider the issue of wideband transmission and narrowband reception, which results in the receiving end using narrowband not receiving the specific portion of the first codeword sequence, leading to a loss of decoding performance. This scheme can improve decoding performance.

[0008] In some implementations of the first aspect, the first part is determined according to E′ and N, where E′ is the number of bits that the first time-frequency resource can carry.

[0009] Based on the above technical solution, symbol sequences corresponding to E′ different codewords in a codeword sequence of length N can be mapped on the first time-frequency resource, thereby improving decoding performance.

[0010] In some implementations of the first aspect, the first part is determined based on the rate matching method, which is related to E′ and N.

[0011] In the above technical solution, the first part can be determined based on a rate matching method. It can be understood that E′ is the number of bits that the first time-frequency resource can carry, and the length of the first part is also E′. Since E′ is less than the length N of the first codeword sequence, the rate matching method is either puncturing or shortening. For example, if K / E′ <= the code rate threshold, i.e., in the case of a low code rate, the first part is determined by puncturing the codeword sequence of length N; if K / E′ > the code rate threshold, i.e., in the case of a high code rate, the first part is determined by shortening the codeword sequence of length N, where K is the sum of the length of the original bitstream and the CRC encoded length.

[0012] In some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: modulating based on the first codeword sequence to generate a first symbol sequence;

[0013] The first symbol sequence is mapped to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal based on a first mapping method, wherein the first mapping method is related to the first bandwidth.

[0014] In the above technical solution, the current mapping method of the first symbol sequence can be changed, that is, the first symbol sequence can be mapped to the time and frequency resources used to transmit the first signal using a new first mapping method, thereby improving the decoding performance.

[0015] In some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: bit-interleaving the first codeword sequence to generate a second codeword sequence of length E, wherein the bit-interleaving method is related to the first bandwidth; modulating based on the second codeword sequence to generate a second symbol sequence; and mapping the second symbol sequence to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal.

[0016] In the above technical solution, the interleaving of the first codeword sequence by the interleaver can ultimately map the symbol sequence corresponding to the first part of the first codeword sequence to the first time-frequency resource, thereby improving the decoding performance.

[0017] In some implementations of the first aspect, a codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on a mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is a mother code sequence of length N.

[0018] In some implementations of the first aspect, the first signal is a signal carried by the physical broadcast channel PBCH, and the information bits are broadcast information carried on the PBCH.

[0019] For example, the information bits are PBCH static load.

[0020] In some implementations of the first aspect, transmitting the first signal includes: transmitting a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel (SSB / PBCH) block, wherein the SSB / PBCH block includes the first signal.

[0021] In some implementations of the first aspect, the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block corresponds to X PRBs, the first bandwidth corresponds to Y PRBs, and the first bandwidth corresponds to the remaining PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block excluding the top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs and the bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs. The bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs are consecutive (XY) / 2 PRBs including the first PRB corresponding to the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block, and the top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs are consecutive (XY) / 2 PRBs including the last PRB corresponding to the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block. X is greater than Y.

[0022] It is understood that in the above technical solution, the number of subcarriers corresponding to (XY) / 2 PRBs is a positive integer.

[0023] In some implementations of the first aspect, X equals 20 and Y equals 12.

[0024] In some implementations of the first aspect, N = 512, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block correspond to 432 REs, E = 864, the first time-frequency resources correspond to 216 REs, the 432 REs correspond to 864 positions, the first time-frequency resources correspond to 432 positions out of the 864 positions, the 432 positions are positions 73 to 288, and positions 577 to 792 out of the 864 positions, the codeword sequence of length 512 is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on the mother code sequence of length 512, the index values ​​of the first coded bit to the 512 coded bits in the mother code sequence are 0 to 511, the first part consists of 432 coded bits with index values ​​of 80 to 511 in the mother code sequence, and the 432 coded bits are mapped to the 432 positions corresponding to the first time-frequency resources.

[0025] For example, in the above description, the 864 positions are numbered starting from 1, that is, the first position is the 1st position.

[0026] The above technical solution provides the position of the first time-frequency resource in the 864 positions of the 432 REs corresponding to the middle 12 PRBs of the SSB / PBCH block, and the relationship between the PBCH data carried at the specific position of the first time-frequency resource and the mother code sequence.

[0027] In some implementations of the first aspect, the first bandwidth is the capability bandwidth of at least one of the devices receiving the first signal, or the first bandwidth is the receiving bandwidth when at least one of the devices receiving the first signal is in power-saving mode.

[0028] Secondly, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a second communication device, which is a receiving device. Unless otherwise specified, the term "receiving device" in this application can refer to the receiving device itself (e.g., network device, terminal device), a component in the receiving device (e.g., processor, chip, or chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the receiving device.

[0029] The method includes: receiving a first signal based on a second bandwidth; mapping a first part of a first codeword sequence of length E onto a first time-frequency resource, where E is the number of bits that the time-frequency resource used to transmit the first signal can carry; the first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of a codeword sequence of length N; the codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits, where N is the length of the mother code; the first time-frequency resource is the resource in the time-frequency resource used to transmit the first signal that corresponds to the first bandwidth, and the first bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of transmitting the first signal; and obtaining a decoding result based on a third symbol sequence carried on a second time-frequency resource, where the second time-frequency resource is the time-frequency resource corresponding to receiving the first signal with the second bandwidth.

[0030] For the beneficial effects of the second aspect, please refer to the description of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

[0031] In some implementations of the second aspect, the first part is determined according to E′ and N, where E′ is the number of bits that the first time-frequency resource can carry.

[0032] In some implementations of the second aspect, the first part is determined based on the rate matching method, which is related to E′ and N.

[0033] In some implementations of the second aspect, the second bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of the first signal, and the decoding result is obtained based on the third symbol sequence carried on the second time-frequency resource, including: demodulating based on the third symbol sequence to obtain a third codeword sequence; performing rate matching based on the third codeword sequence to obtain a fourth codeword sequence; and obtaining the decoding result based on the fourth codeword sequence.

[0034] In the above technical solution, since the second bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of the first signal, the first information is not completely received, so there is no need to perform de-bit interleaving based on the bit interleaving process at the transmitting end.

[0035] In some implementations of the second aspect, the second bandwidth is equal to the bandwidth of the first signal. The decoding result is obtained based on the third symbol sequence carried on the second time-frequency resource, including: demodulating based on the third symbol sequence to obtain a fifth codeword sequence of length E; deinterleaving based on the fifth codeword sequence to obtain a sixth codeword sequence of length E; and obtaining the decoding result based on the sixth codeword sequence.

[0036] In the above technical solution, since the second bandwidth is equal to the bandwidth of the first signal, the first information is completely received, so there is no need to perform de-bit interleaving based on the bit interleaving process at the transmitting end.

[0037] In some implementations of the second aspect, deinterleaving the fifth codeword sequence includes: deinterleaving the fifth codeword sequence based on a first mapping method, wherein the first mapping method is a mapping method that maps the first symbol sequence to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the transmission of the first signal, the first symbol sequence is obtained by modulating the first codeword sequence, and the first mapping method is related to the first bandwidth.

[0038] In some implementations of the second aspect, de-interleaving the fifth codeword sequence includes: de-interleaving the second codeword sequence, wherein the de-interleaving method is related to the first bandwidth.

[0039] In some implementations of the second aspect, the codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on the mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is the mother code sequence of length N.

[0040] In some implementations of the second aspect, the first signal is a signal carried on the physical broadcast channel PBCH, and the information bits are broadcast information carried on the PBCH.

[0041] In some implementations of the second aspect, receiving the first signal based on the second bandwidth includes: receiving a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel (SSB / PBCH) block based on the second bandwidth, wherein the SSB / PBCH block includes the first signal.

[0042] In some implementations of the second aspect, the bandwidth corresponding to the SSB / PBCH block corresponds to X PRBs, the first bandwidth corresponds to Y PRBs, and the first bandwidth corresponds to the remaining PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block excluding the top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs and the bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs. The bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs are consecutive (XY) / 2 PRBs including the first PRB in the bandwidth corresponding to the SSB / PBCH block, and the top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs are consecutive (XY) / 2 PRBs including the last PRB in the bandwidth corresponding to the SSB / PBCH block.

[0043] In some implementations of the second aspect, X equals 20 and Y equals 12.

[0044] In some implementations of the second aspect, N = 512, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block correspond to 432 REs, the 432 REs correspond to E positions, E = 864, the first time-frequency resource corresponds to 216 REs, the first time-frequency resource in the E positions corresponds to 432 positions out of 864 positions, the 432 positions are positions 73 to 288, and positions 577 to 792 out of 864 positions, the codeword sequence of length 512 is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on the mother code sequence of length 512, the index values ​​of the first coded bit to the 512 coded bits in the mother code sequence are 0 to 511, the first part consists of 432 coded bits with index values ​​of 80 to 511 in the mother code sequence, and the 432 coded bits are mapped to the 432 positions corresponding to the first time-frequency resources.

[0045] In some implementations of the second aspect, the first bandwidth is the capability bandwidth of at least one of the devices receiving the first signal, or the first bandwidth is the receiving bandwidth when at least one of the devices receiving the first signal is in power-saving mode.

[0046] Thirdly, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a first communication device, which is a transmitting device. Unless otherwise specified, the term "transmitting device" in this application can refer to a transmitting device (e.g., a network device, a terminal device), a component in the transmitting device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the transmitting device.

[0047] The method includes: determining the mother code length N based on E′, where E′ is the number of bits that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry; determining a first codeword sequence of length E′, where the first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of a codeword sequence of length N, and the codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits; the first signal is the signal obtained by mapping the first codeword sequence onto the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal; and transmitting the first signal.

[0048] In the above technical solution, a codeword sequence adapted to the current time and frequency resources is reconstructed, and the receiving end can completely receive the first signal, thereby improving the decoding performance.

[0049] Fourthly, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a second communication device, which is a receiving device. Unless otherwise specified, the term "receiving device" in this application can refer to the receiving device itself (e.g., network device, terminal device), a component in the receiving device (e.g., processor, chip, or chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the receiving device.

[0050] The method includes: receiving a first signal, wherein the bandwidth of the receiving device is greater than or equal to the bandwidth of the first signal being transmitted; the first signal is a signal obtained by mapping a first codeword sequence of length E′ onto the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal; E′ is the number of bits that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry; the first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching a codeword sequence of length N; the codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits; N is determined based on E′; and N is the length of the mother code. The method also includes obtaining a decoding result based on the symbol sequence in the first signal.

[0051] For the beneficial effects of the fourth aspect, please refer to the description of the third aspect, which will not be repeated here.

[0052] In some implementations of the third or fourth aspect, the first signal is a signal carried on the physical broadcast channel PBCH, and the information bits are broadcast information carried on the PBCH.

[0053] In some implementations of the third or fourth aspect, transmitting the first signal includes transmitting a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel (SSB / PBCH) block, wherein the SSB / PBCH block includes the first signal.

[0054] In some implementations of the third or fourth aspect, the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block corresponds to Y PRBs, the bandwidth of the first signal is equal to the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block, and Y is less than 20.

[0055] In some implementations of the third or fourth aspect, Y equals 12, 6, or 3.

[0056] In some implementations of the third or fourth aspect, Y = 6, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, and the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block include 108 REs, E′ = 216, and N = 256.

[0057] In some implementations of the third or fourth aspect, Y = 12, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, and the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block include 216 REs, E′ = 432, and N = 512.

[0058] In some implementations of the third or fourth aspect, a codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on a mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is a mother code sequence of length N.

[0059] In some implementations of the third or fourth aspect, the bandwidth corresponding to the frequency domain resources used to transmit the first signal is less than or equal to the capability bandwidth of the device receiving the first signal, or the bandwidth corresponding to the frequency domain resources used to transmit the first signal is less than or equal to the receiving bandwidth when the device receiving the first signal is in power-saving mode.

[0060] Fifthly, a communication apparatus is provided for performing the method provided in any of the above aspects or their implementations. Specifically, the apparatus may include units and / or modules for performing the method provided in any of the above aspects or their implementations, such as processing units and / or transceiver units.

[0061] In one implementation, the device is either a transmitting device or a receiving device. When the device is a transmitting device or a receiving device, the transceiver unit can be a transceiver, an input / output interface, or a communication interface; the processing unit can be at least one processor. Optionally, the transceiver is a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the input / output interface is an input / output circuit.

[0062] In another implementation, the device is a chip, chip system, or circuit used in a transmitting or receiving device. When the device is a chip, chip system, or circuit used in a transmitting or receiving device, the transceiver unit can be an input / output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin, or related circuit on the chip, chip system, or circuit; the processing unit can be at least one processor, processing circuit, or logic circuit.

[0063] For example, a chip or chip system can be a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system-on-chip (SoC) chip or system-in-package (SIP) chip that contains a modem core.

[0064] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a memory for storing a program; and at least one processor for executing the computer program or instructions stored in the memory to perform the method provided in any of the foregoing aspects or their implementations.

[0065] In one implementation, the device is either a transmitting device or a receiving device.

[0066] In another implementation, the device is a chip, chip system, or circuit used in a transmitting or receiving device.

[0067] In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: at least one processor and a communication interface, the at least one processor being configured to obtain a computer program or instructions stored in a memory via the communication interface to execute the method provided in any of the foregoing aspects or their implementations. The communication interface may be implemented in hardware or software.

[0068] In one implementation, the device further includes the memory.

[0069] Eighthly, a processor is provided for executing the methods provided in the above aspects.

[0070] Unless otherwise specified, or if it does not contradict its actual function or internal logic in the relevant description, the transmission and acquisition / reception operations involved in the processor can be understood as processor output and reception, input and other operations, or as transmission and reception operations performed by radio frequency circuits and antennas. This application does not limit them in this regard.

[0071] Ninthly, a computer-readable storage medium is provided that stores program code for execution by a device, the program code including methods for performing any of the foregoing aspects or their implementations.

[0072] In a tenth aspect, a computer program product containing instructions is provided, which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method provided in any of the foregoing aspects or their implementations.

[0073] Eleventhly, a chip is provided, comprising a processor and a communication interface. The processor reads instructions stored in memory through the communication interface and executes the methods provided in any of the above aspects or their implementations. The communication interface can be implemented in hardware or software.

[0074] Optionally, as one implementation, the chip also includes a memory that stores computer programs or instructions. The processor is used to execute the computer programs or instructions stored in the memory. When the computer programs or instructions are executed, the processor is used to perform the methods provided by any of the above aspects or their implementations.

[0075] When the method provided in this application is executed by a chip, this application does not limit the specific number of chips implementing the method. For example, it can be executed by one chip, or by two or more chips. Furthermore, when the number of chips implementing the method is two or more, the chip manufacturers are not limited; they can be from the same manufacturer or different manufacturers.

[0076] In a twelfth aspect, a communication system is provided, comprising at least one of the transmitting end device or receiving end device described above. Attached Figure Description

[0077] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the network architecture applicable to an embodiment of this application.

[0078] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the information transmission process.

[0079] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the time-frequency structure of the SSB / PBCH block.

[0080] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a PRB corresponding to a PBCH block.

[0081] Figure 5 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method 500 provided in this application.

[0082] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a PBCH channel coding process proposed in this application.

[0083] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the time-frequency structure of another SSB / PBCH block.

[0084] Figure 8 shows the simulation results of the PBCH performance corresponding to Tables 1 and 2.

[0085] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of a PBCH channel decoding process proposed in this application.

[0086] Figure 10 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method 1000 provided in this application.

[0087] Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of the frequency-domain compressed SSB / PBCH block proposed in this application.

[0088] Figure 12 is a simulation diagram of the corresponding PBCH performance of Method 500 and Method 1000 when the bandwidth is 6 PRBs.

[0089] Figures 13 and 14 are schematic block diagrams of a communication device provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0090] To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of this application, the following points will be explained before introducing the embodiments of this application.

[0091] The terms "for indicating" or "instruction" can include both direct and indirect indication, or they can be explicit and / or implicit. The various numerical designations such as "first," "second," etc., are merely for descriptive convenience and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application, such as distinguishing different messages or different information. The term "protocol" can refer to standard protocols in the field of communications, such as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, the New Radio (NR) protocol, and related protocols applied to future communication systems; this application does not limit this. Words such as "exemplary," "for example," "exemplarily," and "as (another) example" are used to indicate that something is an example, illustration, or description. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" in this application should not be construed as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or designs. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof all mean "including but not limited to," unless otherwise specifically emphasized. "At least one" means one or more, and "more than one" means two or more. "At most one" means one or zero. "And / or" describes the relationship between related objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A alone, A and B simultaneously, or B alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, and c can mean: a, or, b, or, c, or, a and b, or, a and c, or, b and c, or, a, b, and c. Here, a, b, and c can be single or multiple. Descriptions involving network element A sending messages, information, or data to network element B, and network element B receiving messages, information, or data from network element A, aim to specify which network element the message, information, or data is to be sent to, without specifying whether they are sent directly or indirectly through other network elements. Descriptions such as “when…”, “under…”, “if”, and “if” all indicate that the device will take corresponding actions under certain objective circumstances. They are not time-limited, nor do they require the device to make a judgment action when implementing the action, nor do they imply any other limitations.

[0092] Furthermore, the network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are for the purpose of more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application. As those skilled in the art will know, with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0093] The following describes a communication system to which embodiments of this application can be applied.

[0094] The embodiments of this application can be applied to various communication systems, including but not limited to: 5th generation (5G) systems, LTE systems, Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD) systems, and future communication systems. Furthermore, they can be applied to device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT) communication systems, narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) systems, or other communication systems. Moreover, they can be extended to similar wireless communication systems, such as Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) and 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) related communication systems, without limitation.

[0095] The communication system applicable to embodiments of this application may include one or more transmitting devices and one or more receiving devices. Optionally, one of the transmitting device and the receiving device may be a terminal device, and the other may be a network device. Optionally, both the transmitting device and the receiving device may be terminal devices. Optionally, both the transmitting device and the receiving device may be network devices.

[0096] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture applicable to an embodiment of this application. Figure 1 illustrates a possible, non-limiting system schematic. As shown in Figure 1, the network architecture includes a radio access network (RAN) 100. RAN 100 includes at least one network device (101a and 101b in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal (102a-102j in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 102). The system architecture may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in Figure 1). Terminal 102 is wirelessly connected to network device 101. For example, network device 101 is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the core network (not shown in Figure 1). The core network device in the core network and the network device 101 in RAN 100 may be different physical devices, or they may be the same physical device integrating core network logical functions and radio access network logical functions.

[0097] RAN 100 can be a cellular system related to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as 4G, 5G mobile communication systems, or other evolutionary systems beyond 5G. RAN 100 can also be an open RAN (O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (CRAN), or a WiFi system. RAN 100 can also be a communication system that integrates two or more of the above systems.

[0098] The apparatus provided in this application embodiment can be applied to network device 101 or terminal 102. It is understood that Figure 1 only shows one possible communication system architecture that can be applied to this application embodiment, and other devices may also be included in other possible scenarios.

[0099] Network device 101 is a node in the radio access network (RAN), also known as an access network device or an RAN node (or device). Network device 101 assists terminals in achieving wireless access. Multiple network devices 101 in the network architecture shown in Figure 1 can be nodes of the same type or different types. In some scenarios, the roles of network device 101 and terminal 102 are relative. For example, network element 102i in Figure 1 can be a helicopter or drone, which can be configured as a mobile base station. For terminals 102j accessing RAN 100 through network element 102i, network element 102i is a base station; but for base station 101a, network element 102i is a terminal. Network device 101 and terminal 102 are sometimes referred to as communication devices. For example, network elements 101a and 101b in Figure 1 can be understood as communication devices with base station functions, and network elements 102a-102j can be understood as communication devices with terminal functions.

[0100] In one possible scenario, network equipment can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmitting and receiving point (TRP), a transmitting point (TP), a next-generation NodeB (gNB), a base station in a future mobile communication system, a satellite, or an access point (AP) in a WiFi system, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, or a network device in a mobile switching center non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system, meaning it can be deployed on high-altitude platforms or satellites. Network equipment can be a macro base station (as shown in Figure 1, 110a), a micro base station or indoor station (as shown in Figure 1, 110b), a relay node or donor node, or a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario. Network equipment can also function as a base station in device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, drone communication, and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Alternatively, network devices can also be servers, wearable devices, vehicles, or in-vehicle equipment. For example, the access network device in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can be a roadside unit (RSU).

[0101] In another possible scenario, multiple network devices collaborate to assist terminals in achieving wireless access, with each network device performing a portion of the base station's functions. For example, network devices can be central units (CUs), distributed units (DUs), CU-control plane (CPs), CU-user plane (UPs), or radio units (RUs), etc. CUs and DUs can be set up separately or included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). RUs can be included in radio equipment or radio units, such as remote radio units (RRUs), active antenna units (AAUs), or remote radio heads (RRHs). It is understood that network devices can be CU nodes, DU nodes, or devices comprising both CU and DU nodes. Furthermore, CUs can be classified as network devices in the access network (RAN) or the core network (CN), without limitation.

[0102] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU, or RU may have different names, but those skilled in the art will understand their meaning. For example, in an open-radio access network (O-RAN) system, CU can also be called O-CU (open CU), DU can also be called O-DU, CU-CP can also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP can also be called O-CU-UP, and RU can also be called O-RU. For ease of description, this application uses CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU, and RU as examples. Any of the units among CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU, and RU in this application can be implemented through software modules, hardware modules, or a combination of software modules and hardware modules.

[0103] In this embodiment, the form of the network device is not limited. The device used to implement the function of the network device can be the network device itself, or it can be a device that supports the network device in implementing the function, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in the network device or used in conjunction with the network device.

[0104] Terminal equipment 102, also known as user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), etc., is a device used to provide voice or data connectivity to users, and can also be an Internet of Things (IoT) device. For example, terminal equipment includes handheld devices with wireless connectivity, vehicle-mounted devices, etc. Currently, terminal devices can include: mobile phones, tablets, laptops, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), wearable devices (such as smartwatches, smart bracelets, pedometers, smart glasses, etc.), in-vehicle devices (such as cars, bicycles, electric vehicles, airplanes, ships, trains, high-speed trains, etc.), satellite terminals, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, point-of-sale (POS) machines, customer-premises equipment (CPE), light user equipment (UE), reduced capability user equipment (REDCAP UE), wireless terminals in industrial control, smart home devices (such as refrigerators, televisions, air conditioners, electricity meters, etc.), intelligent robots, robotic arms, workshop equipment, wireless terminals in autonomous driving, wireless terminals in telemedicine, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, or wireless terminals in smart homes, and flying equipment (such as intelligent robots, hot air balloons, drones, airplanes), etc. Terminal devices can also be vehicle devices, such as vehicle devices, vehicle modules, vehicle chips, on-board units (OBUs) or telematics boxes (T-BOXs). Terminal devices can also be other devices with terminal functions. For example, a terminal device can also be a device that performs terminal functions in D2D communication.

[0105] The embodiments of this application do not limit the form of the terminal device. The device used to implement the functions of the terminal device can be the terminal device itself, or it can be a device that supports the terminal device in implementing the functions, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in the terminal device or used in conjunction with the terminal device. In the embodiments of this application, the chip system can be composed of chips, or it can include chips and other discrete devices. All or part of the functions of the terminal device in this application can also be implemented by software functions running on hardware, or by virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (such as a cloud platform).

[0106] Furthermore, the embodiments of this application can be applied to various application scenarios, such as high-throughput scenarios, high-reliability scenarios, low-latency scenarios, high-reliability low-latency scenarios, or low-power scenarios. Among them, high-throughput scenarios can be, for example, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) scenarios, high-reliability low-latency scenarios can be, for example, URLLC (ultra-reliable low-latency communication) scenarios, and low-power scenarios can be, for example, M2M scenarios, MTC scenarios, or IoT scenarios.

[0107] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the information transmission process. As shown in Figure 2, information is sent from the source and undergoes processing such as source coding, channel coding, modulation, air interface transmission, demodulation, channel decoding, and source recovery before reaching the destination, completing the transmission of information from the source to the destination. The processing shown in the upper layer of Figure 2 (including source coding, channel coding, and modulation) is performed at the transmitting end device, while the processing shown in the lower layer (including demodulation, channel decoding, and source recovery) is performed at the receiving end device. The embodiments of this application mainly involve the source coding, channel coding, channel decoding, and source recovery shown in Figure 2.

[0108] To facilitate understanding of this application, the current NR PBCH channel coding process is described below. This process mainly includes the following steps.

[0109] 1) Physical Broadcast Channel Payload Generation (PBCH)

[0110] A 32-bit PBCH payload is generated, including 24 bits of master information block (MIB) bits and 8 bits of timing-related bits added at the physical layer. The 32 bits of the PBCH payload have different uses and different reliability requirements for the polar codes. After the payload is generated, it needs to be interleaved. Two layers of interleaving are performed on these 32 bits to obtain the interleaved payload bit sequence. The purpose of payload interleaving is to interleave the four timing-related key bits in the 32-bit payload to the first four positions for decoding the header.

[0111] 2) Net load scrambling

[0112] The payload generated in step 1) is scrambled, but the synchronization signaling block index (SSBI), half-frame indicator bit, and the second-to-last and third-to-last least significant bits (LSBs) of the system frame number in the 32-bit static payload are not scrambled. All other payload bits are scrambled, and the scrambling sequence is related to the second-to-last and third-to-last LSBs of the system frame number and the physical cell identity (PCI). The advantage of this approach is that it can potentially reduce decoding complexity. That is, if the current PBCH can be successfully decoded without soft-merging with other timing versions of the PBCH, only one decoding operation is needed, and the original payload bit sequence can be recovered by generating a mask based on the decoded payload bits.

[0113] 3) TB-CRC cascading (Transport block CRC attachment)

[0114] The scrambled sequence in step 2) is then encoded using TB-CRC, with a length of L = 24. It can be understood that the scrambled sequence in step 2) is concatenated with a 24-bit CRC, resulting in a CRC codeword of length 56.

[0115] 4) Channel coding

[0116] Before encoding, the 56-bit CRC codeword in step 3) is interleaved using distributed cyclic redundancy check (DCRC). It can be understood that since a 24-bit CRC is concatenated after PBCH payload interleaving, the DCRC interleaver length is 56. Then, the 56-bit DCRC interleaved sequence is polar encoded, outputting a 512-bit mother code sequence, where 512 is the length of the Polar code mother code.

[0117] 5) Rate matching

[0118] The mother code sequence output in 4) is interleaved with a sub-block of length 32. Based on the sub-block interleaving, the interleaved bit sequence is y0~y511. Then, the first 352 bits of y0~y511 are concatenated (i.e., y0~y351 is concatenated) to obtain a codeword sequence of length 864 (i.e., the codeword sequence after rate matching).

[0119] It is understandable that the length of the codeword sequence after rate matching, 864, is determined based on the number of resource elements (REs) carrying PBCH in the current SSB / PBCH block, which will be explained in detail below and will not be elaborated here.

[0120] 6) Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation

[0121] The 864-bit codeword sequence in step 5) is modulated into 432 QPSK symbols according to the following rules. Specifically, two adjacent bits b(2i) and b(2i+1) in the 864-bit codeword sequence are mapped to a single QPSK symbol.

[0122] 7) Resource mapping (mapping to physical resources)

[0123] The 432 symbols in 6) are mapped sequentially to the 432RE corresponding to PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block, in the order of frequency domain first and time domain second.

[0124] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the time-frequency structure of the SSB / PBCH block. As shown in Figure 3, the SSB / PBCH block consists of three parts: PSS, SSS, and PBCH. The SSB / PBCH block occupies a total of 4 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in the time domain and 240 subcarriers (corresponding to 20 PRBs) in the frequency domain. Among them, PSS occupies one OFDM symbol, SSS occupies one OFDM symbol, and PBCH occupies 3 OFDM symbols, one of which is shared with SSS.

[0125] In this system, the middle 127 REs of the first and third OFDM symbols carry the PSS and SSS, respectively. One RE occupies one OFDM symbol in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. It can be understood that the PSS and SSS are only responsible for accessing the cell; all PSS and SSS within a cell are identical. Therefore, the terminal cannot determine the relative position of the SSB within a burst based on the PSS and SSS. Thus, the network needs to explicitly notify the terminal of this information. This information, along with other essential information for accessing the cell, is mainly carried on the 56-bit payload of the PBCH, where 56 = 32 (PBCH payload) + 24 (CRC). Only by decrypting the payload in the PBCH can the remaining system information block (SIB) broadcast by the network be obtained. The PBCH is distributed across 20 PRB resources in the second to fourth OFDM symbols. The subcarrier indices corresponding to the PBCH on the second and fourth OFDM symbols are 0 to 239, and the subcarrier indices corresponding to the PBCH on the third symbol are 0 to 47 and 192 to 239.

[0126] Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram of a PRB carrying the PBCH. One PRB corresponds to 12 REs, which are divided into three equal parts, each containing four REs. One RE in each part (25%) is used to store the physical broadcast channel-demodulation reference signal (PBCH-DMRS), and the remaining three REs (75%) each store one symbol encoded and modulated by the PBCH (also called PBCH data). The position of the PBCH-DMRS is not fixed and needs to be determined based on the PCI obtained from the joint detection of the PSS and SSS. Its offset in each RE is equal to the physical cell number modulo 4. The offset can be 0, 1, 2, or 3. Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram with an offset of 1.

[0127] As shown above, based on the number of PRBs carrying PBCH data and the proportion of DMRS overhead in the SSB / PBCH block, the number of REs carrying PBCH data and the length E after rate matching can be obtained. From the structure in Figure 3, the number of REs carrying PBCH data is 432, where 432 = 48 (total number of PRBs carrying PBCH data = 20 + 4 + 4 + 20) * 12 (number of REs in one PRB) * 0.75 (PBCH proportion after removing DMRS overhead). Therefore, one RE carries one symbol sequence, and the number of bits contained in the QPSK modulation corresponding to the symbol sequence is 2 (which can also be understood as one symbol sequence including two PBCH data). The length E after rate matching is 864, where 864 = 48 (total number of PRBs carrying PBCH data = 20 + 4 + 4 + 20) * 12 (number of REs in one PRB) * 0.75 (PBCH proportion after removing DMRS overhead) * 2 (number of bits contained in the QPSK modulation).

[0128] Table 1 shows the mapping of the 432 symbols (or PBCH data) corresponding to the rate-matched 864-bit sequence in the above NR PBCH channel coding process to the 432 REs used to carry PBCH data in the SSB / PBCH block, in the order of frequency domain first and time domain second. In Table 1, taking a PBCH-DMRS position offset of 0 as an example, a cell with the same symbol length represents an RE. The values ​​in the unfilled cells in symbols 1 and 3 represent the subcarrier number of the current RE. Specifically, the REs with subcarrier numbers 56 to 182 in symbols 1 and 3 occupy the RE positions of the 127-length PSS and SSS sequences, respectively. The light gray and dark gray filled cells in symbols 2, 3, and 4 represent the REs occupied by PBCH data and PBCH-DMRS, respectively. It can be understood that the values ​​in the light gray filled cells represent the index values ​​of the encoded bits in the rate-matched Polar codeword sequence within the parent code sequence. For example, if the Polar codeword sequence after rate matching includes coded bit A, and the index value of coded bit A in the output mother code sequence is B, then the value corresponding to coded bit A in Table 1 is B.

[0129] Table 1

[0130] The 3GPP Release 18 protocol requires that the NR (Radio Frequency Registry) support narrowband spectrum applications below 5MHz. For example, to support narrowband scenarios below 3MHz, according to the requirement in Release 18 to retain the PSS (Plain Oldest Subcarrier) and SSS (Simplified Segmented Subcarrier) unchanged, a receiver with a bandwidth of 12 PRBs will not receive the top and bottom four PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block. Specifically, it will not receive data on the REs corresponding to subcarrier numbers 1 to 47 and 192 to 239 in the cells corresponding to symbols 2 and 4 in Table 1. In other words, a receiver with a bandwidth of 12 PRBs can receive the PBCH data corresponding to the remaining 12 PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block (excluding the top and bottom four PRBs) in the bold box of Table 1. However, it can be seen that there is a large amount of duplicate PBCH data in the cells corresponding to symbols 2 and 4 in the bold box of Table 1. Specifically, the values ​​in the row corresponding to value 186 in symbol 2 and the row corresponding to value 191 in symbol 4 are the same. The PBCH data in the subsequent rows of symbols 2 and 4 are also identical. It is understandable that the receiving device cannot receive the PBCH data outside the bold box, and the PBCH data carried on symbols 2 and 4 within the bold box is mostly the same (i.e., for a transmitted sequence #1, the sequences carried on symbols 2 and 4 within the bold box are sequences that severely puncture sequence #1 (a large number of punctured bits) and the puncture positions are basically the same). Therefore, the existing method will cause a significant loss in the decoding performance of the receiving device for PBCH. In a simple example, for a Polar code of length 8 c1, c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, c7, c8, a narrowband device or the time-frequency resource that can be received within the narrowband is only 6 bits. Using the mapping method of the existing technology, the data mapped on these 6 bits within the band is c1, c2, c3, c2, c3, c4. From the receiver's perspective, this is equivalent to receiving two heavily punctured Polar codes: the first code is c1 c2 c3, and the second code is c2 c3 c4. These two codes have a large number of overlapping bits (i.e., c2 c3). Both the first and second codes have punctured 5 bits (the first code is equivalent to puncturing c4 c5 c6 c7 c8; the second code is equivalent to puncturing c1 c5 c6 c7 c8).

[0131] In view of this, this application provides a communication method that can effectively solve the above-mentioned technical problems. The embodiments of the method proposed in this application are described below.

[0132] Figure 5 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method 500 provided in this application. The method includes the following steps.

[0133] It is understood that method 500 can be executed by a transmitting device and a receiving device. Unless otherwise specified, a device (transmitting device, receiving device) can refer to an equipment, a component in the transmitting device (e.g., a processor, chip, or chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the device's functions.

[0134] S510, the transmitting device acquires the first codeword sequence of length E.

[0135] The first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of a codeword sequence of length N, where N is the length of the mother code. The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits, and E is the number of bits that the time and frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry.

[0136] For example, if the first signal is a signal carried on the PBCH, then the information bits are the broadcast information carried on the PBCH, such as the PBCH payload, or the PBCH payload and CRC. This application does not limit the number of PBCH payloads. Here, "the first signal" can also be understood as a signal transmitted on the PBCH.

[0137] For example, sending the first signal can be sending an SSB / PBCH block, which includes PBCH. Here, E represents the number of bits that the time-frequency resources used to send the first signal can carry; it can also be understood as the number of PBCH data bits that the REs used to carry PBCH data in the SSB / PBCH block can carry.

[0138] For example, the first signal is downlink control information (DCI) or DCI carried on the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), such as a first-level DCI or a second-level DCI.

[0139] For example, the first signal is the signal carried on the PBCH, as shown in Figure 3. The number of bits that the time and frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry is 432, where 432 = 24 (the total number of PRBs carrying the PBCH in symbols 2 and 4 = 12 + 12) * 12 (the number of REs in one PRB) * 0.75 (the proportion of PBCH after removing DMRS overhead) * 2 (the number of bits contained in QPSK modulation).

[0140] For example, a codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on a mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is a mother code sequence of length N. In other words, this application can perform sub-block interleaving on the mother code sequence to obtain a rate-matched codeword sequence based on the interleaved mother code sequence, or it can not perform sub-block interleaving on the mother code sequence to obtain a rate-matched codeword sequence based on the mother code sequence; there is no limitation.

[0141] It can be understood that the mother code sequence refers to the codeword sequence directly output after polar code encoding without any other processing. The length of the mother code sequence is a positive integer power of 2. For example, if the first signal is the signal carried on the PBCH, then its corresponding mother code sequence can be the mother code sequence of step 4) of the NR PBCH channel coding process mentioned above.

[0142] S520, the transmitting device sends a first signal. Correspondingly, the receiving device receives the first signal based on the second bandwidth.

[0143] Wherein, the first signal is the first part of the first codeword sequence mapped to the first time-frequency resource, and the first time-frequency resource is the resource in the time-frequency resource used to transmit the first signal that corresponds to the first bandwidth, and the first bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of transmitting the first signal.

[0144] It can be understood that the time-frequency resources other than the first time-frequency resources in the transmission of the first signal are used to carry the symbols corresponding to the second part of the first codeword sequence, wherein the second part is the remaining part of the first codeword sequence excluding the first part.

[0145] It can also be understood that the bandwidth for sending the first signal is the bandwidth corresponding to the frequency domain resources used to send the first signal.

[0146] For example, if the first signal is a signal carried on the PBCH, then sending the first signal includes: sending an SSB / PBCH block, where the SSB / PBCH block includes the PBCH.

[0147] For example, the first signal is the signal carried on the PBCH. The bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block corresponds to X PRBs, and the first bandwidth corresponds to Y PRBs. The first bandwidth corresponds to the remaining PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block excluding the top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs and the bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs. The bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs are consecutive (XY) / 2 PRBs, including the first PRB corresponding to the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block. The top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs are consecutive (XY) / 2 PRBs, including the last PRB corresponding to the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block. If a PRB contains Z subcarriers, then the product of (XY) / 2 and Z in the above description should be an integer. In this application, the top-level PRB can also be called the "above PRB," and the bottom-level PRB can also be called the "below PRB." Therefore, it can be understood that the first time-frequency resource corresponds to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the remaining PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block, excluding the top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs and the bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs. For example, as shown in Figure 3, X = 20. For example, Y = 12, 6, or 3. For example, Z = 12.

[0148] For example, the first bandwidth is the capacity bandwidth (or maximum capacity bandwidth) of at least one of the devices receiving the first signal, or the first bandwidth is the receiving bandwidth when at least one of the devices receiving the first signal is in power-saving mode.

[0149] The following example provides a general method for determining the first part.

[0150] Optionally, the first part of the first codeword sequence is determined according to E′ and the mother code length N, where E′ is the number of bits that the first time-frequency resource can carry. For example, if the first time-frequency resource corresponds to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the 12 PRBs (excluding the top and bottom 4 PRBs) of the SSB / PBCH block in the bold box in Table 1, then the number of bits that the first time-frequency resource can carry is 432, where 432 = 24 (total number of PRBs carrying PBCH for Symbol 2 and Symbol 4 = 12 + 12) * 12 (number of REs in one PRB) * 0.75 (PBCH percentage after removing DMRS overhead) * 2 (number of bits included in QPSK modulation).

[0151] Optionally, the first part is determined based on the rate matching method, which is related to E′ and N.

[0152] It is understandable that the rate matching method here does not refer to the rate matching method in S510 that determines the codeword sequence of length E based on the codeword sequence of length N, but rather to the rate matching method that determines the first part based on the first codeword sequence.

[0153] It can also be understood that, from the receiver's perspective, if the receiver's bandwidth is less than the first signal but greater than or equal to the first bandwidth, it's equivalent to the transmitter performing shortened or punctured rate matching (called equivalent rate matching). This scheme ensures that the remaining bits after equivalent rate matching are mapped to the first bandwidth, and the receiver can obtain the remaining bits after rate matching through narrowband reception. The remaining positions corresponding to this equivalent rate matching correspond to rate matching methods with better Polar coding performance (e.g., punctured methods), which can improve decoding performance.

[0154] It can also be understood that E′ is the number of bits that the first time-frequency resource can carry, so the length of the first part is also E′. Since E′ is less than the length N of the first codeword sequence, the rate matching method is puncturing or shortening. If K / E′ <= the code rate threshold, puncturing is used in the case of low code rate; if K / E′ > the code rate threshold, shortening is used in the case of high code rate. For example, the code rate threshold is 7 / 16, where K = the length of the original bitstream + the CRC encoding length. For example, if the first signal is the signal carried on the PBCH, K = the length of the PBCH payload + the CRC encoding length (e.g., K = 32 + 24). Another example is that if the first signal is DCI, K = the length of the DCI payload + the CRC encoding length.

[0155] Specifically, if the rate matching method is puncturing, then the first part of the first codeword sequence is the last E′ bits of the codeword sequence of length N in S510; if the rate matching method is shortening, then the first part of the first codeword sequence is the first E′ bits of the codeword sequence of length N in S510.

[0156] For the simple example 1 above, this scheme maps c3, c4, c5, c6, c7, and c8 (the first part) to the corresponding 6 bits in the in-band. This is equivalent to the receiver receiving a Polar code with only 2 bits punctured, and the positions of these 2 punctured bits correspond to the rate matching methods with better Polar code performance, such as the puncturing positions in NR rate matching (the first 2 bits are the puncturing positions).

[0157] The following examples illustrate two possible ways to obtain the first signal.

[0158] Method 1 (Adding a bit interleaving process)

[0159] The transmitting device can perform bit interleaving on the first codeword sequence to generate a second codeword sequence, wherein the bit interleaving method is related to the first bandwidth; then, the second codeword sequence is modulated to generate a second symbol sequence; finally, the second symbol sequence is mapped to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal to obtain the first signal.

[0160] For example, the transmitting device can use an interleaver of length E to perform bit interleaving, wherein the interleaver is associated with a first bandwidth. An interleaver of length E can be understood as having an input bit sequence and an output bit sequence of length E.

[0161] For example, the first signal is the signal carried on the PBCH. Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a PBCH channel coding process provided in an embodiment of this application. The channel coding process may include: a broadcast information generation module, a payload scrambling module, TB-CRC concatenation, channel coding, rate matching, bit interleaving, modulation, and resource mapping module.

[0162] For example, this application does not restrict the modulation method. For example, the modulation method can be QPSK modulation. For single-carrier systems, the corresponding modulation order can be determined by looking up the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) table and the scheduled MCS index; for multi-carrier systems, such as OFDM systems, there is no binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation.

[0163] For example, taking the first signal as the signal carried on the PBCH, the first codeword sequence as the 864-bit sequence after rate matching in Table 1, and the first time-frequency resource corresponding to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the remaining 12 PRBs (excluding the top and bottom 4 PRBs) of the SSB / PBCH block in the bold box of Table 1, the 432 symbols corresponding to the first codeword sequence in Table 1 are mapped to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal in the order of frequency domain first and time domain second. This leads to a large amount of repetition of PBCH data received by the receiver on the first time-frequency resources in narrowband scenarios. Based on this method, the transmitting device can, after obtaining the first codeword sequence, first interleave the first codeword sequence through an interleaver to obtain the interleaved second codeword sequence. Then, the 432 symbols obtained by modulating the second codeword sequence (i.e., an example of the second symbol sequence) are mapped to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal in the order of frequency domain first and time domain second. Based on this method, the interleaving of the first codeword sequence by the interleaver can ultimately map the symbol sequence corresponding to the first part of the first codeword sequence to the first time-frequency resource. If there is less repeated data in the first part, there will be less repeated PBCH data mapped on the first time-frequency resource, thereby improving PBCH performance.

[0164] The following describes the implementation of mapping the first part of the first codeword sequence to the first time-frequency resource in Method 1, based on the SSB / PBCH block shown in Figure 7. As shown in Figure 7, B is the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block, in PRBs, S is the number of subcarriers contained in one PRB (e.g., S = 12), B1 is the bandwidth corresponding to the bottom PBCH in symbol 3, B2 is the lower synchronization signal protection bandwidth, B4 is the upper synchronization signal protection bandwidth, and B3 is the bandwidth corresponding to the SSS or PSS. Where B1 + B2 + B3 + B4 + B5 = B, B1 ≥ 0, B2 > 0, B3 > 0, B4 > 0, and B5 ≥ 0. If the subcarrier numbering starts from 0, the subcarrier sequence numbers corresponding to each bandwidth are shown in Figure 7.

[0165] It is understandable that when B1+B2≠B4+B5, the center frequency of the SSB / PBCH block is not on the central subcarrier of the SSB / PBCH block. A brief introduction to the center frequency is given below. In wireless communication systems, the detection of PSS and SSS is a crucial step in achieving initial synchronization. These signals are used to determine the cell's PCI and center frequency. At the receiving end, the UE (User Equipment) needs to search for PSS and SSS signals in the frequency domain to determine the cell's center frequency. The UE typically searches within a predefined frequency range. Once the PSS and SSS signals are found, the center frequency of the currently accessed cell can be determined, thereby determining the time-frequency resources carrying PBCH data, and then proceeding with subsequent PBCH decoding.

[0166] The transmitting device can determine the S REs corresponding to the first time-frequency resource in the SSB / PBCH block based on the first bandwidth and the center frequency, where the first bandwidth is symmetrical about the center frequency. For example, with QPSK modulation, the S REs corresponding to the first time-frequency resource correspond to 2*S positions. The number of REs in the SSB / PBCH block used to carry PBCH data is Q, which correspond to 2*Q positions, including the 2*S positions. Therefore, the transmitting device can map the first part of the first codeword sequence to these 2*Q positions, and the remaining part of the first codeword (i.e., the second part) to the remaining positions excluding the 2*S positions.

[0167] The following section explains, based on Table 1, the mapping of the symbol sequence corresponding to the first part of the first codeword sequence in Method 1 to the first time-frequency resource.

[0168] 1) The time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block correspond to the 432 REs in the REs of the 20 PRBs of the SSB / PBCH block used to carry PBCH data. If QPSK modulation is used, these 432 REs can carry 864 PBCH data. The 864 positions corresponding to these 432 REs include the first position to the 864th position.

[0169] 2) The 216 REs in the REs corresponding to the 12 PRBs remaining in the SSB / PBCH block (excluding the top and bottom 4 PRBs) of the first time-frequency resource are used to carry PBCH data. The aforementioned 864 positions include 432 positions corresponding to these 216 REs. As shown in Table 1, these 432 positions are positions 73 to 288 and positions 577 to 792 out of the 864 positions.

[0170] 3) The index values ​​of the first to the 512th encoded bits in the mother code sequence of length 512 are 1 to 512. In the scheme corresponding to Table 1, the mother code sequence is interleaved with sub-blocks of length 32 to obtain a codeword sequence of length 512. After rate matching of the codeword sequence of length 512, a first codeword sequence of length 864 is obtained. The first part of the first codeword sequence consists of 432 bits with index values ​​of 81 to 512 in the mother code sequence.

[0171] It can be understood that the 864 bits in the second codeword sequence correspond to 864 positions (for example, the first position is the first position). In this implementation, the first part of the first codeword sequence is interleaved to the 73rd to 288th positions and the 577th to 792nd positions of the 864 positions in the second codeword sequence based on the interleaver.

[0172] 4) The second symbol (432 symbols) modulated by the second codeword sequence is mapped to the 432 REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the 20 PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block. Then, the symbol sequence (including 216 symbols) corresponding to the bits at positions 73 to 288 and positions 577 to 792 (i.e. the first part of the first codeword sequence) in the 864 positions of the second codeword sequence will be mapped to the 216 REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the remaining 12 PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block, excluding the top and bottom 4 PRBs.

[0173] It can be understood that the symbol sequence corresponding to the remaining part (i.e. the second part) in the first codeword sequence is mapped to the 216 REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the upper and lower 4 PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block.

[0174] The following describes a possible interleaver of length 864, capable of making the first part of the first codeword sequence consist of 432 bits with index values ​​from 81 to 512 in the parent codeword sequence. In the example above, the parent codeword sequence is n1 to n512. The parent codeword sequence is interleaved in 32-bit sub-blocks, resulting in an interleaved bit sequence y0 to y511. Then, the first 352 bits of y0 to y511 are concatenated (i.e., y0 to y351), thus obtaining the first codeword sequence of length 864. Taking the first codeword sequence as e1 to e864 as an example, the value Y at the Xth position in the interleaver (i.e., the value of the Xth element is Y) indicates that the Yth bit (i.e., bit eY) in the first codeword sequence is interleaved to the Xth position in the second codeword sequence. For example, the value 102 at the 94th position in the interleaver represents interleaving e102 in the first codeword sequence to the 94th position in the second codeword sequence.

[0175] An interleaver of length 864 = {

[0176] Elements 1 to 31

[0177] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

[0178] Elements 32 to 62

[0179] 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62

[0180] Elements 63 to 93

[0181] 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101

[0182] Elements 94 to 124

[0183] 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132

[0184] Elements 125 to 155

[0185] 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163

[0186] Elements 156 to 186

[0187] 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194

[0188] Elements 187 to 217

[0189] 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225

[0190] Elements 218 to 248

[0191] 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256

[0192] Elements 249 to 279

[0193] 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287

[0194] Elements 280 to 310

[0195] 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526

[0196] Elements 311 to 341

[0197] 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557

[0198] Elements 342 to 372

[0199] 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588

[0200] Elements 373 to 403

[0201] 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619

[0202] Elements 404 to 434

[0203] 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650

[0204] Elements 435 to 465

[0205] 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681

[0206] Elements 466 to 496

[0207] 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712

[0208] Elements 497 to 527

[0209] 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743

[0210] Elements 528 to 558

[0211] 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774

[0212] Elements 559 to 589

[0213] 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309

[0214] Elements 590 to 620

[0215] 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340

[0216] Elements 621 to 651

[0217] 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371

[0218] Elements 652 to 682

[0219] 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402

[0220] Elements 683 to 713

[0221] 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433

[0222] Elements 714 to 744

[0223] 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464

[0224] Elements 745 to 775

[0225] 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495

[0226] Elements 776 to 806

[0227] 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806

[0228] Elements 807 to 837

[0229] 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837

[0230] Elements 838 to 864

[0231] 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864

[0232] }

[0233] After obtaining the second codeword sequence based on the above interleaver, the second symbol sequence modulated from the second codeword sequence (including 432 symbols, i.e., 864 PBCH data) is mapped to the 432 REs corresponding to the SSB / PBCH block, as shown in Table 2.

[0234] The symbol sequence corresponding to the bit eY corresponding to the value Y at positions 1 to 72 of the interleaver in the first codeword sequence will be mapped to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the 4 PRBs below the first OFDM symbol of the SSB / PBCH block.

[0235] The symbol sequence corresponding to the bit eY at positions 73 to 288 of the interleaver in the first codeword sequence will be mapped to the REs in the middle 12 PRBs of the first OFDM symbol of the SSB / PBCH block that are used to carry PBCH data.

[0236] The symbol sequence corresponding to the bit eY corresponding to the value Y at positions 289 to 360 of the interleaver in the first codeword sequence will be mapped to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the first OFDM symbol above the first PRB of the SSB / PBCH block.

[0237] The symbol sequence corresponding to the bit eY corresponding to the value Y at positions 361 to 432 of the interleaver in the first codeword sequence will be mapped to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the 4 PRBs below the second OFDM symbol of the SSB / PBCH block.

[0238] The symbol sequence corresponding to the bit eY corresponding to the value Y at positions 433 to 504 of the interleaver in the first codeword sequence will be mapped to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the 4 PRBs above the second OFDM symbol of the SSB / PBCH block.

[0239] The symbol sequence corresponding to the bit eY corresponding to the value Y at positions 505 to 576 of the interleaver in the first codeword sequence will be mapped to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the 4 PRBs below the 3rd OFDM symbol of the SSB / PBCH block.

[0240] The symbol sequence corresponding to the bit eY at positions 577 to 792 of the interleaver in the first codeword sequence will be mapped to the RE in the middle 12 PRBs of the third OFDM symbol of the SSB / PBCH block that are used to carry PBCH data.

[0241] The symbol sequence corresponding to the bit eY at positions 793 to 864 of the interleaver in the first codeword sequence will be mapped to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the top 4 PRBs of the third OFDM symbol in the SSB / PBCH block.

[0242] Table 2

[0243] It is understood that the above interleaver is merely an example. For instance, the values ​​at positions 73 to 288 and positions 577 to 792 out of the 864 positions in the above interleaver can be arbitrarily interchanged. The positions at the remaining positions in the 864 positions of the interleaver, excluding positions 73 to 288 and positions 577 to 792, can also be arbitrarily interchanged. The resulting interleaver is also within the scope of protection of this application.

[0244] Method 2 (Changing the mapping method)

[0245] The transmitting device can modulate the first codeword sequence to generate a first symbol sequence; then, it maps the first symbol sequence to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal based on a first mapping method, wherein the first mapping method is related to the first bandwidth.

[0246] For example, taking the first signal as the signal carried on the PBCH, the first codeword sequence as the 864-bit sequence after rate matching in Table 1, the first symbol sequence as 432 symbols modulated from the 864-bit sequence, and the first time-frequency resource as the REs used to carry PBCH data in the remaining 12 PRBs (excluding the top and bottom 4 PRBs) of the SSB / PBCH block in the bold box of Table 1, the first symbol sequence in Table 1 is mapped to the time-frequency resource used to transmit the first signal in a frequency-domain-first-time-domain order (here referred to as mapping method #1). This results in a large amount of duplicate PBCH data received by the receiver on the first time-frequency resource. Therefore, based on this method, the mapping method #1 of the first symbol sequence can be changed, that is, the first symbol sequence can be mapped to the time-frequency resource used to transmit the first signal using mapping method #2 (an example of the first mapping method). Based on this method, by changing the mapping method of the first symbol sequence, the PBCH data mapped to the first time-frequency resource can be changed, thereby reducing the mapping of the same PBCH data on the first time-frequency resource.

[0247] Based on the above example, as a further example, the first part of the first codeword sequence consists of 432 bits with index values ​​from 81 to 512 in the mother code sequence. 216 symbols in the first symbol sequence are mapped to the 216 REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the remaining 12 PRBs (excluding the top and bottom 4 PRBs) in the SSB / PBCH block. These 216 symbols are modulated based on 432 bits corresponding to the bits in the first codeword sequence that have the same index values ​​from 81 to 512 as those in the mother code sequence. The remaining bits in the first codeword sequence are mapped to the 216 REs used to carry PBCH data in the REs corresponding to the top and bottom 4 PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block. A possible mapping result corresponding to the first symbol sequence is shown in Table 2.

[0248] Table 2 can be understood as a mapping result obtained based on the first mapping method. For example, in the 12 PRBs remaining after the top and bottom four PRBs in the above SSB / PBCH block, the values ​​at positions 73 to 288 and positions 577 to 792 of the 864 positions corresponding to the 432 REs used to carry PBCH data (i.e., the cells corresponding to symbols 2 and 4 in the bold box in Table 2) can be arbitrarily swapped. The remaining positions in these 864 positions, excluding positions 73 to 288 and positions 577 to 792, can also be arbitrarily swapped. The mapping method corresponding to the swapped positions is also within the protection scope of this application. Based on the above scheme, a specific part (the first part) of the first codeword sequence can be mapped to the first time-frequency resource corresponding to the first bandwidth (less than the bandwidth for transmitting the first signal), so that when the receiving end receives the first signal using a bandwidth less than that for transmitting the first signal, it can receive the specific part of the first codeword sequence. In contrast, traditional encoding and mapping methods neglect the issue of wideband transmission and narrowband reception, resulting in narrowband receivers failing to receive specific portions of the first codeword sequence and causing decoding performance loss. This proposed solution improves decoding performance. Furthermore, this method eliminates the need for codeword reconstruction, exhibits good compatibility with existing technologies, and allows for a single system design adaptable to different receiving bandwidths, resulting in low system design complexity.

[0249] Figure 8 shows the simulation results of the PBCH performance corresponding to Tables 1 and 2. The horizontal axis represents the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the vertical axis represents the block error rate (BLER). Specifically, under an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, line #1 represents the simulation curve of the PBCH performance of the receiver receiving all PBCH data from Table 1; line #2 represents the simulation curve of the PBCH performance of the receiver receiving the PBCH data in the cells corresponding to symbols 2 (i.e., the second OFDM symbol in Figure 3) and 4 (i.e., the fourth OFDM symbol in Figure 3) in the bold box of Table 1; and line #3 represents the simulation curve of the PBCH performance of the receiver receiving the PBCH data in the cells corresponding to symbols 2 and 4 in the bold box of Table 2.

[0250] It can be seen that when BLER equals 10 -2 At that time, line #3 has a 5dB loss compared to line #1, but line #2 has only a 3dB loss compared to line #1, that is, line #2 has a 2dB gain compared to line #3, that is, the PBCH performance obtained by using the method 500 proposed in this application is better.

[0251] S530, the receiving device obtains the decoding result based on the third symbol sequence carried on the second time-frequency resource, the second time-frequency resource being the time-frequency resource corresponding to receiving the first signal with the second bandwidth.

[0252] It is understandable that the first signal sent by the transmitting end can be received by multiple receiving devices, and the bandwidth capabilities of these multiple receiving devices may be the same or different. The following will explain each case separately.

[0253] Scenario 1

[0254] The second bandwidth is equal to the bandwidth of the first signal. The receiver can receive the complete first signal. Therefore, the receiver receiving the first signal needs to perform deinterleaving. For example, when the transmitter determines the first signal in S520, it changes the mapping method or adds a bit interleaving process. This deinterleaving can be seen as the inverse operation of the new mapping method and the added bit interleaving process of the transmitter.

[0255] The receiving device obtains the decoding result based on the third symbol sequence carried on the second time-frequency resource, including: demodulating based on the third symbol sequence to obtain a codeword sequence #1 of length E; deinterleaving based on codeword sequence #1 to obtain codeword sequence #2; and obtaining the decoding result based on codeword sequence #2.

[0256] For example, if the sending end maps the symbol sequence corresponding to the first codeword sequence using the first mapping method, the receiving end can deinterleave the codeword sequence #1 based on the first mapping method; if the sending end interleaves the first codeword sequence based on an interleaver of length E, the receiving end can deinterleave the codeword sequence #1 based on the interleaver.

[0257] For example, Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of a PBCH channel decoding process proposed in this application. As shown in Figure 9, the encoding process may include: demodulation, deinterleaving, rate matching, channel decoding, and obtaining the information bit sequence. Demodulation corresponds to the modulation module in Figure 6, deinterleaving corresponds to the bit interleaving module in Figure 6, rate matching corresponds to the rate matching module in Figure 6, and channel decoding corresponds to the channel coding module in Figure 6. The information bit sequence is determined by processing the sequence after channel decoding. This embodiment mainly adds deinterleaving to the PBCH decoding process; other specific processing can be found in the description of existing solutions.

[0258] Scenario 2

[0259] If the second bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of the first signal, the receiving device cannot receive the complete first signal. Therefore, the receiving end that receives the first signal does not need to perform bit deinterleaving.

[0260] The receiving device obtains the decoding result based on the third symbol sequence carried on the second time-frequency resource, including: demodulating based on the third symbol sequence to obtain codeword sequence #3; performing rate matching based on codeword sequence #3 to obtain codeword sequence #4 of length N; and obtaining the decoding result based on codeword sequence #4.

[0261] The communication method 500 has been described in detail above. Below, this application provides another communication method that can also effectively solve the technical problems raised in this application. The communication method will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 10.

[0262] Figure 10 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method 1000 provided in this application. The method includes the following steps.

[0263] It is understood that method 1000 can be executed by a transmitting device and a receiving device. Unless otherwise specified, a device (transmitting device, receiving device) can refer to a device, a component of a device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the device's functions.

[0264] S1010, the transmitting device determines the mother code length N based on E′, where E′ is the number of bits that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry.

[0265] For example, the first signal is a signal carried on the PBCH. For example, if the first signal is a signal carried on the PBCH, then sending the first signal can be sending an SSB / PBCH block, where the SSB / PBCH block includes the PBCH. For example, the first signal is a DCI carried on the DCI or PDCCH, such as a first-level DCI or a second-level DCI.

[0266] For example, to support PBCH reception in narrowband scenarios for some devices, such as the current SSB / PBCH block (as shown in Figure 3), which occupies 20 PRBs in the frequency domain, even with the narrowest bandwidth parameter set (e.g., parameter set 0, frequency range f < 3 GHz, subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, minimum bandwidth of 3.6 MHz), the bandwidth still exceeds 3 MHz. Therefore, the PRBs can be compressed based on the current SSB / PBCH block bandwidth, meaning the compressed SSB / PBCH block occupies less than 20 PRBs in the frequency domain. For example, the compressed SSB / PBCH block occupies 12, 6, or 3 PRBs in the frequency domain. It can be understood that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal correspond to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the compressed PRBs. Therefore, E′ can also be understood as the number of PBCH data items that can be carried in the REs used to carry PBCH data in the compressed SSB / PBCH block.

[0267] For example, as shown in Figure 11, the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block is compressed from 20 PRBs to 12 PRBs. Another example of bandwidth compression is to remove subcarriers 0-47 and 192-239 from the first to the fourth OFDM symbols in Figure 3 (i.e., the transmitter does not transmit, and the receiver does not receive). The RE corresponding to 12 PRBs can carry 432 PBCH data. For example, for a 15kHz subcarrier spacing, the bandwidth is 2.16MHz (i.e., 12*12*0.015), which can support PBCH reception below 3MHz.

[0268] For example, as shown in Figure 11, the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block is compressed from 20 PRBs to 6 PRBs. For example, a specific bandwidth compression method could be to delete subcarriers 0-83 and 156-239 on the first to fourth OFDM symbols in Figure 3 (i.e., the transmitter does not transmit, and the receiver does not receive). The REs corresponding to the 6 PRBs can carry 2^16 PBCH data. For example, for a 15kHz subcarrier spacing, the bandwidth is 1.08MHz (i.e., 6*12*0.015), which can support PBCH reception below 2MHz. It can be understood that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal correspond to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the compressed 6 PRBs, so E′ is 2^16.

[0269] For example, as shown in Figure 11, the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block is compressed from 20 PRBs to 3 PRBs. For example, a specific bandwidth compression method could be to delete subcarriers 0-101 and 138-239 on the first to fourth OFDM symbols in Figure 3 (i.e., the transmitter does not transmit, and the receiver does not receive). The REs corresponding to the 3 PRBs can carry 10⁸ PBCH data. For example, for a 15kHz subcarrier spacing, the bandwidth is 0.54MHz (i.e., 3*12*0.015), which can support PBCH reception below 1MHz. It can be understood that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal correspond to the REs used to carry PBCH data in the compressed 3 PRBs, so E′ is 10⁸.

[0270] For example, one possible implementation of determining the mother code length N based on E′ is as follows: Then the length of the mother code is N = 2 m For example, if the bandwidth of SSB / PBCH is compressed from 20 PRB to 6 PRB, E′=216, then N=256.

[0271] S1020, the transmitting device determines a first codeword sequence of length E′. The first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of a codeword sequence of length N. The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits. The first signal is the signal obtained by mapping the first codeword sequence onto the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal.

[0272] The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar coding based on the information bits. It can be understood as follows: a mother code sequence of length N is obtained by polar coding based on the information bits, then a codeword sequence of length N is obtained based on the mother code sequence of length N, and then rate matching is performed on the codeword sequence of length N to obtain the first codeword sequence of length E′.

[0273] For example, a codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on a mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is a mother code sequence of length N. In other words, this application can perform sub-block interleaving on the mother code sequence to obtain a rate-matched codeword sequence based on the interleaved mother code sequence, or it can not perform sub-block interleaving on the mother code sequence to obtain a rate-matched codeword sequence based on the mother code sequence; there is no limitation.

[0274] For example, if the first signal is a signal carried on the PBCH, then the information bits are the broadcast information carried on the PBCH, such as the PBCH payload. This application does not limit the number of PBCH payloads.

[0275] S1030, the transmitting device transmits a first signal. Correspondingly, the receiving device receives the first signal, wherein the bandwidth of the receiving device is greater than or equal to the bandwidth of the first signal transmitted.

[0276] It is understood that in existing standards, the PBCH length N is fixed, and the receiving device always uses a mother code length of N=512 for encoding. Based on the above technical solution, the transmitting device can reconstruct a PBCH codeword sequence adapted to the current time-frequency resources based on the receiving device's bandwidth capabilities, enabling the receiving device to achieve complete reception of PBCH data. It is understood that this application can contain multiple compressed SSB / PBCH blocks, with the transmitting device selecting different SSB / PBCH block structures based on the receiving device's actual receiving capabilities. For example, if the maximum bandwidth of the receiving end is 1.5MHz, then SSB / PBCH blocks compressed to the equivalent of 6 PRBs can be used.

[0277] For example, the capability bandwidth of the receiving device can be the maximum capability bandwidth of the receiving device, or the capability bandwidth of the receiving device when the power-saving mode is enabled.

[0278] S1040, the receiving device obtains the decoding result based on the symbol sequence in the first signal.

[0279] As is understandable, the decoding process at the receiving end is the same as the existing process, so it will not be described in detail here.

[0280] Figure 12 is a simulation diagram of the PBCH performance of Method 500 and Method 1000 when the bandwidth is 6 PRBs (i.e., the 20 PRBs corresponding to the SSB / PBCH block excluding the top and bottom 7 PRBs). The horizontal axis represents SNR, and the vertical axis represents BLER. Line #1 is the simulation curve of the PBCH performance corresponding to all PBCH data in the receiver's receiving table 1; line #2 is the simulation curve of the PBCH performance corresponding to Method 500 when the first bandwidth is 6 PRBs; line #3 is the simulation curve of the PBCH performance corresponding to Method 1000 when the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block is 6 PRBs; and line #4 is the simulation curve of the PBCH performance corresponding to the PBCH data in the cells corresponding to symbols 2 and 4 of the middle 6 PRBs in the receiver's receiving table 1.

[0281] It is understandable that Method 500, when the first bandwidth corresponding to line #2 is 6 PRBs, uses the original encoding method (the mother code length is still 512, with 296 (512-216) bits punctured), only changing the resource mapping order. The rate matching method and mother code length are still determined according to the current NR standard. However, Method 1000, when the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block corresponding to line #3 is 6 PRBs, performs codeword reconstruction based on the available time-frequency resources corresponding to the 6 PRBs (the mother code length is 256, with 40 (256-216) bits punctured). As shown in Figure 11, when BLER equals 10... -2 At that time, the value of line 2 on the horizontal axis is closer to the value of line #1 on the horizontal axis than the value of line #3 on the horizontal axis. Specifically, line #3 has a 0.5dB gain compared to line #2, that is, the PBCH performance obtained by using the method 1000 proposed in this application is better.

[0282] The communication method 1000 has been described in detail above. Below, this application provides another communication method that can also effectively solve the technical problems raised in this application. This communication method will now be described in detail.

[0283] As shown in Figure 3, the current SSB / PBCH block occupies 4 OFDM symbols in the time domain, with the PBCH occupying 3 OFDM symbols. To support narrowband scenarios and PBCH reception in some band-limited devices, the number of symbols occupied by the PBCH in the time domain within the SSB / PBCH block may become longer. For example, the number of symbols occupied by the SSB / PBCH block in the time domain can be expanded, such as from 4 symbols to 5 or even more symbols in the future. It can be understood that the expanded symbols correspond to some or all of the REs in the RE being used to carry PBCH data.

[0284] For example, taking a 15kHz subcarrier spacing as an example, the maximum number of SSB / PBCH blocks in a half-frame is 4. Since the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the SSB / PBCH blocks in this scheme is greater than 4, the number L of SSB / PBCH blocks in a half-frame will not exceed 4.

[0285] The following example, taking a frequency range of f < 3 GHz and L = 2, gives the candidate position of an SSB / PBCH block in the time domain within a half-frame, that is, the symbol index value corresponding to the first OFDM symbol among the OFDM symbols occupied by the two SSB / PBCH blocks.

[0286] Example 1: The index of the starting OFDM symbol of the two SSB / PBCHs satisfies the following characteristic: Index = 2 + 14n, where n = 0 or 1.

[0287] Example 2: The index of the starting OFDM symbol of two SSB / PBCH blocks satisfies the following characteristic: Index = 8 + 14n, where n = 0 or 1.

[0288] Based on the above method, PBCH reception can be supported in narrowband scenarios and some frequency-limited devices. Although the bandwidth in the frequency domain is compressed, the decoding performance of PBCH can be guaranteed by expanding the symbols in the time domain.

[0289] The above provides a detailed description of the communication method proposed in this application. As can be seen, the first signal can be PBCH, and the information bits can be the PBCH payload. In the future, the TB-CRC used for PBCH payload TB-CRC encoding may become shorter. Currently, CRC24 is used to provide error detection capability for PBCH. However, since the number of PBCH detections is much smaller than that of typical DCI, the length of the error detection CRC required for PBCH does not need to be the same as that required for DCI, which requires a length of 24 (i.e., a 24-bit CRC). Therefore, in the future, shorter CRC lengths may be designed for PBCH, such as CRC-6, CRC-8, CRC-11, and CRC-16. A shorter TB-CRC length for PBCH concatenation can better adapt to the number of PBCH detections and reduce decoding complexity.

[0290] For example, the following CRC polynomial can be determined based on the bit error rate and the false alarm rate (FAR).

[0291] For example, CRC6 is used as the TB-CRC of PBCH. Specifically, the following CRC polynomial can be selected:

[0292] D^6 + D^5 + 1; or '43'

[0293] Symmetric form: D^6 + D + 1

[0294] D^6+D^5+D^4+D^3+1; or '4F'

[0295] Symmetric form: D^6 + D + 1

[0296] D^6+D^4+D^3+D+1; or '6D'

[0297] Symmetrical form: D^6 + D^5 + D^3 + D^2 + 1

[0298] D^6 + D^3 + D^2 + D + 1; or '79'

[0299] Symmetrical form: D^6 + D^5 + D^4 + D^3 + 1

[0300] D^6 + D^5 + D^2 + 1; or '53'

[0301] Symmetric form: D^6 + D^4 + D + 1

[0302] D^6+D^5+D^4+D^2+1; or '57'

[0303] Symmetrical form: D^6 + D^4 + D^2 + D+1

[0304] D^6 + D^3 + D^2 + 1; or '59'

[0305] Symmetrical form: D^6 + D^4 + D^3 + 1

[0306] D^6+D^5+D^3+D^2+1; or '5B'

[0307] Symmetrical form: D^6 + D^4 + D^3 + D+1

[0308] D^6+D^5+D^4+D^3+D^2+1; or '5F'

[0309] Symmetrical form: D^6 + D^4 + D^3 + D^2 + D+1

[0310] D^6+D^5+D^4+D^3+D+1; or '6F'

[0311] Symmetrical form: D^6 + D^5 + D^3 + D^2 + D+1

[0312] D^6 + D^4 + D^2 + D + 1; or '75'

[0313] Symmetrical form: D^6 + D^5 + D^4 + D^2 + 1

[0314] Here, D represents the register delay, with one clock cycle representing the delay after passing through one shift register. The following values ​​are hexadecimal values. For example, taking the hexadecimal value '4F' corresponding to the second polynomial as an example, its binary value is 1001111, therefore the corresponding polynomial is D^6+D^5+D^4+D^3+1, which will not be elaborated further.

[0315] For example, CRC11 is used as the TB-CRC of PBCH. Specifically, the following CRC polynomial can be selected:

[0316] D^11+D^10+D^9+D^5+1; or '847'

[0317] Symmetrical form: D^11 + D^6 + D^2 + D+1

[0318] D^11+D^7+D^6+D^2+1; or 'A31'

[0319] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^9+D^5+D^4+1

[0320] D^11+D^10+D^9+D^6+D^4+D^2+1; or 'AA7'

[0321] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^9+D^7+D^5+D^2+D+1

[0322] D^11+D^10+D^9+D^7+D^5+D+1; or 'C57'

[0323] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^6+D^4+D^2+D+1

[0324] D^11+D^9+D^8+D^6+D^5+D+1; or 'C6D'

[0325] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^6+D^5+D^3+D^2+1

[0326] D^11+D^10+D^9+D^8+D^7+D^5+D^4+D+1; or 'CDF'

[0327] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^7+D^6+D^4+D^3+D^2+D+1

[0328] D^11+D^10+D^3+D+1; or 'D03'

[0329] Symmetrical form: D^11 + D^10 + D^8 + D+1

[0330] D^11+D^5+D^3+D+1; or 'D41'

[0331] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^8+D^6+1

[0332] D^11+D^10+D^9+D^8+D^6+D^5+D^3+D+1; or 'D6F'

[0333] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^8+D^6+D^5+D^3+D^2+D+1

[0334] D^11+D^10+D^8+D^7+D^6+D^5+D^3+D+1; or 'D7B'

[0335] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^8+D^6+D^5+D^3+D^2+D+1

[0336] D^11+D^9+D^7+D^6+D^5+D^4+D^3+D+1; or 'DF5'

[0337] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^8+D^7+D^6+D^5+D^4+D^2+1

[0338] D^11+D^10+D^9+D^7+D^6+D^3+D^2+D+1; or 'F37'

[0339] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^9+D^8+D^5+D^4+D^2+D+1

[0340] D^11+D^8+D^6+D^5+D^4+D^3+D^2+D+1; or 'FE9'

[0341] Symmetrical form: D^11+D^10+D^9+D^8+D^7+D^6+D^5+D^3+1

[0342] For example, CRC16 is used as the TB-CRC of PBCH. Specifically, the following CRC polynomials can be selected:

[0343] D^16+D^9+D^5+D^3+D^2+D+1; or '1E881'

[0344] Symmetrical form: D^16+D^15+D^14+D^13+D^11+D^7+1;

[0345] D^16+D^14+D^13+D^10+D^8+D^3+D^2+D+1; or '1E14D'

[0346] Symmetrical form: D^16+D^15+D^14+D^13+D^8+D^6+D^3+D^2+1;

[0347] D^16+D^13+D^12+D^11+D^10+D^9+D^6+D+1; or '184F9'

[0348] Symmetrical form: D^16+D^15+D^10+D^7+D^6+D^5+D^4+D^3+1;

[0349] D^16+D^12+D^10+D^9+D^7+D^5+D^3+D+1; or '1AAD1'

[0350] Symmetrical form: D^16+D^15+D^13+D^11+D^9+D^7+D^6+D^4+1;

[0351] It is understood that the index values ​​or sequence numbers in this application can start from 1 or 0, and this application does not specifically limit this. That is, the above-mentioned index values ​​or sequence numbers starting from 0 can also be adapted to start from 1 (e.g., the index value of a subcarrier), or the above-mentioned index values ​​or sequence numbers starting from 1 can also be adapted to start from 0 (e.g., the index value of a bit in the master code sequence). Those skilled in the art can understand the implementation method when the sequence number set starts from 1 based on the content disclosed in this application, and will not elaborate further.

[0352] It is also understood that the steps in the above figures are merely illustrative and are not intended to be strictly limited. Furthermore, the sequence numbers of the above processes do not imply a specific order of execution; the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of this application.

[0353] It is also understood that some optional features in the various embodiments of this application may not depend on other features in some scenarios, or may be combined with other features in some scenarios, without limitation.

[0354] The method embodiments provided in this application have been described in detail above with reference to Figures 1 to 12. The apparatus embodiments of this application will be described below with reference to Figures 13 and 14. It is understood that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the apparatuses in Figures 13 and 14 include hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. Those skilled in the art should readily recognize that, based on the units and method steps of the various examples described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed in this application, this application can be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. It is understood that the technical features described in the above method embodiments are also applicable to the following apparatus embodiments.

[0355] Figures 13 and 14 are schematic diagrams of possible apparatus structures provided in embodiments of this application. These apparatuses can be used to implement the functions of the transmitting or receiving apparatus in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments.

[0356] Figure 13 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1000 provided in an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 13, the device 1000 may include a communication unit 1010 and a processing unit 1020. The communication unit 1010 can communicate with the outside world, and the processing unit 1020 is used for data processing. The communication unit 1010 may also be referred to as a communication interface or a transceiver unit.

[0357] In one possible design, the device 1000 can implement the steps or processes corresponding to those performed by the transmitting device in the above method embodiments, wherein the processing unit 1020 is used to perform processing-related operations of the transmitting device in the above method embodiments, and the communication unit 1010 is used to perform transmission-related operations of the transmitting device in the above method embodiments.

[0358] In another possible design, the device 1000 can implement the steps or processes corresponding to those executed by the receiving device in the above method embodiments, wherein the communication unit 1010 is used to perform reception-related operations of the receiving device in the above method embodiments, and the processing unit 1020 is used to perform processing-related operations of the receiving device in the above method embodiments.

[0359] It is understood that the device 1000 here is embodied in the form of a functional unit. The term "unit" here can refer to an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), electronic circuitry, a processor (e.g., a shared processor, a proprietary processor, or a group processor, etc.) and memory for executing one or more software or firmware programs, integrated logic circuitry, and / or other suitable components supporting the described functions. In an alternative example, those skilled in the art will understand that the device 1000 may specifically be the transmitting end device in the above embodiments, used to execute the various processes and / or steps corresponding to the transmitting end device in the above method embodiments; or, the device 1000 may specifically be the receiving end device in the above embodiments, used to execute the various processes and / or steps corresponding to the receiving end device in the above method embodiments. To avoid repetition, further details are omitted here.

[0360] The apparatus 1000 of each of the above-described schemes has the function of implementing the corresponding steps performed by the transmitting device in the above-described method, or the apparatus 1000 of each of the above-described schemes has the function of implementing the corresponding steps performed by the receiving device in the above-described method. The function can be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions; for example, the communication unit can be replaced by a transceiver (e.g., the transmitting unit in the communication unit can be replaced by a transmitter, and the receiving unit in the communication unit can be replaced by a receiver), and other units, such as processing units, can be replaced by a processor, respectively executing the transmission and reception operations and related processing operations in each method embodiment.

[0361] Furthermore, the aforementioned communication unit can also be a transceiver circuit (e.g., it may include a receiving circuit and a transmitting circuit), and the processing unit can be a processing circuit. In the embodiments of this application, the device in FIG13 can be the receiving end device or the transmitting end device in the foregoing embodiments, or it can be a chip or a chip system, such as a system on chip (SoC). The communication unit can be an input / output circuit or a communication interface; the processing unit is a processor, microprocessor, or integrated circuit integrated on the chip. No limitations are imposed here.

[0362] Figure 14 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1100 provided in an embodiment of this application. The device 1100 includes a processor 1110 and a transceiver 1120. The processor 1110 and the transceiver 1120 communicate with each other through an internal connection path. The processor 1110 is used to execute instructions to control the transceiver 1120 to send and / or receive signals.

[0363] Optionally, the device 1100 may further include a memory 1130, which communicates with the processor 1110 and the transceiver 1120 via an internal connection path. The memory 1130 stores instructions, and the processor 1110 can execute the instructions stored in the memory 1130. In one possible implementation, the device 1100 is used to implement the various processes and steps corresponding to the transmitting device in the above method embodiments. In another possible implementation, the device 1100 is used to implement the various processes and steps corresponding to the receiving device in the above method embodiments.

[0364] Optionally, the memory 1130 may be integrated into the processor 1110.

[0365] In one possible scenario, device 1100 includes at least one processor with integrated memory, and other memory besides the memory integrated on the processor.

[0366] It is understood that device 1100 can specifically be the transmitting device or receiving device in the above embodiments, or it can be a chip or chip system. Correspondingly, transceiver 1120 can be the transceiver circuit of the chip, which is not limited here. Specifically, device 1100 can be used to execute the various steps and / or processes corresponding to the transmitting device or receiving device in the above method embodiments.

[0367] Optionally, the memory 1130 may include read-only memory and random access memory, and provide instructions and data to the processor. The memory may include non-volatile random access memory. For example, the memory may also store device type information. The processor 1110 may be used to execute instructions stored in the memory, and when the processor 1110 executes instructions stored in the memory, the processor 1110 is used to perform the various steps and / or processes of the method embodiments corresponding to the transmitting end device or receiving end device described above.

[0368] In implementation, each step of the above method can be completed by integrated logic circuits in the processor's hardware or by instructions in software. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of this application can be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software modules can reside in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, or other mature storage media in the art. This storage medium is located in memory, and the processor reads information from the memory and, in conjunction with its hardware, completes the steps of the above method. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0369] It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of this application can be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. During implementation, each step of the above method embodiments can be completed by the integrated logic circuitry in the processor's hardware or by instructions in software form. The processor described above can be a combination of one or more of the following: a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processing (DSP), an ASIC, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a microcontroller unit (MCU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), an artificial intelligence processor (AI processor), or a neural processing unit (NPU). The processor in the embodiments of this application can implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of this application. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor. The steps of the methods disclosed in the embodiments of this application can be directly manifested as execution by a hardware decoding processor, or execution by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module can reside in a mature storage medium in the field, such as random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable memory, or registers. This storage medium is located in memory, and the processor reads information from the memory and, in conjunction with its hardware, completes the steps of the above method.

[0370] It is understood that the memory in the embodiments of this application can be volatile memory or non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory can be read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or flash memory. The volatile memory can be cache or random access memory (RAM). By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous linked dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory used in the systems and methods described herein is intended to include, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0371] Optionally, the memory (e.g., 1130) in this embodiment may be integrated into the processor (e.g., 1110).

[0372] In addition, this application also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the operations and / or processes performed by the sending or receiving device in the various method embodiments of this application to be executed.

[0373] This application also provides a computer program product, which includes computer program code or instructions. When the computer program code or instructions are run on a computer, the operations and / or processes performed by the sending end device or the receiving end device in the various method embodiments of this application are executed.

[0374] Furthermore, this application also provides a chip including a processor. A memory for storing a computer program is provided independently of the chip, and the processor is used to execute the computer program stored in the memory, such that operations and / or processes performed by a transmitting or receiving device in any method embodiment are executed.

[0375] Furthermore, the chip may also include a communication interface. The communication interface may be an input / output interface or an interface circuit, etc. Furthermore, the chip may also include a memory.

[0376] In addition, this application also provides a communication system, including the transmitting end device and the receiving end device in the embodiments of this application.

[0377] It should also be noted that the memory described herein is intended to include, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0378] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the units and algorithm steps of the various examples described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are implemented in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application. Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for the sake of convenience and brevity, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can be referred to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and will not be repeated here. In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative; for example, the division of units is merely a logical functional division, and in actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not executed. Furthermore, the displayed or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be through some interfaces; the indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms. The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs. Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of this application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0379] If the aforementioned functions are implemented as software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or a portion of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, portable hard drives, ROM, RAM, magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0380] It is understood that the term "embodiment" used throughout the specification means that a specific feature, structure, or characteristic related to an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of this application. Therefore, various embodiments throughout the specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Furthermore, these specific features, structures, or characteristics can be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

[0381] It can also be understood that in this application, "when," "if," and "if" all refer to the network element making corresponding processing under certain objective circumstances, and are not time-limited, nor do they require the network element to make a judgment when it is implemented, nor do they mean that there are other limitations.

[0382] It can also be understood that in the various embodiments of this application, "B corresponding to A" means that B is associated with A, and B can be determined based on A. However, it can also be understood that determining B based on A does not mean that B is determined solely based on A; B can also be determined based on A and / or other information.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, include: Obtain a first codeword sequence of length E, wherein the first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of a codeword sequence of length N, where N is the mother code length, the codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits, and E is the number of bits that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry. The first signal is transmitted, wherein a first portion of the first codeword sequence is mapped to a first time-frequency resource, the first time-frequency resource being a resource in the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal that corresponds to a first bandwidth, and the first bandwidth being less than the bandwidth of the first signal.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first part is determined according to E′ and N, where E′ is the number of bits that the first time-frequency resource can carry.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The first part is determined based on a rate matching method, which is related to E′ and N.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, The method further includes: Modulation is performed based on the first codeword sequence to generate a first symbol sequence; The first symbol sequence is mapped to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal based on a first mapping method, wherein the first mapping method is related to the first bandwidth.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, The method further includes: The first codeword sequence is bit-interleaved to generate a second codeword sequence of length E, wherein the bit-interleaving method is related to the first bandwidth; Modulation is performed based on the second codeword sequence to generate a second symbol sequence; The second symbol sequence is mapped to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on the mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is the mother code sequence of length N.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, The first signal is a signal carried by the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), and the information bits are broadcast information carried on the PBCH.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The transmission of the first signal includes: transmitting a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel (SSB / PBCH) block, wherein the SSB / PBCH block includes the first signal.

9. A communication method, characterized in that, include: The first signal is received based on the second bandwidth. The first part of the first codeword sequence of length E is mapped to the first time-frequency resource, where E is the number of bits that the time-frequency resource used to transmit the first signal can carry. The first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of the codeword sequence of length N. The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits, where N is the length of the mother code. The first time-frequency resource is the resource in the time-frequency resource used to transmit the first signal that corresponds to the first bandwidth. The first bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of transmitting the first signal. The decoding result is obtained based on the third symbol sequence carried on the second time-frequency resource, which is the time-frequency resource corresponding to receiving the first signal with the second bandwidth.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The first part is determined according to E′ and N, where E′ is the number of bits that the first time-frequency resource can carry.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that, The first part is determined based on a rate matching method, which is related to E′ and N.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that, The second bandwidth is less than the bandwidth used to transmit the first signal. The decoding result obtained based on the third symbol sequence carried on the second time-frequency resource includes: Demodulation is performed based on the third symbol sequence to obtain the third codeword sequence; Based on the third codeword sequence, rate matching is performed to obtain the fourth codeword sequence; The decoding result is obtained based on the fourth codeword sequence.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that, The second bandwidth is greater than or equal to the bandwidth used to transmit the first signal, and the decoding result obtained based on the third symbol sequence carried on the second time-frequency resource includes: Demodulation is performed based on the third symbol sequence to obtain a fifth codeword sequence of length E; Based on the fifth codeword sequence, deinterleaving is performed to obtain a sixth codeword sequence of length E; The decoding result is obtained based on the sixth codeword sequence.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that, The deinterleaving of bits based on the fifth codeword sequence includes: The fifth codeword sequence is de-interleaved based on the first mapping method, wherein the first mapping method is a mapping method that maps the first symbol sequence to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the transmission of the first signal, the first symbol sequence is obtained by modulating the first codeword sequence, and the first mapping method is related to the first bandwidth.

15. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that, The deinterleaving of bits based on the fifth codeword sequence includes: The fifth codeword sequence is de-interleaved, and the de-interleaving method is related to the first bandwidth.

16. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 15, characterized in that, The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on the mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is the mother code sequence of length N.

17. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 16, characterized in that, The first signal is a signal carried on the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), and the information bits are broadcast information carried on the PBCH.

18. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that, The step of receiving the first signal based on the second bandwidth includes: receiving a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel (SSB / PBCH) block based on the second bandwidth, wherein the SSB / PBCH block includes the first signal.

19. The method according to claim 8 or 18, characterized in that, The bandwidth corresponding to the SSB / PBCH block corresponds to X Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs), and the first bandwidth corresponds to Y PRBs. The first bandwidth corresponds to the remaining PRBs in the SSB / PBCH block excluding the top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs and the bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs. The bottom-level (XY) / 2 PRBs are consecutive (XY) / 2 PRBs including the first PRB in the bandwidth corresponding to the SSB / PBCH block, and the top-level (XY) / 2 PRBs are consecutive (XY) / 2 PRBs including the last PRB in the bandwidth corresponding to the SSB / PBCH block. X is greater than Y.

20. The method according to claim 19, characterized in that, X equals 20, and Y equals 12.

21. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that, Where N = 512, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, and the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block correspond to 432 REs. These 432 REs correspond to E positions, where E = 864. The first time-frequency resource corresponds to 216 REs, and among the E positions, the first time-frequency resource corresponds to 432 positions out of the 864 positions. These 432 positions are positions 73 to 288, and positions 577 to 792 out of the 864 positions. The codeword sequence of length 512 is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on the mother code sequence of length 512. The index values ​​of the first to the 512th coded bits in the mother code sequence are 0 to 511. The first part consists of 432 coded bits with index values ​​of 80 to 511 in the mother code sequence. The 432 coded bits are mapped to 432 positions corresponding to the first time-frequency resource.

22. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 21, characterized in that, The first bandwidth is the capability bandwidth of at least one of the devices receiving the first signal, or the first bandwidth is the receiving bandwidth of at least one of the devices receiving the first signal when the power-saving mode is enabled.

23. A communication method, characterized in that, include: The mother code length N is determined based on E′, where E′ is the number of bits that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry. A first codeword sequence of length E′ is determined. The first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of a codeword sequence of length N. The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits. The first signal is a signal obtained by mapping the first codeword sequence onto the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal. Send the first signal.

24. The method according to claim 23, characterized in that, The first signal is a signal carried on the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), and the information bits are broadcast information carried on the PBCH payload.

25. The method according to claim 24, characterized in that, The transmission of the first signal includes: transmitting a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel (SSB / PBCH) block, wherein the SSB / PBCH block includes the first signal.

26. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that, The bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block corresponds to Y PRBs, the bandwidth of the first signal is equal to the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block, and Y is less than 20.

27. The method according to claim 26, characterized in that, The value of Y is 12, 6, or 3.

28. The method according to claim 27, characterized in that, Y = 6, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block include 108 REs, E′ = 216, and N = 256.

29. The method according to claim 27, characterized in that, Y = 12, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block include 216 REs, E′ = 432, and N = 512.

30. The method according to any one of claims 23 to 29, characterized in that, The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on the mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is the mother code sequence of length N.

31. The method according to any one of claims 23 to 30, characterized in that, The bandwidth corresponding to the frequency domain resources used to transmit the first signal is less than or equal to the capability bandwidth of the device receiving the first signal, or the bandwidth corresponding to the frequency domain resources used to transmit the first signal is less than or equal to the receiving bandwidth of the device receiving the first signal when the power-saving mode is enabled.

32. A communication method, characterized in that, include: The device receiving the first signal has a bandwidth greater than or equal to the bandwidth of the device transmitting the first signal. The first signal is a signal obtained by mapping the symbol sequence corresponding to the first codeword sequence of length E′ to the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal. E′ is the number of bits that the time-frequency resources used to transmit the first signal can carry. The first codeword sequence is obtained by rate matching of a codeword sequence of length N. The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by polar code encoding based on information bits. N is determined based on E′ and is the length of the mother code. The decoding result is obtained based on the symbol sequence in the first signal.

33. The method according to claim 32, characterized in that, The first signal is a signal carried on the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), and the information bits are broadcast information carried on the PBCH payload.

34. The method according to claim 33, characterized in that, The transmission of the first signal includes: transmitting a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel (SSB / PBCH) block, wherein the SSB / PBCH block includes the first signal.

35. The method according to claim 34, characterized in that, The bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block corresponds to Y PRBs, the bandwidth of the first signal is equal to the bandwidth of the SSB / PBCH block, and Y is less than 20.

36. The method according to claim 35, characterized in that, The value of Y is 12, 6, or 3.

37. The method according to claim 36, characterized in that, Y = 6, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block include 108 REs, E′ = 216, and N = 256.

38. The method according to claim 36, characterized in that, Y = 12, each PRB contains 12 subcarriers, the time-frequency resources used to transmit the PBCH in the SSB / PBCH block include 216 REs, E′ = 432, and N = 512.

39. The method according to any one of claims 32 to 38, characterized in that, The codeword sequence of length N is obtained by interleaving sub-blocks based on the mother code sequence of length N, or the codeword sequence of length N is the mother code sequence of length N.

40. The method according to any one of claims 32 to 39, characterized in that, The bandwidth corresponding to the frequency domain resources used to transmit the first signal is less than or equal to the capability bandwidth of the device receiving the first signal, or the bandwidth corresponding to the frequency domain resources used to transmit the first signal is less than or equal to the receiving bandwidth of the device receiving the first signal when the power-saving mode is enabled.

41. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes modules or units for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 8 or any one of claims 9 to 22, or it includes modules or units for performing the method of any one of claims 23 to 31 or any one of claims 32 to 40.

42. A communication device, characterized in that, The device includes at least one processor and an interface circuit, the interface circuit being configured to receive signals from other communication devices besides the communication device and transmit them to the processor, or to send signals from the processor to other communication devices besides the communication device, the processor causing the method of any one of claims 1 to 8 or any one of claims 9 to 22 to be implemented, or causing the method of any one of claims 23 to 31 or any one of claims 32 to 40 to be implemented, through logic circuits or executing code instructions.

43. The communication device according to claim 41 or 42, characterized in that, The communication device is a chip or chip system.

44. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The storage medium stores a computer program or instructions that, when executed, cause the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 or any one of claims 9 to 22 to be implemented, or cause the method as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 31 or any one of claims 32 to 40 to be implemented.

45. A computer program product, characterized in that, Includes a computer program that, when run, causes the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 or any one of claims 9 to 22 to be implemented, or causes the method as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 31 or any one of claims 32 to 40 to be implemented.

46. ​​A communication system, characterized in that, It includes a communication device for performing the method as described in any one of claims 1-8 or any one of claims 9-22, and a communication device for performing the method as described in any one of claims 23 to 31 or any one of claims 32 to 40.

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