Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus. In the method, an access network device transmits a transport block of a multicast traffic channel in a time-domain interleaving manner, and a terminal device receives the transport block of the multicast traffic channel in a time-domain interleaving manner, the time-domain interleaving manner indicating that a same transport block is transmitted over a plurality of non-contiguous time units in the time domain. In a conventional transmission method, an access network device transmits a transport block within a single time unit, and thus when a terminal device is in a mobile state, channel quality degradation over a short period of time is common, in which case the terminal device may lose data. On the contrary, by using the described method, a transport block of one multicast traffic channel is transmitted over a plurality of non-contiguous time units, such that even if channel quality degrades within a short period of time, because the transport block is distributed over a plurality of non-contiguous time units, errors can be corrected by other means (such as redundant coding), thereby improving the success rate of correctly obtaining transport blocks by terminal devices and improving the reception performance of multicast traffic channels.

Description

A communication method and apparatus

[0001] Cross-reference to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202510132537.1, filed on February 5, 2025, entitled "A Communication Method and Apparatus", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] This application relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and apparatus. Background Technology

[0004] Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) is an important feature introduced by 3GPP in cellular communication-based systems. It aims to provide broadcast and multicast services for multimedia content through point-to-multipoint transmission. MBMS is a point-to-multipoint transmission service that allows network resources to be shared among multiple users, making it particularly suitable for large-scale multimedia broadcast and multicast needs. Application scenarios may include:

[0005] Mobile TV service scenario: Through MBMS service, users can receive TV programs and enjoy multimedia content on their mobile phones.

[0006] Advertising and promotional business scenarios: Operators can use MBMS to push advertisements and promotions on a large scale.

[0007] Emergency notification scenario: In emergency situations, MBMS can quickly push information to a large number of users, such as disaster warnings.

[0008] MBMS's logical channels include a multicast control channel (MCCH) and a multicast traffic channel (MTCH), both of which are mapped onto a multicast channel (MCH). Furthermore, the MCH is mapped onto the physical layer multicast channel (PMCH).

[0009] In existing technologies, the MTCH is mapped to the PMCH and transmitted sequentially within a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) subframe. A transport block (TB) is scheduled and transmitted within an MBSFN subframe. The terminal device receives one TB of the MTCH in an MBSFN subframe, demodulates and decodes it, and then receives the next TB in the next MBSFN subframe. This receiving / transmitting method suffers from poor performance when the terminal device is moving at high speed. Summary of the Invention

[0010] This application provides a communication method and apparatus that improves the receiving performance of MTCH by employing a time-domain interleaving transmission method.

[0011] In a first aspect, embodiments of this application provide a communication method applied to a communication device (such as an access network device), or a communication module / processing module in a communication device, or a circuit or chip in a communication device responsible for communication functions (such as a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system-on-chip (SoC) chip containing a modem core or a system-in-package (SIP) chip), or a circuit or chip in a communication device responsible for processing functions (such as a graphics processing unit (GPU), an artificial intelligence (AI) processor, or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)).

[0012] Taking the application of this method to access network equipment as an example, in this method, the transport blocks of the multicast service channel are sent in a time-domain interleaving manner, wherein the time-domain interleaving manner means that the same transport block is sent in multiple non-continuous time units in the time domain.

[0013] In traditional MBMS data transmission, the access network device transmits a TB (Through-Track) within one time unit, and the terminal device receives the TB within the same time unit and decodes it. If it fails to receive the TB correctly, the terminal device cannot obtain the correct data from the TB because MBMS typically lacks a retransmission mechanism. This is especially problematic when the terminal device is mobile, as channel quality deterioration is common in short periods, leading to data loss. However, with the method described above, a TB for an MTCH (Media Transfer Clock) is transmitted across multiple non-contiguous time units. Even if channel quality deteriorates in a short period, the TB's distribution across these units allows for error correction through other methods (such as redundancy coding), thus improving the success rate of the terminal device correctly acquiring the TB and enhancing the MTCH's reception performance.

[0014] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: sending first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transport blocks of the multicast service channel are transmitted in a time-domain interleaving manner. In this implementation, the access network device can instruct the terminal device to receive data using a time-domain interleaving manner through the first indication information, thereby avoiding problems such as data loss and decoding errors that may occur if the terminal device still uses the traditional MTCH receiving method.

[0015] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: sending second indication information, the second indication information including time-domain interleaving parameter indication information, the time-domain interleaving parameter indication information being used to indicate interleaving length and / or interleaving depth; the interleaving length representing the number of time units in the time unit set used to transmit a transport block, the time unit set including the plurality of non-contiguous time units arranged in chronological order, the plurality of non-contiguous time units representing the number of time units between two consecutive time units in the time unit set. In this implementation, the access network device can send interleaving parameters to the terminal device so that the terminal device and the access network device use the same interleaving parameters to receive the TB of the MTCH, thereby ensuring correct data reception. Furthermore, the interleaving parameters sent by the access network device to the terminal device are changeable, allowing the interleaving parameters to be flexibly scheduled according to the current communication environment.

[0016] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: transmitting indication information of the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index, wherein the transport block size (TBS) determined according to the MCS index is the number of bits of data transmitted in one time unit. In conventional MBMS transmission, the TBS determined according to the MCS index is the size of one TB in one time unit. However, in this embodiment, one TB is transmitted in multiple time units; therefore, the TBS determined according to the MCS index can be the total number of bits of one TB transmitted in multiple time units.

[0017] In one possible implementation, the TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units does not exceed the maximum total number of bits of a transport block received by the terminal device within one time unit. Since one TB is transmitted over multiple time units in this embodiment, the terminal device may need to buffer the data received over multiple time units during decoding. To avoid the data transmitted over multiple time units exceeding the terminal device's capacity, the total number of bits of one TB transmitted over multiple time units can be set to not exceed the maximum total number of bits of a transport block received by the terminal device within one time unit.

[0018] In one possible implementation, the TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units does not exceed the maximum number of bits of a transport block received by the terminal device within one time unit. Since one TB is transmitted on multiple time units in this embodiment, the terminal device may need to buffer the data received on multiple time units during decoding. To avoid the data transmitted on multiple time units exceeding the terminal device's capacity, the total number of bits of one TB transmitted on multiple time units can be set to not exceed the maximum number of bits of a transport block received by the terminal device within one time unit.

[0019] In one possible implementation, the total number of bits in the transport block of the multicast service channel is determined by looking up a table based on a first bit count. This first bit count is the TBS determined by the MCS index multiplied by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units. The table lookup includes looking up one or more of the following tables: a TBS table determined by the TBS index and the number of available physical resource blocks (PRBs) in the frequency domain; a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 2; a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 3; and a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 4. The TBS determined by the MCS index is the number of bits of data transmitted in one time unit. Since one TB is transmitted in multiple time units in this embodiment, the first bit count can be obtained by multiplying the above TBS by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units. Since the obtained first bit count may not be the number of bits that can be encoded and modulated in one TB, a table lookup can be performed based on the first bit count to find the value closest to the first bit count, which is then used as the total number of bits for one TB transmitted in multiple non-contiguous time units.

[0020] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: after the transport block of the multicast service channel is channel-coded, determining the bit sequence transmitted in each time unit; the bit sequence transmitted in each time unit is determined based on the number of bits transmitted in each time unit. Since a TB of channel-coded bit sequence needs to be transmitted to the terminal device through multiple non-contiguous time units, the access network device can further determine the number of bits in the bit sequence transmitted in each time unit.

[0021] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving third indication information from the terminal device, the third indication information indicating one or more of the following: version number of the multicast service supported by the terminal device, support for time-domain interleaving by the terminal device, and time-domain interleaving parameters supported by the terminal device. In this implementation, the terminal device can report its own MBMS-related capability information to the access network device, so that the network side can send MTCH based on the terminal device's capability information.

[0022] In one possible implementation, the third indication information is carried in the wireless network access capability information of the terminal device, or the third indication information is carried in the MBMS interest indication information of the terminal device.

[0023] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving fourth indication information from the terminal device, the fourth indication information being used to indicate that the terminal device supports time-domain interleaving in pure receive mode, wherein the pure receive mode is when the terminal device receives the multicast service channel through a non-serving access network device. In this implementation, the terminal device can report its own MBMS-related capability information to the access network device, such as whether the terminal device supports time-domain interleaving in pure receive mode. If the terminal device supports it, then when the MTCH is sent to the terminal device in a time-domain interleaving manner, the non-serving base station (such as a neighboring station) can also send the MTCH to the terminal device in a time-domain interleaving manner.

[0024] In one possible implementation, the time unit is an MBSFN subframe or an MBSFN time slot.

[0025] Secondly, embodiments of this application provide a communication method that is applied to a communication device (such as a first device), or a communication module / processing module in a communication device, or a circuit or chip in a communication device that is responsible for communication functions (such as a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a SoC chip or SIP chip containing a modem core), or a circuit or chip in a communication device that is responsible for processing functions (such as a GPU, an AI processor, or an ASIC).

[0026] Taking the application of this method to the first device as an example, in this method, the transport block of the multicast service channel is received in a time-domain interleaving manner, wherein the time-domain interleaving manner means that the same transport block is received in multiple non-continuous time units in the time domain.

[0027] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transport block of the multicast service channel is received in a time-domain interleaved manner.

[0028] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving second indication information, the second indication information including time-domain interleaving parameter indication information, the time-domain interleaving parameter indication information being used to indicate including interleaving length and / or interleaving depth; the interleaving length representing the number of time units in a time unit set for receiving a transport block, the time unit set including the plurality of non-contiguous time units arranged in chronological order, the plurality of non-contiguous time units representing the number of time units between two consecutive time units in the time unit set.

[0029] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving indication information of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index, wherein the transport block size (TBS) determined according to the MCS index is the number of bits of data received in one time unit.

[0030] In one possible implementation, the TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units does not exceed the maximum number of bits of a transport block received by the first device within a time unit.

[0031] In one possible implementation, the TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units does not exceed the maximum number of bits of a transport block received by the first device within a time unit.

[0032] In one possible implementation, the total number of bits in the transport block of the multicast service channel is determined by looking up a table based on a first number of bits, where the first number of bits is the TBS determined by the MCS index multiplied by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units; the table lookup includes looking up one or more of the following tables: a TBS table determined by the TBS index and the number of available physical resource blocks (PRBs) in the frequency domain, a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 2, a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 3, and a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 4.

[0033] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: determining the bit sequence received in each time unit after channel coding of the transport block of the multicast service channel; the bit sequence received in each time unit is determined based on the number of bits received in each time unit.

[0034] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: sending third indication information, the third indication information being used to indicate one or more of the following: the version number of the multicast service supported by the first device, the first device supporting time-domain interleaving, and the time-domain interleaving parameters supported by the first device.

[0035] In one possible implementation, the third indication information is carried in the wireless network access capability information of the first device, or the third indication information is carried in the MBMS interest indication information of the first device.

[0036] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: sending a fourth indication message, the fourth indication message being used to indicate that the first device supports time-domain interleaving in a pure receive mode, wherein the pure receive mode is when the first device receives the multicast service channel through a non-serving access network device.

[0037] In one possible implementation, the time unit is an MBSFN subframe or an MBSFN time slot.

[0038] Thirdly, this application also provides a communication device, which may be an access network device, including a processor, chip, or functional module, etc., in the access network device. This communication device has the function of implementing the method in the first aspect or any implementation thereof. The function can be implemented in hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described function.

[0039] In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a processing module and, optionally, an interface module. These modules can perform the corresponding functions described in the first aspect or any implementation thereof, as detailed in the method examples, which will not be repeated here.

[0040] In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a processor configured to support the communication device in performing the corresponding functions described in the first aspect or any implementation thereof. Optionally, the communication device further includes a communication interface and / or a memory. The communication interface is used for sending and receiving frames, information, or data, and for communicating with other devices in the communication system. The memory is coupled to the processor and stores necessary program instructions and data for the communication device.

[0041] Fourthly, this application also provides a communication device, which may be a terminal device, including a processor, chip, or functional module, etc., in the terminal device. This communication device has the function of implementing the method in the second aspect or any implementation thereof. The function can be implemented in hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described function.

[0042] In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a processing module and, optionally, an interface module. These modules can perform the corresponding functions described in the second aspect or any implementation thereof, as detailed in the method examples, which will not be repeated here.

[0043] In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a processor configured to support the communication device in performing the corresponding functions described in the second aspect or any implementation thereof. Optionally, the communication device further includes a communication interface and / or a memory. The communication interface is used for sending and receiving frames, information, or data, and for communicating with other devices in the communication system. The memory is coupled to the processor and stores necessary program instructions and data for the communication device.

[0044] Fifthly, embodiments of this application provide a communication system, including the communication device described in the third aspect and the communication device described in the fourth aspect.

[0045] In a sixth aspect, embodiments of this application provide a chip, including: a processor coupled to a memory for storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by the processor, the chip causes the chip to implement the methods described in the first to second aspects and any of their implementations.

[0046] In a seventh aspect, embodiments of this application provide a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the methods described in the first to second aspects and any of their implementations.

[0047] Eighthly, embodiments of this application provide a computer program product containing instructions that, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the methods described in the first to second aspects and any of their implementations.

[0048] For the technical effects that can be achieved by any possible implementation of any of the second to eighth aspects mentioned above, please refer to the description of the technical effects that can be achieved by the corresponding implementation scheme in the first aspect mentioned above. Repeated parts will not be discussed. Attached Figure Description

[0049] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an MBMS service being transmitted in the MBSFN area;

[0050] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of MCH;

[0051] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the frame structure of the physical layer;

[0052] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of downlink resources;

[0053] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the control information of the MTCH carrying multiple services in the MCCH;

[0054] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of MSI in MAC CE;

[0055] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the transmission order of MCCH, MSI, and MTCH;

[0056] Figures 8(a) to 8(d) are schematic diagrams of the architecture applicable to the embodiments of this application;

[0057] Figure 9 is a flowchart illustrating the communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0058] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of time-domain interleaving provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0059] Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of the channel coding process provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0060] Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of rate matching output sequence reading provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0061] Figure 13 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0062] Figure 14 is a schematic diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0063] The specific implementations of this application are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments. However, the implementations of this application may also include combining these embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of this application, such as using other embodiments and making structural changes. Therefore, the detailed description of the following embodiments should not be understood in a limiting sense. The terminology used in the embodiment section of this application is only used to explain the specific embodiments of this application and is not intended to limit this application.

[0064] In long-term evolution (LTE) cellular communication systems, MBMS can be transmitted via a single-frequency network (i.e., a multimedia broadcast multicast service single-frequency network, MBSFN). The frequency resources for MBMS can be shared with non-MBMS services, referred to as an MBMS / unicast hybrid cell, or they can be dedicated frequency resources for MBMS, referred to as an MBMS dedicated cell; the frequency resources for MBMS can correspond to one or several carriers. Figure 1 illustrates the transmission of an MBMS service in an MBSFN area.

[0065] During MBMS service transmission, the logical channels can be divided into a multicast control channel (MCCH) and a multicast traffic channel (MTCH). Both of these logical channels are mapped onto the MCH transport channel, as shown in Figure 2. Furthermore, the MCH is mapped onto the physical layer multicast channel (PMCH) of the physical layer. The MCCH is used to carry control information for MBMS service transmission from the network to the user equipment (UE); the MTCH is used to carry MBMS service data transmission from the network to the UE. The MCCH can carry control information from multiple MTCH traffic channels.

[0066] The PMCH channel is transmitted within the time domain resources of the MBSFN. The time domain resources of the MBSFN can include complete MBSFN subframes or partial time domain symbols within the MBSFN.

[0067] The physical layer frame structure is shown in Figure 3. A radio frame is 10 milliseconds long and contains 10 subframes, each with a duration of 1 millisecond. Each subframe can be further divided into two slots. During transmission, each symbol is mapped to each resource element (RE).

[0068] Downlink resources can be illustrated in Figure 4. A physical resource block (PRB) is defined in the time domain... A continuous set of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, and in the frequency domain 1 consecutive subcarrier. and This can be determined according to Table 1. Among them, the RE used to send MBMS uses an extended cyclic prefix.

[0069] Table 1

[0070] In addition to transmitting MBMS physical resources, system information or other unicast data may also need to be transmitted. The resource blocks used to transmit this information employ a normal cyclic prefix. Therefore, in the time domain, the subframes contained within a radio frame can be divided into MBSFN subframes and non-MBSFN subframes.

[0071] The number and location of MBSFN subframes within a radio frame are configured by the network. For example, this can be configured through system information, and the MCCH channel is received within the MBSFN subframes according to the system information configuration. The configuration information carried by the MCCH channel can include the configuration information of the MBSFN subframes. The MBSFN subframes allocated by the network include MBSFN subframes for transmitting the MCCH, as well as subframes indicating the MTCH for transmission. When the UE needs to receive MTCHs for multiple services, the MCCH can carry control information for the MTCHs of multiple services, as shown in Figure 5. The MTCH control information can include PMCH transmission parameters, such as the modulation scheme and code rate used. This parameter information can be sent by the multi-cell / multicast coordination entity (MCE) in the system architecture to base stations within the MBSFN area.

[0072] Furthermore, for the service data carried by the MTCH, its scheduling information can also be indicated by the medium access control (MAC) layer through MCH scheduling information (MSI), carried within the MAC control element (MAC CE) (as shown in Figure 6), and sent to the terminal by the network. In the MSI shown in Figure 6, "LCID" can represent the identifier of the MTCH, and "stop MTCH" can represent the MBSFN subframe where MTCH service transmission stops. The MSI can contain only the time-domain scheduling information of the MTCH, indicating the MBSFN subframe where each MTCH service transmission stops, unused MBSFN subframes, or whether MTCH transmission should be suspended. The first MTCH scheduled by the MSI will start immediately after the MCCH or MSI transmission ends; other scheduled MTCHs will start immediately after the previous MTCH transmission ends.

[0073] MSI can be transmitted periodically, and the transmission period can be configured by the MCCH. A MAC CE containing the MSI can be transmitted in the first subframe of a transmission period allocated to the MCH. Figure 7 provides an exemplary schematic diagram of the transmission order of MCCH, MSI, and MTCH.

[0074] The network side transmits MBMS sequentially according to the transmission time interval (TTI), with each TTI being a configured MBSFN subframe. When transmitting MBMS, it can occupy all PRB resources in the entire carrier frequency domain, such as 6, 15, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 75, or 100 PRBs, or the number of PRBs that can be occupied in the frequency domain can be configured by the MCCH channel.

[0075] When configuring the modulation scheme and effective code rate used by PMCH, MCCH can use "dataMCS" to indicate a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index. MCS Through this MCS index I MCS Refer to tables such as Table 2 and Table 3 to obtain the modulation parameter Q. m and transport block size (TBS) index I TBS Table 2 shows the modulation scheme and TBS index for UE configured for 256QAM reception, and Table 3 shows the modulation scheme and TBS index for UE not configured for 256QAM reception. Among them, Q... m =2 indicates a second-order PSK, Qm =4 indicates a 16th-order QAM, Q m =6 indicates a 64th order QAM, Q m =8 indicates a 256th order QAM.

[0076] Table 2

[0077] Table 3

[0078] According to MCS index I MCS Determine TBS index I TBS Subsequently, based on TBS index I TBS The number N of frequency domain resource blocks PRB Refer to Table 4 to determine TBS.

[0079] Table 4

[0080] However, when configuring the MCS index, the network side should ensure that the TBS corresponding to the TBS index retrieved from the MCS index does not exceed the UE's radio access capability and minimum MBMS reception capability requirements. The UE's radio access capability and minimum MBMS reception capability requirements can be reflected by the reported UE type (category). Specifically, the minimum capability requirement information corresponding to the UE type can be shown in Table 5. The first column indicates the type of network access capability of the UE; the second column indicates the maximum number of bits received in a downlink shared channel transport block within one TTI; the third column indicates the maximum number of bits received in a downlink shared channel transport block within one TTI; the fourth column indicates the total number of soft channel bits (reflecting the UE's hardware storage resources); and the last column indicates the maximum number of transmission layers supported by spatial multiplexing for downlink (reflecting spatial multiplexing capability, usually related to the number of UE antennas or antenna ports).

[0081] Table 5

[0082] If the UE is operating in multi-carrier mode, then unicast and broadcast can share downlink data processing capabilities. If the total number of unicast and broadcast bits scheduled by the UE within a TTI exceeds the capacity corresponding to Table 4, how to receive unicast and broadcast can be implemented independently by each manufacturer.

[0083] In addition, the UE can further report its MBMS reception capability. For example, the UE's MBMS reception capability can be shown in Table 6, where the first column indicates the type of network access capability of the UE, and the second column indicates the maximum number of bits received in one MCH transport block within one TTI.

[0084] Table 6

[0085] Currently, the MTCH is mapped to the PMCH and transmitted sequentially within MBSFN subframes, with each TB scheduled for transmission on an MBSFN subframe. The terminal device receives one TB of the MTCH in an MBSFN subframe, demodulates and decodes it, and then receives the next TB in the next MBSFN subframe. This receive / transmit method performs poorly when the terminal device is moving at high speed.

[0086] In view of this, embodiments of this application provide a communication method that improves the receiving performance of MTCH by employing a time-domain interleaving transmission method.

[0087] The communication method provided in this application embodiment can be applied to the evolved multimedia broadcast multicast service (E-MBMS) architecture. Figure 8(a) provides an exemplary schematic diagram of an E-MBMS system architecture. As shown in the figure, the network architecture may include an evolved node B (eNB), i.e., an access network device, a multi-cell / multicast coordination entity (MCE), a mobility management entity (MME), and an MBMS gateway (MBMS GW).

[0088] The user plane protocol architecture of E-MBMS can be shown in Figure 8(b). The UE side can have a radio link control (RLC) layer, a MAC layer, a physical layer (PHY), and an MBMS packet layer; the eNB can have an RLC layer, a MAC layer, a PHY layer, a transport network layer (TNL), and a synchronization layer (SYNC); the MBMS gateway side can have a TNL; and the BM-SC side can have both a TNL and an MBMS packet.

[0089] The control plane protocol architecture of E-MBMS can be shown in Figure 8(c). The UE side can have a radio resource control (RRC) layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a PHY layer; the eNB can have an RRC layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, a PHY layer, an M2 interface application protocol (M2AP) layer, and a TNL layer; the MCE side can have an M2AP layer, an M3 interface application protocol (M3AP) layer, and a TNL layer; and the MME side can have an M3AP layer and a TNL layer.

[0090] The M2 control plane interface refers to the interface between the eNB and the MCE. Its control plane protocol structure is shown in Figure 8(d), where M2AP is the application layer signaling protocol. The M2 interface signaling flow includes the MBMS scheduling information flow, which enables the MCE to update the MCCH information. Typically, the MCE can trigger the MBMS scheduling information flow before MBMS user data transmission or after user plane data transmission ends. The MBMS scheduling information flow can also cause the MCE to update the MCH scheduling information, for example, indicating that a certain MTCH channel has been suspended and transmission has been temporarily stopped.

[0091] The terminal in this application embodiment is a device or module that accesses the aforementioned system architecture and has corresponding communication functions. The terminal can also be referred to as user equipment (UE), terminal device, user apparatus, access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station (MS), remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal unit, terminal station, terminal apparatus, wireless communication equipment, user agent, or user apparatus. The terminal typically contains a communication module, circuit, or chip that performs the corresponding communication functions. The terminal may also be configured with program instructions for performing the corresponding communication functions. For example, the terminal in the embodiments of this application can be a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a drone, a computer with wireless transceiver capabilities, a machine-type communication (MTC) terminal, a virtual reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (AR) terminal, an Internet of Things (IoT) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in self-driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical care, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a wireless terminal in a smart home (e.g., game consoles, smart TVs, smart speakers, smart refrigerators, and fitness equipment), a transportation vehicle with wireless communication capabilities, a communication module, or a roadside unit (RSU) with terminal functionality. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology or device form used in the terminal equipment.

[0092] The access network equipment in this application embodiment can be a base station (eNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), or other access network equipment in a mobile communication system. The access network equipment can also be a module or unit that performs some of the functions of a base station; for example, it can be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU (control plane, CP), a CU (user plane, UP), or a radio unit (RU), etc.

[0093] Figure 9 is a flowchart illustrating the communication method provided in an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 9, the communication method may include the following steps:

[0094] Step 901: The access network device transmits the transport block (TB) of the multicast service channel (MTCH) in a time-domain interleaving manner, wherein the time-domain interleaving manner means that the same TB is transmitted in multiple non-contiguous time units in the time domain.

[0095] Optionally, the aforementioned time unit can be an MBSFN subframe or an MBSFN time slot.

[0096] For example, Figure 10 provides an exemplary schematic diagram of transmitting the TB of the MTCH via time-domain interleaving. As shown in Figure 10, the transport block TB0 of the MTCH can be transmitted through n non-contiguous MBSFN subframes, with a portion of the transport block TB0 transmitted every m MBSFN subframes. Specifically, the RVi0 portion of the transport block TB0 is transmitted on MBSFN subframe 0, the RVi1 portion of the transport block TB0 is transmitted on MBSFN subframe m, ..., and the RVi of the transport block TB0 is transmitted on MBSFN subframe (n-1)*m. n-1 Partial list; RVi0, RVi1, ..., RVi n-1 Together they constitute the transport block TB0 of the MTCH.

[0097] Step 902: The terminal device receives the TB of the MTCH in a time-domain interleaved manner.

[0098] Accordingly, when receiving the TB of the MTCH, the terminal device also needs to receive data over multiple non-contiguous time units to obtain the TB of the MTCH. The terminal device can then decode the data received over these multiple non-contiguous time units.

[0099] In traditional MBMS data transmission, the access network device sends a TB (Through-Telegram) within one time unit, and the terminal device receives the TB within the same time unit and decodes it. If it fails to receive the data correctly, the terminal device cannot obtain the correct data for that TB because MBMS typically lacks a retransmission mechanism. Especially when the terminal device is in motion, channel quality degradation is very common in a short period, resulting in data loss.

[0100] By adopting the above method, the TB of an MTCH is transmitted on multiple non-contiguous time units. Even if the channel quality deteriorates in a short period of time, the errors can be corrected by other means (such as redundancy coding) because the TB is distributed across multiple non-contiguous time units. This improves the success rate of the terminal device in correctly acquiring the TB and enhances the reception performance of the MTCH.

[0101] In one possible implementation, the access network device may send a first indication message to the terminal device, which indicates that the TB of the MTCH should be transmitted in a time-domain interleaved manner. The access network device may send the first indication message before performing step 901 above, or it may periodically send the first indication message to instruct the terminal device accessing the access network device to use a time-domain interleaved manner when receiving the TB of the MTCH, to avoid the terminal device still using the traditional MTCH reception method, where decoding immediately after receiving data transmitted in each time unit may lead to decoding errors.

[0102] Optionally, the access network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device in a system message, or the access network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device in the MCCH, or the access network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device through other messages.

[0103] If the access network device does not send the first indication information, it can be assumed that all access network devices use time-domain interleaving to send the TB of the MTCH.

[0104] The multiple non-contiguous time units of the TB used to send an MTCH are determined from all time units configured on the network side for sending MTCH within an MCH scheduling period.

[0105] The multiple non-contiguous time units of a TB used to send an MTCH can be referred to as a time unit set.

[0106] Optionally, a set of time units may include multiple non-contiguous time units, which may be determined from multiple contiguous time units. These multiple contiguous time units may be determined from one or more radio frames.

[0107] For example, consider MBSFN subframes as the time units used to transmit a TB time unit set. The multiple non-contiguous MBSFN subframes used to transmit a TB time unit set can be determined from multiple consecutive MBSFN subframes. These multiple consecutive MBSFN subframes can be determined from one or more radio frames.

[0108] In one example, assuming multiple consecutive MBSFN subframes are determined from a single radio frame, two TBs (e.g., TB1 and TB2) are transmitted on a certain MTCH (e.g., MTCH1). There are three non-consecutive MBSFN subframes used to carry TB1, and three non-consecutive MBSFN subframes used to carry TB2. A radio frame includes 10 subframes, such as subframe #0 (or SF#0), subframe #1, subframe #2, ..., subframe #9. The access network device or MCE can determine six subframes (e.g., subframe #2, subframe #3, subframe #4, subframe #5, subframe #6, and subframe #7) from these ten subframes as MBSFN subframes. These six subframes can be considered as six consecutive MBSFN subframes. Among them, subframe #2 can be used as MBSFN subframe 0, subframe #3 can be used as MBSFN subframe 1, subframe #4 can be used as MBSFN subframe 2, subframe #5 can be used as MBSFN subframe 3, subframe #6 can be used as MBSFN subframe 4, and subframe #7 can be used as MBSFN subframe 5.

[0109] For TB1, the access network device can determine 3 non-contiguous MBSFN subframes from the above 6 consecutive MBSFN subframes to carry TB1. For example, the access network device determines MBSFN subframe 0 (subframe #2), MBSFN subframe 2 (subframe #4), and MBSFN subframe 4 (subframe #6) to carry TB1.

[0110] For TB2, the access network device can determine 3 non-contiguous MBSFN subframes from the above 6 consecutive MBSFN subframes to carry TB2. For example, the access network device determines MBSFN subframe 1 (subframe #3), MBSFN subframe 3 (subframe #5) and MBSFN subframe 5 (subframe #7) to carry TB2.

[0111] Optionally, any 6 subframes from the aforementioned 10 subframes can be used as MBSFN subframes. For example, the aforementioned 6 subframes may also include: subframe #1, subframe #2, subframe #4, subframe #5, subframe #7, and subframe #8. Alternatively, the aforementioned 6 subframes may also include: subframe #1, subframe #3, subframe #5, subframe #6, subframe #8, and subframe #9. This embodiment will not list all of these options.

[0112] Optionally, the access network device may also select more than 6 subframes (e.g., 8 subframes, such as subframes #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, and #9) from the aforementioned 10 subframes as MBSFN subframes. That is, these 8 subframes can be used as 8 consecutive MBSFN subframes. Among them, subframe #2 can be used as MBSFN subframe 0, subframe #3 as MBSFN subframe 1, subframe #4 as MBSFN subframe 2, subframe #5 as MBSFN subframe 3, subframe #6 as MBSFN subframe 4, subframe #7 as MBSFN subframe 5, subframe #8 as MBSFN subframe 6, and subframe #9 as MBSFN subframe 7.

[0113] For TB1, the access network device can determine 3 non-contiguous MBSFN subframes from the above 8 consecutive MBSFN subframes to carry TB1. For example, the access network device determines MBSFN subframe 0, MBSFN subframe 2 and MBSFN subframe 4 to carry TB1.

[0114] For TB2, the access network device can determine 3 non-contiguous MBSFN subframes from the above 8 consecutive MBSFN subframes to carry TB2. For example, the access network device can determine MBSFN subframe 1, MBSFN subframe 3 and MBSFN subframe 5 to carry TB2.

[0115] Optionally, any 8 of the aforementioned 10 subframes can be used as MBSFN subframes. For example, the aforementioned 8 subframes may also include: subframe #0, subframe #1, subframe #2, subframe #3, subframe #4, subframe #5, subframe #7, and subframe #8. Alternatively, the aforementioned 8 subframes may also include: subframe #1, subframe #3, subframe #4, subframe #5, subframe #6, subframe #7, subframe #8, and subframe #9. This embodiment will not list all of these options.

[0116] In another example, considering that multiple consecutive MBSFN subframes are determined from multiple radio frames (e.g., two radio frames, radio frame #a and radio frame #b), two transport blocks (e.g., TB1 and TB2) are transmitted on a certain MTCH (e.g., MTCH1). There are three non-consecutive MBSFN subframes used to carry TB1 and three non-consecutive MBSFN subframes used to carry TB2. Radio frame #a comprises 10 subframes, such as subframe #a0 (or SF#a0), subframe #a1, subframe #a2, ..., subframe #a9. Radio frame #b comprises 10 subframes, such as subframe #b0 (or SF#b0), subframe #b1, subframe #b2, ..., subframe #b9. The access network device can determine three subframes from the ten subframes in radio frame #a and three subframes from the ten subframes in radio frame #b to serve as MBSFN subframes. For example, subframes #a1, #a2, and #a3 in radio frame #a, and subframes #b2, #b3, and #b4 in radio frame #b, can be used as MBSFN subframes. That is, these six subframes can be used as six consecutive MBSFN subframes. Specifically, subframe #a1 can be used as MBSFN subframe 0, subframe #a2 as MBSFN subframe 1, subframe #a3 as MBSFN subframe 2, subframe #b2 as MBSFN subframe 3, subframe #b3 as MBSFN subframe 4, and subframe #b4 as MBSFN subframe 5.

[0117] For TB1, the access network device can determine 3 non-contiguous MBSFN subframes from the above 6 consecutive MBSFN subframes to carry TB1. For example, the access network device determines MBSFN subframe 0 (subframe #a1), MBSFN subframe 2 (subframe #a3), and MBSFN subframe 4 (subframe #b3) to carry TB1.

[0118] For TB2, the access network device can determine 3 non-contiguous MBSFN subframes from the 6 consecutive MBSFN subframes to carry TB2. For example, the access network device determines MBSFN subframe 1 (subframe #a2), MBSFN subframe 3 (subframe #b2), and MBSFN subframe 5 (subframe #b4) to carry TB2.

[0119] Optionally, any 3 subframes from the 10 subframes included in the aforementioned radio frame #a and any 3 subframes from the 10 subframes included in the aforementioned radio frame #b can be used as MBSFN subframes. Specific examples can be found in the relevant description above, and this application embodiment will not list them one by one.

[0120] Optionally, the access network device may also determine more than 6 subframes from the 10 subframes included in the aforementioned radio frame #a and the 10 subframes included in the aforementioned radio frame #b. For example, 8 subframes may be determined from radio frames #a and #b as MBSFN subframes. These 8 subframes can then be used as 8 consecutive MBSFN subframes. For specific implementation details, please refer to the relevant description above, which will not be repeated here.

[0121] In one possible design, the access network device can also send a second indication information to the terminal device. This second indication information includes time-domain interleaving parameter indication information, which can be used to indicate the interleaving length and / or interleaving depth. The interleaving length represents the number of time units in the time unit set used to transmit a transport block. The aforementioned time unit set includes multiple non-contiguous time units for transmitting a TB of an MTCH. The numbers of these multiple non-contiguous time units are arranged in chronological order, and the number of time units between two consecutive time units after arrangement is the interleaving depth.

[0122] Taking Figure 10 as an example, TB0 of MTCH is transmitted through n MBSFN subframes, so the interleaving length is n; the numbers of the two MBSFN subframes used to transmit TB0 differ by m, so the interleaving depth is m.

[0123] The aforementioned interleaving parameters can be configured by the MCE and sent to the access network device, which can then notify the terminal device of the interleaving parameters.

[0124] Optionally, the access network device may send the second indication information to the terminal device in a system message, or the access network device may send the second indication information to the terminal device in the MCCH, or the access network device may send the second indication information to the terminal device through other messages, such as including it in the MAC CE.

[0125] In another possible design, the interleaving length and / or interleaving depth can be pre-configured in the access network equipment and terminal equipment, so that the access network equipment and terminal equipment can determine the interleaving length and / or interleaving depth according to the configuration information.

[0126] If both the interleaving length and interleaving depth are pre-configured, the access network device does not need to send the aforementioned second indication information. If either the interleaving length or the interleaving depth is not pre-configured, the access network device can flexibly schedule only the unconfigured content and send it to the terminal device via the second indication information.

[0127] Optionally, the first and second indication information can be carried in the same message and sent to the terminal device, such as a system message, MCCH, or other message. Alternatively, the first and second indication information can be sent to the terminal device through different messages.

[0128] The access network device can also send an MCS index to the terminal device. This MCS index indicates the modulation and coding scheme used by the TB of the MBMS. Furthermore, the MCS index can determine the number of bits of data transmitted by a TB of an MBMS in one time unit. For example, after receiving the MCS index, the terminal device can look up the table based on the MCS index to determine the modulation and coding scheme of the MBMS data and the TBS index, and then determine the number of bits (TBS) of data transmitted by a TB of an MBMS in one time unit based on the TBS index.

[0129] In one possible implementation, when determining the number of bits contained in a TB of an MBMS (i.e., the total number of bits transmitted over multiple non-contiguous time units), the access network device can look up a table based on a first bit number. This first bit number is the TBS determined by the MCS index multiplied by the number of multiple non-contiguous time units. Since the obtained first bit number may not be the number of bits that can be encoded and modulated in a TB, a table lookup can be performed based on the first bit number to find the closest value, which can be used as the total number of bits transmitted in a TB over multiple non-contiguous time units.

[0130] For example, if the number of data bits transmitted on an MBSFN subframe is determined to be 12576 according to the MCS, and the number of non-continuous time units occupied by a TB of an MBMS is 4, then the first number of bits is 12576*4=50304. The access network device can look up the table based on 50304 and select the TBS that is closest to 50304 from the table as the total number of bits contained in a TB of an MBMS.

[0131] When looking up a table, if there are two TBSs that are closest to the first bit number, the access network device can choose the larger TBS as the number of bits contained in the TB of an MBMS, or it can choose the smaller TBS as the number of bits contained in the TB of an MBMS.

[0132] Optionally, the access network device can look up values ​​in a set of tables. This set can include one or more of the following tables: a TBS table determining the number of available Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) in the frequency domain (as shown in Table 4), a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 2 (as shown in Table 7), a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 3 (as shown in Table 8), and a TBS conversion table from layer 1 to layer 4 (as shown in Table 9). Alternatively, the set of tables can refer to a collection of all TBS values ​​from one or more of the aforementioned tables. For example, all TBS values ​​in Tables 4, 7, 8, and 9 can be used as a set of tables. When the access network device looks up a value, it compares the first bit count with the TBS values ​​in this set of tables and selects the value closest to the first bit count from the set, which is taken as the total number of bits for a TB in an MBMS. Furthermore, there may be duplicate values ​​in the aforementioned tables. This set of tables can include deduplicated values; that is, only one of the duplicate values ​​needs to be retained.

[0133] Table 7. One-layer to two-layer TBS translation table

[0134] Table 8. One-layer to three-layer TBS translation table

[0135] Table 9. One-layer to four-layer TBS translation table

[0136] Similarly, the terminal device can also determine the number of bits contained in the TB of the MBMS in the above manner. That is, the terminal device determines the first number of bits based on the TBS determined by the MCS index and the number of multiple non-contiguous time units (i.e., the TBS determined by the MCS index multiplied by the number of multiple non-contiguous time units), and searches for the value closest to the first number of bits in a table, or a set of tables composed of multiple tables, as the number of bits in a TB.

[0137] In some embodiments, when determining the MCS index, the access network device may comply with one or more of the following rules:

[0138] Rule 1: The TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of multiple non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the maximum total number of bits of the transport block received by the terminal device within one time unit. The maximum total number of bits of the transport block received by the terminal device within one time unit can be the maximum number of DL-SCH transport block bits received by the terminal device within one TTI, as shown in the second column of Table 5.

[0139] Specifically, the access network device can determine the first bit number based on the TBS determined by the MCS index and the number of multiple non-contiguous time units, and determine the total number of bits of a TB transmitted on multiple non-contiguous time units by looking up the table based on the first bit number. The total number of bits does not exceed the maximum number of bits of the downlink shared channel transport block received within a TTI corresponding to the category of the terminal device.

[0140] For example, if the MCS index sent by the access network device is 12, then according to the MCS index lookup table 2, it can be determined that the TB of MBMS uses 16th-order QAM modulation, and the index I of the TBS of the data transmitted in a subframe (taking one time unit as an example here) is... TBS =11, where N is the number of PRBs occupied by MBMS in the frequency domain. PRB For example, if the value is 10, according to I TBS =11 and N PRB =10 Referencing Table 4, the number of bits transmitted in one MBSFN subframe is determined to be 2024. If the terminal device's radio access type is Category 1, Table 5 shows that the maximum number of bits in a downlink shared channel transport block received by the terminal device within one TTI is 10296. If a TB of an MBMS is transmitted through 4 MBSFN subframes, then 2024 * 4 = 8096. Referring to Tables 4, 7, 8, and 9, the closest value is determined to be 7992. Therefore, 7992 is taken as the total number of bits for one TB, and this total number of bits does not exceed 10296. If the total number of bits for one TB, as found in Tables 4, 7, 8, and 9, exceeds 10296, then the access network device should select another MCS index to ensure that the total number of bits for one TB does not exceed 10296.

[0141] For example, if the MCS index sent by the access network device is 24, then according to the MCS index lookup table 2, it can be determined that the TB of MBMS uses 64-order QAM modulation, and the index I of the TBS of the data transmitted on a subframe is... TBS =22, where N is the number of PRBs occupied by MBMS in the frequency domain.PRB For example, if the value is 100, according to I TBS =22 and N PRB =100 Referring to Table 4, the number of data bits transmitted in one MBSFN subframe is determined to be 55056. If the terminal device's radio access type is Category 5, according to Table 5, the maximum number of bits in a downlink shared channel transport block received by the terminal device within one TTI is 299552. If one MBMS TB is transmitted through 4 MBSFN subframes, then 55056 * 4 = 220224. The table set can include Tables 4, 7, 8, and 9. The access network device can first search for 220224 in Table 4, finding the closest value to it as 137792. Then, it can search for 220224 in Tables 7, 8, and 9 sequentially, finding the closest value to 220224 in Table 7 as 220296. Clearly, 220296 is closer to 220224 than 137792. Therefore, 220296 is used as the total number of bits transmitted in one TB across multiple MBSFN subframes, and this total number of bits does not exceed the maximum number of bits (299552) of a downlink shared channel transport block received by the terminal device within one TTI. If the total number of bits for one TB found according to Tables 4, 7, 8, and 9 exceeds 299552, the access network device should select another MCS index to ensure that the total number of bits for one TB does not exceed 299552.

[0142] For example, if the access network device stores a set of tables, which includes all TBS values ​​in Tables 4, 7, 8, and 9 after deduplication and sorting by size, then when the access network device performs a table lookup, it can quickly find the value that is closest to the first bit number.

[0143] It should be understood that if unicast TBs are also simultaneously transmitted on multiple non-contiguous time units used to transmit MBMS TBs, then the sum of the total number of bits of the unicast data block transmitted in one time unit and the total number of bits of the TB data block transmitted on multiple non-contiguous time units should not exceed the maximum total number of bits of the transport block received by the terminal device in one time unit. For example, if an MTCH data block is received on one carrier and a unicast data block is received in any time unit on multiple non-contiguous time units, such as on other carriers, then the sum of the total number of bits of the unicast data block received by the terminal device in that one time unit and the total number of bits of the MTCH data block received on multiple non-contiguous time units should not exceed the maximum total number of bits of the transport block received in the aforementioned one time unit.

[0144] Rule 2: The TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of multiple non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the maximum number of bits of a transport block received by the terminal device within a time unit. The maximum number of bits of a transport block received by the terminal device within a time unit can be the maximum number of bits of a DL-SCH transport block received by the terminal device within a TTI, as shown in the third column of Table 5.

[0145] For example, if the MCS index sent by the access network device is 27, then according to the MCS index lookup table 2, it can be determined that the TB of MBMS uses 64-order QAM modulation, and the index I of the TBS of the data transmitted in a subframe (taking one time unit as an example here) is... TBS =25, where N is the number of PRBs occupied by MBMS in the frequency domain. PRB For example, if the value is 20, according to I TBS =25 and N PRB =20 Referencing Table 4, the number of data bits transmitted on one MBSFN subframe is determined to be 12576. If the terminal device's radio access type is Category 2, according to Table 5, the maximum number of bits in a downlink shared channel transport block received by the terminal device within one TTI is 51024. If a TB of one MBMS is transmitted through 4 MBSFN subframes, then 12576 * 4 = 50304. Referring to Tables 4, 7, 8, and 9, the closest value is determined to be 51024. Therefore, 51024 is taken as the total number of bits for one TB, and this total number of bits does not exceed 51024. If the total number of bits for one TB found according to Tables 4, 7, 8, and 9 exceeds 51024, then the access network device should select another MCS index to ensure that the total number of bits for one TB does not exceed 51024.

[0146] Rule 3: The TBS determined by multiplying the TBS based on the MCS index by the number of multiple non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the total number of soft channel bits of the terminal device, as shown in the fourth column of Table 5. Furthermore, if unicast TBSs are simultaneously transmitted on multiple non-contiguous time units used to transmit MBMS TBSs, then the sum of the total number of bits of the unicast data block transmitted in one time unit and the total number of bits of the TB data block transmitted on multiple non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the total number of soft channel bits of the terminal device.

[0147] Rule 4: The TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of multiple non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the maximum number of bits of a MCH transport block received within a TTI, as shown in Table 6.

[0148] After determining the total number of bits in the TB of the MBMS transmitted across multiple time units, the access network device performs channel coding on the TB. After channel coding, the access network device can determine the bit sequence transmitted in each time unit, which is determined based on the number of bits transmitted in each time unit.

[0149] Optionally, the access network device performs the following channel coding process: First, the access network device adds a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code to the TB. Then, it segments the coding block and adds a CRC to each coding block. After that, it performs channel coding, rate matching, and code block concatenation to obtain the bit sequence to be transmitted.

[0150] In one specific embodiment, Turbo coding can be used for the TB of MBMS. When using Turbo coding, the rate matching module can determine its output using a finite buffer size, as shown in Figure 11. For the TB of MBMS, following the rate matching process in Figure 11, after segmenting the coding block, the number of coding blocks is determined to be C. Channel coding uses 1 / 3 rate Turbo coding. Therefore, during the rate matching process, the soft buffer size corresponding to each TB is N. IR bits, N IR It can be determined according to the following formula (1):

[0151] Where α is a constant, such as 1, 0.5, or 1 / 6; N soft This represents the total number of soft channel bits corresponding to the UE type (as shown in the fourth column of Table 5); M DL_HARQ M represents the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes. limit K is a constant, such as 8. C For the number of soft channel bits N soft Relevant constants, for example, when N soft When K = 35982720 or 47431680, C =5; when N soft =303562752, K C =32; when N soft=3654144, and the terminal device can support a maximum of two spatial layers for downlink (DL) cells, or, if the maximum number of layers configured is indicated by the "maxLayersMIMO-r10" field, then K C =2; otherwise, K C =1.

[0152] Then, the number of bits N of the soft buffer size corresponding to each coding block can be determined according to the following formula (2). cb .

[0153] Among them, K w This indicates the number of bits output by the channel encoder.

[0154] Furthermore, after the access network device determines the total number of bits G of the MBMS TB transmitted in multiple time units, it can determine that G' = G / Q. m , where Q m =2 indicates a second-order PSK, Q m =4 indicates a 16th-order QAM, Q m =6 indicates a 64th order QAM, Q m =8 represents 256-order QAM. Then, we can determine γ = G'mod C, where C represents the total number of coded blocks corresponding to one TB.

[0155] Finally, the rate matching module outputs E bits for the r-th coded block. Therefore, for any coded block except the last one, E = Q. m ×(G′ / C); For the last code block, E = Q m ×ceiling(G′ / C).

[0156] After determining the number of bits E in each code block, the bit sequence output by the rate matching module is derived from the soft buffer size N corresponding to each code block. cb Starting from a defined starting point, read the bit sequence obtained by reading E bits, as shown in Figure 12. The starting point pointer can be set to...

[0157] in, The number of rows in the matrix determined by the sub-block interleaver in the transmission channel rate matching of the channel coding (such as Turbo coding); rv represents the redundancy version number, which takes the value 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., or rv0 is calculated according to the above formula, but the starting point of rv1 starts from the end of rv0, the starting point of rv2 starts from the end of rv1, and so on.

[0158] In one possible implementation, the terminal device can report its own MBMS capability information to the access network device, enabling the access network device to select the method of sending MBMS TBs, the size of each TB, the size of the data sent in each time unit, etc., based on the terminal device's capability information.

[0159] The terminal device may send third indication information to the access network device. The third indication information may include one or more of the following: version number information of the multicast service supported by the terminal device, indication information of the time domain interleaving mode supported by the terminal device, and indication information of the time domain interleaving parameters supported by the terminal device (such as interleaving length, interleaving depth, etc.).

[0160] When reporting time-domain interleaving parameters, the terminal device can report the values ​​of the supported interleaving length and / or interleaving depth to the access network device. For example, the terminal device may report that it supports an interleaving depth of 4, 8, or all of them, and report an interleaving length of 4, 8, or 16. Alternatively, the terminal device may report the index of the interleaving length and / or the index of the interleaving depth to the access network device, or it may report the common index of the interleaving length and the interleaving depth to the access network device. This application embodiment does not limit the reporting method of interleaving parameters.

[0161] The aforementioned third indication information can be carried in the wireless network access capability information of the terminal device and sent to the access network device, or it can be carried in the MBMS Interest Indication information of the terminal device and sent to the access network device.

[0162] Furthermore, the terminal device can also send a fourth indication message to the access network device. This fourth indication message instructs the terminal device to support time-domain interleaving in pure receive mode. In pure receive mode, the terminal device receives the MTCH through a non-serving access network device. For example, if the UE accesses eNB1, and eNB1 is the UE's serving base station providing unicast services, and the UE also supports non-serving base stations sending MBMS data to the UE via time-domain interleaving, then the UE can report its ability to support time-domain interleaving in pure receive mode to the serving base station. Further, the terminal device can also report the time-domain interleaving parameters supported in pure receive mode to the serving base station.

[0163] Optionally, the aforementioned fourth indication information may be a specific implementation of the indication information in the third indication information that the terminal device supports time-domain interleaving, or the fourth indication information may be a sub-information of the indication information in the third indication information that the terminal device supports time-domain interleaving, or the fourth indication information may be indication information different from the third indication information.

[0164] Furthermore, when the fourth instruction information differs from the third instruction information, the terminal device may send the fourth instruction information and the third instruction information together to the access network device, or they may send them separately to the access network device. This application embodiment does not limit this.

[0165] Figure 13 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of this application. The communication device includes an interface module 1301 and a processing module 1302. The processing module 1302 is used to process data by the communication device. The interface module 1301 is used to receive content from the communication device and other units or network elements, or to send content from the communication device and other units or network elements. It should be understood that the processing module 1302 in the embodiments of this application can be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuit components (or, referred to as processing circuitry), and the interface module 1301 can be implemented by a receiver / transmitter or receiver / transmitter-related circuit components.

[0166] For example, the communication device may be a communication device equipment, or it may be a chip or other combination device or component that has the functions of the aforementioned communication device equipment applied in the communication device equipment.

[0167] When the communication device is an access network device, the processing module 1302 is used to: send the transport block of the multicast service channel through the interface module 1301 in a time-domain interleaving manner, wherein the time-domain interleaving manner means that the same transport block is sent in multiple non-continuous time units in the time domain.

[0168] Furthermore, the modules described above can also be used to support other processes performed by the access network device in the embodiment shown in Figure 9. The beneficial effects are described above and will not be repeated here.

[0169] When the communication device is a terminal device, the processing module 1302 is used to: receive the transport block of the multicast service channel in a time-domain interleaving manner through the interface module 1301, wherein the time-domain interleaving manner means that the same transport block is received in multiple non-continuous time units in the time domain.

[0170] Furthermore, the modules described above can also be used to support other processes executed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in Figure 9. The beneficial effects are described above and will not be repeated here.

[0171] Figure 14 is a schematic diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of this application. The communication device includes a processor 1401, a communication interface 1402, and may further include a memory 1403 and a bus 1404. The processor 1401, communication interface 1402, and memory 1403 can be interconnected via the bus 1404. The bus 1404 can be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The bus 1404 can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, and a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one line is used in Figure 14, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

[0172] Processor 1401 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and an NP. The processor may further include hardware chips. These hardware chips may be application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or combinations thereof. The PLD may be a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a generic array logic (GAL), or any combination thereof. Memory 1403 may be volatile memory or non-volatile memory, or may include both. The non-volatile memory may 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. Volatile memory can be random access memory (RAM), which is used as an external cache.

[0173] The processor 1401 is used to implement the data processing operation of the communication device, and the communication interface 1402 is used to implement the receiving and sending operations of the communication device.

[0174] When the communication device is an access network device, the processor 1401 is used to: send the transport block of the multicast service channel through the communication interface 1402 in a time-domain interleaving manner, wherein the time-domain interleaving manner means that the same transport block is sent on multiple non-continuous time units in the time domain.

[0175] Furthermore, the modules described above can also be used to support other processes performed by the access network device in the embodiment shown in Figure 9. The beneficial effects are described above and will not be repeated here.

[0176] When the communication device is a terminal device, the processor 1401 is used to: receive the transport block of the multicast service channel in a time-domain interleaving manner through the communication interface 1402, wherein the time-domain interleaving means that the same transport block is received in multiple non-continuous time units in the time domain.

[0177] Furthermore, the modules described above can also be used to support other processes executed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in Figure 9. The beneficial effects are described above and will not be repeated here.

[0178] Based on the same technical concept, embodiments of this application provide a communication system, including the aforementioned access network equipment and terminal equipment.

[0179] Based on the same technical concept, embodiments of this application provide a chip, including: a processor coupled to a memory for storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by the processor, the chip enables the chip to implement the method described in any of the above implementation methods.

[0180] Based on the same technical concept, embodiments of this application also provide a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the above-described method embodiments to be performed.

[0181] Based on the same technical concept, this application also provides a computer program product containing instructions that, when run on a computer, cause the above-described method embodiments to be executed.

[0182] It should be understood that in the description of this application, terms such as "first" and "second" are used only for distinguishing purposes and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or order. References to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" in this specification mean that one or more embodiments of this application include a specific feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with that embodiment. Therefore, phrases such as "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," and "in still other embodiments" appearing in different parts of this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, but rather mean "one or more, but not all, embodiments," unless otherwise specifically emphasized. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to," unless otherwise specifically emphasized.

[0183] Those skilled in the art will understand that embodiments of this application can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, this application can take the form of a completely hardware embodiment, a completely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, this application can take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program code.

[0184] This application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of this application. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in one or more flowchart illustrations and / or one or more block diagrams.

[0185] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement the functions specified in one or more flowcharts and / or one or more block diagrams.

[0186] These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions, which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus, provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more flowcharts and / or one or more block diagrams.

[0187] Although preferred embodiments of this application have been described, those skilled in the art, upon learning the basic inventive concept, can make other changes and modifications to these embodiments. Therefore, the appended claims are intended to be interpreted as including the preferred embodiments as well as all changes and modifications falling within the scope of this application.

[0188] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to the embodiments of this application without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of this application. Therefore, if these modifications and variations to the embodiments of this application fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalents, this application also intends to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, The method includes: The transport block of the multicast service channel is transmitted in a time-domain interleaving manner, wherein the time-domain interleaving manner means that the same transport block is transmitted in multiple non-contiguous time units in the time domain.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send a first indication message, which is used to indicate that the transport block of the multicast service channel is transmitted in a time-domain interleaved manner.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send a second indication message, the second indication message including time domain interleaving parameter indication information, the time domain interleaving parameter indication information being used to indicate including interleaving length and / or interleaving depth; The interleaving length represents the number of time units in the time unit set used to transmit a transport block, the time unit set including the plurality of non-contiguous time units arranged in chronological order, and the interleaving depth represents the number of time units between two consecutive time units in the time unit set.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that, The method further includes: The indication information of the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index is sent, and the transport block size (TBS) determined according to the MCS index is the number of bits of data transmitted in one time unit.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that, The TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the maximum total number of bits of the transmission block received by the terminal device within one time unit.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that, The TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the maximum number of bits of a transmission block received by the terminal device within a time unit.

7. The method according to any one of claims 4-6, characterized in that, The total number of bits in the transport block of the multicast service channel is determined by looking up a table based on the first number of bits, where the first number of bits is the TBS determined by the MCS index multiplied by the number of the plurality of non-continuous time units. The table lookup includes looking up one or more of the following tables: a TBS table that determines the number of available physical resource blocks (PRBs) in the frequency domain, a TBS conversion table from level 1 to level 2, a TBS conversion table from level 1 to level 3, and a TBS conversion table from level 1 to level 4.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1-7, characterized in that, The method further includes: After the transport block of the multicast service channel is channel-coded, the bit sequence transmitted in each time unit is determined; the bit sequence transmitted in each time unit is determined based on the number of bits transmitted in each time unit.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1-8, characterized in that, The method further includes: The terminal device receives a third indication message, which indicates one or more of the following: the version number of the multicast service supported by the terminal device, the terminal device supports time-domain interleaving, and the time-domain interleaving parameters supported by the terminal device.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The third indication information is carried in the wireless network access capability information of the terminal device, or the third indication information is carried in the MBMS interest indication information of the terminal device.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1-10, characterized in that, The method further includes: The terminal device receives a fourth indication information, which is used to indicate that the terminal device supports time-domain interleaving in pure reception mode, wherein the pure reception mode is when the terminal device receives the multicast service channel through a non-serving access network device.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1-11, characterized in that, The time unit is an MBSFN subframe or an MBSFN time slot.

13. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a first device, and the method includes: The transport blocks of the multicast service channel are received in a time-domain interleaving manner, wherein the time-domain interleaving manner means that the same transport block is received in multiple non-contiguous time units in the time domain.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receive first indication information, which is used to indicate that the transport block of the multicast service channel is received in a time-domain interleaved manner.

15. The method according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receive second indication information, the second indication information including time domain interleaving parameter indication information, the time domain interleaving parameter indication information being used to indicate including interleaving length and / or interleaving depth; The interleaving length represents the number of time units in the time unit set used to receive a transport block. The time unit set includes the plurality of non-contiguous time units arranged in chronological order. The interleaving depth represents the number of time units between two consecutive time units in the time unit set.

16. The method according to any one of claims 13-15, characterized in that, The method further includes: The system receives indication information of the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index, and the transport block size (TBS) determined based on the MCS index is the number of bits of data received in one time unit.

17. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that, The TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the maximum number of bits of the transmission block received by the first device in one time unit.

18. The method according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that, The TBS determined by multiplying the TBS determined by the MCS index by the number of the plurality of non-contiguous time units shall not exceed the maximum number of bits of a transport block received by the first device within a time unit.

19. The method according to any one of claims 16-18, characterized in that, The total number of bits in the transport block of the multicast service channel is determined by looking up a table based on the first number of bits, where the first number of bits is the TBS determined by the MCS index multiplied by the number of the plurality of non-continuous time units. The table lookup includes looking up one or more of the following sets of tables: a TBS table that determines the number of available physical resource blocks (PRBs) in the frequency domain, a TBS conversion table from level 1 to level 2, a TBS conversion table from level 1 to level 3, and a TBS conversion table from level 1 to level 4.

20. The method according to any one of claims 13-19, characterized in that, The method further includes: The bit sequence received in each time unit after channel coding of the transport block of the multicast service channel is determined; the bit sequence received in each time unit is determined based on the number of bits received in each time unit.

21. The method according to any one of claims 13-20, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send a third indication message, which is used to indicate one or more of the following: the version number of the multicast service supported by the first device, the time-domain interleaving supported by the first device, and the time-domain interleaving parameters supported by the first device.

22. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that, The third indication information is carried in the wireless network access capability information of the first device, or the third indication information is carried in the MBMS interest indication information of the first device.

23. The method according to any one of claims 13-22, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send a fourth indication message, which is used to indicate that the first device supports time-domain interleaving in pure receive mode, wherein the pure receive mode is that the first device receives the multicast service channel through a non-serving access network device.

24. The method according to any one of claims 13-23, characterized in that, The time unit is an MBSFN subframe or an MBSFN time slot.

25. A communication device, characterized in that, include: At least one processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1-24.

26. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1-24.

27. A computer program product containing instructions, characterized in that, When the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1-24.

Images