CN120825803A - Communication method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication method and device relates to the communication field, and can solve the problem caused by aggregation of carriers from different operators by a carrier aggregation mode. The communication method includes receiving first configuration information from the network device and communicating with the network device according to the first configuration information. The first configuration information is used for indicating a virtual carrier containing a plurality of sub-blocks, the virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resources, the first configuration information comprises frequency domain physical resource position information of each sub-block in a corresponding physical carrier, and the frequency domain physical resource position information of the sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier indicates the frequency domain physical resource position for data transmission in the corresponding physical carrier of the sub-block.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

Background

In order to reduce the network deployment cost, different operators can jointly build in a network sharing mode in the network building process. In a scenario where the primary device shares, i.e. the radio access network (radio access network, RAN) shares (RAN SHARING), different operator networks share the same RAN device, according to whether spectrum resources are shared, it may be further divided into fractional carrier sharing and common carrier sharing, and for the common carrier sharing scenario, in order to promote the maximum rate of a single user, carrier aggregation (carrier aggregation, CA) may be used for communication.

The split carrier sharing is that different operators allocate spectrum resources of different carriers, terminal devices of different operators use carriers of corresponding operators, spectrum utilization rate is low, and in a network low-load scene, the carriers corresponding to different operators are kept in an activated state, so that RAN devices are kept with wider radio frequency bandwidths, and more network energy consumption is consumed. The common carrier frequency sharing is to share the spectrum resources of carriers between different operators, and the terminal device of a certain operator can use the spectrum resources corresponding to a plurality of operators through a CA mode, that is, the terminal device must support CA capability, and the network is required to provide configuration information of each carrier, so that signaling overhead is large. Therefore, how to solve the carrier configuration problem in the common carrier sharing scenario is needed to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which can solve the carrier configuration problem under the common carrier frequency sharing scene.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the application adopts the following technical scheme:

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, where the method may be applied to a terminal side, for example, a terminal device, or a component or a module of the terminal device, or a circuit or a processor or a chip in the terminal device that is responsible for a communication function (for example, a Modem (Modem) chip, also called a baseband (baseband) chip, or a system on chip (SoC) chip or a system in package (SYSTEMIN PACKAGE) SIP chip) that includes a Modem core), and may also be implemented by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the terminal device. The present application is not limited thereto, and the following description will take the application of the method to a terminal device as an example. The method includes receiving first configuration information from a network device. The first configuration information is used for indicating a virtual carrier containing a plurality of sub-blocks, the virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resources, the first configuration information comprises frequency domain physical resource position information of each sub-block in a corresponding physical carrier, and the frequency domain physical resource position information of the sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier indicates the frequency domain physical resource position for data transmission in the corresponding physical carrier of the sub-block. And communicating with the network device according to the first configuration information.

Based on the communication method, the terminal equipment receives first configuration information sent by the network equipment and used for indicating virtual carriers comprising a plurality of sub-blocks, one sub-block corresponds to one physical carrier, the virtual carrier can be mapped into a plurality of physical carriers according to the information indicating the position of frequency domain physical resources for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block in the first configuration information, compared with CA, the terminal equipment can map the virtual carrier to the plurality of physical carriers for data transmission by configuring one virtual carrier, so that frequent activation or deactivation of the carriers can be avoided, and signaling overhead can be saved.

In one possible design, the physical carriers corresponding to the multiple sub-blocks may be continuous carriers, that is, the multiple physical carriers corresponding to the multiple sub-blocks are continuous in the frequency domain and may be regarded as a physical carrier with a large bandwidth, so that the guard bands of adjacent physical carriers may be used for data transmission, and the utilization rate of the spectrum resource may be improved. In the embodiment of the present application, the physical carriers of the sub-blocks may be discontinuous carriers, or part of the physical carriers may be discontinuous. That is, the physical carriers corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks may be intra-band (intra-band) or inter-band (inter-band), which is not limited.

In one possible design, the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers may include a bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start location of the sub-block in the physical carrier. The bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier may be a bandwidth used for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block, which may also be referred to as a frequency domain physical resource size occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier or a frequency domain physical resource size used for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block, and the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block in the physical carrier may be indicated by the bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the virtual carrier or the frequency domain resource size, or the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block or the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource used for data transmission in the one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block. Thus, the terminal device can determine the physical frequency domain position of the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

In one possible design, the frequency domain physical resource for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block may include a guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block. Therefore, the guard bands in the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-blocks can be used for data transmission, so that the resource utilization rate can be improved.

In a possible design, the method of the first aspect may further include receiving first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a guard band in a physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block for data transmission. It should be understood that the first indication information may be used to indicate whether guard bands in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-blocks are used for data transmission or not. Thus, the terminal equipment can determine whether the guard band is used as data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

In one possible design, the first indication information may include a frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, where the frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier is the same as the frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, and the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier. Thus, whether a guard band is used for data transmission may be indicated by the frequency domain start position of one of the two adjacent sub-blocks in the corresponding physical carrier and the frequency domain end position of the other in the corresponding physical carrier.

In one possible design, the first indication information is specifically configured to indicate that a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carrier corresponding to the first sub-block is used for data transmission, where the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier. Thus, it is also possible to indicate whether a guard band is used for data transmission directly by indicating whether resources of the guard band are available at the neighbors of the two physical carriers corresponding to the two neighboring sub-blocks.

In one possible design, the virtual carrier may include a first type of resource block RB mapped to two adjacent sub-blocks or two physical carriers corresponding to the two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier. In the embodiment of the present application, the resources mapped by each of two adjacent sub-blocks in the first type RB may be used to indicate the resources used as the guard band for data transmission.

In a possible design, the method of the first aspect may further include receiving second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate a frequency domain resource size occupied by the first type RB in one of the sub-blocks. Thus, the frequency domain resource size in the first type RB included in each sub-block can be determined according to the second indication information.

In a possible design, the first configuration information may also be used to indicate a bandwidth portion BWP for communication by the terminal device within the virtual carrier, where BWP includes frequency domain resources corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks within the virtual carrier. Thus, configuring BWP across sub-blocks (equivalent to across physical carriers) in virtual carriers may enable the network to flexibly switch BWP or adjust BWP width according to load conditions.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may further include frequency domain location information of the BWP within the virtual carrier, where the frequency domain location information includes a frequency domain start location of the BWP within the virtual carrier and a bandwidth of the BWP. Thus, the frequency domain position of BWP in the virtual carrier can be determined.

In one possible design, at least 2 transport blocks TB may be supported for frequency-division transmission within a BWP, one TB being mapped to one sub-block occupied by the BWP. Thus, by supporting the TB mapping based on frequency division in BWP, the radio frequency capability of the terminal device can be considered, which is convenient for the terminal device to realize.

In one possible design, sub-block based hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback and/or HARQ retransmissions may be supported within the BWP. Therefore, with the sub-blocks as granularity, HARQ retransmission and HARQ feedback can be supported in BWP (dual-user data protocol) by crossing the sub-blocks, and the transmission efficiency is improved.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may be sent in a system message or a radio resource control RRC message.

In a possible design, the method of the first aspect may further include receiving a virtual cell identifier corresponding to a virtual carrier from the network device, where the virtual cell identifier is used by the terminal device to perform scrambling processing and/or reference signal generation on the transmitted data.

In one possible design, the virtual cell identity may be sent carried in a synchronization signal or an RRC message.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, where the method may be applied to a network side, such as a network device, or a component in the network device (such as a processor, a circuit, a chip, or a chip system of the network device), and may also be implemented by a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the network device. The method includes transmitting first configuration information. The first configuration information is used for indicating a virtual carrier containing a plurality of sub-blocks, the virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resources, the first configuration information comprises frequency domain physical resource position information of each sub-block in a corresponding physical carrier, and the frequency domain physical resource position information of the sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier indicates the frequency domain physical resource position for data transmission in the corresponding physical carrier of the sub-block. And communicate with the terminal device on the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the physical carriers corresponding to the multiple sub-blocks may be consecutive carriers.

In one possible design, the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers may include a bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start location of the sub-block in the physical carrier.

In one possible design, the frequency domain physical resource for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block may include a guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

In a possible design, the method in the first aspect may further include sending first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a guard band in a physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block to be used for data transmission.

In one possible design, the first indication information may include a frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, where the frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier is the same as the frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, and the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the first indication information is specifically configured to indicate that a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carrier corresponding to the first sub-block is used for data transmission, where the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the virtual carrier may include a first type of resource block RB mapped to two adjacent sub-blocks or two physical carriers corresponding to the two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In a possible design, the method of the second aspect may further include receiving second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate a frequency domain resource size occupied by the first type RB in one of the sub-blocks.

In a possible design, the first configuration information may also be used to indicate a bandwidth portion BWP for communication by the terminal device within the virtual carrier, where BWP includes frequency domain resources corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks within the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may further include frequency domain location information of the BWP within the virtual carrier, where the frequency domain location information includes a frequency domain start location of the BWP within the virtual carrier and a bandwidth of the BWP.

In one possible design, at least 2 transport blocks TB may be supported for frequency-division transmission within a BWP, one TB being mapped to one sub-block occupied by the BWP.

In one possible design, sub-block based hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback and/or HARQ retransmissions may be supported within the BWP.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may be sent in a system message or a radio resource control RRC message.

In a possible design, the method in the second aspect may further include sending, to the terminal device, a virtual cell identifier corresponding to the virtual carrier, where the virtual cell identifier is used by the terminal device to perform scrambling processing and/or reference signal generation on the transmitted data.

In one possible design, the virtual cell identity may be sent carried in a synchronization signal or an RRC message.

The technical effects of the method according to the second aspect may be referred to the description of the technical effects of the method according to the first aspect, which is not repeated herein.

In a third aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the above methods. The communication means may be a terminal device as in the first aspect, or an apparatus comprising the terminal device, or an apparatus, such as a chip, comprised in the terminal device. The communication device comprises corresponding modules, units or means (means) for implementing the method according to the first aspect, which modules, units or means may be implemented in hardware, in software or by executing corresponding software in hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions described above.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes a processing module and a communication module. The communication module is used for receiving the first configuration information from the network equipment. The first configuration information is used for indicating a virtual carrier containing a plurality of sub-blocks, the virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resources, the first configuration information comprises frequency domain physical resource position information of each sub-block in a corresponding physical carrier, and the frequency domain physical resource position information of the sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier indicates the frequency domain physical resource position for data transmission in the corresponding physical carrier of the sub-block. And the processing module is used for communicating with the network equipment according to the first configuration information.

In one possible design, the physical carriers corresponding to the multiple sub-blocks may be consecutive carriers.

In one possible design, the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers may include a bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start location of the sub-block in the physical carrier.

In one possible design, the frequency domain physical resource for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block may include a guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

In one possible design, the communication module is further configured to receive first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a guard band in a physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block to be used for data transmission.

In one possible design, the first indication information may include a frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, where the frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier is the same as the frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, and the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the first indication information is specifically configured to indicate that a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carrier corresponding to the first sub-block is used for data transmission, where the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the virtual carrier may include a first type of resource block RB mapped to two adjacent sub-blocks or two physical carriers corresponding to the two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In a possible design, the method of the first aspect may further include receiving second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate a frequency domain resource size occupied by the first type RB in one of the sub-blocks.

In a possible design, the first configuration information may also be used to indicate a bandwidth portion BWP for communication by the terminal device within the virtual carrier, where BWP includes frequency domain resources corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks within the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may further include frequency domain location information of the BWP within the virtual carrier, where the frequency domain location information includes a frequency domain start location of the BWP within the virtual carrier and a bandwidth of the BWP.

In one possible design, at least 2 transport blocks TB may be supported for frequency-division transmission within a BWP, one TB being mapped to one sub-block occupied by the BWP.

In one possible design, sub-block based hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback and/or HARQ retransmissions may be supported within the BWP.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may be sent in a system message or a radio resource control RRC message.

In one possible design, the communication module is configured to receive a virtual cell identifier corresponding to a virtual carrier from the network device, where the virtual cell identifier is used by the terminal device to perform scrambling processing and/or reference signal generation on the transmitted data.

In one possible design, the virtual cell identity may be sent carried in a synchronization signal or an RRC message.

In one possible embodiment, the communication module may comprise a receiving module and a transmitting module. Wherein, the sending module is used for realizing the sending function of the communication device according to the third aspect, and the receiving module is used for realizing the receiving function of the communication device according to the third aspect.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication device according to the third aspect may further include a storage module, where the storage module stores a program or instructions. The program or instructions, when executed by a processing module, enable the communication device of the third aspect to perform the method of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the above methods. The communication means may be a network device as in the second aspect, or an apparatus comprising the network device, or an apparatus, such as a chip, comprised in the network device. The communication device comprises corresponding modules, units or means (means) for implementing the method according to the second aspect, which modules, units or means may be implemented in hardware, in software or by executing corresponding software in hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions described above.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for generating first configuration information. The first configuration information is used for indicating a virtual carrier containing a plurality of sub-blocks, the virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resources, the first configuration information comprises frequency domain physical resource position information of each sub-block in a corresponding physical carrier, and the frequency domain physical resource position information of the sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier indicates the frequency domain physical resource position for data transmission in the corresponding physical carrier of the sub-block. And the communication module is used for sending the first configuration information and communicating with the terminal equipment on the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the physical carriers corresponding to the multiple sub-blocks may be consecutive carriers.

In one possible design, the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers may include a bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start location of the sub-block in the physical carrier.

In one possible design, the frequency domain physical resource for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block may include a guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

In one possible design, the communication module is further configured to send first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a guard band in a physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block to be used for data transmission.

In one possible design, the first indication information may include a frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, where the frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier is the same as the frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, and the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the first indication information is specifically configured to indicate that a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carrier corresponding to the first sub-block is used for data transmission, where the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the virtual carrier may include a first type of resource block RB mapped to two adjacent sub-blocks or two physical carriers corresponding to the two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

In a possible design, the method of the first aspect may further include receiving second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate a frequency domain resource size occupied by the first type RB in one of the sub-blocks.

In a possible design, the first configuration information may also be used to indicate a bandwidth portion BWP for communication by the terminal device within the virtual carrier, where BWP includes frequency domain resources corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks within the virtual carrier.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may further include frequency domain location information of the BWP within the virtual carrier, where the frequency domain location information includes a frequency domain start location of the BWP within the virtual carrier and a bandwidth of the BWP.

In one possible design, at least 2 transport blocks TB may be supported for frequency-division transmission within a BWP, one TB being mapped to one sub-block occupied by the BWP.

In one possible design, sub-block based hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback and/or HARQ retransmissions may be supported within the BWP.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may be sent in a system message or a radio resource control RRC message.

In a possible design, the communication module is further configured to send a virtual cell identifier corresponding to the virtual carrier to the terminal device, where the virtual cell identifier is used for scrambling transmitted data and/or generating a reference signal by the terminal device.

In one possible design, the virtual cell identity may be sent carried in a synchronization signal or an RRC message.

In one possible embodiment, the communication module may comprise a receiving module and a transmitting module. The sending module is used for realizing the sending function of the communication device according to the fourth aspect, and the receiving module is used for realizing the receiving function of the communication device according to the fourth aspect.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication device according to the fourth aspect may further include a storage module, where the storage module stores a program or instructions. The program or instructions, when executed by a processing module, enable the communications device of the fourth aspect to perform the method of the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a communication device (e.g., the communication device may be a chip or a system-on-chip) is provided. The communication device comprises a processor for implementing the functions referred to in the first aspect.

In one possible embodiment, the communication device can further comprise a memory for storing the necessary program instructions and data. A processor is coupled to the memory for executing computer programs or instructions stored in the memory to cause the communication device to perform the method of the first or second aspect.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication device according to the fifth aspect may further include a transceiver. The transceiver may be a transceiver circuit or an interface circuit. The transceiver may be for use in a communication device according to the fifth aspect to communicate with other communication devices.

In one possible design, the processor may be integrated with the memory.

In some possible designs, the device may be a system-on-chip, may be formed from a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from or transmitting signals from a further communication device other than the communication device, the processor being operable to implement a method as described in the first or second aspect by logic circuitry or executing code instructions.

In a seventh aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a terminal device, or may be a module or unit (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit) corresponding to one for performing the method/operation/step/action described in the first aspect in the terminal device, or may be capable of being used in cooperation with the terminal device. Or the communication means may be a network device, or may be a module or unit (e.g. a chip, or a system on a chip, or a circuit) in the network device, which corresponds to one for each of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the second aspect, or may be adapted for use with the network device.

It will be appreciated that when the communication device provided in any one of the fifth to seventh aspects is a chip, the above-described transmitting action/function may be understood as output, and the above-described receiving action/function may be understood as input.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a communication chip having instructions stored therein which, when executed on a communication device, cause the method described in the first or second aspect to be carried out.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when run on a communication device, enable the communication device to perform the method of the first or second aspect described above.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions comprising computer program code which, when run on a communications apparatus, causes the communications apparatus to perform the method of the first or second aspect described above.

In an eleventh aspect, a communication system is provided, the communication system comprising a terminal device for implementing the method described in the first aspect and a network device for implementing the method described in the second aspect.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network sharing architecture;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a architecture of fractional carrier sharing and common carrier sharing in a master device sharing scenario;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a resource structure shared by common carrier frequencies;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture suitable for a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of another network architecture applicable to a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture applicable to a communication system according to another embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture applicable to a communication system according to another embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 9 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a resource structure of a virtual carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a resource structure of another virtual carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a continuous carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a discontinuous carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a partial discontinuous carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of BWP configuration in a virtual carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of TB transmission in BWP according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

For a better understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the following description is made before describing the embodiments of the present application.

First, in embodiments of the present application, "for indicating" may include for direct indication and for indirect indication. When describing a certain "indication information" for indicating a, the indication information may be included to directly indicate a or indirectly indicate a, and does not necessarily represent that the indication information carries a.

The information indicated by the indication information is referred to as information to be indicated, and in a specific implementation process, there are various ways of indicating the information to be indicated, for example, but not limited to, the information to be indicated may be directly indicated, such as the information to be indicated itself or an index of the information to be indicated. The information to be indicated can also be indicated indirectly by indicating other information, wherein the other information and the information to be indicated have an association relation. It is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while other parts of the information to be indicated are known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of the specific information may also be achieved by means of a pre-agreed (e.g., protocol-specified) arrangement sequence of the respective information, thereby reducing the indication overhead to some extent. And meanwhile, the universal part of each information can be identified and indicated uniformly, so that the indication cost caused by independently indicating the same information is reduced.

The specific indication means may be any of various existing indication means, such as, but not limited to, the above indication means, various combinations thereof, and the like. Specific details of various indications may be referred to the prior art and are not described herein. As can be seen from the above, for example, when multiple pieces of information of the same type need to be indicated, different manners of indication of different pieces of information may occur. In a specific implementation process, a required indication mode can be selected according to specific needs, and the selected indication mode is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, so that the indication mode according to the embodiment of the present application is understood to cover various methods that can enable a party to be indicated to learn information to be indicated.

The information to be indicated can be sent together as a whole or can be divided into a plurality of pieces of sub-information to be sent separately, and the sending periods and/or sending occasions of the sub-information can be the same or different. Specific transmission method the present application is not limited. The transmission period and/or the transmission timing of the sub-information may be predefined, for example, predefined according to a protocol, or may be configured by the transmitting end device by transmitting configuration information to the receiving end device.

Second, in the embodiment of the present application, the first, second and various numbers are merely for convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiment of the present application. For example, different indication information is distinguished. As another example, the first network area and the second network area are merely for distinguishing different areas, and are not limited in their order. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the words "first," "second," and the like do not limit the amount and order of execution, and that the words "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily differ.

Third, in the embodiments of the present application, the descriptions of "when..times", "in the case of..times", "if", and the like all refer to that the device (e.g., the terminal device or the network device) will make a corresponding process under some objective condition, are not limited in time, nor do the devices (e.g., the terminal device or the network device) require an action of determining when implemented, nor are other limitations meant to exist.

Fourth, in embodiments of the present application, words such as "exemplary" or "such as" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "e.g." in an embodiment should not be taken as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion that may be readily understood.

Fifth, in embodiments of the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes an association of associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., A and/or B, and that there may be A alone, while A and B are present, and B alone, where A, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one item(s)" or the like, refers to any combination of items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (a, b, or c) of a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c may be represented, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

Finally, the network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for more clearly describing the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, and as a person of ordinary skill in the art can know, with evolution of the network architecture and appearance of a new service scenario, the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

Communication systems and applicable network elements, related technologies and terminology involved in embodiments of the present application are described below.

Embodiments of the application will present various aspects, embodiments, or features around a system that may include multiple devices, components, modules, etc. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include all of the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection with the figures. Furthermore, combinations of these schemes may also be used.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may be applied to various communication systems, for example, a 4th generation (4th generation,4G) mobile communication system, such as a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a 5th generation (5th generation,5G) mobile communication system, such as a New Radio (NR) system, a 5G evolution (5G-advanced, 5.5G) mobile communication system, and future communication systems, such as a 6th generation (6th generation,6G) mobile communication system, and so on. Suitable scenarios of the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application include, but are not limited to, terrestrial cellular communications, non-terrestrial network (non terrestrial network, NTN) communications, such as satellite communications, high altitude communication platform (high altitude platform station, HAPS) communications, vehicle-to-everything, V2X (vehicle-to-anything) communications, access backhaul (IAB) and reconfigurable intelligent surface (reconfigurable intelligent surface, RIS) communications.

1. Carrier wave (carrier)

A carrier wave is a radio signal, i.e. an electromagnetic wave, with a specific frequency, bandwidth and format, emitted by a radio frequency device of a network device or a terminal device, and is the main body used for carrying information in wireless mobile communication. The carrier wave used by the network device to transmit is called a downlink carrier wave, and the carrier wave used by the terminal device to transmit is called an uplink carrier wave.

2、CA

CA refers to a technique that achieves increased data rate and capacity by combining multiple independent carrier channels to increase bandwidth. The terminal equipment supporting CA can simultaneously transmit data on a plurality of carriers, and the data transmission rate is improved.

Each carrier in CA is also called a component carrier or a component carrier (component carrier, CC), among all component carriers, a component carrier that carries signaling and manages other component carriers is called a primary carrier, also called a primary cell (PRIMARY CELL, PCell), and a secondary carrier, also called a secondary cell (SCell), is used to expand bandwidth and increase rate, and the primary carrier determines when to add or delete.

The CA may be divided into an intra-band CA and an inter-band CA according to the frequency band in which the CA is located, wherein the intra-band CA is carrier aggregation of the same frequency band and is divided into an intra-band continuous (non-continuous) and an inter-band discontinuous (non-discontinuous), and the inter-band CA is carrier aggregation of different frequency bands, and implementation complexity of three modes of the intra-band continuous, the inter-band discontinuous and the inter-band discontinuous increases sequentially.

Considering the terminal device and the network side implementation capability, in 5G, the maximum bandwidth that can be supported by the terminal device is 100 megahertz (MHz) for below 6 gigahertz (GHz), and 400MHz for above 6GHz, that is, the maximum bandwidth that can be supported by the terminal device is 100MHz or 400MHz. To boost the maximum rate of a single user, this can be achieved by means of CA.

3. Bandwidth portion (BWP)

NR introduces the concept of BWP. A BWP is a segment of contiguous frequency resources on one carrier. There may be one or more BWP in one carrier, and the bandwidth of BWP in one carrier is less than or equal to the bandwidth of this carrier. When a BWP is configured and activated, the BWP is called an activated BWP. In the current version of the protocol, a terminal can only have one active downlink BWP (active downlink BWP) on one downlink carrier and only one active uplink BWP (active uplink BWP) on one uplink carrier. In general, a terminal transmits uplink data and control information in an uplink active BWP and receives downlink data and control information in a downlink active BWP.

It should be appreciated that one BWP corresponds to one subcarrier spacing, and the size of BWP (BWP size) is characterized by the number of RBs to which this subcarrier spacing corresponds.

4. Network sharing

In order to reduce the network deployment cost, different operators consider the common construction in a network sharing mode in the network construction process, and according to different sharing devices, the network deployment method can be divided into the following three scenes:

A. infrastructure sharing-different operators share iron towers, roofs or equipment rooms, share site resources, but the networks of different operators are independent, for example, operator a and operator B site sharing, iron tower sharing.

B. The main equipment sharing can also be called radio access network (radio access network, RAN) sharing (RAN SHARING), wherein the main equipment comprises a base station, an active antenna unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA unit, AAU) and the like which can be shared, and the RAN side network and the base station share, the RAN side network share, have coupling, and an operator needs to negotiate in the aspects of deployment, operation and maintenance and the like. As shown in fig. 1 (a), operator a and operator B share the same RAN equipment.

C. Network roaming, in which networks of different operators are independent and each of the operators independently operates own network, but the network sharing among different operators is realized through roaming agreements. As shown in (B) of fig. 1, networks of the operator a and the operator B are independent, and network sharing can be achieved through a roaming agreement.

Compared with the independent operation network of the operators in the network roaming mode and the sharing site only in the infrastructure sharing mode, the master equipment sharing can realize deeper sharing, thereby being beneficial to further reducing the network construction cost and becoming a common building sharing mode commonly selected by the operators at present.

For the above-mentioned main equipment sharing scenario, whether different operators share spectrum resources can be further classified into common carrier frequency sharing and fractional carrier frequency sharing. Taking an operator a and an operator B as examples, RAN devices are shared, and the core networks of different operators are independent from each other. As shown in fig. 2, fig. 2 (a) is a split carrier sharing scenario, where the spectrum between the operators a and B is not shared, and the cells are still differentiated by the operators, and each operator operates its own network independently, so the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) protocol is not defined.

In fig. 2, (B) is a common carrier frequency sharing scenario, where the carrier a and the carrier B share spectrum resources, that is, the user of the carrier a may use spectrum resources allocated to the carrier B, or the user of the carrier B may use spectrum resources allocated to the carrier a, but since spectrum resources currently allocated to different carriers correspond to different carriers, when the user of the carrier a uses spectrum resources allocated to the carrier a and the carrier B simultaneously, or the user of the carrier B uses spectrum resources allocated to the carrier a and the carrier B simultaneously, it is needed to implement this by carrier aggregation. For the common carrier sharing scenario, 3GPP is defined in technical specification (TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION, TS) 23.501, and protocol is correspondingly enhanced from the wireless side, specifically, each cell broadcasts information of a plurality of public land mobile networks (public land mobile network, PLMNs) through a system message block (systeminformation block, SIB) 1, terminal equipment selects one PLMN and reports to a base station, and the sharing base station routes the terminal equipment to a corresponding core network according to the PLMN selected by the terminal equipment.

As shown in fig. 3, taking the co-building sharing of spectrum sharing of carrier a (corresponding to carrier 1) and carrier B (corresponding to carrier 2) on C-Band as an example, PLMNs of carrier a and carrier B may be broadcast in system messages of carrier 1 and carrier 2, guard bands (guard bands) are disposed at two ends of carrier 1 and carrier 2, bandwidth resources for data transmission are disposed between the guard bands, and the terminal device may use spectrum resources of carrier 1 and/or carrier 2, as described above, because these correspond to two carriers, the terminal device needs to use spectrum resources of carrier 1 and carrier 2 simultaneously by CA.

However, although the sharing manner of the master device helps to reduce the network construction cost, there is still a certain limitation, and the method is not flexible. For the above-mentioned partial carrier sharing, on one hand, the spectrum between different operators is not shared, and the spectrum utilization cannot be maximized, on the other hand, when the network is in a low-load scenario, the carriers of the different operators need to be kept in an active state, and from the perspective of the base station side, a wider radio frequency bandwidth needs to be kept (for example, in fig. 3, the base station needs to keep a radio frequency bandwidth of 200MHz while supporting carrier 1 and carrier 2), so that correspondingly more network energy consumption is consumed. Compared with the split carrier sharing, although the carrier sharing is helpful for improving spectrum utilization, when resources of two carriers are used simultaneously, the carrier sharing needs to be implemented in a carrier aggregation mode, however, the carrier aggregation mode has the problems that signaling overhead is large, configuration information on each carrier needs to be provided by a network side, after the network side configures auxiliary carriers, activation/deactivation of the auxiliary carriers needs to be performed through a Media Access Control (MAC) element (CE), the activation/deactivation is prolonged, even if an intra-band scene exists in each carrier, and data transmission cannot be performed in the guard band, so that resources are not fully utilized, and terminal equipment must support CA capability.

In order to solve the above problems, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, in a main device sharing scenario, so that a terminal device may communicate with a network device on carriers of different operators or multiple carriers of the same operator, which may reduce signaling overhead and improve resource utilization.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present application is applied. As an example, the communication system includes a network device and a terminal device, as shown in fig. 4. The network device and the terminal device can directly communicate with each other, and can also forward the communication through other devices. It should be noted that, fig. 4 exemplarily shows 1 network device and 1 terminal device, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the number of network devices and terminal devices.

In the embodiment of the application, the network device can configure the virtual carrier comprising a plurality of sub-blocks for the terminal device, wherein the virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resource, and one sub-block corresponds to one physical carrier, so that the terminal device can perform data transmission based on a plurality of physical carriers mapped by the virtual carrier.

The network device may also be referred to as a RAN node, an access network device, a RAN entity, or an access node, and is located on a network side of the communication system, so as to help a terminal device to implement wireless access, and the device having a wireless transceiver function may be a chip or a chip system that is configured on the device. The network device includes, but is not limited to, a base station (base station), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), an Access Point (AP), a transmission and reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB), a next generation base station in a 6G mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wi-Fi) system, etc. The network device may be a macro base station, a micro base station or an indoor station, a relay node or a donor node, an open radio access network (open radio access network, ORAN), or a radio controller in the context of a centralized radio access network (centralized radio access network, CRAN). Alternatively, the RAN node may also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or an in-vehicle device, etc. For example, the access network device in the V2X technology may be a Road Side Unit (RSU). All or part of the functions of the network device in the present application may also be implemented by software functions running on hardware, or by virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). The network device in the present application may also be a logical node, a logical module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device.

In another possible scenario, a plurality of RAN nodes cooperate to assist a terminal device in implementing radio access, and different RAN nodes implement part of the functions of a base station, respectively. For example, the RAN node may be a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), a CU-Control Plane (CP), a CU-User Plane (UP), or a Radio Unit (RU), etc. The CUs and DUs may be provided separately or may be included in the same network element, e.g. in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or unit, such as in a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU), an active AAU, or a remote radio head (remote radio head, RRH).

In different systems, CUs (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DUs or RUs may also have different names, but the meaning will be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in ORAN systems, a CU may also be referred to as an O-CU (open CU), a DU may also be referred to as an O-DU, a CU-CP may also be referred to as an O-CU-CP, a CU-UP may also be referred to as an O-CU-UP, and a RU may also be referred to as an O-RU. For convenience of description, the present application is described by taking CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of software and hardware modules.

The form of the network device in the embodiment of the present application is not limited, and the device for implementing the function of the network device may be the network device, or may be a device capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a chip system. The apparatus may be installed in or used in cooperation with a network device.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment is a terminal which is accessed to the communication system and has a wireless receiving and transmitting function or a chip system which can be arranged on the terminal. The terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), user equipment, access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user equipment. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned-driving (self-driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (SMART GRID), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (SMART CITY), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), a vehicle-mounted terminal, an RSU with a terminal function, or the like. The terminal device of the present application may also be an in-vehicle module, an in-vehicle component, an in-vehicle chip, or an in-vehicle unit that is built in a vehicle as one or more components or units, and the vehicle may implement the method provided by the present application through the in-vehicle module, the in-vehicle component, the in-vehicle chip, or the in-vehicle unit.

The embodiment of the application does not limit the equipment form of the terminal equipment, and the device for realizing the function of the terminal equipment can be the terminal equipment or can be a device capable of supporting the terminal equipment to realize the function, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in or matched with the terminal equipment. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

It should be noted that the solution in the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to other communication systems, and the corresponding names may also be replaced by names of corresponding functions in other communication systems.

The following exemplary description is of several network architectures suitable for use in the communication system shown in fig. 4.

In the independent networking (standalone, SA) scenario, as shown in fig. 5, under the non-shared co-building architecture, the terminal device is connected with a single network device, where the network device connected with the terminal device and the Core network (Core) connected with the network device are in the same system, for example, the Core network is 5G Core, the network device is corresponding to a 5G base station, and the 5G base station is directly connected with the 5G Core, or the Core network is 6G Core, the network device is corresponding to a 6G base station, and the 6G base station is directly connected with the 6G Core. In this scenario, multiple physical carriers of the same carrier network may be configured as virtual carriers by the network device.

As shown in fig. 6, under the shared co-building architecture, different operator networks adopt a main equipment sharing mode, the Core network corresponding to the operator a and the Core network corresponding to the operator B are connected to the same network equipment, the terminal equipment can be connected into the Core networks corresponding to different operators through the same network equipment, the network equipment connected by the terminal equipment and the Core network (Core) corresponding to different operators connected by the network equipment are of the same standard, if the Core network corresponding to the operator a and the Core network corresponding to the operator B are 5G cores, the network equipment corresponds to 5G base stations, or the Core network corresponding to the operator a and the Core network corresponding to the operator B are 6G cores, and the network equipment corresponds to 6G base stations. In this scenario, multiple physical carriers of different operator networks may be configured as virtual carriers by the network device.

In the dual-connection (dual connectivity, DC) scenario, as shown in fig. 7, under the non-shared co-architecture, the terminal device may connect with network devices of different/same systems at the same time, where the network devices of different/same systems are connected with the same core network, and are suitable for terminal devices in a connection state. For example, the Core network is a 5G Core, the network device 1 is a 5G base station, the network device 2 is a 6G base station, the terminal device is simultaneously connected with the 5G base station and the 6G base station, wherein the 5G base station is used as a main station, and the 6G base station is used as a secondary station, for example, the Core network is the 6G Core, the network device 1 is the 5G base station, the network device 2 is the 6G base station, the terminal device is simultaneously connected with the 6G base station and the 5G base station, wherein the 6G base station is used as a main station, and the 5G base station is used as a secondary station, for example, the Core network is the 6G Core, the network device 1 and the network device 2 are both 6G base stations, and the terminal device is simultaneously connected with the two 6G base stations, namely, the main station and the secondary station are both 6G base stations. In this scenario, multiple physical carriers of the same operator network may also be configured as virtual carriers by the network device.

As shown in fig. 8, in the shared co-architecture, the terminal device may be connected to two network devices of different/identical systems at the same time, where each network device is shared by the operator a and the operator B, and each network device is connected to the core network of the operator a and the core network of the operator B at the same time, where the core network of the operator a and the core network of the operator B support core networks of multiple systems. For example, the network device 1 and the network device 2 are both 5G base stations, the Core network of the operator a and the Core network of the operator B are both 5G cores, for example, the network device 1 and the network device 2 are both 6G base stations, the Core network of the operator a and the Core network of the operator B are both 6G cores, for example, the network device 1 is a 5G base station, the network device 2 is a 6G base station, the Core network of the operator a and the Core network of the operator B are both 5G/6G cores, for example, the network device 1 is a 6G base station, the network device 2 is a 5G base station, and the Core network of the operator a and the Core network of the operator B are both 5G/6G cores. In this scenario, multiple physical carriers of different operator networks may also be configured as virtual carriers by the network device.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be specifically described with reference to fig. 9 to 16.

Fig. 9 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. This communication is illustrated by way of example as a communication between a network device and a terminal device as shown in fig. 4. Of course, the main body for executing the actions of the terminal device in the method may also be a device/module in the terminal device, for example, a chip, a processor, a processing unit, etc. in the terminal device, which is not limited in particular, and the main body for executing the actions of the network device in the method may also be a device/module in the network device, for example, a chip, a processor, a processing unit, etc. in the network device, which is not limited in particular.

As shown in fig. 9, the communication method includes:

And S901, the network equipment sends first configuration information to the terminal equipment. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first configuration information from the network device.

S902, the terminal equipment communicates with the network equipment according to the first configuration information.

S901 and S902 are described in detail below, respectively. For S901:

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device generates and transmits first configuration information, where the first configuration information is information for configuring a virtual carrier, for example, the first configuration information is used to indicate a virtual carrier including a plurality of sub blocks (sub blocks). The virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resources, or the virtual carrier is formed by a section of continuous frequency domain resources, or the virtual carrier comprises a section of continuous frequency domain resources, and the frequency domain resources corresponding to the virtual carrier are used for representing the physical frequency domain resources of a plurality of physical carriers, or the frequency domain resources corresponding to the virtual carrier comprise the physical frequency domain resources of a plurality of physical carriers. That is, the virtual carrier corresponds to a plurality of physical carriers, and the plurality of physical carriers may be associated with the same PLMN, may be associated with different PLMNs, or may be associated with a plurality of PLMNs for each physical carrier, which is not limited thereto.

It should be understood that the frequency domain resource of the virtual carrier may be referred to as a virtual frequency domain resource or a frequency domain virtual resource, and accordingly, the frequency domain resource of the physical carrier used for actual transmission may be referred to as a physical frequency domain resource or a frequency domain physical resource, the virtual frequency domain resource of the virtual carrier has a corresponding relationship with the physical frequency domain resource of the physical carrier, the frequency domain resource position of the sub-block in the virtual carrier may be referred to as a frequency domain virtual resource position or a virtual frequency domain resource position, and the frequency domain resource position of the sub-block in the physical carrier may be referred to as a frequency domain physical resource position or a physical frequency domain resource position, which is not limited.

The frequency domain resources of the virtual carrier are continuously divided from the starting position, each sub-block occupies a section of continuous frequency domain resources in the virtual carrier, and the size of the frequency domain resources occupied by each sub-block in the virtual carrier can be the same, if the frequency domain resources are uniformly divided, or can be different, if the frequency domain resources are unevenly divided, the frequency domain resources are not limited. For each sub-block in the virtual carrier, an index or number or identification for indicating the sub-block may be configured, for example, the index or number or identification of the sub-block may be sequentially increased from left to right according to the position of the sub-block in the virtual carrier, and the serial numbers may be 0 or 1.

As shown in fig. 10, the frequency domain resource of the virtual carrier is configured with 150 Resource Blocks (RBs), and an index (index) of the 150 RBs is 0 to 149, where 0 to 49 RBs are configured as one sub-block 1, 50 to 99 RBs are configured as one sub-block 2, and 100 to 149 RBs are configured as one sub-block 3. The RB of the virtual carrier may also be referred to as a Virtual RB (VRB).

It should be understood that the bandwidth of the carrier may be determined according to the subcarrier spacing (subcarrier spacing, SCS) and the number of frequency domain resources, for example, scs=15 KHz, and one RB is composed of 12 subcarriers in the frequency domain, and the bandwidth of one RB is 180KHz, so that the bandwidth of the virtual carrier is 27MHz as shown in fig. 10, and the bandwidth of each sub-block is 9MHz.

In the virtual carrier, one sub-block corresponds to one physical carrier, or one sub-block is used for representing one physical carrier, and the frequency domain resource occupied by the sub-block in the virtual carrier is used for indicating the frequency domain physical resource used for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block, or the frequency domain resource occupied by the sub-block in the virtual carrier is equal to the frequency domain physical resource used for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block. As shown in fig. 10, sub-blocks 1 to 3 are distributed and occupy 50 RBs in the virtual carrier, and frequency domain physical resources for data transmission in physical carriers corresponding to sub-blocks 1 to 3 are also 50 RBs.

In one possible design, the frequency domain resources of the virtual carrier may include a first type of RB and a second type of RB, or include a second type of RB. The first type RB is mapped to two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier or two physical carriers corresponding to the two adjacent sub-blocks, wherein the two adjacent sub-blocks refer to two sub-blocks with adjacent sequence numbers in the virtual carrier or resources with adjacent frequency domain resources, and no other sub-blocks exist between the two adjacent sub-blocks. The mapping of the first type RB to two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier may be understood that a part of frequency domain resources in one first type RB is occupied by one sub-block in the two adjacent sub-blocks, and another part of frequency domain resources is occupied by another sub-block, for example, the resources in one first type RB may be divided by Resource Element (RE) granularity, and correspondingly, the part of frequency domain resources occupied by two adjacent sub-blocks in one first type RB is correspondingly mapped to the frequency domain physical resources of two physical carriers respectively corresponding to two adjacent sub-blocks.

Accordingly, the first type of RB may refer to RBs occupied by two adjacent sub-blocks, respectively, the frequency domain resources of each of the two adjacent sub-blocks including a portion of the frequency domain resources in the first type of RB. It should be appreciated that in the case where the second type of RB is present in the virtual carrier, at most some of the frequency domain resources in two RBs of the second type are included in the frequency domain resources of each sub-block, e.g., the frequency domain start position of the sub-block in the virtual carrier is located in one RB of the first type and/or the frequency domain end position of the sub-block in the virtual carrier is located in one RB of the first type.

It should be understood that the frequency domain resources occupied by each of the two adjacent sub-blocks in the second type RB may be the same or different, which is not limited.

In the embodiment of the present application, part of the frequency domain resources in the second type RB included in the frequency domain resources of the sub-block may be used to characterize the frequency domain physical resources of the guard band that may be used for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block. That is, if the frequency domain resource of one sub-block includes a part of the resources in the second type RB, the part of the frequency domain resource size in the second type RB is the frequency domain physical resource size of the guard band for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

The mapping of the second type of RB to one sub-block in the virtual carrier or to a physical carrier corresponding to one sub-block, the mapping of the second type of RB to one sub-block in the virtual carrier may be understood as one second type of RB being occupied by one sub-block in the virtual carrier, in other words, the frequency domain resource of one sub-block includes at least one RB of the second type, and accordingly, one RB of the second type of one sub-block is mapped to one frequency domain physical resource of the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

The frequency domain resources of the sub-blocks as shown in fig. 10 are composed of the second type RBs excluding the first type RBs, and the sub-blocks as shown in fig. 10 can be considered to be divided with RBs as granularity.

As shown in fig. 11, the virtual carrier includes 150 RBs, the sub-block 1 and the sub-block 2 in the virtual carrier occupy the 50 th RB together, the frequency domain resource of the sub-block 1 includes the 0 th to 49 th RBs and the previous part of REs in the 50 th RBs, the frequency domain resource of the sub-block 2 includes the next part of REs in the 50 th RBs and the 51 th to 99 th RBs, and the frequency domain resource of the sub-block 3 includes the 100 th to 149 th RBs, and then the 50 th RB is the first type RB, and the 0 th to 49 th RBs, the 51 th to 99 th RBs, and the 100 th to 149 th RBs are all the second type RBs.

For the frequency domain resource size occupied by the two sub-blocks in the second type RB, the network device can send second indication information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second indication information from the network device. The second indication information is used for indicating the frequency domain resource size occupied by the first type of RB in one sub-block or indicating the frequency domain resource size occupied by one sub-block in the first type of RB.

With continued reference to fig. 11, for example, if the frequency domain resource of the sub-block 1 includes the first 7 REs in the 50 th RB and the frequency domain resource of the sub-block 2 includes the remaining 5 REs in the 50 th RB, the second indication information may indicate that the 50 th RB occupies 7 REs in the sub-block 1, or the second indication information may indicate that the 50 th RB occupies 5 REs in the sub-block 2, or the second indication information may indicate that the 50 th RB occupies 7 REs in the sub-block 1 and 5 REs in the sub-block 2.

Alternatively, the second indication information may be included in the first configuration information and may be transmitted separately from the first configuration information, which is not limited.

In one possible implementation, the physical carriers corresponding to the multiple sub-blocks may be continuous carriers, as shown in fig. 12, where the multiple physical carriers are continuous in the frequency domain, and a guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 1 and the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2 may be used for data transmission, and a guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 3 and the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2 may be used for data transmission, that is, there may be no guard band adjacent to two continuous physical carriers. Because the plurality of physical carriers are continuous, when no guard band exists at the adjacent positions of the two continuous physical carriers, the plurality of physical carriers can be used as a physical carrier with large bandwidth, the guard bands are still arranged at the two ends of the physical carrier with large bandwidth, and a section of continuous bandwidth or physical frequency domain resource for data transmission is arranged between the guard bands.

In this implementation, the frequency domain physical resource for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block may include a frequency domain physical resource of a guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block. It is understood that the frequency domain resources occupied by the sub-blocks in the virtual carrier may include physical frequency domain resources used as guard bands in the physical carrier and original physical frequency domain resources used for data transmission in the physical carrier.

In another possible implementation, the physical carriers corresponding to the multiple sub-blocks may be discontinuous carriers, as shown in fig. 13, where the multiple physical carriers are discontinuous in the frequency domain, a section of frequency domain resource or bandwidth is spaced between adjacent physical carriers, the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 1 and the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 2 are discontinuously arranged in the frequency domain, and the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 2 and the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 3 are discontinuously arranged in the frequency domain. In this implementation, guard bands need to exist at two ends of each physical carrier, so the frequency domain physical resources for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to a sub-block may not include the physical frequency domain resources of the guard bands in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block. It can be understood that the frequency domain resources occupied by the sub-blocks in the virtual carrier are the original physical frequency domain resources for data transmission in the physical carrier.

In still other possible implementations, some of the physical carriers corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks may be continuous carriers, and some of the physical carriers may be discontinuous carriers, as shown in fig. 14, where the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 1 and the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 2 are discontinuously arranged in the frequency domain, the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 2 and the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 3 are continuously arranged in the frequency domain, at this time, the two continuously arranged physical carriers may be regarded as one large-bandwidth physical carrier, and guard bands at two ends of the two continuously arranged physical carriers still exist, and a section of continuous bandwidth or physical frequency domain resource for data transmission is between the guard bands, that is, the guard bands at the adjacent positions of the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 2 and the physical carriers corresponding to the sub-block 3 may be used for data transmission, so that the frequency domain resource corresponding to the sub-block 2 may include the physical frequency domain resource of the guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2, and the frequency domain resource corresponding to the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 3 may include the physical frequency domain resource of the guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 1.

That is, the physical carriers corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks may be intra-band (intra-band) or inter-band (inter-band).

Thus, the first configuration information configured by the network device may include frequency domain physical resource location information of each sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers, where the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers indicates a frequency domain physical resource location for data transmission in the corresponding one of the physical carriers to which the sub-block corresponds. Alternatively, the first configuration information includes frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block, and the frequency domain physical resource location of the sub-block may be regarded as a frequency domain physical resource location for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

The frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers may include a bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start location of the sub-block in the physical carrier. The bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier may be a bandwidth used for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block, which may also be referred to as a frequency domain physical resource size occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier or a frequency domain physical resource size used for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block, and may be indicated by the bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the virtual carrier or the frequency domain resource size. As shown in fig. 10, the bandwidth occupied by the sub-block 1 in the physical carrier is indicated by indexes 0 to 49 of RBs occupied in the virtual carrier. As further shown in fig. 11, the bandwidth occupied by the sub-block 1 in the physical carrier is indicated by indexes of RBs of the second type occupied in the virtual carrier, such as 0 to 49, and indexes of REs in RBs of the first type, such as 0 to 6.

The starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block in the physical carrier may refer to the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block, or the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource for bandwidth for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block. For example, in the scenario that 3 physical carriers corresponding to 3 sub-blocks shown in fig. 10 are continuous carriers as shown in fig. 12, the bandwidth of 1 RB is 180KHz, each sub-block occupies 50 RBs, the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block 1 in the physical carrier is 2100MHz, the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block 2 in the physical carrier is 2109MHz, and the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block 2 in the physical carrier is 2118MHz. Therefore, the terminal equipment can determine that the bandwidth position for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 1 is 2100 MHz-2109 MHz according to the first configuration information, the bandwidth position for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2 is 2109 MHz-2118 MHz, and the bandwidth position for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 3 is 2118 MHz-2127 MHz.

It should be understood that, in the case that the physical carriers corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks are continuous carriers, the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-blocks in a corresponding one of the physical carriers may not include the bandwidth occupied by the sub-blocks in the physical carriers, and only the frequency domain physical resource starting location of the sub-blocks in the physical carriers may be included to indicate the bandwidth occupied by the sub-blocks in the physical carriers.

For another example, in the case where 3 physical carriers corresponding to 3 sub-blocks shown in fig. 10 are discontinuous carriers as shown in fig. 13, the bandwidth of 1 RB is 180KHz, each sub-block occupies 50 RBs, the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of sub-block 1 in the physical carrier is 2100MHz, the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of sub-block 2 in the physical carrier is 2114MHz, and the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of sub-block 3 in the physical carrier is 2128MHz. Therefore, the terminal equipment can determine that the bandwidth position for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 1 is in 2100 MHz-2109 MHz according to the first configuration information, the bandwidth position for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2 is in 2114 MHz-2123 MHz, and the bandwidth position for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 3 is in 2128 MHz-2137 MHz.

For whether the guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block is used for data transmission, the network device may send first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether the guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block is used for data transmission, and correspondingly, the terminal device may receive the first indication information from the network device, and determine whether the guard band is used for data transmission according to the first indication information.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the guard band that may be generally used for data transmission is a guard band adjacent to any two physical carriers with contiguous frequency domain physical resources in the frequency domain. Guard band 2 of the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 1, guard bands 1 and 2 of the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 2, and guard band 1 of the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 3 in fig. 12, and guard band 2 of the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 2 and guard band 1 of the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 3 in fig. 14. In the case where the physical carriers corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks are non-contiguous carriers as shown in fig. 13, the first indication information may not exist.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information may include a frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, where the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier. The end position of the frequency domain physical resource of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier is the end position of the frequency domain physical resource of the first sub-block in the physical carrier corresponding to the first sub-block for data transmission, and the start position of the frequency domain physical resource of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier is the start position of the frequency domain physical resource of the second sub-block in the physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block for data transmission. That is, whether guard bands adjacent to two physical carriers corresponding to two adjacent sub-blocks are used for data transmission is indicated by indicating whether the end position of the frequency domain physical resource of one sub-block in the physical carrier is the start position of the frequency domain physical resource of the other sub-block in the physical carrier.

And under the condition that the first indication information is used for indicating that the protection band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block is used for data transmission, the end position of the frequency domain physical resource of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier is the same as the start position of the frequency domain physical resource of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier. Otherwise, when the first indication information is used for indicating that the guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block is not used for data transmission, the end position of the frequency domain physical resource of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier is different from the start position of the frequency domain physical resource of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier.

For example, in the virtual carrier including 3 sub-blocks shown in fig. 10, sub-block 1 and sub-block 2 are two adjacent sub-blocks, sub-block 2 and sub-block 3 are two adjacent sub-blocks, if the frequency domain physical resource end position of sub-block 1 in the corresponding physical carrier and the frequency domain physical resource start position of sub-block 2 in the corresponding physical carrier are each 2109MHz, the frequency domain physical resource end position of sub-block 2 in the corresponding physical carrier and the frequency domain physical resource start position of sub-block 3 in the corresponding physical carrier are each 2118MHz, the first indication information may indicate that the physical carrier corresponding to 3 sub-blocks is a continuous carrier as shown in fig. 12, and indicate that the guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 1 and the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 2 is used for data transmission, and the guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 3 and the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 2 is used for data transmission. At this time, the first indication information may indicate which part of guard bands in the physical carriers corresponding to the two adjacent sub-blocks is used for data transmission.

If the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block 1 in the physical carrier is 2100MHz, the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block 2 in the physical carrier is 2114MHz, and the starting position of the frequency domain physical resource of the sub-block 3 in the physical carrier is 2128MHz, the first indication information indicates that the physical carrier corresponding to the 3 sub-blocks is a discontinuous carrier as shown in fig. 13, and indicates that the guard band in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 1, the sub-block 2 or the sub-block 3 is not used for data transmission or is a guard band.

In another possible implementation, the first indication information may be specifically used to indicate whether a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carrier corresponding to the first sub-block is used for data transmission. That is, the first indication information is used to indicate whether guard bands adjacent to two physical carriers corresponding to two adjacent sub-blocks are used for data transmission.

For example, in the virtual carrier including 3 sub-blocks shown in fig. 10, the guard band on the left side of each physical carrier is referred to as guard band 1, the guard band on the right side is referred to as guard band 2, each sub-block may correspond to one piece of first indication information, where the first indication information corresponding to the sub-block 1 is used to indicate whether the guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2 (including the physical carrier guard band 2 corresponding to the sub-block 1) is used for data transmission, and the first indication information corresponding to the sub-block 2 is used to indicate whether the guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2 (including the guard band 1 and the guard band 2 of the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2) is used for data transmission, where the first indication information corresponding to the sub-block 3 is used to indicate whether the guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 2 (including the 1 of the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block 3) is used for data transmission.

If the first indication information corresponding to each of the sub-block 1, the sub-block 2 and the sub-block 3 indicates that the data is transmitted, the physical carriers corresponding to the 3 sub-blocks may be continuous carriers as shown in fig. 12, if the first indication information corresponding to each of the sub-block 1, the sub-block 2 and the sub-block 3 indicates that the data is not transmitted, the physical carriers corresponding to the 3 sub-blocks may be discontinuous carriers as shown in fig. 13, and if the first indication information corresponding to each of the sub-block 1, the sub-block 2 and the sub-block 3 indicates that the data is transmitted, and if the first indication information corresponding to each of the sub-block 1, the sub-block 2 and the sub-block 3 indicates that the data is not transmitted, the physical carriers corresponding to the 3 sub-blocks may be discontinuous carriers as shown in fig. 14.

In this implementation, the first indication information may be indicated by at least 1 bit, where a bit value of 1 is used to indicate that a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carriers corresponding to the first sub-block is used for data transmission, a bit value of 0 is used to indicate that a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carriers corresponding to the first sub-block is not used for data transmission, or a bit value of 0 is used to indicate that a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carriers corresponding to the first sub-block is used for data transmission, and a bit value of 1 is used to indicate that a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to the second sub-block in the physical carriers corresponding to the first sub-block is not used for data transmission.

In yet another possible implementation, the first indication information may be specifically used to indicate whether two guard bands in a physical carrier corresponding to one sub-block are used for data transmission. In this implementation, the first indication information may indicate by at least 2 bits, for example, a bit value of 00 indicates that neither guard band of the physical carriers corresponding to one sub-block is used for data transmission, a bit value of 01 indicates that guard band 1 of the two guard bands of the physical carriers corresponding to one sub-block is not used for data transmission and guard band 2 is used for data transmission, a bit value of 10 indicates that guard band 1 of the two guard bands of the physical carriers corresponding to one sub-block is used for data transmission and guard band 2 is not used for data transmission, and a bit value of 11 indicates that both guard bands of the physical carriers corresponding to one sub-block are used for data transmission, which is not limited.

Alternatively, the first indication information may be included in the frequency domain physical resource location information of each sub-block in a corresponding one of the physical carriers, or the first indication information may be included in the first configuration information or may be sent separately from the first configuration information, which is not limited.

Alternatively, one sub-block may correspond to one first indication information, and the plurality of sub-blocks may correspond to one first indication information, that is, whether the guard bands in the physical carriers corresponding to all sub-blocks are used for data transmission may be indicated by one indication information, which is not limited.

In case that whether the guard bands in the physical carriers corresponding to all the sub-blocks are used for data transmission is indicated by one first indication information, the first indication information may be indicated by a bitmap (bitmap) in one possible implementation.

In this implementation, in one possible design, each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether a guard band of a physical carrier corresponding to a sub-block is used for data transmission, each physical carrier/sub-block corresponds to two bits, and the indication sequence of each bit in the bitmap may be arranged according to the sequence of multiple sub-blocks in the virtual carrier. For example, if a bit value of 0 indicates that one guard band of the physical carrier corresponding to one sub-block is not used for data transmission, a bit value of 1 indicates that one guard band of the physical carrier corresponding to one sub-block is used for data transmission. In the scenario shown in fig. 12, the first indication information may be indicated by 01110, and in the scenario shown in fig. 14, the first indication information may be indicated by 000110, and in order from left to right, each two bits indicates a case where two guard bands in a physical carrier corresponding to one sub-block are used for data transmission.

In another possible design, each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether a guard band adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to one sub-block and a physical carrier corresponding to another sub-block is used for data transmission, where the number of bits of the first indication information (bit map) may be determined according to the number of physical carriers that are continuous in the frequency domain in the physical carriers corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks, and the indication order of each bit in the bitmap may be arranged according to the order of the sub-blocks corresponding to the physical carriers that are continuous in the frequency domain in the virtual carrier. For example, if the bit value of 0 indicates that one guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to one sub-block and the physical carrier corresponding to another sub-block is not used for data transmission, the bit value of 1 indicates that one guard band adjacent to the physical carrier corresponding to one sub-block and the physical carrier corresponding to another sub-block is used for data transmission. In the scenario shown in fig. 12, the first indication information may be indicated by 1111, and in the scenario shown in fig. 14, the first indication information may be indicated by 11, each bit indicating a case where one guard band of one of two consecutive physical carriers adjacent to the other physical carrier is used for data transmission. In this design, it may default that the guard band not indicated is not used for data transmission, i.e., one guard band of one physical carrier that is not adjacent to another physical carrier is not used for data transmission, such as guard band 1 and guard band 2 of the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 1, guard band 1 of the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 2, and guard band 2 of the physical carrier corresponding to sub-block 3 shown in fig. 14.

In still another possible design, each bit in the bitmap indicates whether two guard bands adjacent to two consecutive physical carriers corresponding to two adjacent sub-blocks are used for data transmission, where the number of bits of the first indication information (bit map) may also be determined according to the number of physical carriers consecutive in the frequency domain in the physical carriers corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks, and the indication sequence of each bit in the bitmap may be arranged according to the sequence of sub-blocks corresponding to the physical carriers consecutive in the frequency domain in the virtual carrier. For example, if a bit value of 0 indicates that two guard bands adjacent to two consecutive physical carriers corresponding to two adjacent sub-blocks are not used for data transmission, a bit value of 1 indicates that two guard bands adjacent to two consecutive physical carriers corresponding to two adjacent sub-blocks are used for data transmission. In the scenario shown in fig. 12, the first indication information may be indicated by 11, and in the scenario shown in fig. 14, the first indication information may be indicated by 1, each bit indicating a case where two guard bands adjacent to two consecutive physical carriers corresponding to two adjacent sub-blocks are used for data transmission. In this design, the non-indicated guard bands may also default to not be used for data transmission.

It should be understood that the foregoing exemplary shows how several first indicating information indicates whether a guard band is used for data transmission, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the first configuration information may further include a bandwidth or a frequency domain resource size of a physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block, so that a frequency domain physical resource size of a guard band that is not used for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block may be determined according to the frequency domain resource size of the sub-block. Or alternatively, the first configuration information may further include a frequency domain physical resource size or bandwidth of a guard band that is not used for data transmission in the physical carrier corresponding to each sub-block.

Further, the network device may further configure BWP for communication of the terminal device within the virtual carrier, so the first configuration information is further used to indicate BWP for communication of the terminal device within the virtual carrier, the BWP including frequency domain resources corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks within the virtual carrier. That is, BWP within the virtual carrier may occupy frequency domain resources of at least two sub-blocks, and accordingly, BWP within the virtual carrier may be mapped onto a plurality of physical carriers corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks it occupies. Thus, configuring BWP across multiple carriers may enable the network to flexibly switch BWP or adjust BWP width according to load conditions.

As shown in fig. 15, BWP is configured in sub-block 1 and sub-block 2 in the virtual carrier, and occupies half of the frequency domain resources in sub-block 1, such as 25 RBs (i.e., 25 th to 49 th RBs), and half of the frequency domain resources in sub-block 2, such as 25 RBs (i.e., 50 th to 74 th RBs), and then the frequency domain resources of BWP are 50 RBs.

Alternatively, the bandwidth of BWP may be larger than the bandwidth of the largest sub-block or the largest physical carrier. It should be appreciated that the bandwidth of BWP cannot exceed the bandwidth of the virtual carrier.

At this time, the first configuration information may further include frequency domain location information of BWP within the virtual carrier, including a frequency domain start location of BWP within the virtual carrier and a bandwidth of BWP. The frequency domain starting position of BWP in the virtual carrier may be indicated by the starting frequency domain resource sequence number of BWP in the virtual carrier, for example, the frequency domain starting position of BWP in the virtual carrier is the 20 th RB, and the bandwidth of BWP may be indicated by the frequency domain resource size occupied by BWP in the virtual carrier, for example, the frequency domain resource size occupied by BWP in the virtual carrier is 70 RBs. Thus, it can be determined that BWP occupies frequency domain resources of a plurality of sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

Since BWP configured within the virtual carrier may occupy at least 2 sub-blocks, at least 2 Transport Blocks (TBs) are supported for transmission in a frequency-division manner within the BWP, one TB being mapped to one sub-block occupied by the BWP. For example, BWP is configured in sub-block 1 and sub-block 2 in the virtual carrier, and frequency domain resources of one sub-block 1 and frequency domain resources of sub-block 2 occupied by BWP may be used to transmit one TB, respectively, as shown in fig. 16. Thus, by supporting frequency-division based TB mapping within BWP, the terminal device implementation is facilitated taking into account Radio Frequency (RF) capabilities of the terminal device.

It should be understood that under the sub-block structure shown in fig. 11, there is a first type of RB, and when resource mapping is performed with sub-blocks as granularity, a situation may occur in which two different TB portion contents are transmitted in a frequency division manner within one RB.

Sub-block based hybrid automatic repeat request (hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ) feedback and/or HARQ retransmissions are supported within BWP. For example, BWP is configured in sub-block 1 and sub-block 2 in the virtual carrier, and if TB transmission is performed in sub-block 1, HARQ feedback or HARQ retransmission may be performed in sub-block 1, or HARQ feedback or HARQ retransmission may be performed in sub-block 2.

In one possible design, the first configuration information may be sent in a system message or a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) message.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the virtual carrier configured by the network device may correspond to a virtual Cell identifier (virtual Cell ID), where the virtual Cell identifier is used for scrambling transmitted data and/or generating a reference signal by the terminal device.

In a non-user-centric cell-free (user centric no cell, UCNC) scenario, the network device may send a virtual cell identifier corresponding to the virtual carrier to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the virtual cell identifier corresponding to the virtual carrier from the network device.

In one possible design, the virtual cell identity may be sent carried in a synchronization signal or an RRC message. Alternatively, the virtual cell identity may be included in the first configuration information.

In UCNC scenario, the network device may send a dedicated terminal device identifier or a terminal device dedicated identifier to the terminal device, for example, the network device configures a terminal device scrambling identifier (UE scrambling ID) for the terminal device, so that the terminal device may perform scrambling processing and/or reference signal generation on the transmitted data according to the dedicated identifier of the terminal device.

For S902:

After receiving the first configuration information from the network device, the terminal device may determine a virtual carrier according to the first configuration information, and communicate with the network device on the virtual carrier. The terminal device obtains the corresponding relation between each sub-block and the physical carrier according to the first configuration information, and therefore the virtual carrier is mapped to a plurality of corresponding physical carriers to communicate with the network device. Accordingly, the network device may also communicate with the terminal device on the virtual carrier.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the virtual carrier may be an uplink carrier, a downlink carrier, or a carrier for uplink and downlink, which is not limited.

Based on the communication method shown in fig. 9, the network device configures the virtual carrier including a plurality of sub-blocks, so that the plurality of physical carriers are respectively corresponding to the sub-blocks in the virtual carrier, and frequency domain physical resources for data transmission in the physical carrier can be flexibly adjusted by configuring frequency domain resources of the sub-blocks.

It will be appreciated that in the various embodiments above, the methods and/or steps implemented by the network device may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a processor, chip, system-on-chip, circuit, logic module, or software) available to the network device, or by the terminal device.

The foregoing has mainly described the solutions provided by the present application. Correspondingly, the application also provides a communication device which is used for realizing the various methods in the method embodiment. The communication means may be the network device in the above-described method embodiments, or an apparatus comprising the network device, or a component usable with the network device, such as a chip or a chip system. Or the communication device may be the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment, or a device comprising the terminal device, or a component usable with the terminal device, such as a chip or a chip system.

It will be appreciated that the communication device, in order to achieve the above-described functions, comprises corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the application can divide the functional modules of the communication device according to the embodiment of the method, for example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated in one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation.

Taking the communication device as an example of the network device or the terminal device in the above method embodiment, fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of the communication device according to the embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 17, the communication apparatus 1700 includes a processing module 1701 and a communication module 1702 as shown in fig. 17. The processing module 1701 is configured to execute the processing function of the network device or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment. The communication module 1702 is configured to perform the communication function of the network device or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment.

All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be cited to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, which is not described herein.

In one possible design, the communication module 1702 may include a receiving module and a transmitting module (not shown in fig. 17) in an embodiment of the present application. Wherein the transmitting module and the receiving module are respectively configured to implement a transmitting function and a receiving function of the communication apparatus 1700.

In one possible design, communication device 1700 may also include a memory module (not shown in fig. 17) that stores programs or instructions. The processing module 1701, when executing the program or instructions, enables the communications apparatus 1700 to perform the functions of a network device or a terminal device in the method illustrated in fig. 9.

In some embodiments, the processing module 1701 involved in the communications apparatus 1700 may be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuit component, which may be a processor or processing unit, and the communications module 1702 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver-related circuit component, which may be a transceiver or transceiver unit.

Fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device may be a network device or a terminal device in the above method embodiment, or may be a chip (system) or other parts or components that may be disposed in the network device or the terminal device. As shown in fig. 18, the communication device 1800 may include a processor 1801, a bus 1802, a communication interface 1803, and a memory 1804. The processor 1801, memory 1804, and communication interface 1803 communicate over a bus 1802. The communication apparatus 1800 may be a network device or a terminal device as described above. It should be appreciated that the present application is not limited to the number of processors, memories in the communication device 1800.

Bus 1802 may be a peripheral component interconnect standard (PERIPHERAL COMPONENT INTERCONNECT, PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (extended industry standard architecture, EISA) bus, or the like. The buses may be divided into address buses, data buses, control buses, etc. For ease of illustration, only one line is shown in fig. 18, but not only one bus or one type of bus. The bus 1802 may include a path for transferring information between various components of the communication device 1800 (e.g., the memory 1804, the processor 1801, the communication interface 1803).

The processor 1801 may include any one or more of a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a graphics processor (graphics processing unit, GPU), a Microprocessor (MP), or a digital signal processor (DIGITAL SIGNAL processor, DSP).

The memory 1804 may include volatile memory (RAM), such as random access memory (random access memory). The processor 1801 may also include a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, mechanical hard disk (HARD DISK DRIVE, HDD) or solid state disk (SSD STATE DRIVE).

The communication interface 1803 enables communication between the communication apparatus 1800 and other devices or communication networks using a transceiver module such as, but not limited to, a network interface card, transceiver, or the like.

The memory 1804 has stored therein executable program code that is executed by the processor 1801 to implement the functions of the network device or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, respectively. That is, the memory 1804 has instructions stored thereon for performing the communication methods described above.

In yet another aspect, embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product comprising instructions, including computer program code, which, when run on a communication device, causes the communication device to perform the method according to any of the embodiments described above.

In yet another aspect, embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when run on a communication device, cause the communication device to perform the method of any of the embodiments described above.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, a website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. Computer readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer or data storage devices including one or more servers, data centers, etc. that can be integrated with the media. Usable media may be magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tape), optical media (e.g., DVD), or semiconductor media (e.g., solid State Disk (SSD)) or the like.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or an access network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. The storage medium includes various media capable of storing program codes, such as a USB flash disk, a mobile hard disk, a ROM, a random access memory RAM, a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

Although the application is described herein in connection with various embodiments, other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed application, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

Although the application has been described in connection with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents that fall within the scope of the application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present application without departing from the spirit or scope of the application. Thus, it is intended that the present application also include such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

Claims (30)

1. A method of communication, the method comprising:

Receiving first configuration information from a network device, where the first configuration information is used to indicate a virtual carrier containing a plurality of sub-blocks, where the virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resources, the first configuration information includes frequency domain physical resource location information of each sub-block in a corresponding one of the physical carriers, and the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers indicates a frequency domain physical resource location of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers for data transmission;

And communicating with the network equipment according to the first configuration information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical carriers to which the plurality of sub-blocks respectively correspond are contiguous carriers.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in a corresponding one of the physical carriers comprises a bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start location of the sub-block in the physical carrier.

4. A method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the frequency domain physical resources for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block comprise guard bands in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, further comprising:

and receiving first indication information from the network equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating a guard band in a physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block to be used for data transmission.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first indication information includes a frequency domain physical resource end position of a first sub-block in a corresponding physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start position of a second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, the frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier being the same as the frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, the first sub-block and the second sub-block being two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first indication information is specifically used to indicate that guard bands adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to a second sub-block in a physical carrier corresponding to a first sub-block are used for data transmission, and the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

8. The method according to any of claims 1-7, wherein the virtual carrier comprises a first type of resource block, RB, the first type of RB being mapped to two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier or two physical carriers corresponding to the two adjacent sub-blocks.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

and receiving second indication information from the network equipment, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the size of frequency domain resources occupied by the first type RB in one sub-block.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein the first configuration information is further used to indicate a bandwidth portion BWP for terminal device communication within the virtual carrier, the BWP comprising frequency domain resources corresponding to a plurality of sub-blocks within the virtual carrier.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein at least 2 transport blocks TBs are supported for transmission in frequency division within the BWP, one of the TBs being mapped to one of the sub-blocks occupied by the BWP.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that sub-block based hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback and/or HARQ retransmissions are supported within the BWP.

13. The method according to any of claims 1-12, wherein the first configuration information is sent carried in a system message or a radio resource control, RRC, message.

14. A method of communication, the method comprising:

Transmitting first configuration information, where the first configuration information is used to indicate a virtual carrier containing a plurality of sub-blocks, the virtual carrier corresponds to a section of continuous frequency domain resources, the first configuration information includes frequency domain physical resource location information of each sub-block in a corresponding one of the physical carriers, and the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers indicates a frequency domain physical resource location of the sub-block in the corresponding one of the physical carriers for data transmission;

And communicating with the terminal equipment on the virtual carrier.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the physical carriers to which the plurality of sub-blocks respectively correspond are contiguous carriers.

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the frequency domain physical resource location information of the sub-block in a corresponding one of the physical carriers comprises a bandwidth occupied by the sub-block in the physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start location of the sub-block in the physical carrier.

17. The method according to any of claims 14-16, wherein the frequency domain physical resources for data transmission in one physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block comprise guard bands in the physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block.

18. The method according to any one of claims 14-17, further comprising:

and sending first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating a guard band in a physical carrier corresponding to the sub-block to be used for data transmission.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first indication information includes a frequency domain physical resource end position of a first sub-block in a corresponding physical carrier and a frequency domain physical resource start position of a second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, the frequency domain physical resource end position of the first sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier being the same as the frequency domain physical resource start position of the second sub-block in the corresponding physical carrier, the first sub-block and the second sub-block being two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the first indication information is specifically used to indicate that guard bands adjacent to a physical carrier corresponding to a second sub-block in a physical carrier corresponding to a first sub-block are used for data transmission, and the first sub-block and the second sub-block are two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier.

21. The method according to any of claims 14-20, wherein the virtual carrier comprises a first type of resource block, RB, the first type of RB being mapped to two adjacent sub-blocks in the virtual carrier or two physical carriers corresponding to the two adjacent sub-blocks.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises:

And sending second indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the size of the frequency domain resource occupied by the first type RB in one sub-block.

23. The method according to any of claims 14-22, wherein the first configuration information is further used to indicate a bandwidth portion BWP for terminal device communication within the virtual carrier, the BWP comprising frequency domain resources corresponding to a plurality of sub-blocks within the virtual carrier.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein at least 2 transport blocks TBs are supported for transmission in frequency division within the BWP, one of the TBs being mapped to one of the sub-blocks occupied by the BWP.

25. The method according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that sub-block based hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback and/or HARQ retransmissions are supported within the BWP.

26. The method according to any of claims 14-25, wherein the first configuration information is sent carried in a system message or an RRC message.

27. A communication device comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 1-13 or claims 14-26.

28. A communication device comprising a processor for executing a computer program or instructions to cause a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 13 or 14 to 26 to be implemented.

29. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a communication device, implement the method of any of claims 1-13 or 14-26.

30. A computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a communication device, implements the method of any of claims 1-13 or claims 14-26.