CN120825813A

CN120825813A - A communication method and related device

Info

Publication number: CN120825813A
Application number: CN202410437209.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈莹; 师鹏程
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2024-04-11
Filing date: 2024-04-11
Publication date: 2025-10-21
Also published as: WO2025214129A1

Abstract

A communication method and related apparatus, in which a first communication device can transmit a first signal for random access (i.e., the first signal can be referred to as a random access signal) using some or all of the resources in a first PRACH resource set, and the first signal, which is repeatedly transmitted N times, is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence among M orthogonal sequences, where M is greater than 1. In this manner, the repeatedly transmitted random access signals transmitted by different first communication devices can be obtained by processing based on M different orthogonal sequences. Accordingly, after receiving the different random access signals, the receiver of the random access signal can distinguish the different random access signals based on the M orthogonal sequences. Thus, by processing the random access signal using orthogonal sequences, different communication devices can reuse the same PRACH resources for random access, thereby supporting multi-user multiplexing and improving access capacity.

Description

Communication method and related device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communications method and a related device.

Background

The wireless communication may be a transmission communication between two or more communication nodes, which generally include a network device and a terminal device, without propagation via conductors or cables. By way of example, a communication connection can be established between a terminal device and a network device by means of a random access procedure, via which communication connection the subsequent terminal device can obtain network services via communication signals transmitted by the terminal device.

However, how to increase the access capacity in the random access process is a technical problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and related equipment, which are used for improving access capacity.

The first aspect of the present application provides a communication method, which is performed by a first communication device, which may be a communication apparatus (such as a terminal device), or the first communication device may be a part of a component (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system) in the communication apparatus, or the first communication device may be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the communication apparatus. In the method, a first communication device receives first information, wherein the first information is used for determining a first Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) resource set, the first PRACH resource set supports multi-user multiplexing, the first communication device sends first signals which are repeatedly transmitted for N times, the first signals are used for random access, N is an integer greater than 1, the first signals which are repeatedly transmitted for N times are loaded on part or all of resources in the first PRACH resource set, the first signals which are repeatedly transmitted for N times are obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence in M orthogonal sequences, and M is an integer greater than 1.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device may determine a first PRACH resource set through the received first information, where the first PRACH resource set supports multi-user multiplexing. Accordingly, the first communication apparatus may send a first signal for random access through some or all resources in the first PRACH resource set (i.e., the first signal may be referred to as a random access signal), where the first signal for N repeated transmissions is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence of M orthogonal sequences, and M is greater than 1. In this way, the repeated random access signals transmitted by different first communication apparatuses may be processed based on M different orthogonal sequences, and accordingly, the receiving side (e.g., the second communication apparatus) of the random access signal may be able to distinguish between different random access signals based on the M orthogonal sequences after receiving the different random access signals. Therefore, through the processing mode of the orthogonal sequence to the random access signal, different first communication devices can multiplex the same PRACH resource to realize random access so as to support multi-user multiplexing and improve access capacity.

In addition, the first signal for random access transmitted by the first communication device is transmitted through N repetitions, i.e., the receiver of the first signal (e.g., the second communication device) is able to receive the random access signal from one or more repetitions of the same communication device. In this way, the success rate of the receiving party on the random access signal can be improved, so as to reduce the random access time delay. For example, in a communication scenario with a poor link budget (for example, a non-terrestrial network (non-TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, NTN) communication scenario), signal loss may occur due to communication signals between different communication devices (for example, a communication device located on the ground and a satellite communication device), and therefore, by the above scheme, the success rate of receiving a signal by a signal receiver can be increased by repeating the transmitted signal.

In the present application, among the M orthogonal sequences, the different sequences may be sequences orthogonal to each other or any one sequence may be orthogonal to other sequences. The orthogonal sequence may be implemented in various ways, for example, by superimposing an orthogonal code (orthogonal cover code, OCC), a sequence obtained based on discrete fourier transform (discrete fourier transform, DFT), a sequence obtained based on walsh code, or the like.

In the present application, the orthogonal sequence may be replaced with other terms such as an orthogonal code, orthogonal information, an orthogonal matrix, an orthogonal spreading code, an orthogonal spreading sequence, an orthogonal cover code, or the like.

In the present application, the preamble sequence may be replaced with other terms such as a preamble, a random access sequence, a random access preamble, etc.

In the present application, the resource set may be replaced with other terms, such as resources, resource blocks, etc.

It should be noted that, one resource (e.g., the first PRACH resource set, one or more RO resources described later, etc.) supports multi-user multiplexing, and it is understood that the resource supports signal transmission of multi-user multiplexing, that is, some or all signals (e.g., PRACH signals) carried by the resource may be processed by using orthogonal sequences.

Alternatively, the first communication apparatus may determine the first orthogonal sequence from M orthogonal sequences, where the first communication apparatus randomly determines one orthogonal sequence from the M orthogonal sequences as the first orthogonal sequence, or determines the first orthogonal sequence based on a manner indicated by a network device (or a manner of pre-configuring a protocol/standard), or determines the first orthogonal sequence from the M orthogonal sequences based on a time domain unit index (e.g. a frame number, a time slot number, etc.) of the current communication, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, the length of any one of the M orthogonal sequences is K (or the number of elements contained in the any one orthogonal sequence is K), where K is greater than or equal to M and K is less than or equal to N. The sequence with the length of K is applied to the PRACH signal which is repeatedly transmitted, and when K is smaller than or equal to N, the PRACH signal which is repeatedly transmitted and sent by different users can be orthogonalized, so that the interference of different users can be reduced. Alternatively, K may be greater than N, in which case, the orthogonality between the repeatedly transmitted PRACH signals sent by different users may be poor, but a certain anti-interference performance may be obtained compared to a processing manner that does not pass through an orthogonal sequence.

Alternatively, the processing of the preamble sequence by the first communication apparatus based on the first orthogonal sequence may involve one or more processes, such as scrambling process, encryption process, and the like.

Alternatively, the first signal is used for random access, which may be understood as a random access signal, a preamble signal, etc.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate one or more random access opportunity (random access occasion, RO) resources supporting multi-user multiplexing, and the RO resources included in the first PRACH resource set are the one or more RO resources.

Based on the above scheme, the random access signal can be carried on the RO resource on the PRACH, and correspondingly, the first information can carry the first indication information, so that the first communication device can determine the RO resource for signal processing by using the orthogonal sequence based on the first indication information, thereby realizing flexible indication of the PRACH resource set supporting multi-user multiplexing.

In one possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a resource interval, and the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information.

Based on the above scheme, the PRACH resource may be generally used by a plurality of communication apparatuses, and accordingly, the number of RO resources for random access included in the PRACH resource may be relatively large. To this end, the first information may include second indication information for indicating the resource interval, such that the first communication device is able to determine the first set of PRACH resources from the second set of PRACH resources based on the second indication information.

Alternatively, the resource interval indicated by the second indication information may include one or more of a time domain resource interval, a frequency domain resource interval, and a time-frequency domain resource interval (e.g., RO resource interval).

It should be appreciated that in the second set of PRACH resources, one or more types of PRACH resources may be included. For example, PRACH signals of at least two repeated transmissions carried on a PRACH resource of a certain type are processed using orthogonal sequences, i.e. the first PRACH resource set is part or all of the PRACH resources of that type.

Optionally, other types of PRACH resources may also be included in the second PRACH resource set. For example, a single transmission PRACH signal carried on a PRACH resource of a certain type. As another example, PRACH signals of at least two repeated transmissions carried on PRACH resources of a certain type are not processed using orthogonal sequences.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information further includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a resource start position and/or a resource end position, and the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information and the third indication information.

Based on the above scheme, the first information may further include third indication information for indicating a resource start position and/or a resource end position, so that the first communication device determines the first PRACH resource set in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information and the third indication information.

In a similar manner to that described above, the resource start position and/or the resource end position may be a resource start position comprising a time domain resource resource termination position of time domain resource, resource start position of frequency domain resource one or more of a resource termination location of a frequency domain resource, a resource start location of a time-frequency domain resource (e.g., RO resource), and a resource termination location of a time-frequency domain resource.

Alternatively, the third indication information may be included in other information than the first information, i.e., the first communication device may obtain the second indication information and the third indication information, respectively, through the received different information.

Optionally, the resource start position and/or the resource end position may be preconfigured third indication information, and correspondingly, the first information may not include the third indication information.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that a resource type of the first PRACH resource set is a first type, and the PRACH resource with the resource type being the first type meets at least one of the following:

PRACH signals for carrying at least two repeated transmissions only;

PRACH signals not used to carry a single transmission;

Only PRACH signals carrying at least two repeated transmissions are supported or,

PRACH signals carrying a single transmission are not supported.

Based on the above scheme, the first information received by the first communication device may include fourth indication information for indicating that the resource type of the first PRACH resource set is the first type, and the PRACH resource of which the resource type is the first type satisfies the above one item. In other words, the first communication device may distinguish between different PRACH resources by whether the PRACH resources are used to carry a single transmission PRACH signal. Since the conventional (legacy) communication device generally only supports PRACH transmitting a single transmission, by the above scheme, the random access signal can be processed by using the orthogonal sequence on PRACH resources supporting PRACH signals carrying at least two repeated transmissions, so that the scheme can be compatible with the conventional communication device, and the influence on the random access process of the communication devices can be avoided.

Optionally, PRACH resources of which the resource type is other types (e.g., the second type) satisfy at least one of the following:

PRACH signals for carrying only a single transmission, PRACH signals for carrying both at least two duplicate transmissions and a single transmission, or PRACH signals for carrying both at least two duplicate transmissions and a single transmission.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the first information includes fifth indication information for indicating an index of one or more second signals for synchronization, wherein the one or more second signals correspond to PRACH resources in the first set of PRACH resources.

Based on the above-described scheme, the first information may include fifth indication information for indicating an index of one or more second signals for synchronization, so that the first communication apparatus determines PRACH resources corresponding to the one or more second signals as the first PRACH resource set after determining the one or more second signals based on the fifth indication information. Since the beam directions corresponding to the different second signals may be different and the access requirements of the different beam directions may be different, by the above scheme, the sender of the first information (e.g. the second communication device) can designate PRACH resources corresponding to the one or more second signals as PRACH resources in the first PRACH resource set, so that the sender can flexibly schedule the access of the communication device in the different beam directions.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the M orthogonal sequences satisfy at least one of the following:

In the M orthogonal sequences, the value of at least one element contained in the first orthogonal sequence is not +1;

the M orthogonal sequences comprise second orthogonal sequences, wherein the values of elements contained in the second orthogonal sequences are all +1, and the first orthogonal sequences are different from the second orthogonal sequences;

The M orthogonal sequences do not include the orthogonal sequences with the values of elements of +1.

Based on the above scheme, since a sequence can be obtained by processing an orthogonal sequence with a value of +1, that is, the processing procedure of the orthogonal sequence with a value of +1 does not change the value of a sequence, correspondingly, in the case that a conventional (legacy) communication device only supports PRACH transmitting single transmission, a random access signal transmitted by the conventional communication device can be regarded as a result obtained by processing the orthogonal sequence with a value of +1. In the above procedure, when the first orthogonal sequence satisfies at least one of the above, the first signal of N repeated transmissions transmitted by the first communication apparatus is not obtained based on the orthogonal sequence having a value of +1. In this way, different first communication apparatuses can multiplex as many PRACH resources as possible to support multi-user multiplexing, and at the same time, can avoid affecting the conventional communication apparatus.

The second aspect of the present application provides a communication method, which is performed by a second communication apparatus, which may be a communication device (such as a network device), or the second communication apparatus may be a part of a component (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system) in the communication device, or the second communication apparatus may be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the communication device. In the method, a second communication device sends first information, wherein the first information is used for determining a first physical random access channel PRACH resource set, the first PRACH resource set supports multiuser multiplexing, the second communication device receives part or all of first signals which are repeatedly transmitted for N times, the first signals are used for random access, N is an integer greater than 1, the first signals which are repeatedly transmitted for N times are carried by part or all of resources in the first PRACH resource set, the first signals which are repeatedly transmitted for N times are obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence in M orthogonal sequences, and M is an integer greater than 1.

Based on the above scheme, after the second communication device sends the first information to the first communication device, the first communication device may determine a first PRACH resource set through the received first information, where the first PRACH resource set supports multi-user multiplexing. Accordingly, the first communication apparatus may send a first signal for random access through some or all resources in the first PRACH resource set (i.e., the first signal may be referred to as a random access signal), where the first signal for N repeated transmissions is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence of M orthogonal sequences, and M is greater than 1. In this way, the repeated random access signals transmitted by different first communication apparatuses may be processed based on M different orthogonal sequences, and accordingly, the second communication apparatus is able to distinguish between different random access signals based on the M orthogonal sequences after receiving the different random access signals. Therefore, through the processing mode of the orthogonal sequence to the random access signal, different first communication devices can multiplex the same PRACH resource to realize random access so as to support multi-user multiplexing and improve access capacity.

Further, the first signal for random access transmitted by the first communication device is transmitted through N repetitions, i.e. the second communication device is able to receive a random access signal from one or more repetitions of the same communication device. In this way, the success rate of the second communication device for receiving the random access signal can be improved, so as to reduce the random access time delay. For example, in a communication scenario with a poor link budget (for example, NTN communication scenario), signal loss may occur due to communication signals between different communication devices (for example, a communication device located on the ground and a satellite communication device), and therefore, by the above scheme, the success rate of receiving signals by a signal receiver can be increased by repeating the transmitted signals.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate one or more RO resources supporting multi-user multiplexing, and RO resources included in the first PRACH resource set are the one or more RO resources.

In one possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a resource interval, and the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information further includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a resource start position and/or a resource end position, and the first PRACH resource set is determined in a second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information and the third indication information.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that a resource type of the first PRACH resource set is a first type, and the PRACH resource with the first resource type is at least one of the following:

PRACH signals for carrying at least two repeated transmissions only;

PRACH signals not used to carry a single transmission;

PRACH signals carrying a single transmission are not supported.

Alternatively, the first information and the second information may be included in the same message/signaling, or the first information and the second information may be included in different messages/signaling, which is not limited herein.

In one possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information includes fifth indication information, the fifth indication information being used to indicate an index of one or more second signals, the one or more second signals being used for synchronization, wherein the one or more second signals correspond to PRACH resources in the first set of PRACH resources.

Based on the above-described aspect, the first information may further include fifth indication information for indicating an index of the one or more second signals for synchronization, so that the first communication apparatus determines PRACH resources corresponding to the one or more second signals as the first PRACH resource set after determining the one or more second signals based on the fifth indication information. Since the beam directions corresponding to the different second signals may be different and the access requirements of the different beam directions may be different, by the above scheme, the sender of the first information (e.g. the second communication device) can designate PRACH resources corresponding to the one or more second signals as PRACH resources in the first PRACH resource set, so that the sender can flexibly schedule the access of the communication device in the different beam directions.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the M orthogonal sequences satisfy at least one of the following:

The third aspect of the present application provides a communication device, where the device is a first communication device, and the device includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit, where the transceiver unit is configured to receive first information, the processing unit is configured to determine a first physical random access channel PRACH resource set based on the first information, the first PRACH resource set supports multiuser multiplexing, and the transceiver unit is further configured to send a first signal for N times of repeated transmission, where N is an integer greater than 1, the first signal for N times of repeated transmission is carried on part or all resources in the first PRACH resource set, the first signal for N times of repeated transmission is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence in M orthogonal sequences, and M is an integer greater than 1.

In the third aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device may also be used to execute the steps executed in each possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and achieve corresponding technical effects, and reference may be made to the first aspect specifically, and details are not repeated herein.

The fourth aspect of the present application provides a communication device, where the device is a second communication device, and the device includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit, where the processing unit is configured to determine first information, the transceiver unit is configured to send the first information, the first information is configured to determine a first physical random access channel PRACH resource set, the first PRACH resource set supports multiuser multiplexing, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive part or all of a first signal that is transmitted repeatedly for N times, where N is an integer greater than 1, the first signal is carried by part or all of resources in the first PRACH resource set, the first signal transmitted repeatedly for N times is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence in M orthogonal sequences, and M is an integer greater than 1.

In the fourth aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device may also be used to execute the steps executed in each possible implementation manner of the second aspect, and achieve corresponding technical effects, and reference may be made to the second aspect specifically, and details are not repeated herein.

A fifth aspect of the application provides a communication device comprising at least one processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions, the at least one processor being adapted to execute the program or instructions to cause the device to implement the method of any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects. Optionally, the communication device may include the memory.

A sixth aspect of the application provides a communication device comprising at least one logic circuit and an input-output interface, the logic circuit being arranged to perform the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects.

A seventh aspect of the present application provides a communication system comprising the first communication device and the second communication device described above.

An eighth aspect of the application provides a computer readable storage medium for storing one or more computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform a method as described in any one of the possible implementations of any one of the first to second aspects above.

A ninth aspect of the application provides a computer program product (or computer program) which, when executed by the processor, performs the method of any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects.

A tenth aspect of the present application provides a chip or chip system comprising at least one processor for supporting a communication device for implementing the method according to any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects. For example, the chip may be a baseband (baseband) chip, a modem (modem) chip, a system on chip (SoC) chip containing a modem core, a system in package (SYSTEMIN PACKAGE, SIP) chip, or a communication module, etc.

In one possible design, the chip or chip system may further include a memory to hold the necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices. Optionally, the chip system further comprises an interface circuit providing program instructions and/or data to the at least one processor.

The technical effects of any one of the design manners of the third aspect to the tenth aspect may be referred to the technical effects of the different design manners of the first aspect to the second aspect, and are not described herein.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to the present application;

FIGS. 2 a-2 d are schematic diagrams illustrating satellite communication processes according to the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a satellite communication process in a 5G system according to the present application;

fig. 4a to 4f are schematic diagrams of random access procedures according to the present application;

FIG. 5 is another schematic diagram of a communication method provided by the present application;

fig. 6 to 9 are schematic diagrams of a communication device according to the present application.

Detailed Description

First, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained for easy understanding by those skilled in the art.

(1) The terminal device may be a wireless terminal device capable of receiving network device scheduling and indication information, the wireless terminal device may be a device providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user, or a handheld device having wireless connectivity functionality, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem.

The terminal device may be various communication kits (communication kit, which may include, for example, an antenna, a power supply module, a cable, a Wi-Fi module, etc.) with wireless communication functions, a communication module with satellite communication functions, a satellite phone or a component thereof, and a very small-bore antenna terminal (VERY SMALL aperture terminal, VSAT). The terminal device may be a mobile terminal device such as a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone), a computer and a data card, for example, a portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in or vehicle-mounted mobile device that exchanges voice and/or data with the radio access network. Such as personal communication services (personal communication service, PCS) phones, cordless phones, session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) stations, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablet computers (Pad), computers with wireless transceiver capabilities, and the like. The wireless terminal device may also be referred to as a system, subscriber unit (subscriber unit), subscriber station (subscriber station), mobile Station (MS), remote station (remote station), access Point (AP), remote terminal device (remote terminal), access terminal device (ACCESS TERMINAL), user terminal device (user terminal), user agent (user agent), subscriber station (subscriber station, SS), user terminal device (customer premises equipment, CPE), terminal (terminal), user Equipment (UE), mobile Terminal (MT), drone, etc. The terminal device may also be a wearable device as well as a next generation communication system, e.g. a terminal device in a 6G communication system or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc. Of course, the terminal device in the present application may also refer to a chip, a modem, a system on a chip (SoC) or a communication platform that may include a Radio Frequency (RF) portion, etc. of the device that is mainly responsible for related communication functions.

(2) The network device may be a device in a wireless network, for example, the network device may be a RAN node (or device) that accesses the terminal device to the wireless network, which may also be referred to as a base station. Currently, some examples of RAN devices are a base station (base station), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a base station gNB (gndeb) in a 5G communication system, a transmission reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), an evolved NodeB (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wi-Fi) access point AP, etc. In addition, in one network architecture, the network device may include a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) node, or a Distributed Unit (DU) node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node.

Optionally, the RAN node may also be a macro base station, a micro base station or an indoor station, a relay node or a donor node, or a radio controller in the cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario. The RAN node may also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or on-board device, etc. For example, the access network device in the vehicle extrapolating (vehicle to everything, V2X) technology may be a Road Side Unit (RSU).

In another possible scenario, a plurality of RAN nodes cooperate to assist a terminal 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 antenna processing unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA unit, 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 an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN or ORAN) system, 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 communication between the access network device and the terminal device follows a certain protocol layer structure. The protocol layers may include a control plane protocol layer and a user plane protocol layer. The control plane protocol layer may include at least one of a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer, a packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a medium access control (MEDIA ACCESS control, MAC) layer, or a Physical (PHY) layer, etc. The user plane protocol layer may include at least one of a service data adaptation protocol (SERVICE DATA adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, a physical layer, or the like.

For the network element in ORAN system and the functional correspondence of the protocol layer that can be implemented, refer to table 1 below.

TABLE 1

ORAN network element	Protocol layer functionality of 3GPP
		O-CU-CP	RRC+PDCP-control plane (PDCP-C)
O-CU-UP	SDAP+PDCP-user plane (PDCP-U)
		O-DU	RLC+MAC+PHY-high
O-RU	PHY-low

The network device may be other means of providing wireless communication functionality for the terminal device. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the network equipment. For convenience of description, embodiments of the present application are not limited.

The network devices may also include core network devices including, for example, mobility management entities (mobility MANAGEMENT ENTITY, MME), home subscriber servers (home subscriber server, HSS), serving gateways (SERVING GATEWAY, S-GW), policy and Charging Rules Functions (PCRF), public data network gateways (public data network gateway, PDN GATEWAY, P-GW) in fourth generation (4th generation,4G) networks, access and mobility management functions (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF), user plane functions (user plane function, UPF) or session management functions (session management function, SMF) in 5G networks. In addition, the core network device may further include a 5G network and other core network devices in a next generation network of the 5G network.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device may also have an AI-capable network node, which may provide AI services for a terminal or other network devices, for example, may be an AI node, a computing node, an AI-capable RAN node, an AI-capable core network element, etc. on a network side (an access network or a core network).

In the embodiment of the present application, the means for implementing the function of the network device may be the network device, or may be a means capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device is exemplified by the network device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

(3) Configuration and pre-configuration in the present application, configuration and pre-configuration are used simultaneously. Configuration refers to that the network device sends configuration information of some parameters or values of the parameters to the terminal device through messages or signaling, so that the terminal device determines the parameters of communication or resources during transmission according to the values or information. The pre-configuration is similar to the configuration, and the pre-configuration can be parameter information or parameter values which are negotiated by the network equipment and the terminal equipment in advance, can be parameter information or parameter values which are adopted by the network equipment or the terminal equipment and specified by a standard protocol, and can also be parameter information or parameter values which are pre-stored in the network equipment or the terminal equipment. The application is not limited in this regard.

Further, these values and parameters may be changed or updated.

(4) The terms "system" and "network" in embodiments of the application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes an association relationship of associated objects, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate that a exists alone, a exists with a and B together, and B exists alone, where a and B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, "at least one of A, B, and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC. And, unless otherwise specified, references to "first," "second," etc. ordinal words of embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing between multiple objects and not for defining a sequence, timing, priority, or importance of the multiple objects.

(5) The terms "transmit" and "receive" in the embodiments of the present application refer to the direction of signal transmission. For example, "sending information to XX" may be understood as the destination of the information being XX, and may include sending directly over the air, as well as sending indirectly over the air by other units or modules. "receiving information from YY" is understood to mean that the source of the information is YY, and may include receiving directly from YY over an air interface, or may include receiving indirectly from YY over an air interface from another unit or module. "send" may also be understood as "output" of the chip interface and "receive" may also be understood as "input" of the chip interface.

In other words, the transmission and reception may be performed between devices, for example, between a network device and a terminal device, or may be performed within a device, for example, between components within a device, between modules, between chips, between software modules or between hardware modules through a bus, wiring or interface.

It will be appreciated that the information may be subjected to the necessary processing, such as encoding, modulation, etc., between the source and destination of the information transmission, but the destination may understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in the present application can be understood similarly, and will not be described again.

(6) In the embodiment of the application, the indication can comprise direct indication and indirect indication, and can also comprise explicit indication and implicit indication. The information indicated by a certain information (the indication information described below) is called to-be-indicated information, and in a specific implementation process, there are various ways of indicating the to-be-indicated information, for example, but not limited to, the to-be-indicated information may be directly indicated, such as the to-be-indicated information itself or an index of the to-be-indicated information, etc. 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, only one part of the information to be indicated can be indicated, and the other part of the information to be indicated is known or agreed in advance, for example, the indication of specific information can be realized by means of the arrangement sequence of various information agreed in advance (such as predefined by a protocol), so that the indication cost is reduced to a certain extent. The application is not limited to the specific manner of indication. It will be appreciated that for the sender of the indication information, the indication information may be used to indicate the information to be indicated, and for the receiver of the indication information, the indication information may be used to determine the information to be indicated.

In the present application, the same or similar parts between the embodiments may be referred to each other unless specifically stated otherwise. In the various embodiments of the application and the various methods/designs/implementations of the various embodiments, the terms and/or descriptions between the various embodiments and the various methods/designs/implementations of the various embodiments are consistent and can be mutually referenced, and the technical features of the various embodiments and the various methods/designs/implementations of the various embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments, methods, or implementations in accordance with their inherent logical relationships, if not specifically stated and logically conflicting. The embodiments of the present application described below do not limit the scope of the present application.

The application can be applied to a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a New Radio (NR) system, a new radio Internet of vehicles (NR VEHICLE to everything, NR V2X) system, a system of LTE and 5G mixed networking, a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) communication system, an Internet of things (Internet of Things, ioT) or an unmanned aerial vehicle communication system, a communication system supporting various radio technologies such as LTE technology and NR technology, or a non-terrestrial communication system such as a satellite communication system, an aerial communication platform, and the like. Alternatively, the communication system may be adapted for a narrowband internet of things system (NB-IoT), an enhanced data rates for GSM evolution system (ENHANCED DATA RATE for GSM evolution, EDGE), a wideband code division multiple access system (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA), a code division multiple access 2000 system (code division multiple access, CDMA 2000), a time division-synchronous code division multiple access system (time division-synchronization code division multiple access, TD-SCDMA), and future-oriented communication technologies. Or other communication systems, wherein the communication system comprises a network device and a terminal device, the network device is used as a configuration information sending entity, and the terminal device is used as a configuration information receiving entity. Specifically, in the communication system, a presentity sends configuration information to another entity and sends data to the other entity or receives data sent by the other entity, and the other entity receives the configuration information and sends data to the configuration information sending entity or receives the data sent by the configuration information sending entity according to the configuration information. The application is applicable to terminal equipment in a connected state or an active state (active), and also to terminal equipment in a non-connected state (inactive) or an idle state (idle).

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic architecture of a communication system 1000 according to an embodiment of the application is shown. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system comprises a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) 100 and a core network 200, and optionally the communication system 1000 may further comprise the internet 300. The RAN100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in fig. 1, collectively 110) and may also include at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in fig. 1, collectively 120). RAN100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and/or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in fig. 1). Terminal 120 is connected to RAN node 110 by wireless means, and RAN node 110 is connected to core network 200 by wireless or wired means. The core network device in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN100 may be separate physical devices, or may be the same physical device integrating the logic functions of the core network device and the logic functions of the RAN node. The terminals and the RAN nodes may be connected to each other by a wired or wireless manner.

It should be noted that the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application is applicable to a ground communication system. Or, the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application is applicable to a communication system integrating ground communication and satellite communication, and the communication system can also be called as a non-ground network (TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, NTN) communication system. By way of example, the RAN100 in fig. 1 may include a terrestrial base station, where the terrestrial base station may include a TN cell (i.e., signals of the TN cell may be transmitted and received by the terrestrial base station), and the RAN100 in fig. 1 may also include a non-terrestrial base station, which is exemplified by a satellite, which may include an NTN cell (i.e., signals of the NTN cell may be transmitted and received by the satellite). The terrestrial communication system may be, for example, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), a 5G communication system, a New Radio (NR) system, or a communication system developed in the next step of the 5G communication system, which is not limited herein.

Compared with the traditional mobile communication system, the satellite communication system has the advantages of wider coverage range, irrelevant communication cost to transmission distance, capability of overcoming natural geographic barriers such as ocean, desert, mountain and the like. To overcome the deficiencies of conventional communication networks, satellite communication may be an effective complement to conventional networks. It is generally believed that non-terrestrial network communications have different channel characteristics, such as large transmission delay, large doppler frequency offset, than terrestrial network communications. Illustratively, the round trip delay of GEO satellite communications is 238-270 milliseconds (ms). The round trip delay of LEO satellite communication is 8 ms-20 ms. Satellite communication systems can be classified into three types, a high orbit (geostationary earth orbit, GEO) satellite communication system, also called a geosynchronous orbit satellite system, a medium orbit (medium earth orbit, MEO) satellite communication system, and a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication system, according to the orbit heights.

Among them, GEO satellites, also commonly referred to as stationary orbit satellites, may have an orbit height of 35786 kilometers (km), which has the major advantage of being stationary relative to the ground and providing a large coverage area. However, the GEO satellite orbit satellite has the defects that the distance from the earth is too large, an antenna with a larger caliber is needed, the transmission delay is larger, the real-time service requirement cannot be met within about 0.5 seconds, meanwhile, the orbit resource is relatively tense, the emission cost is high, and the coverage cannot be provided for two-pole areas. The MEO satellite has the orbit height of 2000-35786 km, can realize global coverage by having relatively less satellite number, but has higher transmission delay compared with LEO satellite, and is mainly used for positioning navigation. In addition, the orbit height is 300-2000 km, which is called low orbit satellite (LEO), and the LEO satellite is lower than MEO and GEO orbit height, the data propagation delay is small, the power loss is smaller, and the transmitting cost is relatively lower. LEO satellite communication networks have therefore made great progress in recent years and have received attention.

In one possible implementation, the satellite devices may be classified into a transmission (transmission) mode and a regeneration (regeneration) mode according to an operation mode.

These two modes will be exemplified by the implementations shown in fig. 2a, 2b, 2c and 2 d.

In the implementation of the transparent mode shown in fig. 2a, the satellite and the gateway station (i.e. NTN GATEWAY in fig. 2 a) act as a relay, i.e. the remote radio unit (Remote Radio Unit) shown in fig. 2a, and communication needs to be implemented between the terminal device and the gNB through the relay procedure. In other words, in the transparent mode, the satellite has a relay forwarding function.

Illustratively, in the implementation of the transparent mode shown in fig. 2b, when the satellite (including GEO satellite, MEO satellite, LEO satellite, etc.) operates in the transparent mode, the satellite has a relay forwarding function. The gateway station has a function of a base station or a part of a base station function, and can be regarded as a base station at this time. Or the base station may be deployed separately from the gateway station, the delay of the feeder link may include both satellite-to-gateway station and gateway-to-gNB delays.

Alternatively, the transparent transmission mode may take a case that the gateway station and the gNB are together or are close to each other as an example, and for a case that the gateway station is far away from the gNB, the delay of the feeder link may be added by the delay from the satellite to the gateway station and the delay from the gateway station to the gNB.

In the implementation of the regeneration mode shown in fig. 2c, the satellite and the gateway station (i.e. NTN GATEWAY in fig. 2 c) act as a gNB and can communicate with the terminal device. In other words, in the reproduction mode, the satellite has the function of a base station or a part of the functions of a base station, and can be regarded as a base station at this time.

Illustratively, in the implementation of the regeneration mode shown in fig. 2d, when the satellite (including GEO satellite, MEO satellite, LEO satellite, etc.) is operating in the regeneration mode, the satellite has the function of a base station or part of the function of a base station, in contrast to the implementation shown in fig. 2b, where the satellite may be considered to be a base station.

It should be noted that, the NTN and the base stations of the ground network may be interconnected by a common core network. The higher timeliness of assistance and interconnection can also be achieved through interfaces defined between base stations, in NR, the interfaces between base stations are called Xn interfaces, and the interfaces between base stations and the core network are called NG interfaces. The NTN node and the ground node in the converged network can realize intercommunication and cooperation by the interfaces.

It should be noted that the present application may be applied to a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a New Radio (NR) system, or a communication system that evolves after 5G (e.g., 6G,7G, etc.).

Taking 5G as an example, a 5G satellite communication system architecture is shown in fig. 3. The ground terminal equipment is connected with the network through a 5G new air interface, and the 5G base station is deployed on a satellite and is connected with a core network on the ground through a wireless link. Meanwhile, a wireless link exists between satellites, so that signaling interaction and user data transmission between base stations are completed. The description of the devices and interfaces in fig. 3 is as follows:

And 5G core network, user access control, mobility management, session management, user safety authentication, charging and other services. It is composed of several functional units, and can be divided into control plane and data plane functional entities. An access and mobility management unit (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF) is responsible for user access management, security authentication, and mobility management. The user plane unit (user plane function, UPF) is responsible for managing the functions of user plane data transmission, traffic statistics, etc. Session management functions (session management function, SMF) are mainly used for session management in mobile networks, such as session establishment, modification, release.

And the ground station is responsible for forwarding signaling and service data between the satellite base station and the 5G core network.

And 5G, new air interface, namely a wireless link between the terminal and the base station.

Xn interface is an interface between 5G base station and base station, and is mainly used for signaling interaction such as switching.

NG interface, interface between 5G base station and 5G core network, non-access stratum (NAS) signaling of main interactive core network, etc., and service data of user.

In addition, the network device in the terrestrial network communication system and the satellite in the NTN communication system can be regarded as a unified network device. The means for implementing the functions of the network device may be the network device, or may be a means capable of supporting the network device to implement the functions, such as a chip system, which may be installed in the network device. In the following, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is described by taking a satellite as an example as a device for implementing the function of the network device. It will be appreciated that when the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applied to a terrestrial network communication system, actions performed by the satellite may be performed by applying to a base station or a network device.

In the embodiment of the application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal equipment can be the terminal equipment, or can be a device which can support the terminal equipment to realize the function, such as a chip system, and can be installed in 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. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device is a terminal or UE, which is taken as an example to describe the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application.

The satellites may be stationary satellites, non-stationary satellites, low-orbit satellites, medium-orbit satellites, high-orbit satellites, and the like, and the present application is not particularly limited thereto.

The foregoing describes various scenarios of wireless communications to which the present application relates, and it should be understood that the foregoing is merely illustrative of scenarios in which the present application may be applied, and that the present application may also be applied in other application scenarios, without limitation. The wireless communication process to which the present application relates will be described below.

In the communication system shown in fig. 1/fig. 2 a/fig. 2 b/fig. 2 c/fig. 2 d/fig. 3, the communication resources may be configured by signals (e.g., the signals carry configuration information/configuration signaling, etc.) that may be transmitted by the network device. Wherein the communication resources may include communication resources of the network device and communication resources of a neighboring network device, if any, such that a receiver of the signal is able to determine the corresponding communication resources based on the signal. For example, in the case where the receiving side of the signal is a terminal device, the terminal device can obtain a network service based on the communication resource.

Embodiments of the present application may relate to a Random Access (RA) procedure, which will be exemplarily described below.

In LTE and NR, the terminal device completes uplink time synchronization with the network device through a random access procedure, and establishes an RRC connection with the network device through the random access procedure, and after the terminal device and the network device establish the RRC connection, uplink and downlink service data transmission can be performed. In general, before initiating uplink random access, the terminal device also detects that the downlink synchronization signal sent by the receiving network device completes downlink time synchronization and frequency synchronization, where the downlink synchronization signal generally includes a primary synchronization signal (primary synchronization signal, PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (secondary synchronization signal, SSS), and in NR, PSS and SSS may be carried in a synchronization/broadcast block (SS/PBCH block, SSB).

Currently, in NR, the random access procedure types include two types, a Type 1 random access (Type-1 RA) procedure and a Type 2 random access (Type-2 RA) procedure, wherein the Type-1 RA procedure is also called a four-step random access (4-step RA) procedure, and the Type-2 RA procedure is also called a two-step random access (2-step RA) procedure. The Type-1/Type-2 RA procedure further comprises a contention-based random access (contention based random access, CBRA) procedure and a contention-free random access (contention free random access, CFRA) procedure, and the CBRA and CFRA procedures are basically consistent according to whether the transmission of the preamble between different terminal devices has collision or not.

As an example, a contention-based random access procedure will be described below with the example shown in fig. 4 a.

The Msg1 is transmitted, in which the terminal device randomly selects, according to the received system message and the selected SSB index, a certain RO of ROs associated with the SSB index (RO may be understood as a time-frequency resource for random access, and the network device is preconfigured with an association relationship between the RO and the SSB index) for transmitting a Preamble sequence (i.e., preamble, that is, msg 1).

Furthermore, after determining the time-frequency resource (i.e., RO), the terminal device may select one preamble sequence among the selected ROs (typically, at most 64 preamble sequences may be simultaneously transmitted on one RO, and the terminal device selects one of the 64 preamble sequences) to transmit. The terminal device then transmits a preamble sequence to the network device, the preamble sequence being carried by the PRACH.

Msg2 transmission the network device sends random access response (random access response, RAR) information to the terminal device after receiving the preamble sequence, where the RAR (i.e., msg 2) may include one or more of scheduling information (i.e., random access response uplink grant (RAR UL grant) information), timing advance command (TIMING ADVANCE command, TAC) information, and temporary cell radio network temporary identity (temporary cell radio access network temporary identifier, TC-RNTI) of Msg 3.

For the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment starts a random access response window after sending the Msg1, and monitors the Msg2 sent by the network side in the window.

For example, if the terminal device successfully detects its RAR, the random access is successful, and the terminal device continues to send Msg3 according to the indication of the RAR, where the Msg3 function may include an indication of the RRC connection establishment request.

For another example, if the terminal device determines that the terminal device does not receive its RAR, the random access fails, and the terminal device re-initiates the random access procedure according to the backoff parameter indicated by the network device until the maximum number of random accesses is reached.

Msg3 transmission, wherein Msg3 is sent by a time-frequency resource appointed by Msg2 and is carried by a Physical Uplink SHARED CHANNEL (PUSCH) channel.

Msg4 transmission the Msg4 is mainly used for conflict resolution, when a plurality of terminal devices are accessed simultaneously, the random access selection of which terminal device is accessed is needed to be determined.

Specifically, after sending the Msg3, the terminal device listens to the Msg4 issued by the receiving network side, where the Msg4 carries a conflict resolution identifier and an air interface parameter configuration for the terminal device. If the terminal equipment successfully receives the Msg4, the random access is successful, otherwise, the random access fails. If successful, the terminal device continues to send Msg5, mainly for sending RRC setup complete command. If the random access procedure fails, the terminal equipment re-initiates the random access procedure according to the rollback parameter indicated by the network equipment until the maximum random access times are reached.

Illustratively, as shown in FIG. 4b, taking CBRA as an example, the Type-2 RA process is to combine the first four steps into two steps on the basis of Type-1 RA. The terminal device sends both Msg1 and Msg3, referred to as MsgA. After detecting MsgA, the network device performs feedback and sends MsgB.

Furthermore, in the random access procedure, the terminal device may send the preamble sequence on ROs, one RO may be considered as a time-frequency resource for one block of transmission Msg 1. Optionally, the terminal device may obtain the starting position of the PRACH in the frequency domain and the frequency division multiplexing number according to the higher layer cells (e.g. the parameters msg1-FrequencyStart and msg1-FDM in RACH-ConfigGeneric), which also determines the frequency domain position of the PRACH.

As shown in fig. 4c, where the vertical direction represents the frequency domain, each square is 1 RO, and the ROs are arranged by 4 ROs starting from the frequency domain position specified by msg 1-FrequencyStart.

In the Msg1 transmission process, the terminal device may select one RO to transmit the Preamble sequence according to the index of the selected SSB. Thus, in NR, in addition to specifying PRACH location, the network device needs to specify the mapping relationship of RO-SSB (one SSB index may associate multiple ROs, or multiple SSB indexes associate one RO). For example, the network device may configure a mapping relationship of Y SSBs to 1 RO through the higher layer parameters SSB-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB, where when Y is less than 1, 1 SSB is associated with 1/Y RO, and when Y is greater than 1, Y SSBs are associated with 1 RO (1 SSB is associated with 1/Y RO).

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 4d, when y=1/2, one SSB associates 2 ROs, and when y=2, 1 RO associates 2 SSBs (two SSBs on one RO each associate a different preamble). Thus, in case that one SSB index associates a plurality of ROs, the terminal device selects one of the ROs and selects a preamble sequence transmitted on the RO. For example, after determining the association of RO and SSB, RO-SSB mapping may be started in the order of first frequency domain then time domain, first same slot, then same frame, and finally different frame.

As an example, as shown in fig. 4e, where the horizontal direction represents the time domain, the vertical direction represents the frequency domain, when the SSB set used by the base station is { SSBi, ssbi+1, ssbi+2, ssbi+3}, msg 1-fdm=4, and y=1/4, 1 SSB associates 4 ROs, the RO set is denoted as { RO1, RO2, RO3, RO4},16 ROs complete a complete RO-SSB mapping cycle, and the specific RO-SSB mapping order is that the SSB is arranged starting from the frequency domain corresponding to a certain RO time domain, i.e., SSBi corresponds to RO1-RO4 occupying the first RO time domain of the starting PRACH slot of the same frame corresponding to 4 RO positions of the frequency domain, SSBi +1 corresponds to the second RO time domain of the starting PRACH slot, SSBi +1 corresponds to occupy the second RO time domain of the starting PRACH slot corresponding to 4 RO positions of the frequency domain, SSBi +2 corresponds to the second RO4 of the first RO time domain of the starting PRACH slot of the same frame corresponding to the frequency domain, and SSBi +1-RO 4 corresponds to the second RO4 of the first RO time slot of the PRACH slot of the frequency domain corresponding to the frequency domain.

Furthermore, in the random access procedure, the concept of mapping cycle and association period may be involved, which will be described separately below.

Mapping cycle-SSB and RO sent by all base stations are mapped once, called one mapping cycle (MAPPING CYCLE). Illustratively, as shown in FIG. 4f, assume that SSB-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB has a value of 1 (i.e., a mapping relationship of Y=1 SSB to 1 RO is configured, in other words, the RO is in one-to-one relationship with the SSB index), msg1-FDM has a value of 2 (i.e., the number of RO over a time unit is2, the number of frequency division RO (FDM-RO) is 2),(I.e., the number of different SSB indexes in the SSB sent by the network device is 4). In fig. 4f, four SSB indexes SSB 0, SSB1, SSB2, and SSB3 are taken as an example, and the four SSBs are mapped once, i.e., one mapping cycle. It should be appreciated that in this example, one mapping cycle includes 4 ROs. For example, RO 0 to RO3 are one mapping cycle, and RO 4 to RO7 are another mapping cycle. Alternatively, in this example, the SSB index may be other values, such as SSB index 5,SSB index 7,SSB index 8,SSB index 10, depending on the configuration of the base station.

Association period: the association period (association period) is an integer multiple of the PRACH configuration period, where the association period may be 10ms,20ms,40ms,80ms,160ms when the PRACH configuration period is equal to 10 ms. The specific value is to find a minimum value among these values, and to cause SSBs of all the hairs to be mapped at least one pass.

In general, a plurality of preamble sequence code division multiplexing transmissions can be supported on one RO, and a plurality of ROs can be supported by one NR cell. Unlike LTE, NR introduces multi-beam operation, so that the random access procedure of NR is based on beam transmission, and for terminal devices in the initial access phase, its transmission is mainly based on SSB beam, and for terminal devices in the connected state, it may also be based on channel state information reference signal (CHANNEL STATE information REFERENCE SIGNAL, CSI-RS) beam. The NR may support the network device to transmit SSBs in multiple beam directions. For example, in band 1 (frequency range 1, fr 1) 8 SSBs may be supported, and in band 2 (frequency range 2, fr 2), tens or even hundreds of SSBs may be supported. The terminal device may select one of the SSBs and transmit PRACH signals using the SSB beam.

By way of example, the terminal device may select an SSB that transmits the PRACH by, for example, if the network device is not configured with a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) threshold, the terminal device may optionally transmit the PRACH by one SSB, or else, by one SSB among SSBs(s) that exceed the RSRP threshold, if any.

In a wireless communication system, a communication connection may be established between a terminal device and a network device through a random access procedure (e.g., the procedure shown in fig. 4a or fig. 4 b), and a subsequent terminal device may obtain a network service through a communication signal transmitted through the communication connection.

In one possible implementation manner, in the random access process, a coverage enhancement mode is supported on the PRACH resource, so that the success rate of the random access of the terminal equipment can be improved. Specifically, after receiving a synchronization signal (e.g., SSB), the terminal device may repeat transmitting the same preamble using the same transmit beam for the SSB. The number of repeated transmissions may be 1,2,4,8, etc. Illustratively, taking the procedure of Msg1 in fig. 4a above as an example, in fig. 4a, after receiving an SSB, the terminal device may send repeatedly transmitted Msg1 for an SSB with an RSRP greater than a threshold value. In this way, compared with the mode of transmitting the Msg1 once, the success rate of receiving the Msg1 by the network equipment can be improved under the condition that the number of repeated transmission is greater than 1, and then the access success rate is improved.

However, in the above procedure, in the case where the number of times of repeating the Msg1 is greater than 1, although the access success rate can be improved, the transmission resources (i.e., PRACH resources) of the Msg1 occupied by the same terminal device will increase. For example, a number of repeated transmissions of Msg1 of 2 means that twice as many resources as a single transmission of Msg1 are needed for access, which would result in a reduced access capacity.

Therefore, how to increase the access capacity in the random access process is a technical problem to be solved.

In order to solve the above problems, the present application provides a communication method and related apparatus, and the detailed description will be given below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 5, a schematic diagram of an implementation of a communication method according to the present application is provided, and the method includes the following steps.

It should be noted that, in the following, the method is illustrated in fig. 5 by taking the first communication device and the second communication device as the execution bodies of the interaction indication, but the present application is not limited to the execution bodies of the interaction indication. For example, the communication apparatus may be a communication device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device), or a chip in a communication device, a baseband (baseband) chip, a modem (modem) chip, a system on chip (SoC) chip containing a modem core, a system in package (SYSTEMIN PACKAGE, SIP) chip, a communication module, a chip system, a processor, a logic module, or software, etc. The first communication device may be a terminal device and the second communication device may be a network device.

S501, the second communication device sends first information, and correspondingly, the first communication device receives the first information. Wherein the first information is used to determine a first set of PRACH resources that support multi-user multiplexing.

S502, the first communication device sends first signals of N repeated transmissions, and the second communication device correspondingly receives part or all of the first signals of the N repeated transmissions. The first signal is used for random access, N is an integer greater than 1, wherein the first signal of N repeated transmissions is carried on part or all of resources in the first PRACH resource set, the first signal of N repeated transmissions is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence in M orthogonal sequences, and M is an integer greater than 1.

It should be noted that, since there is a possibility that a transmission error occurs in signal transmission, after the first communication apparatus transmits the first signal of N repeated transmissions, the second communication apparatus may receive part or all of the first signal of N repeated transmissions.

The M orthogonal sequences can be used for realizing resource multiplexing, wherein the resource multiplexing represents that multiple users send information/signaling/data on the same resource to improve the resource utilization rate and the capacity of the system, and the information/signaling/data sent by each user is obtained through the processing of one of the M orthogonal sequences. For example, the two sets of sequences are {1,1} and {1, -1} respectively, and two terminal devices are exemplified by two sets of sequences, and the two terminal devices respectively use the two sets of sequences to perform spreading repetition on data, so that the two terminal devices can be guaranteed to transmit in the same time-frequency resource, but do not interfere with each other. For example, the UE1 transmits a signal s1, the signal is spread to { s 1a 1, s 1a 2} using the sequence { a1, a2}, the UE2 transmits a signal s2, the signal is spread to { s 2b 1, s 2b 2} using the sequence { b1, b2}, the UE1 and the UE2 both transmit their own signals on the same resource, and the receiver can solve the signal s1 using the sequence { a1, a2} and can solve the signal s2 using the sequence { b1, b2 }.

As an example, an orthogonal sequence of length 4 (i.e., m=4) is shown in table 2.

TABLE 2

In table 2, taking m=4 as an example, the M orthogonal sequences may include some or all of the sequence of index 0 [ +1+1+1+1 ], the sequence of index 1 [ +1-j-1+j ], the sequence of index 2 [ +1-1+1-1 ], and the sequence of index 2 [ +1+j-1-j ]. Accordingly, the first orthogonal sequence used by the first communication apparatus in step S502 may be one of the sequences in table 2.

As an example, an orthogonal sequence of length 2 (i.e., m=2) is shown in table 3.

TABLE 3 Table 3

In table 3, taking m=2 as an example, the M orthogonal sequences may include a sequence of index 0 [ +1+1 ], a sequence of index 1 [ +1-1 ]. Accordingly, the first orthogonal sequence used by the first communication apparatus in step S502 may be one of the sequences in table 3.

Alternatively, the M sequences may be indicated by the network device to the first communication device (e.g. by a broadcast message), or may be pre-configured by a protocol/standard, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, the length of any one of the M orthogonal sequences is K, where K is greater than or equal to M and K is less than or equal to N. The sequence with the length of K is applied to the PRACH signal which is repeatedly transmitted, and when K is smaller than or equal to N, the PRACH signal which is repeatedly transmitted and sent by different users can be orthogonalized, so that the interference of different users can be reduced. Alternatively, K may be greater than N, in which case, the orthogonality between the repeatedly transmitted PRACH signals sent by different users may be poor, but a certain anti-interference performance may be obtained compared to a processing manner that does not pass through an orthogonal sequence.

Alternatively, the first signal is used for random access, which is understood to be a random access signal, a preamble signal, msg1, etc.

Based on the scheme shown in fig. 5, the first communication device may determine a first PRACH resource set through the first information received in step S501, where the first PRACH resource set supports multi-user multiplexing. Accordingly, the first communication device may send a first signal for random access (i.e., the first signal may be referred to as a random access signal) through some or all resources in the first PRACH resource set in step S502, where the first signal for N repeated transmissions is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence of M orthogonal sequences, and M is greater than 1. In this way, the repeated random access signals transmitted by different first communication apparatuses may be processed based on M different orthogonal sequences, and accordingly, the receiving side (e.g., the second communication apparatus) of the random access signal may be able to distinguish between different random access signals based on the M orthogonal sequences after receiving the different random access signals. Therefore, through the processing mode of the orthogonal sequence to the random access signal, different first communication devices can multiplex the same PRACH resource to realize random access so as to support multi-user multiplexing and improve access capacity.

Further, the first signal for random access transmitted by the first communication apparatus in step S502 is transmitted through N repetitions, i.e., the receiving side of the first signal (e.g., the second communication apparatus) is able to receive the random access signal of one or more repetitions from the same communication apparatus. In this way, the success rate of the receiving party on the random access signal can be improved, so as to reduce the random access time delay. For example, in a communication scenario with a poor link budget (for example, NTN communication scenario), signal loss may occur due to communication signals between different communication devices (for example, a communication device located on the ground and a satellite communication device), and therefore, by the above scheme, the success rate of receiving signals by a signal receiver can be increased by repeating the transmitted signals.

In the method shown in fig. 5, the first information received by the first communication device in step S501 is used to determine a first PRACH resource set, where the first information may include a plurality of parameters/cells/fields/indication information used to determine the first PRACH resource set, which will be described in connection with some implementations below.

In a first implementation manner, the first information received by the first communication device in step S501 includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate one or more RO resources supporting multi-user multiplexing (e.g., the first indication information may include one or more of an index, an identification, and a resource location of the one or more RO resources), where the RO resources included in the first PRACH resource set are the one or more RO resources.

Specifically, the random access signal may be carried on an RO resource on the PRACH, and correspondingly, the first information may carry a first indication information, so that the first communication device may determine, based on the first indication information, the RO resource that uses an orthogonal sequence to perform signal processing, so as to implement flexible indication on the PRACH resource set supporting multi-user multiplexing.

By way of example, 8 ROs (i.e., RO 0 through RO 7) are illustrated in fig. 4f above. In an implementation manner, the first indication information may indicate that PRACH signals of at least two repeated transmissions carried on some or all RO resources in the 8 ROs are processed using an orthogonal sequence. The RO resources indicated by the first indication information are RO 0, RO 2, RO4, and RO6, for example, will be described below.

As an example, the first indication information may include 8 bits, the 8 bits corresponding to the 8 ROs, respectively. Wherein, a bit value of 1 corresponding to a certain RO indicates that the PRACH signal of at least two repeated transmissions carried on the RO is processed by using an orthogonal sequence (or indicates that the RO supports multi-user multiplexing or indicates that the RO supports OCC transmission). Correspondingly, a bit value of 0 corresponding to a certain RO indicates that the PRACH signal of at least two repeated transmissions carried on the RO is not processed by using an orthogonal sequence (or indicates that the RO does not support multi-user multiplexing or indicates that the RO does not support OCC transmission). In this case, the first information contains 8 bits of 101 010 10. In this way, the first communication apparatus may determine one or more ROs corresponding to a bit having a value of 1 among the 8 bits as the RO resource in the first PRACH resource.

For example, taking the example that the number of repeated transmissions is 2 (i.e., n=2), in fig. 4f, the first communication device may determine that the first PRACH resource set includes RO 0, RO 2, RO4, and RO6 through the first indication information. Accordingly, the first communication device may transmit the PRACH signal of the first retransmission at RO 0 and transmit the PRACH signal of the second retransmission at RO 2. Taking the first communication device as an example based on the sequence "[ +1-1 ]" corresponding to the index "1" in table 3, the PRACH signal transmitted repeatedly for the first time may process the preamble sequence based on the first element "+1" of the first orthogonal sequence, and the PRACH signal transmitted repeatedly for the second time may process the preamble sequence based on the second element "—1" of the first orthogonal sequence.

Alternatively, in the above example, the meaning of the value 1 and the meaning of the value 0 may be reversed.

Alternatively, in the above example, the indication of any RO may be implemented by two or more bits, in addition to the implementation of a value of 1 or 0 by one bit, which is just one example.

As an example, the first indication information may include 2 bits, the 2 bits corresponding to ROs of the two frequency domain resources, respectively. As illustrated in the example of fig. 4f, the frequency domain resources where RO 0, RO 2, RO4 and RO6 are located are denoted as frequency domain resource 1, and the frequency domain resources where RO 1, RO 3, RO5 and RO7 are located are denoted as frequency domain resource 2. Wherein, a bit value of 1 corresponding to a certain frequency domain resource indicates that the PRACH signal of at least two repeated transmissions carried on the RO corresponding to the frequency domain resource is obtained by using orthogonal sequence processing (or indicates that the RO corresponding to the frequency domain resource supports multi-user multiplexing or indicates that the RO corresponding to the frequency domain resource supports OCC transmission). Correspondingly, a bit value of 0 corresponding to a certain frequency domain resource indicates that the PRACH signal of at least two repeated transmissions carried on the RO corresponding to the frequency domain resource is not processed by using an orthogonal sequence (or indicates that the RO corresponding to the frequency domain resource does not support multi-user multiplexing or indicates that the RO corresponding to the frequency domain resource does not support OCC transmission). In this case, the first information contains 2 bits of 1 0. In this way, the first communication apparatus may determine one or more ROs on the frequency domain resource corresponding to the bit having a value of 1 from the 2 bits as the RO resource in the first PRACH resource.

In a second implementation manner, the first information received by the first communication device in step S501 includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a resource interval, and the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information.

Wherein the PRACH resource may be generally used by a plurality of communication apparatuses, and accordingly, the number of RO resources for random access included in the PRACH resource may be relatively large. To this end, in implementation two, the first information may include second indication information for indicating the resource interval, such that the first communication device is able to determine the first set of PRACH resources among the second set of PRACH resources based on the second indication information.

In one possible implementation manner of the second implementation manner, the first information further includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a resource start position and/or a resource end position, and the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information and the third indication information. The first communication device is thereby caused to determine a first set of PRACH resources among a second set of PRACH resources based on the second indication information and the third indication information.

By way of example, 8 ROs (i.e., RO 0 through RO 7) are illustrated in fig. 4f above. In the second implementation, the resource interval indicated by the second indication information may be an RO resource interval. The resource interval indicated by the second indication information may be 1 RO resource interval as an example. For ease of understanding, the following example takes the resource start position as the first RO (i.e., RO 0 in fig. 4 f) as an example.

As an example, taking the number of repeated transmissions as 2 (i.e., n=2), in fig. 4f, the first communication device may determine that the resource location of the first repeated transmission is RO 0, and the resource location of the second repeated transmission is spaced from the resource location of the first repeated transmission by 1 RO resource interval, i.e., the first communication device may determine that the resource location of the second repeated transmission is RO 2.

As an example, taking the number of repeated transmissions as 4 (i.e., n=4), in fig. 4f, the first communication device may determine that the resource location of the first repeated transmission is RO 0, and the intervals of the subsequent three repeated transmissions are all 1 RO resource interval, i.e., the first communication device may determine that the resource location of the second repeated transmission is RO 2, the resource location of the third repeated transmission is RO 4, and the resource location of the second repeated transmission is RO 6.

As can be seen from the above examples, the second indication information in the second implementation manner can indicate the resource interval with a smaller number of bits, so that the overhead can be reduced.

In a third implementation manner, the first information received by the first communication device in step S501 includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that a resource type of the first PRACH resource set is a first type, and the PRACH resource with the resource type being the first type meets at least one of the following:

PRACH signals for carrying at least two repeated transmissions only;

PRACH signals not used to carry a single transmission;

PRACH signals carrying a single transmission are not supported.

Specifically, the first information received by the first communication apparatus may include fourth indication information for indicating that the resource type of the first PRACH resource set is the first type, and PRACH resources of which the resource type is the first type satisfy the above one item. In other words, the first communication device may distinguish between different PRACH resources by whether the PRACH resources are used to carry a single transmission PRACH signal. Since the conventional (legacy) communication device generally only supports PRACH transmitting a single transmission, by the above scheme, the random access signal can be processed by using the orthogonal sequence on PRACH resources supporting PRACH signals carrying at least two repeated transmissions, so that the scheme can be compatible with the conventional communication device, and the influence on the random access process of the communication devices can be avoided.

Alternatively, the PRACH resources of the first type may be independent RO (separate RO) resources, the PRACH resources of the second type may be shared RO (shared RO) resources, or the PRACH resources of the two types may be other names, which are not limited herein.

In a fourth implementation, the first information received by the first communication device in step S501 includes fifth indication information, where the fifth indication information is used to indicate an index of one or more second signals, and the one or more second signals are used for synchronization, where the one or more second signals correspond to PRACH resources in the first PRACH resource set. In other words, the PRACH resource type corresponding to the one or more second signals indicated by the fifth indication information is the first type (or PRACH resources corresponding to the one or more second signals indicated by the fifth indication information support transmission of multi-user multiplexing, or PRACH signals of at least two repeated transmissions carried on PRACH resources corresponding to the one or more second signals indicated by the fifth indication information are processed using orthogonal sequences).

Optionally, the second signal is one or more of PSS, SSS, SSB.

Specifically, the first information may include fifth indication information for indicating an index of one or more second signals for synchronization, so that the first communication apparatus determines PRACH resources corresponding to the one or more second signals as the first PRACH resource set after determining the one or more second signals based on the fifth indication information. Since the beam directions corresponding to the different second signals may be different and the access requirements of the different beam directions may be different, by the above scheme, the sender of the first information (e.g. the second communication device) can designate PRACH resources corresponding to the one or more second signals as PRACH resources in the first PRACH resource set, so that the sender can flexibly schedule the access of the communication device in the different beam directions.

In other words, since the random access resource has a corresponding relationship with the downlink synchronization signal, that is, after the first communication apparatus detects the downlink synchronization signal, it can know the random access resource (i.e., RO resource) corresponding to the downlink synchronization signal. In an NTN scenario, for example, signals of a satellite base station can generally cover a relatively large ground area, but the intensity of terminal devices in different ground areas is quite possibly different, which results in that access resource requirements in some SSB directions are large, a multi-user multiplexing mode is suitable for use, access resource requirements in some directions are small, and multi-user multiplexing is not needed. To this end, based on implementation four, multi-user multiplexing may be disabled and enabled for SSB index levels. For example, the fifth indication information may implement an indication of the index of the one or more second signals in a bit map (bitmap) or physical random access channel mask (PRACH MASK).

Optionally, if there are two or more SSBs corresponding to the same RO (e.g., the scenario y=2 shown in fig. 4d above), then the second communication apparatus (e.g., the network device) may implement the method of ensuring that the types of PRACH resources corresponding to the two or more SSBs mapped on the same RO are the same, or the method of using the same signal processing method to the PRACH resources corresponding to the two or more SSBs mapped on the same RO according to the protocol convention or the network side indication (i.e., the PRACH signals carried on the PRACH resources corresponding to the two or more SSBs are all processed using orthogonal sequences (i.e., support multi-user multiplexing), or the PRACH signals carried on the PRACH resources corresponding to the two or more SSBs are not processed using orthogonal sequences (i.e., do not support multi-user multiplexing)).

It should be noted that, the first information may be implemented in one or more of the foregoing implementations one to four, that is, the first information may include one or more of the first indication information, the second indication information, the fourth indication information, and the fifth indication information.

In the manner shown in fig. 5, the M orthogonal sequences used by the first communication apparatus in step S502 satisfy at least one of the following:

Specifically, since a sequence can be obtained by processing an orthogonal sequence with a value of +1, that is, the processing procedure of the orthogonal sequence with a value of +1 does not change the value of a sequence, correspondingly, in the case that a conventional (legacy) communication device only supports PRACH transmitting single transmission, a random access signal transmitted by the conventional communication device can be regarded as a result obtained by processing the orthogonal sequence with a value of +1. In the above procedure, when the first orthogonal sequence satisfies at least one of the above, the first signal of N repeated transmissions transmitted by the first communication apparatus is not obtained based on the orthogonal sequence having a value of +1. In this way, different first communication apparatuses can multiplex as many PRACH resources as possible to support multi-user multiplexing, and at the same time, can avoid affecting the conventional communication apparatus.

For example, the first communication apparatus selects one orthogonal sequence of non-all 1 as the first orthogonal sequence for the orthogonal sequence of length 2 in the case of m=2 (as in the foregoing table 2), and selects one of three orthogonal sequences of non-all 1 as the first orthogonal sequence for the orthogonal sequence of length 4 in the case of m=4 (as in the foregoing table 3).

Referring to fig. 6, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device 600, where the communication device 600 may implement the functions of the second communication device or the first communication device in the above method embodiment, so that the beneficial effects of the above method embodiment may also be implemented. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device 600 may be a first communication device (or a second communication device), or may be an integrated circuit or an element, such as a chip, inside the first communication device (or the second communication device).

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

In a possible implementation manner, when the apparatus 600 is a method for executing the first communication apparatus in the foregoing embodiment, the apparatus 600 includes a processing unit 601 and a transceiver unit 602, where the transceiver unit 602 is configured to receive first information, the processing unit 601 is configured to determine a first set of physical random access channel PRACH resources based on the first information, the first set of PRACH resources supports multiuser multiplexing, and the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to send a first signal for N repeated transmissions, where N is an integer greater than 1, and the first signal for N repeated transmissions is carried by part or all resources in the first set of PRACH resources, and the first signal for N repeated transmissions is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence of M orthogonal sequences, where M is an integer greater than 1.

In a possible implementation manner, when the apparatus 600 is a method for executing the second communication apparatus in the foregoing embodiment, the apparatus 600 includes a processing unit 601 and a transceiver unit 602, where the processing unit 601 is configured to determine first information, the transceiver unit 602 is configured to send the first information, where the first information is used to determine a first set of PRACH resources of a physical random access channel, the first set of PRACH resources supports multiuser multiplexing, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to receive part or all of a first signal for N repeated transmissions, where N is an integer greater than 1, and the first signal for N repeated transmissions is carried by part or all of resources in the first set of PRACH resources, and M is an integer greater than 1.

It should be noted that, for details of the information execution process of the unit of the communication device 600, reference may be made to the description of the foregoing embodiment of the method of the present application, and the details are not repeated here.

Referring to fig. 7, for another schematic structural diagram of a communication device 700 according to the present application, the communication device 700 includes a logic circuit 701 and an input-output interface 702. Wherein the communication device 700 may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

The transceiver 602 shown in fig. 6 may be a communication interface, which may be the input/output interface 702 in fig. 7, and the input/output interface 702 may include an input interface and an output interface. Or the communication interface may be a transceiver circuit that may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

Optionally, the input/output interface 702 is configured to receive first information, the logic circuit 701 is configured to determine a first physical random access channel PRACH resource set based on the first information, where the first PRACH resource set supports multiuser multiplexing, and the input/output interface 702 is further configured to send a first signal for N repeated transmissions, where N is an integer greater than 1, the first signal for N repeated transmissions is carried by part or all of the resources in the first PRACH resource set, and the first signal for N repeated transmissions is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence of M orthogonal sequences, where M is an integer greater than 1.

Optionally, the logic 701 is configured to determine first information, the input/output interface 702 is configured to send the first information, where the first information is configured to determine a first set of PRACH resources of a physical random access channel, the first set of PRACH resources supports multiuser multiplexing, the input/output interface 702 is further configured to receive part or all of a first signal for N repeated transmissions, where N is an integer greater than 1, and the first signal for N repeated transmissions is carried by part or all of the resources in the first set of PRACH resources, and M is an integer greater than 1, where the first signal for N repeated transmissions is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence of M orthogonal sequences.

The logic circuit 701 and the input/output interface 702 may also execute other steps executed by the first communication device or the second communication device in any embodiment and achieve corresponding beneficial effects, which are not described herein.

In one possible implementation, the processing unit 601 shown in fig. 6 may be the logic circuit 701 in fig. 7.

Alternatively, the logic 701 may be a processing device, and the functions of the processing device may be implemented in part or in whole in software. Wherein the functions of the processing device may be partially or entirely implemented by software.

Optionally, the processing means may comprise a memory for storing a computer program and a processor for reading and executing the computer program stored in the memory for performing the corresponding processes and/or steps in any of the method embodiments.

Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only a processor. The memory for storing the computer program is located outside the processing means and the processor is connected to the memory via circuitry/electrical wiring for reading and executing the computer program stored in the memory. Wherein the memory and the processor may be integrated or may be physically independent of each other.

Alternatively, the processing means may be one or more chips, or one or more integrated circuits. For example, the processing device may be one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated chips (ASICs), system-on-chips (socs), central processors (central processor unit, CPUs), network processors (network processor, NP), digital signal processing circuits (DIGITAL SIGNAL processors, DSPs), microcontrollers (micro controller unit, MCUs), programmable controllers (programmable logic device, PLDs) or other integrated chips, or any combination of the above chips or processors, or the like.

Referring to fig. 8, a communication apparatus 800 according to the foregoing embodiment provided as an embodiment of the present application, where the communication apparatus 800 may specifically be a communication apparatus as a terminal device in the foregoing embodiment, and the communication apparatus illustrated in fig. 8 is implemented by a terminal device (or a component in the terminal device).

Wherein, a possible logical structure diagram of the communication device 800, the communication device 800 may include, but is not limited to, at least one processor 801 and a communication port 802.

The transceiver 602 shown in fig. 6 may be a communication interface, which may be the communication port 802 in fig. 8, and the communication port 802 may include an input interface and an output interface. Or the communication port 802 may also be a transceiver circuit that may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

Further optionally, the apparatus may further comprise at least one of a memory 803, a bus 804, and in an embodiment of the application, the at least one processor 801 is configured to control the actions of the communication apparatus 800.

Further, the processor 801 may be a central processing unit, a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various exemplary logic blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with this disclosure. The processor may also be a combination that performs the function of a computation, e.g., a combination comprising one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, and so forth. 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, which are not repeated herein.

It should be noted that, the communication apparatus 800 shown in fig. 8 may be specifically used to implement the steps implemented by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, and implement the technical effects corresponding to the terminal device, and the specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus shown in fig. 8 may refer to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiment, which are not repeated herein.

Referring to fig. 9, a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus 900 according to the foregoing embodiment provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the communication apparatus 900 may specifically be a communication apparatus as a network device in the foregoing embodiment, and the communication apparatus illustrated in fig. 9 is implemented by a network device (or a component in the network device), where the structure of the communication apparatus may refer to the structure shown in fig. 9.

The communication device 900 includes at least one processor 911 and at least one network interface 914. Further optionally, the communication device further comprises at least one memory 912, at least one transceiver 913, and one or more antennas 915. The processor 911, memory 912, transceiver 913, and network interface 914 are coupled, for example, by a bus, and in embodiments of the present application, the coupling may include various interfaces, transmission lines, buses, etc., which are not limited in this embodiment. An antenna 915 is coupled to the transceiver 913. The network interface 914 is used to enable the communication device to communicate with other communication devices via a communication link. For example, the network interface 914 may comprise a network interface between the communication device and the core network equipment, such as an S1 interface, and the network interface may comprise a network interface between the communication device and other communication devices (e.g., other network equipment or core network equipment), such as an X2 or Xn interface.

The transceiver 602 shown in fig. 6 may be a communication interface, which may be the network interface 914 in fig. 9, and the network interface 914 may include an input interface and an output interface. Or the network interface 914 may be a transceiver circuit that may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

The processor 911 is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, and controlling the whole communication device, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs, for example for supporting the communication device to perform the actions described in the embodiments. The communication device may include a baseband processor, which is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, and a central processor, which is mainly used for controlling the whole terminal device, executing the software program, and processing the data of the software program. The processor 911 in fig. 9 may integrate the functions of a baseband processor and a central processor, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the baseband processor and the central processor may also be separate processors, interconnected by bus technology, etc. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, and that the terminal device may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, and that the various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor may also be referred to as a baseband processing circuit or baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in a memory in the form of a software program, which is executed by the processor to realize the baseband processing function.

The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The memory 912 may be separate and coupled to the processor 911. Alternatively, the memory 912 may be integrated with the processor 911, for example, within a single chip. The memory 912 is capable of storing program codes for implementing the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 911, and various types of computer program codes executed may be regarded as drivers of the processor 911.

Fig. 9 shows only one memory and one processor. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and multiple memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc. The memory may be a memory element on the same chip as the processor, i.e., an on-chip memory element, or a separate memory element, as embodiments of the present application are not limited in this respect.

A transceiver 913 may be used to support the reception or transmission of radio frequency signals between the communication device and the terminal, and the transceiver 913 may be coupled to the antenna 915. The transceiver 913 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. Specifically, the one or more antennas 915 may receive radio frequency signals, and the receiver Rx of the transceiver 913 is configured to receive the radio frequency signals from the antennas, convert the radio frequency signals into digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals, and provide the digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals to the processor 911, so that the processor 911 performs further processing, such as demodulation processing and decoding processing, on the digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals. The transmitter Tx in the transceiver 913 is also operative to receive and convert modulated digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals from the processor 911 to radio frequency signals, and to transmit the radio frequency signals via the one or more antennas 915. In particular, the receiver Rx may selectively perform one or more steps of down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion on the radio frequency signal to obtain a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency signal, where the order of the down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion is adjustable. The transmitter Tx may selectively perform one or more stages of up-mixing processing and digital-to-analog conversion processing on the modulated digital baseband signal or the digital intermediate frequency signal to obtain a radio frequency signal, and the sequence of the up-mixing processing and the digital-to-analog conversion processing may be adjustable. The digital baseband signal and the digital intermediate frequency signal may be collectively referred to as a digital signal.

The transceiver 913 may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver device, or the like. Alternatively, the device for implementing the receiving function in the transceiver unit may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function in the transceiver unit may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit, where the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, an input port, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

It should be noted that, the communication apparatus 900 shown in fig. 9 may be specifically used to implement steps implemented by the network device in the foregoing method embodiment and implement technical effects corresponding to the network device, and the specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus 900 shown in fig. 9 may refer to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiment, which are not repeated herein.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method as described in a possible implementation of the first communication device or the second communication device in the previous embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product (or computer program) which, when executed by the processor, performs a method as described above as a possible implementation of the first communication device or the second communication device.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip system which comprises at least one processor and is used for supporting the communication device to realize the functions involved in the possible realization mode of the communication device. Optionally, the chip system further comprises an interface circuit providing program instructions and/or data to the at least one processor. In one possible design, the system-on-chip may further include a memory to hold the necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices, where the communication device may specifically be the first communication device or the second communication device in the foregoing method embodiment.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system, and the network system architecture comprises the first communication device and the second communication device in any embodiment.

In the several embodiments provided in 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 integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units. The integrated units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as stand-alone products, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in essence or contributing part or all or part of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a 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 a U disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (RAM, random Access Memory), a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising:

receiving first information, where the first information is used to determine a first physical random access channel (PRACH) resource set, where the first PRACH resource set supports multi-user multiplexing;

Send a first signal that is repeatedly transmitted N times, where the first signal is used for random access, and N is an integer greater than 1; wherein the first signal that is repeatedly transmitted N times is carried on part or all of the resources in the first PRACH resource set, and the first signal that is repeatedly transmitted N times is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence among M orthogonal sequences, and M is an integer greater than 1.

2. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the first information includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate one or more random access opportunity RO resources that support multi-user multiplexing; wherein the RO resources included in the first PRACH resource set are the one or more RO resources.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2 is characterized in that the first information includes second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate the resource interval; wherein the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information.

4. The method according to claim 3 is characterized in that the first information also includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate the resource starting position and/or resource ending position; wherein the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information and the third indication information.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first information includes fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the resource type of the first PRACH resource set is a first type; wherein the PRACH resource of the first type satisfies at least one of the following:

Only used to carry PRACH signals that are repeatedly transmitted at least twice;

Not used to carry a single transmission PRACH signal;

Only supports PRACH signals that carry at least two repeated transmissions; or,

PRACH signals carrying single transmissions are not supported.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is characterized in that the first information includes fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to indicate the index of one or more second signals, and the one or more second signals are used for synchronization; wherein the one or more second signals correspond to the PRACH resources in the first PRACH resource set.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the M orthogonal sequences satisfy at least one of the following:

Among the M orthogonal sequences, the value of at least one element included in the first orthogonal sequence is not +1;

The M orthogonal sequences include a second orthogonal sequence, and the values of the elements contained in the second orthogonal sequence are all +1; wherein the first orthogonal sequence is different from the second orthogonal sequence;

The M orthogonal sequences do not include an orthogonal sequence in which all elements have values of +1.

8. A communication method, comprising:

Sending first information, where the first information is used to determine a first physical random access channel (PRACH) resource set, where the first PRACH resource set supports multi-user multiplexing;

Receive part or all of a first signal that is repeatedly transmitted N times, where the first signal is used for random access, and N is an integer greater than 1; wherein the first signal that is repeatedly transmitted N times is carried on part or all of the resources in the first PRACH resource set, and the first signal that is repeatedly transmitted N times is obtained by processing a preamble sequence based on a first orthogonal sequence among M orthogonal sequences, and M is an integer greater than 1.

9. The method according to claim 8 is characterized in that the first information includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate one or more random access opportunity RO resources that support multi-user multiplexing; wherein the RO resources included in the first PRACH resource set are the one or more RO resources.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9 is characterized in that the first information includes second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate the resource interval; wherein the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information.

11. The method according to claim 10 is characterized in that the first information also includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate the resource starting position and/or the resource ending position; wherein the first PRACH resource set is determined in the second PRACH resource set based on the second indication information and the third indication information.

12. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein the first information includes fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the resource type of the first PRACH resource set is a first type; wherein the PRACH resource of the first type satisfies at least one of the following:

Not used to carry a single transmission PRACH signal;

Only supports PRACH signals that carry at least two repeated transmissions; or,

PRACH signals carrying single transmissions are not supported.

13. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 12 is characterized in that the first information includes fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to indicate the index of one or more second signals, and the one or more second signals are used for synchronization; wherein the one or more second signals correspond to the PRACH resources in the first PRACH resource set.

14. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 13, wherein the M orthogonal sequences satisfy at least one of the following:

15. A communication device, comprising a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

16 . A communication device, comprising at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the method according to claim 1 .

17 . The communication device according to claim 16 , wherein the communication device is a chip or a chip system.

18. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program or instruction is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14 is implemented.

19. A computer program product, comprising a computer program or instructions, which implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14 when the computer program or instructions are executed by a computer.