WO2024088278A1 - Method for communication, terminal device, network device, medium, and program product - Google Patents

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for communication, a terminal device, a network device, a medium, and a program product. In the method, a terminal device determines to transmit an uplink channel over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping; the terminal device determines a plurality of transmit configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges; and then, the terminal device transmits the uplink channel on the basis of the plurality of transmit configurations. Therefore, according to the embodiments of the present invention, a terminal device can adjust a transmit configuration according to the actual bandwidth range of a frequency hopping resource block instead of the bandwidth configured for the terminal device. In this way, the terminal device can achieve an energy-saving effect.

Description

A method, terminal device, network device, medium and program product for communication Technical Field

The present disclosure generally relates to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly to a method for communication, a terminal device, a network device, a computer-readable storage medium, and a computer program product.

Background technique

With the development of communication technology, several ways of scheduling channel resources for terminal devices have been introduced. In one way, the terminal device supports processing the entire carrier bandwidth, and the channel resources of the terminal device are distributed in the carrier bandwidth for the terminal device.

In order to further improve the communication capacity, the size of the carrier bandwidth has been expanded to a larger level, so that some terminal devices no longer support processing the entire carrier bandwidth. In view of this, in another way of scheduling channel resources, the channel resources of the terminal device are distributed in a part of the carrier bandwidth, and this part is also called a bandwidth part (Bandwidth Part, BWP). However, even if BWP is a part of the carrier bandwidth, for the terminal device, operating on the entire BWP bandwidth will also result in relatively large resource consumption, such as device power consumption. It should be understood that the BWP bandwidth is only an example of the bandwidth configured by the terminal device, and the above analysis of the BWP bandwidth is also applicable to other bandwidths that exist or will be defined in the future that the terminal device is configured with. Therefore, in a more general sense, it is necessary to further optimize the corresponding operations and processing of the terminal device on the configured bandwidth. In addition, how the network side schedules channels in the bandwidth configured to the terminal device is also a key aspect.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a method for communication, a terminal device, a network device, a computer-readable storage medium, and a computer program product, which are used to improve the energy saving level of the terminal device.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided. In the method, a terminal device determines that an uplink channel will be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping. The terminal device determines a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges. Furthermore, the terminal device transmits the uplink channel based on the plurality of transmission configurations. In this way, the terminal device can autonomously determine the corresponding transmission configuration according to the resource block range of each hop in the frequency hopping, so that the terminal device does not have to always perform radio frequency operations within the entire bandwidth for the frequency hopping. In this way, the device power consumption of the terminal device is significantly reduced and the normal transmission of the entire channel is also ensured.

In some implementations, the above-mentioned terminal device transmitting an uplink channel includes: the terminal device generates a transmission configuration instruction for a transmitting device of the terminal device based on a transmission configuration in a plurality of transmission configurations, and the transmission configuration instruction indicates to the transmitting device a resource block range corresponding to the transmission configuration in the plurality of resource block ranges. Furthermore, the terminal device uses the transmission configuration instruction to drive the transmitting device to transmit the uplink channel on the corresponding resource block range. In this way, the terminal device drives the transmitting device to perform radio frequency transmission on a certain resource block range instead of the entire frequency bandwidth supported by the radio frequency device through the transmission configuration instruction indicating the resource block range, thereby reducing the power consumption of the radio frequency device.

In some implementations, the transmitting device includes at least one of a power amplifier, a digital pre-distortion, an average power tracking, and an envelope tracking device. Thus, based on the corresponding transmitting configuration, the power amplifier, the digital pre-distortion, the average power tracking, and the envelope tracking device can have their consumption voltage reduced, thereby reducing the power consumption of these radio frequency devices.

In some implementations, the above-mentioned multiple resource block ranges are distributed within a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device, and the bandwidth of each resource block range in the multiple resource block ranges is smaller than the bandwidth of the BWP. In this way, the terminal device does not have to perform radio frequency operations within the configured full BWP, but further performs radio frequency operations with a smaller bandwidth of the resource block range, thereby reducing power consumption.

In some implementations, the uplink channel includes at least one of the following: a physical uplink control channel PUCCH, a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, a sounding reference signal SRS, and a physical uplink access channel PRACH. In this way, the terminal device can transmit different hopping frequencies of these channels through different transmission configurations, thereby reducing power consumption.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided. In the method, a terminal device receives scheduling information, which is used to schedule a group of uplink channels in multiple consecutive time slots. The terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for a group of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. Furthermore, if the terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device transmits a group of uplink channels based on an equivalent bandwidth of a group of uplink channels, and the equivalent bandwidth includes the bandwidth between the upper frequency limit resource block and the lower frequency limit resource block used to transmit a group of uplink channels. In this way, the terminal device can determine that the group of uplink channels can be transmitted with a reduced bandwidth instead of a configured bandwidth based on the scheduling information. In this way, if the terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device can further adjust the transmission configuration to reduce device power consumption.

In some implementations, the method further includes: if the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels, the terminal device transmits the set of uplink channels based on the partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device. The device may still use the configured partial bandwidth to transmit the set of uplink channel transmissions when a condition for performing reduced bandwidth transmission for a set of uplink channels is not met.

In some implementations, the above-mentioned determination to perform reduced bandwidth transmission includes: based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. If the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. In the case where the terminal device determines that there is not enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission from a time perspective, thereby reserving sufficient time for other necessary processing for a group of uplink channel transmissions.

In some implementations, the above-mentioned determination to perform reduced bandwidth transmission includes: the terminal device determines a first duration between a first time point at which scheduling information is received and a second time point at which transmission of a group of uplink channels begins, and the terminal device determines a second duration required to obtain a transmission block size for a group of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. Furthermore, in the case where the difference between the first duration and the second duration is greater than or equal to a third duration required to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In the case where the difference is less than the third duration, the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device can ensure that the reduced bandwidth transmission is performed on the basis of obtaining the necessary parameters for the group of uplink channels.

In some implementations, the above-mentioned determination to perform reduced bandwidth transmission includes: the terminal device determines a third time point, the duration between the third time point and the second time point for starting to transmit the group of uplink channels is greater than or equal to the third duration required for the terminal device to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission; the terminal device determines whether the transmission block size for the group of uplink channels has been obtained based on the scheduling information at the third time point; if the terminal device has obtained the transmission block size at the third time point, the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and if the terminal device has not obtained the transmission block size at the third time point, the terminal device determines that there is not enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device can pre-configure the time point according to the adjustment capability of the terminal device itself, and determine that the reduced bandwidth transmission can be performed at the time point.

In some implementations, the first time point includes the time point at which the latest scheduling information in the scheduling information for a group of uplink channels is received, and the second time point includes the time point of the earliest transmitted uplink channel in the group of uplink channels. In this way, the terminal device determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission between the latest scheduling information associated with the above-mentioned multiple consecutive time slots and the earliest channel scheduled by the scheduling information. In this way, it is ensured that the reduced bandwidth transmission is determined to be performed for the entire scheduled transmission envelope. The transmission envelope includes multiple consecutive time slots or a portion of the multiple consecutive time slots used by the terminal device for channel transmission in time division duplex (TDD) communication with a network device.

In some implementations, the transmission configuration includes at least one of the following: a data sampling rate of a terminal device, a number of channels of a digital chip of the terminal device, a number of channels of a radio frequency front end of the terminal device, an operating bandwidth of the digital chip, an operating bandwidth of the radio frequency front end, an operating voltage of the digital chip, an operating voltage of the radio frequency front end, an operating frequency of the digital chip, and an operating frequency of the radio frequency front end. In this way, if it is determined to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device can adjust the transmission configuration according to the equivalent bandwidth, so that the corresponding components in the terminal device are adapted to the equivalent bandwidth. Furthermore, the energy consumption of the terminal device can be reduced accordingly as the reduced bandwidth is reduced.

In some implementations, the method further includes: after the terminal device adjusts the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device receives additional scheduling information for scheduling a second uplink channel; the terminal device determines whether the transmission bandwidth of the second uplink channel is within the equivalent bandwidth; the terminal device determines whether the transmission of the second uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of a group of uplink channels; and if the transmission bandwidth is within the equivalent bandwidth and the transmission is not earlier than the transmission of the group of uplink channels, the terminal device performs reduced bandwidth transmission for the group of uplink channels and the second uplink channel. In this way, if additional scheduling information associated with the continuous time slot is received, the terminal device can consider performing reduced channel transmission for the scheduled second uplink channel and the group of uplink channels together, thereby reducing communication latency while reducing energy consumption.

In some implementations, the method further includes: if the transmission bandwidth exceeds the equivalent bandwidth, or the transmission is earlier than the transmission of the group of uplink channels, the terminal device abandons the transmission of the second uplink channel. In this way, the terminal device avoids repeatedly adjusting the transmission configuration within a limited time.

In some implementations, the terminal device determining to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission includes: based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determining the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the bandwidth of the BWP of the terminal device; if the terminal device determines that the difference is greater than or equal to a threshold, the terminal device determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and if the terminal device determines that the difference is less than the threshold, the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device can perform the reduced bandwidth transmission only when the effective bandwidth is sufficiently small relative to the bandwidth of the configured BWP, thereby avoiding the consumption of resources required for adjusting the transmission configuration without obtaining a corresponding power consumption reduction.

In some implementations, the scheduling information includes at least one of the following: an offset between a time slot where the scheduling information is located and a time slot where the scheduled uplink channel is located; frequency domain information of a group of uplink channels; time domain information of a group of uplink channels; modulation coding scheme MCS of a group of uplink channels; the number of multiple-input multiple-output MIMO layers of a group of uplink channels; frequency hopping information of the group of uplink channels; estimated transmit power of the group of uplink channels; and actual transmit power of a group of uplink channels. In this way, the terminal device An equivalent bandwidth of the group of uplink channels can be determined based on the scheduling information, thereby determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for the group of uplink channels.

In some implementations, the uplink channel includes at least one of the following: a physical uplink control channel PUCCH, a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, a sounding reference signal SRS, and a physical uplink access channel PRACH. In this way, the terminal device can determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for these uplink channels, thereby reducing power consumption.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided. In the method, a network device determines that a terminal device will be scheduled to transmit a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. The network device determines the position of a set of frequency bands used to transmit the set of uplink channels in the frequency domain to configure an equivalent bandwidth between the upper frequency limit and the lower frequency limit of the set of frequency bands. In this way, when the network device schedules different channels for the terminal device, the network device schedules one or more channels for a terminal device in a related manner, so that the one or more channels are within a smaller equivalent bandwidth as much as possible. In this way, the terminal device can perform channel transmission within an equivalent bandwidth that is smaller than the bandwidth of the configured BWP, so as to reduce device power consumption.

In some implementations, the above-mentioned determination of the position of a group of frequency bands in the frequency domain includes: for a first uplink channel in a group of uplink channels, the network device determines a first center frequency of the first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel in the group of frequency bands; and for a second uplink channel in the group of uplink channels, the network device determines a second center frequency of a second frequency band corresponding to the second uplink channel in the group of frequency bands, so that the frequency difference between the second center frequency and the first center frequency is less than a threshold. In this way, the terminal device reduces the equivalent bandwidth of the group of uplink channels by associatively determining the center frequencies of different channels in the group of uplink channels.

In some implementations, the first uplink channel includes at least one of the following: a statically scheduled uplink channel; a semi-statically scheduled uplink channel; and a dynamically scheduled uplink channel. In this way, the terminal device can determine the first center frequency of the first uplink channel accordingly according to the characteristics of the differently scheduled uplink channels.

In some implementations, the first uplink channel is a dynamically scheduled uplink channel, and determining the first center frequency includes: the network device dynamically scheduling the first uplink channel; and the network device storing the first center frequency of the first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel. In this way, when the network device does not schedule the first uplink channel according to a pre-configured frequency point but dynamically schedules the first uplink, the network device can determine the center frequency by storing the center frequency of the first uplink.

In some implementations, the above-mentioned determination of the position of a group of frequency bands in the frequency domain includes: if for a third uplink channel in a group of uplink channels, the network device determines that a third frequency band in a group of frequency bands corresponding to the third uplink channel is a frequency hopping frequency range, the network device performs at least one of the following: the network device selects a smaller candidate frequency range from a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range, and the network device determines a third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range, so that the frequency difference between the third center frequency and the first center frequency is less than the threshold. In this way, the network device determines the frequency hopping frequency range of an uplink channel in a group of uplink channels for the terminal device in the above-mentioned manner, so that the equivalent bandwidth of the group of uplink channels is reduced, thereby reducing the power consumption of the device.

In some implementations, the uplink channel includes at least one of the following: a physical uplink control channel PUCCH, a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, a sounding reference signal SRS, and a physical uplink access channel PRACH. In this way, the network can perform relevant scheduling for these uplink channels, thereby facilitating the terminal device to reduce power consumption.

In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device includes a processor and a memory storing instructions. When the instructions are executed by the processor, the terminal device executes any one of the methods according to the first aspect and the second aspect and their implementations.

In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a network device is provided. The network device includes a processor and a memory storing instructions. When the instructions are executed by the processor, the network device executes any one of the methods according to the first aspect and the second aspect and their implementations.

In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions, which, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to execute any method of the first aspect, the second aspect, and the third aspect and their implementations.

In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product is provided, which includes instructions, and when the instructions are executed by an electronic device, the electronic device executes any one of the methods of the first aspect, the second aspect, and the third aspect and their implementations.

It should be understood that the contents described in the summary of the invention are not intended to limit the key or important features of the present disclosure, nor are they intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily understood through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

1A-1B illustrate example communication network scenarios in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

1C-1H illustrate example spacing between uplinks and downlinks according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

1I-1J illustrate example frequency hopping patterns for PUCCH according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1K illustrates different portions of bandwidth configured to a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

1L-1O illustrate example frequency hopping patterns corresponding to different uplink channels according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

1P-1R illustrate examples of a scheduled set of uplink channels according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG2 illustrates a signaling process for a terminal device to determine multiple transmission configurations according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

3A-3B illustrate example resource block ranges for frequency hopping according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a signaling process for a terminal device to determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmission according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5A illustrates example timing of scheduling information and scheduled uplink channels according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

5B-5E are schematic diagrams of a plurality of sets of uplink channel transmissions and corresponding equivalent bandwidths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG6 illustrates a signaling process for a network device to configure a group of frequency bands according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

7A-7H are schematic diagrams of a plurality of groups of uplink channel transmissions scheduled by a network device and corresponding equivalent bandwidths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG8 shows a flowchart implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart implemented at a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 shows a simplified block diagram of an example device of a possible implementation method in an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 12 shows a simplified block diagram of an example device of a possible implementation method in an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 13 shows a simplified block diagram of an example device of a possible implementation method in an embodiment of the present application.

The same or similar reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to designate the same or similar components.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of the present application more clear, the present application will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The specific operation methods, functional descriptions, etc. in the method embodiments can also be applied to the device embodiments or system embodiments.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application may be applied to a wireless communication system 100A. In the communication network 100 , a network device 110 , a terminal device 120 , and a terminal device 130 are shown.

It should be understood that the above wireless communication system can be applied to both low-frequency scenarios (sub 6G) and high-frequency scenarios (above 6G). The application scenarios of the wireless communication system include but are not limited to the fifth generation system (5G), new radio (NR) communication system and other existing communication systems or future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN) system.

The terminal device 120 shown above may be a user equipment (UE), a terminal, an access terminal, a terminal unit, a terminal station, a mobile station (MS), a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless communication device, a terminal agent or a terminal device, etc. The terminal device 120 may also be a communication chip with a communication module, or a vehicle with a communication function, or a vehicle-mounted device (such as a vehicle-mounted communication device, a vehicle-mounted communication chip), etc. The terminal device 120 may have a wireless transceiver function, which can communicate with one or more network devices of one or more communication systems (such as wireless communication), and receive network services provided by the network devices, where the network devices include but are not limited to the network devices shown in the figure.

Among them, the terminal device 120 can be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network, or a terminal device in a future evolved PLMN network, etc.

The terminal device 120 can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in self driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a wireless terminal in a smart home, etc.

In addition, the terminal device 120 can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; the terminal device 120 can also be deployed on the water (such as ships, etc.); the terminal device 120 can also be deployed in the air (for example, on airplanes, balloons, and satellites, etc.). The network device can be an access network device (or access network point). Among them, the access network device refers to a device that provides network access functions, such as a radio access network (RAN) base station, etc. The network device 110 may specifically include a base station (BS), or include a base station and a wireless resource management device for controlling the base station, etc. The network device 110 may also include a relay station (relay device), an access point, a base station in a 5G network or an NR base station, a base station in a future evolved PLMN network, etc. The network device 110 may be a wearable device or a vehicle-mounted device. The network device 110 may also be a communication chip with a communication module.

For example, the network device 110 includes, but is not limited to: a base station (g node B, gNB) in 5G, an evolved node B (evolved node B, eNB) in a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a wireless controller under a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) system, a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a home base station (for example, home evolved node B, or home node B, HNB), a baseband unit (baseBand unit, BBU), a transmitting point (transmitting and receiving point, TRP), a transmitting point (tr It can be a base transceiver station (BTS) in a global mobile communication (global aystem for mobile communication, GSM) or code division multiple access (CDMA) network, or a node base station (NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) network, or an evolved NB (eNB or eNodeB) in LTE, or a base station device in a future 5G network or an access network device in a future evolved PLMN network, or a wearable device or a vehicle-mounted device.

In some deployments, the network equipment may include a centralized unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). The network equipment may also include an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU implements some functions of the network equipment, and the DU implements some functions of the network equipment. For example, the CU is responsible for processing non-real-time protocols and services, and implementing the functions of the radio resource control (RRC) and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layers. The DU is responsible for processing physical layer protocols and real-time services, and implementing the functions of the radio link control (RLC) layer, the media access control (MAC) layer, and the physical (PHY) layer. The AAU implements some physical layer processing functions, RF processing, and related functions of active antennas. Since the information of the RRC layer will eventually become the information of the PHY layer, or be converted from the information of the PHY layer, in this architecture, high-level signaling, such as RRC layer signaling, can also be considered to be sent by the DU, or by the DU+AAU. It is understandable that the network device may be a device including one or more of a CU node, a DU node, and an AAU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into a network device in an access network (radio access network, RAN), or the CU may be divided into a network device in a core network (core network, CN), which is not limited in this application. Examples of network devices include, but are not limited to, Node B (NodeB or NB), evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), next generation NodeB (gNB), transmit receive point (TRP), remote radio unit (RRU), radio head (RH), remote radio head (RRH), IAB node, low power node, such as a femto node, a micro node, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), a network controlled repeater, and the like.

In addition, the network device 110 can be connected to a core network (CN) device, which can be used to provide core network services for the access network device 110 and the terminal device 120. The core network device can correspond to different devices in different systems. For example, in 3G, the core network device can correspond to the serving GPRS support node (SGSN) of the general packet radio service (GPRS) and/or the gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) of GPRS. In 4G, the core network device can correspond to the mobility management entity (MME) and/or the serving gateway (S-GW). In 5G, the core network device can correspond to the access and mobility management function (AMF), the session management function (SMF) or the user plane function (UPF).

As mentioned above, with the development of communication technology and the demand for increasing communication capacity, the carrier bandwidth has been expanded to a larger level. For example, in the LTE communication system, the bandwidth of a single carrier is only set to 20MHz, so it can be assumed that all terminal devices support processing the entire carrier bandwidth. In this way, the network device can arbitrarily schedule uplink transmission for the terminal device within the entire carrier bandwidth of 20MHz without considering whether the terminal device can support it. However, in the NR communication system, the carrier bandwidth has been expanded to possibly reach or exceed 400MHz, for example, it may reach 1GHz, making it difficult for the terminal device to support operation on the entire carrier bandwidth. Therefore, the concept of partial bandwidth BWP is further introduced, and the bandwidth of BWP is less than or equal to the carrier bandwidth and can be supported by the terminal device. The network side can schedule uplink transmission for the terminal device based on BWP. In this way, the terminal device can perform channel processing on the bandwidth of the configured BWP.

In some cases, in order to help the terminal device save energy, the terminal device may be configured with multiple BWPs with different bandwidths. When the terminal device does not need to perform a large amount of data transmission, the terminal device can perform uplink channel transmission on a BWP with a smaller bandwidth. However, switching to a BWP with a small bandwidth may not be the norm for the terminal device. When the terminal device runs an application with a large throughput requirement, the terminal device may need to perform channel transmission or reception operations for the entire configured BWP. This will cause the entire transmission link including baseband processing, intermediate frequency processing or radio frequency processing in the terminal device to always be adapted to a BWP with a larger bandwidth. Accordingly, the terminal device needs to allocate a relatively high operating voltage to the corresponding device or open more working paths, which will keep the power consumption of the terminal device at a higher level. It should be understood that the BWP bandwidth is only an example of a bandwidth configured for the terminal device, and the above analysis of the BWP bandwidth is also applicable to other bandwidths that exist or will be defined in the future that the terminal device is configured with.

In order to further solve the above problem, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for communication. In the method, a terminal device determines that an uplink channel will be transmitted on multiple resource block ranges for frequency hopping. The terminal device determines multiple transmissions corresponding to the multiple resource block ranges. Configuration. Then, the terminal device transmits the uplink channel based on multiple transmission configurations. In this way, the terminal device can autonomously determine the corresponding transmission configuration according to the resource block range of each hop in the frequency hopping, so that the terminal device does not have to always perform radio frequency operations within the entire bandwidth used for frequency hopping. In this way, the device power consumption of the terminal device is significantly reduced and the normal transmission of the entire channel is also ensured.

It should be understood that, although the above description is mainly based on the BWP configured for the terminal device, the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to any other communication scenarios without any limitation. In order to more clearly discuss the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the embodiments disclosed in the present application are described with reference to Figures 1 to 13.

FIG. 1A shows an example communication network scenario 100A in which an embodiment of the present disclosure can be implemented. In the communication network scenario 100A, a network device 110, a terminal device 120, and a terminal device 130 are shown. More specifically, the terminal devices 120 and 130 can be served by the network device 110. For example, the network device 110 can configure corresponding BWPs for the terminal devices 120 and 130 respectively through radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and schedule uplink channel transmission for the corresponding terminal device (e.g., terminal device 120) within the configured BWP. It should be understood that the number of terminal devices, network devices, and cells shown in FIG. 1 is only an example. There may be more or fewer terminal devices, network devices, and cells, and the present disclosure does not impose any limitation on this.

For example only and without limitation, before the terminal device 120 accesses the network, the network device 110 configures an initial BWP for the terminal device 120. The network device 110 can also configure up to 4 BWP configurations for each carrier, as follows:

Initial BWP: The BWP configured for the initial access phase of the terminal device. The signals and channels during the initial access are transmitted in the Initial BWP.

Dedicated BWP: BWP configured by the terminal device in RRC connected state; a terminal device can be configured with up to 4 Dedicated BWPs. The network configures it to the terminal device through RRC signaling. Frequency division duplex FDD can be configured with up to 4 downlink (DL) Dedicated BWPs and 4 uplink (UL) Dedicated BWPs. Time division duplex (TDD) can also be configured with up to 4 DL Dedicated BWPs and 4 UL Dedicated BWPs.

Active BWP: The BWP activated by the terminal device at a certain moment in the RRC connected state is one of the above Dedicated BWPs. In some cases, the terminal device can only have one Active BWP at a time in the RRC connected state.

Default BWP: When the terminal device is in the RRC connected state, when the BWP inactivity timer of the terminal device times out, the terminal device switches back to the default BWP. The Default BWP can be one of the Dedicated BWPs, or the network device 110 can also indicate to the terminal device 120 which configured Dedicated BWP is the Default BWP through RRC signaling. For the convenience of discussion only and without any limitation, the present disclosure also introduces the following concepts related to BWP:

RRC configured BWP bandwidth: that is, the RRC configured BWP bandwidth selected by the UE according to predefined criteria. For example, when the Initial BWP is working, the RRC configured BWP is the Initial BWP. When a BWP in the Dedicated BWP of the terminal device activated by the network is working, the Dedicated BWP bandwidth is the current RRC configured BWP.

Equivalent BWP bandwidth: the bandwidth within the range of the minimum effective resource block (RB) and the maximum effective RB of the channel scheduled on the transmittable time slot of TDD. The equivalent BWP bandwidth can be the bandwidth calculated in real time for each transmission envelope. For example, the network device 110 configures the subcarrier spacing (SCS) to 30KHz. Assuming that there is only one channel in a transmission envelope and the channel is configured by the network device 110 to have 20 RBs, the equivalent BWP bandwidth is 7.2MHz=20*12*30KHz. In the present disclosure, the equivalent BWP bandwidth may also be referred to as the equivalent bandwidth, which is not limited in the present disclosure.

Working BWP bandwidth: The bandwidth actually configured by the terminal device 120 for the transmission channel or signal. In some cases, this depends on the terminal device 120 itself. Typically, the terminal device 120 uses the working bandwidth shown in the following Table 1A-Table 1B. The terminal device 120 can also use a smaller granularity unit. Table 1 defines the bandwidth that 5G can use in the sub6G frequency band. Table 2 defines the bandwidth that 5G can use in the high-frequency frequency band. The default working BWP bandwidth configured by the terminal device 120 is the above-mentioned RRC configured BWP bandwidth. For example, the terminal device 120 uses the Initial BWP bandwidth = 20MHz during initial access, and the default working BWP bandwidth of the terminal device 120 is 20MHz. When the terminal device 120 and the network device 110 enter the RRC connection state (that is, the network is in a stable data transmission state), BWP = 100MHz is selected as the Active BWP operation. At this time, the default working BWP bandwidth of the terminal device 120 is 100MHz. In the present disclosure, the terminal device 120 can autonomously reduce the bandwidth, and the specific process of reducing the bandwidth will be specifically described in the subsequent embodiments of the present disclosure, which will not be repeated here. For example, if the terminal device 120 calculates the equivalent BWP bandwidth (or equivalent bandwidth) to be 7.2MHz, the terminal device 120 can select the minimum working bandwidth that can cover 7.2MHz. For example, the terminal device 120 can select 10MHz in Table 1A as the working bandwidth. The terminal device 120 can also be set at a smaller granularity, such as the terminal device 120 can set a working bandwidth with a smaller granularity than that in the table. For example, 8MHz or 9MHz is used as the working BWP bandwidth.

Table 1A

Table 1B

Regarding the scheduling of channel transmission by the network device 110 for the terminal device 120, in the 5G network, there are static configuration methods, semi-static configuration methods, and dynamic configuration methods for the network device 110 to configure physical layer parameters for the terminal device 120. The static configuration method refers to the RRC signaling configuration update taking effect, and the parameters sent by the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 are parsed by the RRC layer and then sent to the physical layer. The semi-static configuration method means that the network device 110 configures parameters to the terminal device 120 using RRC signaling, but does not activate it. The network device 110 waits for the terminal device 120 to receive the downlink control information DCI instruction and report the new radio medium access control NR-MAC (NMAC) before issuing an activation command. The activation time point is 3ms after the terminal device 120 receives the DCI instruction, that is, there is a delay of at least 3ms from the receipt of the DCI effectiveness instruction to the actual effectiveness.

The dynamic configuration method refers to the network device 110 using DCI to schedule channel transmission for the terminal device 120. The interval between the scheduled channels from the reception of DCI by the terminal device 120 to the transmission of the terminal device 120 needs to comply with the processing capability 1 or processing capability 2 capability scheduling, and cooperate with the K1 or K2 scheduling advance and the configuration signaling effectiveness method of Tproc,1 corresponding to processing capability 1 or Tproc,2 corresponding to processing capability 2, wherein the scheduling advance of K1/K2 is controlled by the network. Specifically, the above-mentioned processing capability 1 or processing capability 2 capability scheduling has been defined according to predetermined conditions and will not be repeated here. K1 refers to the number of interval time slots between the downlink shared channel PDSCH and the uplink control channel PUCCH feedback carrying ACK. K2 refers to the number of interval time slots between the downlink control channel PDCCH and the uplink shared channel PUSCH transmission. Tproc,1 refers to the time interval between PDSCH and PUCCH feedback carrying ACK, that is, the interval from the last PDSCH symbol to the first PUCCH symbol transmission is not less than Tproc,1. Tproc,2 refers to the number of time symbols between PDCCH and PUSCH transmission, that is, the interval from the last PDCCH symbol to the first PUSCH symbol transmission needs to be no less than Tproc,2.

In some cases, when K1 or K2 is equal to 0, the interval between the scheduled channels from the reception of DCI by the terminal device 120 to the transmission of the terminal device 120 needs to comply with Tproc,1 or Tproc,2. In some other cases, when K1 or K2 is greater than or equal to 1, the interval between the scheduled channels from the reception of DCI by the terminal device 120 to the transmission of the terminal device 120 also needs to comply with Tproc,1 or Tproc,2. (In the current standard, DCI is dynamically scheduled, UE receives from the air interface to transmit from the air interface, the processing capability 1/processing capability 2 defined in the protocol is defined in 38.214, and the protocol definitions of Tproc,1 and Tproc,2 in the protocol are in 38.214 Sections 5.3 and 6.4.) Specifically, Figure 1B shows a scenario in which a terminal device or UE communicates with a network device or RAN through an air interface.

For the purpose of discussion clarity only, FIG. 1C-FIG. 1F illustrate example intervals between uplink and downlink according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 1C is a diagram illustrating a symbol interval between PDSCH and PUCCH when PDCCH and PDSCH have the same starting symbol. FIG. 1D is a schematic diagram illustrating the symbol interval between PDSCH and PUCCH when PDCCH and PDSCH do not have the same starting symbol. FIG. 1E is a schematic diagram illustrating the symbol interval between PDSCH and PUCCH when PDCCH and PDSCH are not in the same time slot. FIG. 1F is a schematic diagram illustrating the symbol interval between PDCCH and PUSCH.

1G illustrates an example ratio of uplink time slots to downlink time slots in the case where the terminal device 120 performs time division duplex (TDD) communication with the network device 110. The ratios between the UL time slots and the DL time slots shown in FIG1G are 4:1, 7:3, and 8:2, where the uplink can be transmitted on 2-3 time slots.

FIG1H illustrates a schematic diagram of the transmission from the received K value scheduling, that is, from SlotN to SlotN+K. As shown in FIG1H, Downlink Slot represents the downlink time slot in TDD communication, Uplink Slot represents the uplink time slot in TDD communication, and Special Slot represents the special time slot in TDD communication, which can be used as an uplink time slot or a downlink time slot or both at the same time. Without any restrictions, in the present disclosure, the continuous channel transmission scheduled in TDD can be referred to as a transmission envelope, and within a transmission envelope, it can span multiple time slots and contain multiple channels of various types. For example, for a terminal device, a transmission envelope may include an SRS signal, a PUCCH channel, and a PUSCH channel, etc. In addition, example resource assignments for these channels in a transmission envelope are discussed below with respect to FIG1N-FIG1F, which will not be repeated here.

As mentioned above, when the network device 110 communicates with the terminal device 120 in the configured BWP (i.e., configured BWP), frequency hopping transmission is usually used in the configured BWP to obtain frequency domain diversity gain to resist frequency selective fading of the air interface. To facilitate understanding of the present disclosure, an example manner of frequency hopping communication between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 is discussed below.

Figures 1I-1J show an example frequency hopping method for PUCCH according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. From LTE to NR, the network device 110 uses RRC signaling to configure the BWP bandwidth for the terminal device 120. Within the RRC-configured BWP bandwidth range, the network device 110 schedules channel transmission for each terminal device within the entire bandwidth based on all users residing in the service cell provided by the network device 110 and the scheduling algorithm: including resource allocation of physical random access channel PRACH transmission, SRS transmission, PUCCH transmission and PUSCH transmission. Taking PUCCH transmission as an example, PUCCH frequency hopping can be within a time slot or between time slots. Frequency hopping within a time slot means that PUCCH uses two RBs segmented in time in the same time slot, and each RB occupies half of the number of symbols in this time slot, as shown in Figures 1G-1H.

As described above, in order to help the terminal device save energy, the terminal device can be configured with multiple BWPs with different bandwidths. Figure 1K shows different partial bandwidths BWP configured for the terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 1K, the terminal device is configured with BWP1 and BWP2 with different bandwidths. As an example only, if the network detects that the uplink and downlink traffic of the terminal device is relatively small, the network will set a traffic threshold so that when the flow of the terminal device is less than the threshold, it will switch to a smaller BWP2, such as BWP2 = 20MHz/30MHz/50MHz bandwidth. The network configures the terminal device with small traffic to work on a small bandwidth. When working on a small bandwidth, the terminal device can reduce the sampling data rate, reduce the operating frequency and voltage of data sampling, so as to achieve power consumption reduction. For example, 1 terminal device can be configured with 2 uplink Dedicated BWPs (Dedicated UL BWP) and 2 downlink Dedicated BWPs (Dedicated DL BWP) through RRC signaling. Of the two dedicated BWPs, one is full bandwidth BWP1 = 100MHz, and the other is narrow bandwidth BWP2 = 20MHz (also called power saving BWP). Dedicated UL BWP and Dedicated DL BWP need to be configured separately. BWPs are used in pairs, that is, the terminal device uses full bandwidth BWP1 or smaller bandwidth BWP2 for both uplink and downlink.

However, when the terminal device works on a BWP (eg, BWP1), the terminal device does not always transmit and receive a channel occupying the entire BWP1. To this end, the present disclosure proposes a method for further reducing the power consumption of the device.

Returning to the frequency hopping transmission used for channel transmission, the terminal device usually transmits periodic SRS signals in a frequency hopping manner over the entire bandwidth of the configured BWP. As shown in Figure 1L, the terminal device transmits SRS according to a certain period, and transmits it in a frequency hopping manner over the entire BWP bandwidth. Specifically, the terminal device performs full-bandwidth cyclic transmission of SRS, generally when BWP1=100MHz is allocated after access, SRS is transmitted in a 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16 cycle of 100MHz. In some other cases, the terminal device directly performs full-bandwidth transmission, usually during initial access, when the parameters of BWP0 are configured, the terminal device transmits the full bandwidth for SRS at one time.

Figures 1M and 1N show the frequency hopping mode for PUCCH according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. For PUCCH resource scheduling, PUCCH allocation resources are generally at the upper and lower ends of the BWP bandwidth (as shown in Figure 1J), or some RB resources for sending PUCCH are added in the middle; for example, RBs at both ends of BWP1 and RBs at both ends of BWP2 (as shown in Figure 1K).

FIG1O shows a frequency hopping method for PUSCH according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Regarding resource scheduling of PUSCH, the configured BWP bandwidth for PUSCH of a terminal device can be shared with other terminal devices, and PUSCH can be frequency-hopped or not within a time slot. From the perspective of the terminal device, PUSCH is randomly allocated within the BWP. Even in a static environment for infield testing, in a single terminal device scenario, PUSCH is randomly allocated within the BWP. As shown in FIG1O, an example allocation of PUSCH in the time domain and frequency domain at BWP = 100 MHz.

Figures 1P-1R show an example of a group of uplink channels scheduled according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The SUU time slot may be a transmission envelope discussed in FIG. 1F. As shown in FIG. 1N-FIG. 1R, there is SRS transmission on the S time slot, PUSCH transmission on the first U time slot, and PUCCH frequency hopping transmission on the second U time slot. These three consecutive channels are used as a transmission envelope. Usually, the terminal device performs data processing for the transmission envelope based on the entire BWP bandwidth. However, in fact, only the resource element (RE) allocated for transmitting the corresponding channel carries valid data, for example, the RE corresponding to the shaded part in FIG. 1N and FIG. 1P. Other REs that are not allocated for transmitting the corresponding channel do not carry valid data, for example, the RE corresponding to the blank part in FIG. 1N and FIG. 1P. In order to be compatible with the entire transmission envelope, the terminal device will also have sampled data output on the RE unit that is not allocated for channel transmission in the BWP bandwidth. Because the terminal device needs to perform data sampling, encoding, data pre-distortion processing (DPD), average power tracking (APT), envelope tracking (ET) and other operations for transmitting signals based on the configured BWP bandwidth.

Although as mentioned above, the network equipment can configure a small bandwidth BWP or a large bandwidth BWP to the terminal device when a small or large traffic business occurs. However, from the actual network test results, the network equipment needs to balance the traffic of all user devices, so the threshold for switching between different bandwidth BWPs is very low. The terminal device still resides in a large bandwidth for more than 90% of the time. Usually, the network equipment balances the entire upstream and downstream traffic, while for individual terminal devices, most of the time they still reside in a large bandwidth, such as terminal devices that are running games, video streaming and other applications. These working scenario networks are all scheduled according to the large bandwidth, which may result in the bandwidth scheduled to a single terminal device. The effective utilization rate is actually very low.

Under large bandwidth, for each type of channel scheduled by the network device for the terminal device, different channels in a transmission envelope, and channels in different time slots, the corresponding RB range is random. In some cases, due to channel hopping, the network has no constraints on the RB allocation of channels within the BWP large bandwidth, and most of the REs within the configured BWP bandwidth do not need to carry valid data, that is, they do not need to transmit energy. However, if the terminal device turns on the large bandwidth according to the configured BWP, from data encoding to modulation, to data sampling, to DPD, APT, ET and other operations at the data transmission front end, the data is always operated under the large bandwidth configured by the network. Large bandwidth means large data flow, and large data flow requires higher operating frequency/operating voltage processing, which will lead to increased power consumption of the terminal device.

Regarding some of the problems mentioned above and not limited to these problems, the present disclosure also proposes the following embodiments to further reduce the device power consumption of the terminal device.

FIG2 illustrates a signaling process 200 for a terminal device to determine multiple transmission configurations according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. For the sake of clarity of discussion and without any limitation, the signaling process 200 will be discussed in conjunction with FIG1 .

In the signaling process 200, the terminal device 120 determines (210) that an uplink channel will be transmitted over a range of multiple resource blocks for frequency hopping. Additionally or alternatively, the terminal device 130 may determine that an uplink channel will be transmitted over a range of multiple resource blocks for frequency hopping, and the present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on this. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 receives (215) scheduling information for scheduling the above-mentioned uplink transmission from the network device 110, and the terminal device 120 determines that an uplink channel will be transmitted based on the scheduling information. Additionally, the scheduling information instructs the terminal device 120 to transmit the uplink channel over a range of multiple resource blocks for frequency hopping.

The terminal device 120 determines (220) a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges. Then, the terminal device 120 transmits (230) an uplink channel based on the determined plurality of transmission configurations. For a clearer discussion, the plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges are discussed with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B.

FIG. 3A-FIG. 3B show example resource block ranges for frequency hopping according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3A, bandwidth 310 is a configured BWP bandwidth configured by network device 110 to terminal device 120, and network device 110 schedules two RB ranges for frequency hopping transmission channels in an uplink time slot in the configured BWP bandwidth 310, i.e., two RB ranges corresponding to the first hop of the channel and the second hop of the channel shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. It should be understood that although FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B are discussed with reference to the configured BWP bandwidth, the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be extended to any other communication scenario of frequency allocation, and the present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on this. In addition, although FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B illustrate only two RB ranges, this is only for the purpose of facilitating discussion, and there may be more or fewer RB ranges, and the present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on this.

3A, the network device 110 may configure the channel transmission of the terminal device 120 to perform frequency hopping transmission within an uplink time slot, for example, the first hop of the channel is configured to start from the start RB of the BWP bandwidth 310, and the second hop of the channel is configured to end at the end RB of the BWP bandwidth. In some embodiments, a plurality of resource block ranges used for frequency hopping are distributed within the configured BWP 310 for the terminal device 120, and the bandwidth of each resource block range in the plurality of resource block ranges (for example, the resource block range used for the first hop of the channel) is less than the configured BWP bandwidth 310. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 transmits an instruction to its own radio frequency device (for example, a power amplifier PA and/or a data pre-distortion processing DPD device) to perform radio frequency transmission according to the configured BWP bandwidth, although the terminal device 120 does not need to transmit valid data within the entire BWP. In the example, the terminal device 120 uses a transmission configuration instruction to configure the channel, and the transmission configuration instruction is used for the configuration of the transmission device such as PA and/or DPD. As shown in FIG3A, a transmission configuration instruction is used, and the RB effective range indicated by the transmission configuration instruction needs to include the RB range of the first hop and the second hop of the channel. Correspondingly, the PA transmission range also needs to include the RB of the first hop and the RB of the second hop. In order to ensure that the RB transmission power at the edge of the entire BWP bandwidth meets the protocol requirements, the voltage indicated by the large bandwidth transmission configuration needs to be increased relatively high. This may result in higher power consumption of the terminal device 120.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as described above, the terminal device 120 determines a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges. For example, referring to FIG. 3B , the terminal device 120 determines a first transmission configuration corresponding to the resource block range 320-1 for the first hop of the channel and a second transmission configuration corresponding to the resource block range 320-2 for the second hop of the channel, respectively. Then, in some embodiments, the terminal device 120 generates a first transmission configuration instruction for a transmitting device of the terminal device 120 based on a transmission configuration in a plurality of transmission configurations (e.g., a first transmission configuration corresponding to the resource block range 320-1), and the first transmission configuration instruction indicates to the transmitting device the resource block range 320-1 corresponding to the transmission configuration in the plurality of resource block ranges. In the present disclosure, the transmitting device includes all processing devices for radio frequency transmission or reception in the device, including but not limited to PA, antenna, antenna array assembly, phase shifter, DPD, etc. The terminal device 120 uses the transmission configuration instruction to drive the transmitting device to transmit an uplink channel on the corresponding resource block range. In some embodiments, the uplink channel is an uplink channel scheduled by the scheduling information received by the terminal device 120 at 215. Additionally, the terminal device 120 generates a second transmission configuration instruction for the transmitting device of the terminal device 120 based on the second transmission configuration corresponding to the resource block range 320-1, and the second transmission configuration instruction indicates to the transmitting device the resource block range 320-2 corresponding to the transmission configuration in the multiple resource block ranges. In this way, the terminal device 120 can configure the radio frequency device according to the bandwidth of the resource block range of each hop of channel transmission instead of configuring the BWP bandwidth.

In this way, the transmission of the first hop of the channel can use a transmission configuration instruction to drive the RF device to perform transmission with a bandwidth including the resource block range of the first hop. The transmission of the second hop of the channel can use another transmission configuration instruction to drive the RF device to perform transmission with a bandwidth including the resource block range of the second hop. The RB range of the segmented frequency hopping of the channel uses different transmission configurations to perform transmission. The range included in each transmission configuration is the effective RB range of each segment of frequency hopping transmission. In this way, each transmission configuration instruction only needs to ensure that the effective RB transmission power meets the requirements. Therefore, the voltage requirement required by the transmitting device is lower than the voltage requirement of the transmitting device using the BWP bandwidth, thereby reducing the device power consumption of the terminal device. In this way, by adopting segmented transmission for the frequency hopping channel and independently determining the transmission instruction for each segment of effective RB, the instruction can enable the use of voltage when the RF device is configured through segmented transmission. While achieving normal transmission of the entire channel, the power consumption of the transmitting device can be saved.

In addition to configuring the transmission instructions for each segment of the frequency hopping transmission separately, in some embodiments, the terminal device 120 also adjusts the transmission configuration for configuring the BWP bandwidth according to the frequency characteristics of the configured uplink channel in a transmission envelope to perform bandwidth reduction transmission, thereby reducing device power consumption. For clarity of discussion, specific embodiments are discussed with reference to Figures 4-5E.

FIG4 illustrates a signaling process 400 for a terminal device to determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmission according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. For the sake of clarity of discussion and without any limitation, the signaling process 400 will be discussed in conjunction with FIG1 .

In the signaling process 400, the terminal device 120 receives (410) scheduling information for scheduling a group of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may receive the scheduling information in a PDCCH. Additionally, the terminal device 120 may obtain the scheduling information in a DCI. For clarity of discussion, the scheduling information and the scheduled uplink channels are discussed with reference to FIG. 5A.

FIG. 5A shows an example timing of scheduling information and scheduled uplink channels according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Scheduling for uplink transmission may be a periodic configuration or a DCI dynamic scheduling. As shown in FIG. 5A , a special slot is scheduled with periodic SRS transmission. In addition, in an uplink slot, an uplink channel transmission is dynamically scheduled via DCI, in which example, the DCI is received in the PDCCH. The dynamically scheduled uplink channel may be a PUSCH, a PUCCH or a dynamic SRS. In addition, K in FIG. 5A may be any one of K1 or K2 discussed above. As further shown in FIG. 5A , the terminal device receives scheduling information for uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots in different PDCCHs. As described above, the uplink channel transmission in the plurality of consecutive time slots may be referred to as a transmission envelope 501 in the present disclosure. Additionally, in the example of FIG5A , the network device 110 schedules a portion of a special time slot (SPECIAL SLOT) for uplink transmission.

Returning to FIG. 4 , the terminal device 120 determines (420) whether to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for a group of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. Then, if the terminal device 120 determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 transmits (430) a group of uplink channels based on an equivalent bandwidth of the group of uplink channels, the equivalent bandwidth including the bandwidth between the upper frequency limit resource block and the lower frequency limit resource block used to transmit the group of uplink channels. For clarity of description, the determination to perform reduced bandwidth transmission and the uplink channels based on how to transmit equivalent bandwidth are discussed with reference to FIG. 5B-FIG. 5E.

FIG5B-FIG5E are schematic diagrams of a plurality of groups of uplink channel transmissions and corresponding equivalent bandwidths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG5B-FIG5E, bandwidth 501 is the BWP bandwidth configured by network device 110 for terminal device 120, and bandwidths 510, 520, 530, and 540 are equivalent widths of a group of uplink channels under different scheduling. Additionally, as shown in FIG5B-FIG5E, three consecutive SUU The time slots may be three consecutive time slots for transmitting envelope 501 in FIG. 5A . In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may determine whether to perform reduced bandwidth transmission depending on whether there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. For example, the terminal device 120 determines that there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission based on scheduling information. If the terminal device 120 determines that there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. Otherwise, the terminal device 120 determines not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. In the case where the terminal device 120 determines not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 performs a scheduled set of uplink channel transmissions based on the bandwidth 501 of the configured BWP of the terminal device 120. Additionally or alternatively, the configured BWP bandwidth is the default bandwidth configuration for the terminal device 120 to perform the set of uplink channel transmissions. For example, as the working bandwidth of the default configuration chip logic and RF configuration.

Regarding the terminal device 120 determining that there is enough time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device may determine whether there is enough time to adjust the transmission configuration for the equivalent bandwidth based on the first duration between the first time point at which the scheduling information is received and the second time point at which the uplink channel is started to be transmitted. In some embodiments, the first time point may be the time point at which the latest scheduling information in the scheduling information for the set of uplink channels is received, as shown at time point 502 in Figure 5A. Additionally, the second time point may be the time point of the earliest transmitted uplink channel in the scheduled set of uplink channels (or a transmission envelope), as shown at time point 503 in Figure 5A. Between receiving the scheduling information and transmitting the scheduled set of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 needs to complete necessary data preparation and/or preprocessing, etc. For example, the terminal device derives a data block size (Tbsize) for a set of uplink channels to be transmitted based on the scheduling information. If, after completing the necessary data preparation and/or data encapsulation processing, there is sufficient time to adjust the transmission configuration for the equivalent bandwidth transmitted by the set of uplink channels (for example, the equivalent bandwidth shown in 510, 520, 530 and 540) before the set of uplink channels starts transmission, the terminal device 120 can determine that there is sufficient time to perform reduced bandwidth transmission.

Specifically, in some embodiments, the terminal device 120 determines the second duration required to obtain a transmission block size for a group of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. Then, if the difference between the first duration and the second duration is greater than or equal to the third duration required to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 determines that there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In some embodiments, the first duration refers to the duration between the first time point from when the terminal device 120 receives the latest scheduling information in the scheduling information and the second time point from when the transmission of the group of uplink channels begins. The second duration refers to the duration required for the terminal device 120 to collect information and estimate the data block size. It should be understood that although this embodiment is discussed based on the time required to obtain the transmission block size, the second duration is not limited to the duration required to obtain the transmission block size. With the development of technology, the second duration can be any other duration consumed by the preprocessing that the terminal device 120 must perform in order to transmit a scheduled group of uplink channel transmissions. Regarding the terminal device 120 performing data preparation and/or preprocessing, in some embodiments, the terminal device performs data preparation and/or preprocessing (e.g., estimates Tbsize) based on at least one of the following items included in the scheduling information: frequency domain information of a group of uplink channels, time domain information of a group of uplink channels, modulation and coding scheme MCS of a group of uplink channels, the number of multiple-input multiple-output MIMO layers of a group of uplink channels, frequency hopping information of a group of uplink channels, estimated transmit power of a group of uplink channels, and actual transmit power of a group of uplink channels. In addition, the equivalent bandwidth of the group of uplink channels described above can also be determined based on the scheduling information. For example, the terminal device determines the equivalent bandwidth based on at least one of the time domain information, frequency domain information, and frequency hopping information of the uplink.

In some embodiments, the transmission configuration in the above text includes at least one of the following: a data sampling rate of a terminal device, a number of channels of a digital chip of a terminal device, a number of channels of a radio frequency front end of a terminal device, an operating bandwidth of a digital chip, an operating bandwidth of a radio frequency front end, an operating voltage of a digital chip, an operating voltage of a radio frequency front end, an operating frequency of a digital chip, and an operating frequency of a radio frequency front end. As described above, additionally or alternatively, the default transmission configuration may be determined based on a configured BWP bandwidth 501 for the terminal device 120. As an example, when the terminal device 120 determines that the difference between the first duration and the second duration is greater than or equal to the third duration required to adjust the above configuration for an equivalent bandwidth (e.g., 510, 520, 530, and 540), the terminal device may perform corresponding adjustments to the above configuration to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. In this way, the terminal device 120 may adjust the data sampling rate (e.g., reduce the sampling rate), adjust the number of channels of a chip or a front end (e.g., reduce the number), and adjust the operating voltage (e.g., reduce the voltage), etc., for an effective bandwidth smaller than the configured BWP bandwidth. Therefore, by performing bandwidth reduction transmission based on equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device 120 can not only reduce the power consumption of radio frequency devices, but also reduce the power consumption of baseband and intermediate frequency processing on the data transmission link. The terminal device 120 can achieve better energy saving effect in this way.

Alternatively, the terminal device 120 may also be configured based on its own capabilities to determine a time advance point for determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, and the time advance point may also be referred to as a third time point in the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 determines a third time point, and the duration between the third time point and the second time point for starting to transmit the set of uplink channels is greater than or equal to the third duration required for the terminal device 120 to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission (e.g., the transmission configuration described above). The terminal device 120 determines whether data preparation and/or preprocessing (e.g., obtaining Tbsize for a set of uplink channels) has been completed based on the scheduling information at the third time point. Then, if the terminal device 120 has completed data preparation and/or preprocessing at the third time point, the terminal device 120 determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. Otherwise, if the terminal device 120 has not completed data preparation and/or preprocessing at the third time point, the terminal device 120 determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. The device 120 determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

Returning to Figure 4, if the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 adjusts (425) the transmission configuration for a group of uplink channels as described above. Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may also determine whether to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for a group of uplink channels based on the difference between the equivalent bandwidth (e.g., 510, 520, 530 and 540) and the configured BWP bandwidth (e.g., 501). The terminal device 120 determines the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the bandwidth of the partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device based on the scheduling information. If the terminal device 120 determines that the difference is greater than or equal to the threshold, the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. Otherwise, if the terminal device 120 determines that the difference is less than the threshold, the terminal device 120 determines not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. For clarity, continue to refer to Figures 5B-5 to describe the determination to perform reduced bandwidth transmission based on bandwidth differences.

As shown in FIG. 5B and FIG. 5C , the network device 110 schedules a single or multiple channels to the terminal device 120 in the time slot of the transmission envelope 501, and the synthesized equivalent BWP bandwidth (e.g., equivalent bandwidths 510 and 520) substantially occupies the entire allocated BWP. In this case, the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the configured bandwidth may be small, such as less than a threshold, and the terminal device 120 may determine not to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. Because the benefits of the reduced bandwidth transmission performed in this case may not make up for the resources consumed by adjusting the transmission configuration.

As shown in FIG. 5D and FIG. 5C , it is also possible that the network device 110 distributes the configured channels to the terminal device 120 in a relatively concentrated manner, occupying a small portion of the bandwidth (e.g., equivalent bandwidths 530 and 540) in the entire BWP bandwidth. In this way, the equivalent BWP bandwidth of one or more scheduled channels forming a transmission envelope is much smaller than the configured BWP bandwidth. In this case, the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the configured bandwidth is large, for example, it may be greater than a threshold, and the terminal device 120 may determine to perform reduced bandwidth transmission. Because the reduced bandwidth transmission in this case can provide a greater reduction in power consumption.

Additionally, in some cases, the terminal device 120 may receive additional scheduling information associated with multiple time slots for the transmission envelope after completing the adjustment of the transmission configuration (e.g., determining to perform reduced bandwidth transmission). Returning to Figure 4, in some embodiments, after the terminal device 120 adjusts the transmission configuration for reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device 120 receives (426) additional scheduling information for scheduling additional uplink channels, which may also be referred to as second uplink channels in the present disclosure. The terminal device 120 determines (428) whether the transmission of the additional uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of a group of uplink channels. Additionally, the terminal device 120 determines (428) whether the transmission of the additional uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of the group of uplink channels. Then, if the transmission bandwidth is within the equivalent bandwidth and the transmission is not earlier than the transmission of a group of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 performs reduced bandwidth transmission for the group of uplink channels and the additional uplink channels. Otherwise, if the transmission bandwidth exceeds the equivalent bandwidth, or the transmission is earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 abandons the transmission of the additional uplink channel.

Additionally, in one example, the terminal device 120 performs reduced bandwidth transmission by following the steps:

1. Each time before the transmission information is obtained, the default working bandwidth of the chip logic and RF configuration is the BWP bandwidth configured by the network RRC for the terminal device 120.

2. The terminal device 120 obtains information about each channel of the transmission envelope, including time domain, frequency domain information, modulation mode of the scheduling channel, number of MIMO layers, frequency hopping, etc., and evaluates Tbsize that the configured channel can accommodate.

3. The terminal device 120 obtains the information of each channel of the transmission envelope, including time domain, frequency domain information, modulation mode, K1/K2 scheduling advance, Tbsize. The terminal device 120 evaluates whether the equivalent BWP bandwidth is smaller than the network configuration BWP, so that the reduced working BWP bandwidth is smaller than the RRC configuration BWP bandwidth, and simultaneously evaluates whether there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth configuration. If the working bandwidth BWP bandwidth can be reduced and the reduced bandwidth configuration advance is sufficient, the terminal device 120 reconfigures according to the reduced working BWP bandwidth (new working bandwidth).

4. The terminal device 120 reconfigures the working bandwidth of the RF front end and the chip logic according to the reduced working BWP bandwidth; determines the number of transmission paths, working bandwidth, working voltage and working main frequency of the RF front end according to the working bandwidth, the number of MIMO layers, and the transmission power/or the estimated transmission power; dynamically determines the number of transmission paths of the start signal according to the working bandwidth, Tbsize and the number of MIMO layers, and the transmission power/or the estimated transmission power, as well as the transmission advance amount, and determines the working bandwidth, working voltage and working main frequency required for the transmission.

In another example, the terminal device 120 performs reduced bandwidth transmission by following steps:

1. Before the terminal device 120 implements self-reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 performs statistics on the transmission information. The statistical information includes K1/K2, the timing from receiving DCI to the transmission of the group of uplink channels, the timing of receiving ACK feedback on PDSCH, etc.; it is used to count the information affecting the transmission; after the statistics of this information are completed, the judgment of self-reduced bandwidth is made.

2. The terminal device 120 sets the scheduling advance of the scheduling channel according to its own capabilities (for example, the time required for the terminal device 120 to adjust the transmission configuration); which is used to determine the advance point for the UE to make its own judgment on reducing the bandwidth transmission.

3. According to the statistical information, confirm whether the scheduling sequence given by the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 according to the statistical configuration has enough time for the configuration of self-reduced bandwidth transmission. If the statistical scheduling advance amount has enough configuration, the terminal device 120 performs self-reduced bandwidth transmission.

4. The terminal device 120 determines whether the collection of scheduling information is completed for this transmission envelope according to the uplink and downlink scheduling configuration information and the scheduling advance. If the collection is still not completed at the scheduling advance deadline, the working bandwidth is configured according to the RRC BWP bandwidth. If the scheduling information collection is completed before the scheduling advance deadline, the UE reconfigures according to the reduced working BWP bandwidth. The scheduling advance is set according to the configuration advance of the statistical information.

5. After the terminal device 120 obtains the information of each channel of the current transmission envelope, including time domain, frequency domain information, modulation mode of the scheduling channel, number of MIMO layers, frequency hopping and other information, the terminal device 120 evaluates the Tbsize that the configured channel can accommodate.

6. The terminal device 120 obtains information about each channel of this pattern, including time domain, frequency domain information, modulation mode, K1/K2 scheduling advance, and after evaluating Tbsize, the terminal device 120 evaluates whether the equivalent BWP bandwidth is smaller than the network configured BWP, for example, the equivalent bandwidth is smaller than the configured BWP bandwidth. The terminal device 120 also evaluates whether there is enough time to adjust the transmission configuration. If the equivalent bandwidth (or the corresponding working bandwidth) is smaller than the configured BWP bandwidth and the bandwidth configuration advance is reduced enough, the terminal device 120 adjusts the transmission configuration according to the equivalent bandwidth (or the corresponding working bandwidth).

7. The terminal device 120 configures the working bandwidth of the RF front end and the chip logic according to the equivalent bandwidth (or the corresponding working bandwidth); according to the working bandwidth, the number of MIMO layers, and the actual transmit power or the estimated transmit power, the terminal device 120 determines the number of transmit paths, the working bandwidth, the working voltage, and the working main frequency of the RF front end. Then, the terminal device 120 determines the number of data paths, the working bandwidth, the working voltage, and the working main frequency of the digital chip logic according to the equivalent bandwidth (or the corresponding working bandwidth), Tbsize and the number of MIMO layers, and the transmit power/or the estimated transmit power, and the transmit advance.

8. If after the terminal device 120 reduces the bandwidth configuration by itself, there is still a scheduling need to perform transmission in association with this transmission envelope, the terminal device 120 calculates whether the frequency domain range of the scheduling exceeds the current working BWP bandwidth of the terminal device 120 (for example, the working bandwidth determined based on the equivalent bandwidth and the predetermined granularity as described above) and whether it is ahead of the current working BWP bandwidth in the time domain. If neither, the scheduled channel transmission is still within the bandwidth range reduced by the terminal device 120 by itself, and the transmission can be performed. If it exceeds, the scheduled channel is initiated this time.

9. The terminal device 120 updates the scheduling statistics to ensure that the subsequent transmission schedule is included in future judgments.

In this way, the terminal device 120 can determine whether to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for a group of scheduled uplink transmissions based on its own capabilities and the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the configured bandwidth. If the reduced bandwidth transmission is performed, the terminal device 120 not only reduces the power consumption of the radio frequency device, but also reduces the power consumption of the baseband and intermediate frequency processing on the data transmission link. In this way, the terminal device 120 can achieve a better energy saving effect.

Additionally or alternatively, in addition to determining multiple transmission configurations for uplink channel transmission and/or performing reduced bandwidth transmission based on equivalent bandwidth on the terminal device side, the network device 110 may also use relevant scheduling to configure an equivalent bandwidth for a certain terminal device. An embodiment in which the network side uses relevant scheduling to configure a group of frequency bands is discussed below with reference to FIGS. 6-7H.

FIG6 illustrates a signaling process 600 for a network device to configure a set of frequency bands according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. For the sake of clarity of discussion and without any limitation, the signaling process 200 will be discussed in conjunction with FIG1 .

In the signaling process 600, the network device 110 determines (610) that the terminal device 120 will be scheduled to transmit a group of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. Further, the terminal device 120 determines (620) the position of a group of frequency bands used to transmit the group of uplink channels in the partial bandwidth BWP to configure an equivalent bandwidth between the upper frequency limit and the lower frequency limit of the group of frequency bands. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 determines the position of a group of frequency bands in the partial bandwidth BWP, including for a first uplink channel in a group of uplink channels, the network device 110 determines a first center frequency of a first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel in a group of frequency bands. For example, if the first uplink channel is an uplink channel (e.g., SRS) that is statically or semi-statically configured, the network device 110 may predetermine the first center frequency. In another example, if the first uplink channel is an uplink channel (e.g., PUSCH, PUCCH, or SRS) that is dynamically scheduled by DCI, the network device 110 may store the first center frequency of the first uplink channel during scheduling of the uplink channel. In some other embodiments, the network device 110 may also use any other method to determine the first center frequency.

Additionally, after determining the first center frequency, for another uplink channel in a set of uplink channels (the other uplink channel may also be referred to as a second uplink channel), the network device 110 determines a second center frequency of a second frequency band corresponding to the second uplink channel in a set of frequency bands, so that the frequency difference between the second center frequency and the first center frequency is less than a threshold. For clarity, the determination of the first center frequency and the second center frequency is discussed with reference to FIGS. 7A-7H.

7A-7G are schematic diagrams of a plurality of groups of uplink channel transmissions scheduled by a network device and the corresponding equivalent bandwidths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 7A-7G, bandwidth 701 is the BWP bandwidth configured by the network device 110 for a certain terminal device (e.g., terminal device 120 or terminal device 130). Bandwidths 710 and 720 are the effective bandwidths of the uplink channels scheduled for a certain terminal device (e.g., terminal device 120 or terminal device 130). Bandwidth 730 is the effective bandwidth of the uplink channel scheduled for a certain terminal device (e.g., terminal device 120 or terminal device 130) without adopting relevant scheduling (e.g., determining the first center frequency of the first frequency band used for uplink transmission and the second center frequency of the second frequency band as described above). Bandwidth 750 is the effective bandwidth of the uplink channel scheduled for terminal device 120 when the relevant scheduling is adopted. Bandwidth 740 is the effective bandwidth of the uplink channel scheduled for another terminal device (e.g., terminal device 130) when the relevant scheduling is not adopted. Bandwidth 760 is the effective bandwidth of the uplink channel scheduled for terminal device 130 when the relevant scheduling is adopted.

Specifically, as shown in Figure 7A, for each terminal device, the network device 110 only needs to schedule uplink transmissions within the configured BWP bandwidth for the terminal device, without considering the correlation between these uplink transmissions. In this way, the equivalent BWP bandwidth may occupy the vast majority of the configured BWP bandwidth or occupy the entire configured BWP. Additionally, the equivalent BWP may also be relatively small, that is, occupy a smaller part of the configured BWP bandwidth. However, the size of the equivalent bandwidth will be random, which will be detrimental to the terminal device in reducing device energy consumption. As described above, the network device 110 can determine the center frequencies of channel 1, channel 2 and channel 3 respectively, so that the difference between the center frequencies of these channels is less than a threshold. The network device 110 is thus configured to transmit the equivalent bandwidth of a group of frequency bands for a group of uplink channels.

As shown in FIG7B , by correlatively determining the center frequencies of channel 1, channel 2, and channel 3, an effective bandwidth 720 of a set of frequency bands for a set of scheduled uplink channels is significantly reduced relative to the original equivalent bandwidth 710. In this way, a terminal device that is correlatively scheduled with the set of uplink channels can adjust a transmission configuration based on a smaller equivalent bandwidth 710. In this way, the network device 110 can promote energy consumption reduction of the terminal device.

Additionally, as shown in Fig. 7C and Fig. 7D, as an example, network equipment 110 schedules uplink channel transmission for terminal equipment 120 and terminal equipment 130 respectively in configuration BWP bandwidth 701. In Fig. 7C, network equipment 110 randomly schedules different uplink transmissions for terminal equipment 120 and terminal equipment 130 respectively. Like this, even if each uplink channel scheduled for each terminal equipment only occupies a smaller frequency band range, for each terminal equipment, the equivalent bandwidth of a group of uplink channels scheduled is larger. In Fig. 7D, network equipment 110 can determine the center frequency of a group of frequency bands for the uplink channel of each terminal equipment (e.g., terminal equipment 120 or terminal equipment 130) as described above, so that the difference between the corresponding center frequencies of a group of frequency bands for these channels is less than a threshold value. Thus, an equivalent bandwidth 750 of a frequency band for a set of uplink transmissions of the terminal device 120 and an equivalent bandwidth 760 of a frequency band for a set of uplink transmissions of the terminal device 130 are both significantly smaller than the bandwidth 701 of the configured BWP.

In addition, as described above, the first center frequency can be the center frequency of the frequency band of the uplink channel for static scheduling, or the center frequency of the frequency band of the uplink for dynamic scheduling. As shown in Figures 7E-7F, the first center frequency 770 is the center frequency of the SRS for static scheduling. In this case, the first center frequency is predetermined. Alternatively, the first center frequency 780 is the center frequency of the dynamically configured uplink channel 1. In this case, the network device 110 stores the first center frequency 780 for use in determining the second center frequency.

Additionally or alternatively, the network device 110 may also select an appropriate frequency hopping frequency range for an uplink channel in a group of uplink channels to configure an equivalent bandwidth. In some embodiments, for a third uplink channel in a group of uplink channels, the network device 110 determines that a third frequency band corresponding to the third uplink channel in the group of frequency bands is a frequency hopping frequency range. For the third uplink channel, the network device 110 may select a smaller candidate frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range in a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range. Additionally, the network device 110 may also determine a third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range so that the frequency difference between the third center frequency and the first center frequency is less than a threshold value. As shown in Figures 7G-7H, the first center frequency 710 may be the center frequency of the frequency band of the first uplink channel (e.g., SRS) for static configuration. Furthermore, the terminal device 120 selects a second center frequency of the frequency band for the second uplink channel (e.g., PUSCH) so that the difference between the second center frequency and the first center frequency 770 is less than a threshold value. Further, for the third uplink (e.g., PUCCH), the terminal device selects a smaller candidate frequency range from a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range for the PUCCH. In addition, the terminal device 120 further determines a third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range so that the frequency difference between the third center frequency and the first center frequency 710 is less than the threshold. In this way, the network device 110 can set the equivalent bandwidth of a group of uplink channels scheduled to the terminal device within a relatively small bandwidth.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG7H , the first center frequency 780 is the center frequency of the dynamically configured uplink channel 1. In this case, the network device 110 stores the first center frequency 780. Furthermore, the terminal device determines the frequency hopping frequency range for channel 2 and the third center frequency of the frequency hopping range in the same manner as in FIG7G above.

In this way, when the network device 110 schedules different channels to the terminal device in different time slots within a transmission envelope, the network device 110 performs correlation constraints on the resource blocks allocated for channel scheduling. In this way, the single or multiple channels scheduled on the time slots within the transmission envelope are scheduled to be within the smallest equivalent BWP bandwidth range as possible. Furthermore, the terminal device can reduce the working BWP bandwidth by itself according to the equivalent BWP bandwidth, so that the terminal device can operate in a lower power consumption mode.

Additionally or alternatively, all the above embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented individually or in any combination, and the present disclosure does not impose any limitation on this.

8 shows a flowchart 800 implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In one possible implementation, the method 800 may be implemented by the terminal device 120 or the terminal device 130 in the example environment 100A. In other possible implementations, the method 800 may also be implemented by other electronic devices independent of the example environment 100. As an example, the method 800 will be described below by taking the implementation by the terminal device 120 in the example environment 100A as an example.

At 810, the terminal device 120 determines that an uplink channel will be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping. At 820, the terminal device 120 determines a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges. At 830, the terminal device 120 transmits the uplink channel based on the plurality of transmission configurations. In some embodiments, transmitting the uplink channel comprises: the terminal device 120 generates a transmission configuration instruction for a transmitting device of the terminal device 120 based on a transmission configuration in the plurality of transmission configurations, the transmission configuration instruction indicating to the transmitting device a resource block range in the plurality of resource block ranges corresponding to the transmission configuration. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 uses the transmission configuration instruction to drive the transmitting device to transmit the uplink channel over the corresponding resource block range. In some embodiments, the transmitting device comprises at least one of a power amplifier, a digital predistortion, an average power tracking, and an envelope tracking device. In some embodiments, the plurality of resource block ranges are distributed within a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device, and the bandwidth of each resource block range in the plurality of resource block ranges is less than the bandwidth of the BWP. In some embodiments, the uplink channel includes at least one of the following: a physical uplink control channel PUCCH, a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, a sounding reference signal SRS, and a physical uplink access channel PRACH.

9 shows a flowchart 900 implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In one possible implementation, the method 900 may be implemented by the terminal device 120 or the terminal device 130 in the example environment 100A. In other possible implementations, the method 900 may also be implemented by other electronic devices independent of the example environment 100. As an example, the method 800 will be described below by taking the implementation by the terminal device 120 in the example environment 100A as an example.

At 910, the terminal device 120 receives scheduling information, the scheduling information being used to schedule a group of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. At 920, the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for the group of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. At 930, in the case where the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 transmits the group of uplink channels based on an equivalent bandwidth of the group of uplink channels. The equivalent bandwidth includes a bandwidth between an upper frequency limit resource block and a lower frequency limit resource block for transmitting a group of uplink channels. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: in the case where the terminal device 120 determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission for the group of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 transmits the group of uplink channels based on a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device 120. In some embodiments, determining to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In the case where the terminal device determines that there is enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In the case where the terminal device determines that there is not enough time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

In some embodiments, determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission includes: the terminal device 120 determines a first duration between a first time point at which the scheduling information is received and a second time point at which the transmission of the set of uplink channels is started. The terminal device 120 determines a second duration required to obtain a transmission block size for the set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information. If the difference between the first duration and the second duration is greater than or equal to a third duration required to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device 120 determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. If the difference is less than the third duration, the terminal device 120 determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

In some embodiments, determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission includes: the terminal device 120 determines whether a transmission block size for the set of uplink channels has been obtained based on the scheduling information at a third time point. If the terminal device 120 has obtained the transmission block size at the third time point, the terminal device 120 determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. If the terminal device does not obtain the transmission block size at the third time point, the terminal device 120 determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission.

In some embodiments, the first time point includes the time point at which the latest scheduling information in the scheduling information for the group of uplink channels is received, and the second time point includes the time point of the earliest transmitted uplink channel in the group of uplink channels. In some embodiments, the transmission configuration includes at least one of the following: a data sampling rate of the terminal device, a number of channels of a digital chip of the terminal device, a number of channels of a radio frequency front end of the terminal device, an operating bandwidth of the digital chip, an operating bandwidth of the radio frequency front end, an operating voltage of the digital chip, an operating voltage of the radio frequency front end, an operating frequency of the digital chip, and an operating frequency of the radio frequency front end. In some embodiments, the method further includes: after the terminal device 120 adjusts the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device 120 receives additional scheduling information for scheduling additional uplink channels; the terminal device 120 determines whether the transmission bandwidth of the additional uplink channel is within the equivalent bandwidth; the terminal device 120 determines whether the transmission of the additional uplink channel is earlier than the transmission of a group of uplink channels; and if the transmission bandwidth is within the equivalent bandwidth and the transmission is not earlier than the transmission of a group of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 performs the reduced bandwidth transmission for the group of uplink channels and the additional uplink channels.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: if the transmission bandwidth exceeds the equivalent bandwidth, or the transmission is earlier than the transmission of the group of uplink channels, the terminal device 120 abandons the transmission of the other uplink channels. In some embodiments, determining whether to perform bandwidth reduction The transmission includes: based on the scheduling information, the terminal device 120 determines the difference between the equivalent bandwidth and the bandwidth of the partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device 120; if the terminal device 120 determines that the difference is greater than or equal to the threshold, the terminal device 120 determines to perform reduced bandwidth transmission; and if the terminal device 120 determines that the difference is less than the threshold, the terminal device 120 determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. In some embodiments, the scheduling information includes at least one of the following: an offset between a time slot where the scheduling information is located and a time slot where the scheduled uplink channel is located; frequency domain information of a group of uplink channels; time domain information of a group of uplink channels; modulation and coding schemes MCS of a group of uplink channels; the number of multiple-input multiple-output MIMO layers of a group of uplink channels; frequency hopping information of a group of uplink channels; estimated transmit power of a group of uplink channels; and actual transmit power of a group of uplink channels. In some embodiments, the uplink channel includes at least one of the following: a physical uplink control channel PUCCH, a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, a sounding reference signal SRS, and a physical uplink access channel PRACH.

FIG10 shows a flowchart 1000 implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In one possible implementation, the method 1000 may be implemented by a network device 110 in the example environment 100A. In other possible implementations, the method 1000 may also be implemented by other electronic devices independent of the example environment 100. As an example, the method 1000 will be described below by taking the implementation by the network device 110 in the example environment 100A as an example.

At 1010, the network device 110 determines that a terminal device will be scheduled to transmit a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots. At 1020, the network device 110 determines the position of a set of frequency bands used to transmit a set of uplink channels in the frequency domain to configure an equivalent bandwidth between the upper frequency limit and the lower frequency limit of a set of frequency bands. In some embodiments, determining the position of the set of frequency bands in the frequency domain includes: for a first uplink channel in a set of uplink channels, the network device 110 determines a first center frequency of a first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel in a set of frequency bands; and for a second uplink channel in a set of uplink channels, the network device 110 determines a second center frequency of a second frequency band corresponding to the second uplink channel in a set of frequency bands, so that the frequency difference between the second center frequency and the first center frequency is less than a threshold. In some embodiments, the first uplink channel includes at least one of the following: a statically scheduled uplink channel; a semi-statically scheduled uplink channel; and a dynamically scheduled uplink channel. In some embodiments, the first uplink channel is a dynamically scheduled uplink channel, and determining the first center frequency includes: the network device 110 dynamically schedules the first uplink channel; and the network device 110 stores the first center frequency of the first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel. In some embodiments, determining the position of the set of frequency bands in the frequency domain includes: if for a third uplink channel in a set of uplink channels, the network device 110 determines that the third frequency band corresponding to the third uplink channel in the set of frequency bands is a frequency hopping frequency range, the network device 110 performs at least one of the following: selecting a smaller candidate frequency range from a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range; and determining the third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range so that the frequency difference between the third center frequency and the first center frequency is less than the threshold. In some embodiments, the uplink channel includes at least one of the following: a physical uplink control channel PUCCH, a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, a sounding reference signal SRS, and a physical uplink access channel PRACH.

Figures 11 and 12 are schematic diagrams of possible communication devices provided by embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can implement the functions of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be the network device 110 as shown in Figure 1, or the terminal device 120 or 130 as shown in Figure 1, or a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal device or network device.

As shown in Fig. 11, the communication device 1100 includes a transceiver module 1101 and a processing module 1102. The communication device 1100 can be used to implement the functions of the terminal device or network device in the method embodiments shown in Figs. 2, 4 and 6 above.

When the communication device 1100 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiments described in Figures 2, 4 and 6: the transceiver module 1101 is used to determine the first stop time of the serving cell of the terminal device. The processing module 1102 is used to enter the neighboring cell measurement relaxation mode based on the first stop time.

When the communication device 1100 is used to implement the function of the network device in the method embodiment described in Figure 2: the processing module 1102 is used to determine that the uplink channel will be transmitted on multiple resource block ranges used for frequency hopping and determine multiple transmission configurations corresponding to the multiple resource block ranges; the transceiver module 1101 is used to transmit the uplink channel based on multiple transmission configurations.

For a more detailed description of the transceiver module 1101 and the processing module 1102 , please refer to the relevant description in the above method embodiment, which will not be described again here.

As shown in FIG12 , the communication device 1200 includes a processor 1210 and an interface circuit 1220. The processor 1210 and the interface circuit 1220 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the interface circuit 1220 may be a transceiver or an input/output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1200 may further include a memory 1230 for storing instructions executed by the processor 1210 or storing input data required by the processor 1210 to execute instructions or storing data generated after the processor 1210 executes instructions.

When the communication device 700 is used to implement the method in the above method embodiment, the processor 1210 is used to execute the function of the above processing module 602, and the interface circuit 720 is used to execute the function of the above transceiver module 1201.

When the above communication device is a chip applied to a terminal device, the terminal device chip implements the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules in the terminal device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the network device to the terminal device; or the terminal device chip sends information to other modules in the terminal device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal device to the network device.

When the above communication device is a chip applied to a network device, the network device chip implements the function of the network device in the above method embodiment. The network device chip receives information from other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal device to the network device; or the network device chip sends information to other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

When the device in the embodiment of the present application is a network device, the device may be as shown in FIG13. The device may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a remote radio unit (RRU) 1310 and one or more baseband units (BBU) (also referred to as digital units, digital units, DU) 1320. The RRU 1310 may be referred to as a transceiver module, which may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, or the transceiver module may be a module capable of implementing the functions of transmitting and receiving. The transceiver module may correspond to the transceiver module 1101 in FIG11, that is, it may execute the actions performed by the transceiver module 1101. Optionally, the transceiver module may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 1311 and a radio frequency unit 1312. The RRU 1310 part is mainly used for transmitting and receiving radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals into baseband signals. The BBU 1310 part is mainly used for baseband processing, controlling the base station, etc. The RRU 1310 and BBU 1320 may be physically arranged together or physically separated, i.e., a distributed base station.

The BBU 1320 is the control center of the base station, which can also be called a processing module, which can correspond to the processing module 1102 in FIG. 11, and is mainly used to complete baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spread spectrum, etc. In addition, the processing module can perform the actions performed by the processing module 602. For example, the BBU (processing module) can be used to control the base station to execute the operation process of the network device in the above method embodiment.

In one example, the BBU 1320 may be composed of one or more boards, and the multiple boards may jointly support a wireless access network of a single access standard (such as an LTE network), or may respectively support wireless access networks of different access standards (such as an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The BBU 1320 also includes a memory 1321 and a processor 1322. The memory 1321 is used to store necessary instructions and data. The processor 1322 is used to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to execute the operation process of the network device in the above method embodiment. The memory 1321 and the processor 1322 may serve one or more boards. In other words, a memory and a processor may be separately set on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, necessary circuits may be set on each board.

The embodiment of the present application provides a communication system. The communication system may include the terminal device involved in the embodiments shown in Figures 2, 4 and 6 above, and the network device involved in the embodiments shown in Figures 2, 4 and 6. Optionally, the terminal device and the network device in the communication system may execute any of the communication methods shown in Figures 2, 4 and 6.

The present application also provides a circuit that can be coupled to a memory and can be used to execute a process related to a terminal device or a network device in any of the above method embodiments. The chip system may include the chip and other components such as a memory or a transceiver.

It should be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may also be any conventional processor, etc.

It should also be understood that the memory mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (RAM), which is used as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DRAM). DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component, the memory (storage module) is integrated in the processor.

It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to include, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the modules and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and modules described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed communication methods and devices can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the module is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple modules or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The modules described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as modules may or may not be physical modules, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple 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 module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing module, or each module may exist physically separately, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module.

If the function is implemented in the form of a software function module and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be essentially or the part that makes the contribution or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method of each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example but not limitation, computer-readable media may include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), universal serial bus flash disk, mobile hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer.

As used herein, the term "including" and similar terms should be understood as open inclusion, i.e., "including but not limited to". The term "based on" should be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first", "second", etc. can refer to different or identical objects, and are only used to distinguish the objects referred to, without implying a specific spatial order, temporal order, order of importance, etc. of the objects referred to. In some embodiments, values, processes, selected items, determined items, equipment, devices, means, components, assemblies, etc. are referred to as "best", "lowest", "highest", "minimum", "maximum", etc. It should be understood that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection can be made among many available functional options, and such selections do not need to be better, lower, higher, smaller, larger or otherwise preferred than other options in other aspects or all aspects. As used herein, the term "determine" can cover a variety of actions. For example, "determine" can include calculation, calculation, processing, export, investigation, search (e.g., search in a table, database or another data structure), ascertainment, etc. Additionally, "determining" may include receiving (eg, receiving information), accessing (eg, accessing data in a memory), etc. Furthermore, "determining" may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, etc.

The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto. Any technician familiar with the technical field can easily think of changes or replacements within the technical scope disclosed in the embodiments of the present application, which should be included in the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (23)

A communication method, comprising: The terminal device determines that an uplink channel will be transmitted over a plurality of resource block ranges for frequency hopping; The terminal device determines a plurality of transmission configurations corresponding to the plurality of resource block ranges; and The terminal device transmits the uplink channel based on the multiple transmission configurations. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the uplink channel comprises: The terminal device generates a transmission configuration instruction for a transmitting device of the terminal device based on a transmission configuration in the multiple transmission configurations, the transmission configuration instruction being used to indicate a resource block range in the multiple resource block ranges corresponding to the transmission configuration; and The terminal device uses the transmission configuration instruction to drive the transmitting device to transmit the uplink channel over the corresponding resource block range. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The multiple resource block ranges are distributed within a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device; and A bandwidth of each resource block range in the plurality of resource block ranges is smaller than a bandwidth of the BWP. The method according to claim 1, wherein the uplink channel comprises at least one of the following: Physical uplink control channel PUCCH, The physical uplink shared channel PUSCH, and Sounding Reference Signal SRS. Physical uplink access channel PRACH. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the transmitting device comprises at least one of a power amplifier, a digital pre-distortion, an average power tracking and an envelope tracking device. A communication method, comprising: The terminal device receives scheduling information, where the scheduling information is used to schedule a group of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots; The terminal device determines, based on the scheduling information, to perform reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels; and In the case of performing the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device transmits the set of uplink channels based on an equivalent bandwidth of the set of uplink channels, and the equivalent bandwidth includes the bandwidth between the upper frequency limit resource block and the lower frequency limit resource block used to transmit the set of uplink channels. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whether to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: Based on the scheduling information, if the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; or Based on the scheduling information, if the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: The terminal device determines a first duration between a first time point at which the scheduling information is received and a second time point at which transmission of the set of uplink channels is started; The terminal device determines a second duration required to obtain a transport block size for the set of uplink channels based on the scheduling information; If the difference between the first duration and the second duration is greater than or equal to a third duration required to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission, the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and If the difference is less than the third duration, the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: The terminal device determines a third time point, wherein a duration between the third time point and the second time point at which the transmission of the set of uplink channels is started is greater than or equal to a third duration required for the terminal device to adjust the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission; In the case where the terminal device has obtained the transport block size at the third time point, the terminal device determines that there is sufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and In case the terminal device does not obtain the transport block size at the third time point, the terminal device determines that there is insufficient time to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. The method of claim 8, wherein the first time point comprises receiving a scheduling for the set of uplink channels. The second time point comprises a time point of the latest scheduling information in the information, and wherein the second time point comprises a time point of the earliest transmitted uplink channel in the group of uplink channels. The method according to claim 8, wherein the transmission configuration includes at least one of the following: the data sampling rate of the terminal device, the number of channels of the digital chip of the terminal device, the number of channels of the RF front end of the terminal device, the working bandwidth of the digital chip, the working bandwidth of the RF front end, the working voltage of the digital chip, the working voltage of the RF front end, the working frequency of the digital chip, and the working frequency of the RF front end. The method according to claim 6, further comprising: After the terminal device adjusts the transmission configuration of the reduced bandwidth transmission based on the equivalent bandwidth, the terminal device receives further scheduling information for scheduling a second uplink channel; The terminal device determines whether the transmission bandwidth of the second uplink channel is within the equivalent bandwidth; The terminal device determines whether transmission of the second uplink channel is earlier than transmission of the set of uplink channels; and If the transmission bandwidth is within the equivalent bandwidth and the transmission is not earlier than the transmission of the set of uplink channels, the terminal device performs the reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels and the second uplink channel. The method according to claim 12, further comprising: If the transmission bandwidth exceeds the equivalent bandwidth, or the transmission is earlier than the transmission of the group of uplink channels, the terminal device abandons the transmission of the second uplink channel. The method of claim 6, wherein determining to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission comprises: Based on the scheduling information, the terminal device determines a difference between the equivalent bandwidth and a bandwidth of a partial bandwidth BWP of the terminal device; If the terminal device determines that the difference is greater than or equal to a threshold, the terminal device determines to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission; and If the terminal device determines that the difference is less than a threshold, the terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission. The method according to claim 6, further comprising: The terminal device determines not to perform the reduced bandwidth transmission for the set of uplink channels, and the terminal device transmits the set of uplink channels based on a fractional bandwidth BWP of the terminal device. A communication method, comprising: The network device determines that the terminal device will be scheduled to transmit a set of uplink channels in a plurality of consecutive time slots; and The network device determines positions of a group of frequency bands for transmitting the group of uplink channels in the partial bandwidth BWP to configure an equivalent bandwidth between an upper frequency limit and a lower frequency limit of the group of frequency bands. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the positions of the set of frequency bands in the frequency domain comprises: For a first uplink channel in the set of uplink channels, the network device determines a first center frequency of a first frequency band in the set of frequency bands corresponding to the first uplink channel; and For a second uplink channel in the group of uplink channels, the network device determines a second center frequency of a second frequency band in the group of frequency bands corresponding to the second uplink channel, so that a frequency difference between the second center frequency and the first center frequency is less than a threshold. The method of claim 17, wherein the first uplink channel is a dynamically scheduled uplink channel, and determining the first center frequency comprises: The network device dynamically schedules the first uplink channel; and The network device stores the first center frequency of the first frequency band corresponding to the first uplink channel. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the positions of the set of frequency bands in the frequency domain comprises: If, for a third uplink channel in the set of uplink channels, the network device determines that a third frequency band in the set of frequency bands corresponding to the third uplink channel is a frequency hopping frequency range, the network device performs at least one of the following: selecting a smaller candidate frequency range among a plurality of candidate frequency ranges for the frequency hopping frequency range as the frequency hopping frequency range; and A third center frequency of the frequency hopping frequency range is determined so that a frequency difference between the third center frequency and the first center frequency is smaller than the threshold. A terminal device comprises: a processor, and a memory storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by the processor, the terminal device executes a method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 or any one of claims 6 to 15. A network device, comprising: a processor, and a memory storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by the processor, The network device executes the method according to any one of claims 16 to 19. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by an electronic device, the electronic device executes a method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, any one of claims 6 to 15, or any one of claims 16 to 19. A computer program product, comprising instructions, which, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, any one of claims 6 to 15, or any one of claims 16 to 19.