WO2024149326A1 - Communication method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and apparatus, which are used for solving the problem of a terminal device being unable to obtain the length of a reference signal sequence so as to perform channel estimation, resulting in poor channel estimation performance. The method comprises: receiving downlink control information from a network device, and based on time domain resource allocation information and a reference signal which are indicated by the downlink control information, receiving downlink data. Wherein the downlink control information is used for indicating one piece of time domain resource allocation information in a time domain allocation set; a first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information in the time domain allocation set is different from a second data channel mapping type indicated by second time domain resource allocation information in the time domain allocation set; and the first data channel mapping type and second data channel mapping type correspond to different reference signal sequence lengths. By associating different time domain resource allocation information with different sequence lengths, a terminal device can determine a corresponding channel estimation method according to indicated time domain resource allocation information.

Description

A communication method and device

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on January 11, 2023, with application number 202310070172.5 and invention name "A Communication Method and Device", all contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

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

Background technique

Currently, NR can only support up to 12 streams of multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) transmission. As wireless communication equipment is deployed more densely in the future, the number of antennas at the transmitting and receiving ends will further increase, and the number of terminal devices will further increase, which will put forward higher requirements on the number of MIMO transmission streams. The demodulation reference signal (DMRS) is used to estimate the equivalent channel matrix experienced by the data channel or control channel, so as to be used for data detection and demodulation. Generally speaking, one DMRS port corresponds to one spatial layer. For MIMO transmission with R transmission streams, the number of DMRS ports required is R. The current number of DMRS ports is difficult to support the huge number of MIMO transmission streams.

One method for expanding the number of DMRS ports is to further introduce new DMRS ports through code division multiplexing enhancement on the basis of existing DMRS ports. For example, for existing DMRS ports, a code division multiplexing (CDM) group corresponds to a DMRS with a frequency domain-orthogonal cover code (FD-OCC) of length 2 and a time domain-orthogonal cover code (TD-OCC) of length 2. The FD-OCC length and the corresponding number of orthogonal sequences can be further extended on the same time-frequency resources to increase the DMRS ports. For newly added DMRS ports, a CDM group can correspond to a DMRS with a FD-OCC of length 4 and a TD-OCC of length 2.

For existing DMRS ports, channel estimation can be performed based on an FD-OCC of length 2. For newly added DMRS ports, channel estimation can be performed based on an FD-OCC of length 4. Alternatively, for newly added DMRS ports, if the subsequence of length 2 of the FD-OCC sequence corresponding to the DMRS port scheduled in a CDM group is also an orthogonal sequence, during channel estimation, channel estimation can be further performed based on an FD-OCC of length 2, thereby obtaining better channel estimation performance. In summary, the terminal device supports two channel estimation methods for the DMRS port, namely, channel estimation based on an FD-OCC of length 2 and channel estimation based on an FD-OCC of length 4. How the terminal device dynamically selects the channel estimation method to obtain better channel estimation performance has become an urgent problem to be solved.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and apparatus for solving the problem that a terminal device cannot obtain the length of a reference signal sequence for channel estimation, thereby resulting in poor channel estimation performance.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, the execution subject of the method may be a terminal device or a chip, a chip system or a circuit located in the terminal device, and the method may be implemented by the following steps: receiving downlink control information, and receiving downlink data based on the time domain resource allocation information and the reference signal indicated by the downlink control information. The downlink control information is used to indicate a time domain resource allocation information in a time domain allocation set; the time domain allocation set includes a first time domain resource allocation information and a second time domain resource allocation information; the first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to the first sequence length of the reference signal, the second data channel mapping type corresponds to the second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length and the second sequence length are different.

It can be understood that "receiving downlink control information" and "receiving downlink data" only indicate the direction of transmission of downlink control information or downlink data, including direct reception at the air interface and indirect reception by the processing unit through the air interface, so "receiving" can also be understood as the "input" of the chip interface.

In the embodiment of the present application, different time domain resource allocation information is associated with different sequence lengths, so that different sequence lengths can be indicated by the above two time domain resource allocation information, so that the terminal device can determine the corresponding channel estimation method according to the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI. In addition, through the above method, on the one hand, the change to the protocol can be relatively small, and on the other hand, the indication overhead can be reduced.

In one possible design, the time domain resource parameters indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information are the same as the time domain resource parameters indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information. In this manner, the time domain resource parameters corresponding to the two time domain resource allocation information are different, but the associated data channel mapping type is different. The types are different, so that the indication of sequence length can be achieved without affecting the scheduling of downlink data.

In one possible design, the method also includes: receiving data channel configuration information from a network device; wherein the data channel configuration information indicates a type of reference signal corresponding to a first data channel mapping type and a type of reference signal corresponding to a second data channel mapping type; the type of reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is a first type, and a sequence length of the first type of reference signal is a first sequence length; the type of reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is a second type, and a sequence length of the second type of reference signal is a second sequence length.

The above method establishes an association between the data channel mapping type and the DMRS type, and establishes an association between the DMRS type and the sequence length, so that the sequence length can be indicated when indicating the data channel mapping type, which is conducive to the terminal device adopting a channel estimation method with better performance for channel estimation, thereby improving communication performance.

In one possible design, downlink data is received based on time domain resource allocation information indicated by downlink control information and a reference signal, including: if the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information is first time domain resource allocation information, channel estimation is performed based on a reference signal of a first sequence length; or, if the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information is second time domain resource allocation information, channel estimation is performed based on a reference signal of a second sequence length; or, if the time domain resource allocation information of the downlink control information is third time domain resource allocation information in an indication time domain allocation table, and the data channel mapping type indicated by the third time domain resource allocation information is not configured with a corresponding sequence length, channel estimation is performed based on a reference signal of a first sequence length.

In one possible design, the length of the first sequence is 2 and the length of the second sequence is 4.

In one possible design, the method further includes: receiving data channel configuration information from a network device; wherein the data channel configuration information includes configuration information of a time domain allocation set.

In one possible design, the reference signal is DMRS.

In one possible design, the above sequence length is the FD-OCC length.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, the execution subject of the method may be a network device or a chip, a chip system or a circuit located in the network device, and the method may be implemented by the following steps: determining downlink control information and sending the downlink control information to the terminal device. The downlink control information is used to indicate a time domain resource allocation information in a time domain allocation set; the time domain allocation set includes a first time domain resource allocation information and a second time domain resource allocation information; the first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to the first sequence length of the reference signal, the second data channel mapping type corresponds to the second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length and the second sequence length are different.

It can be understood that "sending downlink control information to the terminal device" only indicates the direction of transmission of the downlink control information, including direct sending through the air interface and indirect sending by the processing unit through the air interface, so "sending" can also be understood as the "output" of the chip interface.

In the embodiment of the present application, different time domain resource allocation information is associated with different sequence lengths, so that different sequence lengths can be indicated by the above two time domain resource allocation information, so that the terminal device can determine the corresponding channel estimation method according to the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI. In addition, through the above method, on the one hand, the change to the protocol can be relatively small, and on the other hand, the indication overhead can be reduced.

In one possible design, the time domain resource parameters indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information and the time domain resource parameters indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information are the same. In this method, the time domain resource parameters corresponding to the two time domain resource allocation information are different in the associated data channel mapping type, so that the indication of the sequence length can be achieved without affecting the scheduling of the downlink data.

In one possible design, the method also includes: sending data channel configuration information to the terminal device; wherein the data channel configuration information indicates the type of reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type and the type of reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type; the type of reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is a first type, and the sequence length of the first type of reference signal is a first sequence length; the type of reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is a second type, and the sequence length of the second type of reference signal is a second sequence length.

The above method establishes an association between the data channel mapping type and the DMRS type, and establishes an association between the DMRS type and the sequence length, so that the sequence length can be indicated when indicating the data channel mapping type, which is conducive to the terminal device adopting a channel estimation method with better performance for channel estimation, thereby improving communication performance.

In one possible design, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is determined based on channel parameters of the downlink channel between the terminal device.

Since different sequence lengths are sensitive to channel parameters, especially parameters related to channel frequency selectivity, determining the sequence length based on the channel parameters is conducive to obtaining better channel estimation performance.

In one possible design, if the channel parameters of the downlink channel meet the preset conditions, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the first time domain resource allocation information; if the channel parameters of the downlink channel do not meet the preset conditions, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the first time domain resource allocation information. The information is second time domain resource allocation information.

Since different sequence lengths are sensitive to channel parameters, using DMRS with different sequence lengths is beneficial to obtaining better channel estimation performance for scenarios with different channel parameters.

In one possible design, the channel parameters include at least one of the following parameters: maximum channel delay, channel delay spread, or average channel delay.

In one possible design, the length of the first sequence is 2 and the length of the second sequence is 4.

In one possible design, the method also includes: sending data channel configuration information to the terminal device; wherein the data channel configuration information includes configuration information of the time domain allocation set.

In one possible design, the reference signal is DMRS.

In one possible design, the above sequence length is the FD-OCC length.

In a third aspect, the present application further provides a communication device, which is a terminal device or a chip in a terminal device. The communication device has the function of implementing any of the methods provided in the first aspect above. The communication device can be implemented by hardware, or can be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions.

In one possible design, the communication device includes: a processor, which is configured to support the communication device to perform the corresponding functions of the terminal device in the method shown above. The communication device may also include a memory, which can be coupled to the processor and stores the necessary program instructions and data of the communication device. Optionally, the communication device also includes an interface circuit, which is used to support communication between the communication device and equipment such as a service satellite, such as the transmission and reception of data or signals. Exemplarily, the communication interface can be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module or other type of communication interface.

In one possible design, the communication device includes corresponding functional modules, which are respectively used to implement the steps in the above method. The functions can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

In one possible design, the structure of the communication device includes a processing unit (or processing unit) and a communication unit (or communication unit), and these units can perform the corresponding functions in the above method example. For details, refer to the description of the method provided in the first aspect, which will not be repeated here. As an example, the processing unit may be a processor, and the communication unit may be a transceiver or a communication interface. It can be understood that if the device is a terminal device, the transceiver may be implemented by an antenna, a feeder, and a codec in the device, or if the device is a chip (system) or circuit provided in the terminal device, the communication unit may be a communication interface, a communication circuit, or a pin, etc. of the chip (system) or circuit.

In a fourth aspect, the present application further provides a communication device, which is a network device or a chip in a network device. The communication device has the function of implementing any of the methods provided in the second aspect above. The communication device can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions.

In one possible design, the communication device includes: a processor, which is configured to support the communication device to perform the corresponding functions of the network device in the method shown above. The communication device may also include a memory, which can be coupled to the processor and stores the necessary program instructions and data of the communication device. Optionally, the communication device also includes an interface circuit, which is used to support communication between the communication device and a terminal device or other device, such as the transmission and reception of data or signals. Exemplarily, the communication interface can be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module or other type of communication interface.

In one possible design, the communication device includes corresponding functional modules, which are respectively used to implement the steps in the above method. The functions can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

In one possible design, the structure of the communication device includes a processing unit (or processing unit) and a communication unit (or communication unit), and these units can perform the corresponding functions in the above method example. For details, refer to the description of the method provided in the second aspect, which will not be repeated here. As an example, the processing unit may be a processor, and the communication unit may be a transceiver or a communication interface. It can be understood that if the device is a terminal device, the transceiver may be implemented by an antenna, a feeder, and a codec in the device, or if the device is a chip (system) or circuit provided in the terminal device, the communication unit may be a communication interface, a communication circuit, or a pin, etc. of the chip (system) or circuit.

In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or to send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method in the aforementioned first aspect and any possible design through logic circuits or execution code instructions.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, including a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive a signal from outside the communication device. The processor transmits signals from other communication devices to the processor or sends signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device. The processor implements the aforementioned second aspect and the method in any possible design through logic circuits or execution code instructions.

In the seventh aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a processor, the method in the first aspect or the second aspect and any possible design is implemented.

In an eighth aspect, a computer program product storing instructions is provided, which, when executed by a processor, implements the method in the aforementioned first aspect or second aspect and any possible design.

In a ninth aspect, a chip system is provided, the chip system including a processor and a memory, for implementing the method in the first aspect or the second aspect and any possible design. The chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a tenth aspect, a communication system is provided, the system comprising the apparatus described in the first aspect (such as a terminal device) and the apparatus described in the second aspect (such as a network device).

The technical effects that can be achieved by the technical solutions of any of the third to tenth aspects mentioned above can be described with reference to the technical effects that can be achieved by the technical solutions of the first aspect mentioned above, and the repeated parts will not be repeated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technology provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, a fourth generation (4G) communication system (such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system), a fifth generation (5G) communication system, a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) or a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, or a fusion system of multiple systems, or a future communication system, such as a sixth generation (6G) communication system. Among them, the 5G communication system can also be called a new radio (NR) system.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a communication system is provided in an embodiment of the present application, and the communication system includes a network device and six terminal devices, namely UE1 to UE6. In the communication system, UE1 to UE6 can send uplink data to the network device, and the network device can receive uplink data sent by UE1 to UE6. In addition, UE4 to UE6 can also form a sub-communication system. The network device can send downlink information to UE1, UE2, UE3, and UE5, and UE5 can send downlink information to UE4 and UE6 based on device-to-device (D2D) technology.

It should be noted that the number and type of each device in the communication system shown in Figure 1 are for illustration only, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. In actual applications, the communication system may also include more terminal devices, more network devices, and other network elements, such as core network elements, network management equipment such as operation administration and maintenance (OAM) network elements, etc.

The network device may be a base station (BS). The network device may also be called an access network device, an access node (AN), or a radio access node (RAN). Among them, the base station may have various forms, such as a macro base station, a micro base station, a relay station, or an access point. The network device may be connected to a core network (such as an LTE core network or a 5G core network), and the network device may provide wireless access services for terminal devices. The network device includes, for example, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: a base station in 5G, such as a transmission reception point (TRP) or a next generation node B (gNB), a network device in an open radio access network (O-RAN) or a module included in the network device, an evolved node B (eNB), a radio network controller (RNC), a node B (NB), a base station controller (BSC), a base transceiver station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved node B, or home node B, HNB), a base band unit (BBU), a transmitting and receiving point (TRP), a transmitting point (TP), and/or a mobile switching center. Alternatively, the network device may also be a wireless single The network device may be a radio unit (RU), a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a centralized unit control plane (CU-CP) node, or a centralized unit user plane (CU-UP) node. Alternatively, the network device may be an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, or a network device in a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN).

In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device for realizing the function of the network device may be a network device, or a network device having some functions of the network device, or a device capable of supporting the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system, a hardware circuit, a software module, or a hardware circuit plus a software module. The communication device may be installed in the network device or used in combination with the network device. In the method of the embodiments of the present application, the communication device for realizing the function of the network device is described as an example in which the network device is used.

Terminal equipment is also called terminal, user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), etc. Terminal equipment can be a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to users. Terminal equipment can communicate with one or more core networks through network equipment. Terminal equipment can be deployed on land, including indoors, outdoors, handheld, and/or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water (such as ships, etc.); it can also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons, and satellites, etc.). Terminal equipment includes handheld devices with wireless connection capabilities, other processing devices connected to wireless modems, or vehicle-mounted devices. Terminal equipment can be portable, pocket-sized, handheld, built-in computer, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices. Some examples of terminal devices are: personal communication service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless network cameras, mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), wearable devices such as smartphones, Table, virtual reality (VR) equipment, augmented reality (AR) equipment, wireless terminals in industrial control, terminals in vehicle networking systems, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities such as smart gas pumps, terminal equipment on high-speed railways, and wireless terminals in smart homes such as smart speakers, smart coffee machines, smart printers, etc.

In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device for realizing the function of the terminal device can be a terminal device, or a terminal device with some terminal functions, or a device that can support the terminal device to realize the function, such as a chip system, and the communication device can be installed in the terminal device or used in combination with the terminal device. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the communication device for realizing the function of the terminal device is a terminal device as an example for description.

The network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of the present application are intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. A person of ordinary skill in the art can appreciate that with the evolution of the network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

It should be noted that in this application, "sending information/data to A", "sending information/data", "sending to A", "sending" only indicate the direction of information/data transmission, A is the destination, and "sending information/data to A" is not limited to transmission on the air interface. "Sending information/data to A" includes sending information/data directly to A and also includes sending information/data indirectly to A, so "sending information/data to A" can also be understood as the communication interface of the processing unit "outputting information/data to A"; similarly, "sending information/data" can also be understood as "outputting information/data".

Similarly, "receiving information/data from A" and "receiving information/data" only indicate the direction of information/data transmission. "From A" means that the source of the information/data is A, including directly receiving information/data from A and indirectly receiving information/data from A. Therefore, "receiving information/data from A" can also be understood as the communication interface of the processing unit "inputting information/data from A"; similarly, "receiving information/data" can also be understood as "inputting information/data".

The technical features involved in the embodiments of the present application are introduced below.

Currently, NR can only support up to 12 streams of multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) transmission. As wireless communication equipment is deployed more densely in the future, the number of antennas at the transmitting and receiving ends will further increase, and the number of terminal devices will further increase, which will put forward higher requirements for the number of MIMO transmission streams. The current number of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports is difficult to support the huge number of MIMO transmission streams. As the number of transmission streams increases, the accuracy of channel estimation is required to be higher. In order to ensure the accuracy of channel estimation, the existing DMRS ports can be expanded, that is, new DMRS ports can be added.

In order to avoid adding additional time-frequency resource overhead, it is an effective technical solution to further introduce new DMRS ports through code division multiplexing (CDM) enhancement on the basis of existing DMRS ports. For example, taking the DMRS port group containing 8 Type 1 DMRS ports defined in the existing NR protocol as an example, after expansion, the DMRS port group includes 16 DMRS Port. The existing 8 Type 1 DMRS ports correspond to two CDM groups, and one CDM group corresponds to 4 DMRS ports. These 4 DMRS ports correspond to DMRS with a length of 2 in the frequency domain (FD)-orthogonal cover code (OCC) and a length of 2 in the time domain (TD)-OCC. The FD-OCC with a length of 2 and the TD-OCC with a length of 2 constitute 4 OCC codes for code division multiplexing, which are mapped on 2 subcarriers and 2 orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols. As shown in Figure 2, taking the NR Type1 DMRS type as an example, the resource mapping method of the OCC code within an RB is demonstrated. Among them, the FD-OCC with a length of 2 includes two sequence elements, namely w _f (0) and w _f (1), that is is a FD-OCC with a length of 2. A TD-OCC with a length of 2 includes two sequence elements, namely w _t (0) and w _t (1), namely is a TD-OCC with a length of 2. The OCC code composed of a FD-OCC with a length of 2 and a FD-OCC with a length of 2 includes 4 sequence elements, namely w ₁ , w ₂ , w ₃ , and w ₄ . The 4 sequence elements satisfy the following formula: in represents the Kronecker product.

The 16 DMRS ports after expansion also correspond to two CDM groups. One CDM group can correspond to 8 DMRS ports. These 8 DMRS ports correspond to DMRS of FD-OCC with a length of 4 and TD-OCC with a length of 2. FD-OCC with a length of 4 and TD-OCC with a length of 2 constitute 8-length OCC codes for code division multiplexing, mapped on 4 subcarriers and 2 OFDM symbols. As shown in Figure 3, taking the NR Type1 DMRS type as an example, the resource mapping method of the OCC code within an RB is demonstrated. Among them, the FD-OCC with a length of 4 includes 4 sequence elements, namely w _f (0), w _f (1), w _f (2), and w _f (3), that is, is a FD-OCC with a length of 4. A TD-OCC with a length of 2 includes two sequence elements, namely w _t (0) and w _t (1), namely is a TD-OCC with a length of 2. The OCC code composed of a FD-OCC with a length of 4 and a FD-OCC with a length of 2 includes 8 sequence elements w ₁ , w ₂ , …, w ₈ , respectively. The 8 sequence elements satisfy the following formula:

For Type 1 DMRS and Type 2 DMRS supported by the NR protocol, the expanded DMRS types are called eType 1 DMRS and eType 2 DMRS, respectively, and can also be called expanded Type 1 DMRS and expanded Type 2 DMRS. The corresponding mask and time-frequency resource mapping method of eType 1 DMRS and eType 2 DMRS can be expressed as:


k′＝0,1;

n＝0,1,…；
l′＝0,1;

Wherein, p is the DMRS port index. n is used to represent the index of the basic granularity of DMRS frequency domain mapping, wherein the basic granularity of the frequency domain mapping is a frequency domain unit consisting of multiple continuous or adjacent subcarriers in the subcarriers mapped by DMRS. For the scheduling bandwidth or the bandwidth mapped by DMRS, it can be divided into one or more frequency domain units according to the basic granularity of the DMRS frequency domain mapping, and n is used to mark the index of the one or more frequency domain units. For example, assuming that Type 1 DMRS is mapped in the frequency domain with 4 subcarriers as the basic granularity of a DMRS frequency domain mapping, in this case, the value range of n is K is the total number of scheduled subcarriers or the total number of subcarriers mapped by DMRS. For another example, assuming that Type 2 DMRS is mapped in the frequency domain with 6 subcarriers as the basic granularity of DMRS frequency domain mapping, in this case, the value range of n is The sequence r(2n+k′) represents the DMRS base sequence, which can be generated based on the Gold sequence or the ZC sequence. μ is the subcarrier spacing parameter, is the DMRS symbol corresponding to port p on the resource element (RE) with index (k,l) _p,μ, where (k,l) _p,μ represents the RE with frequency domain index k and time domain index l corresponding to port p and parameter μ. It is the symbol index of the starting OFDM symbol occupied by the DMRS symbol or the symbol index of the reference OFDM symbol. The parameter μ is related to the subcarrier spacing of the system. is the power scaling factor of DMRS relative to PDSCH. _{w f} (f) represents a FD-OCC code of length 4, where f = 0, 1, 2, 3, f = 2·(n mod 2) + k′. w _t (l′) represents a TD-OCC code of length 2. Δ is the offset of the subcarrier index mapped by the DMRS port within the basic granularity of DMRS frequency domain mapping, and the values are shown in Table 1 and Table 2. For eType1 DMRS, the values of w _f (f) and w _t (l′) are shown in Table 1 below, where λ is the CDM group index:

Table 1

For eType2 DMRS, the values of w _f (f) and w _t (l′) are shown in Table 2 below:

Table 2

For DMRS ports that are code-division multiplexed through FD-OCC, it is necessary to ensure that the channels corresponding to the N adjacent subcarriers mapped by the FD-OCC with a length of N are the same. Among them, for Type 1 DMRS ports and Type 2 DMRS ports, the FD-OCC length is 2, and the above N=2, that is, for Type 1 DMRS ports and Type 2 DMRS ports with a FD-OCC length of 2, it is necessary to ensure that the channels corresponding to the two adjacent subcarriers mapped by the FD-OCC with a length of 2 are the same, so as to ensure that when the FD-OCC is despread, the multiplexed DMRS ports are orthogonal and have no interference. For the 16 DMRS ports after expansion, since the FD-OCC length increases from 2 to 4, the above N=4, that is, for the expanded DMRS ports with a FD-OCC length of 4, it is necessary to ensure that the length is 4. The channels corresponding to the four adjacent subcarriers mapped by the FD-OCC are the same, so as to ensure that when the FD-OCC is despread, the DMRS ports multiplexed together are orthogonal and have no interference.

For the expanded DMRS port, the FD-OCC sequence of length 4 can be further split into two FD-OCC subsequences of length 2, for example, subsequence 1 including sequence elements w _f (0) and w _f (1): Sum, subsequence 2 including sequence elements w _f (2), w _f (3): For some port combinations, the FD-OCC subsequences contained in the FD-OCC sequence of length 4 are still orthogonal sequences. Taking the expanded Type 2 DMRS as an example, for DMRS port 0 and DMRS port 8 of CDM group 0, the corresponding FD-OCC sequences are: and [+1,+1,-1,-1], where p is the DMRS port index, is the FD-OCC sequence of DMRS port 0, which specifically includes 4 sequence elements, namely +1, +1, +1, +1. is the FD-OCC sequence of DMRS port 8, which specifically includes 4 sequence elements, namely +1, +1, -1, -1. It can be seen that the above two FD-OCCs of length 4 are orthogonal, but for the FD-OCC subsequence of length 2 of DMRS port 0 and a FD-OCC subsequence of length 2 for DMRS port 8 The correlation is 1, where Or, the FD-OCC subsequence of length 2 for DMRS port 0 and a FD-OCC subsequence of length 2 for DMRS port 8 The correlation is 1, where and On the contrary, for DMRS port 0 and DMRS port 9, their corresponding FD-OCC sequences are: and in, is the FD-OCC sequence of DMRS port 9, which specifically includes 4 sequence elements, namely +1, -1, +1, -1. It can be seen that the above two FD-OCCs of length 4 are orthogonal, and the FD-OCC subsequence of length 2 of DMRS port 0 and a FD-OCC subsequence of length 2 for DMRS port 9 are also orthogonal, where and, Or, the FD-OCC subsequence of length 2 for DMRS port 0 and a FD-OCC subsequence of length 2 for DMRS port 9 are also orthogonal, where and

For the expanded DMRS ports, if the subsequence of the FD-OCC sequence with a length of 2 corresponding to the DMRS port scheduled in a CDM group is also an orthogonal sequence, during channel estimation, channel estimation can be performed based on the FD-OCC with a length of 2 (for example, despreading based on FD-OCC 2), thereby obtaining better channel estimation performance.

In summary, the terminal device can use two channel estimation methods for the DMRS port, namely, channel estimation based on FD-OCC with a length of 2 and channel estimation based on FD-OCC with a length of 4. However, how the terminal device dynamically selects the channel estimation method to obtain better channel estimation performance has become an urgent problem to be solved.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus for solving the problem that the terminal device cannot know the length of the reference signal sequence for channel estimation, resulting in poor channel estimation performance. The method and the apparatus are based on the same concept. Since the principles of solving the problem by the method and the apparatus are similar, the implementation of the apparatus and the method can refer to each other, and the repeated parts will not be repeated.

In the embodiments of the present application, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "plurality" refers to two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and/or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c can represent: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

Furthermore, unless otherwise specified, ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the size, content, order, timing, priority or importance of multiple objects. For example, the first data channel mapping type and the second data channel mapping type are only used to distinguish different data channel mapping types, and do not indicate the difference in priority or importance of the two data channel mapping types.

It should be noted that, in this application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" in this application should not be interpreted as being more preferred or more advantageous than other embodiments or designs. Specifically, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present related concepts in a specific way.

The terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof mentioned in the following description of the embodiments of the present application are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product or device including a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but may optionally include other steps or units that are not listed, or may optionally include other steps or units that are inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

The communication method provided by the present application is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 4 , a communication method is provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method can be applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 1 . For ease of understanding, this embodiment is described from the perspective of both the terminal device and the network device. It should be understood that this does not constitute a limitation on the present application. The present application has improvements on either side of the terminal device and the network device. Specifically, the method can be applied to the terminal device and the network device, or can also be applied to the chip or chipset/chip system of the terminal device and the network device. The following is an example of application to the terminal device and the network device. The communication method can specifically include:

S201, the network device determines the downlink control information (DCI).

It should be noted that, this application is only described using downlink control information as an example. In a specific implementation, the method described in this application can also be implemented through signaling such as media access control channel element (MAC CE) and radio resource control (RRC).

The DCI is used to indicate a time domain resource allocation information (PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation) in the time domain allocation set. Exemplarily, the DCI may include a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field, which selects a time domain resource allocation information from the time domain allocation set to indicate the time domain resource location of the scheduled downlink data.

The time domain allocation set includes at least two time domain resource allocation information corresponding to reference signals with different sequence lengths.

For example, the time domain allocation set includes first time domain resource allocation information and second time domain resource allocation information. The first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to a first sequence length of the reference signal, the second data channel mapping type corresponds to a second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length and the second sequence length are different.

The data channel mapping type may also be referred to as the time domain resource mapping type or mapping type (MappingType), etc. The data channel mapping type is used to determine the symbol position occupied by the reference signal. Different data channel mapping types correspond to different time domain resource mapping rules, or different mappable time domain resource positions. Among them, the time domain resource mapping rule is the time domain resource mapping rule of the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI, and the mappable time domain resource position is the time domain resource position to which the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI can be mapped.

Taking the first data channel mapping type as MappingType A and the second data channel mapping type as MappingType B as an example, the time domain resource mapping rule corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is: within a time slot, the symbol start index of the scheduled PDSCH mappable can be from the symbol position of {0,1,2,3}, and the symbol length of the scheduled PDSCH mappable is 3-14 symbols (not exceeding the time slot boundary). MappingType A can also be called the time domain resource allocation type based on the time slot. The time domain resource mapping rule corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is: within a time slot, the symbol start index of the scheduled PDSCH mappable can be from the symbol position of 0-12, and the symbol length of the scheduled PDSCH mappable is limited to 2 to 13 symbols (not exceeding the time slot boundary). Compared with MappingType A, the PDSCH starting position corresponding to MappingType B can be flexibly configured, which is suitable for allocating a small number of symbols and better supports the transmission requirements of low latency or small data packets.

For the convenience of description, the first data channel mapping type is referred to as the first MappingType, and the second data channel mapping type is referred to as the second MappingType.

Exemplarily, the reference signal may be DMRS, or may be other reference signals such as channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), sounding reference signal (SRS), etc., which are not specifically limited here. To facilitate understanding of the solution, the following description is made by taking DMRS as an example.

The above sequence length may be a FD-OCC length, for example, the length 4, length 2, or a FD-OCC length that will appear in future communication developments. Alternatively, the above sequence length may also be a length of other sequences of a reference signal, for example, a length of a TD-OCC sequence, a length of an OCC sequence, etc., which is not specifically limited here. To facilitate understanding of the solution, the following description is made by taking the sequence length as a FD-OCC sequence length as an example.

In a possible implementation, the time domain resource parameters indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information and the time domain resource parameters indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information may be the same. In this method, the time domain resource parameters corresponding to the two time domain resource allocation information are different in associated MappingType, so that different FD-OCC lengths can be indicated by the two time domain resource allocation information, so that the terminal device can determine the corresponding channel estimation method according to the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI.

Exemplarily, the above-mentioned time domain resource parameters may include at least one of the following: a parameter indicating the slot offset between the DCI and the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the DCI, a starting time domain unit index corresponding to the PDSCH, or a time domain length corresponding to the PDSCH. The time domain unit may be an OFDM symbol, a time slot or a mini slot, or other time domain unit forms. The time domain length may be one or more time domain units. In addition, the time domain resource parameters may also be in other parameter forms, such as including the starting time domain unit index corresponding to the PDSCH and the time domain length corresponding to the PDSCH.

The end domain unit index corresponding to the PDSCH, etc. Wherein, the above PDSCH carries downlink data. For example, the time domain allocation set

The time domain resource allocation information included may be as shown in Table 3.

table 3

Among them, K0 represents the slot offset between the DCI and the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI, S represents the starting time domain unit index, and L represents the time domain length corresponding to the PDSCH. As shown in Table 3, the time domain resource allocation information with index 1 and the time domain resource allocation information with index 9 have the same time domain resource parameters, but the corresponding MappingTypes are different. Therefore, the network device indicates the time domain resource allocation information with index 1 or the time domain resource allocation information with index 9 through DCI, which can indicate whether the length of the DMRS sequence is the first sequence length or the second sequence length.

In a possible implementation manner, the association between MappingType and FD-OCC length may be pre-configured by the network device through data channel configuration information. Exemplarily, the data channel configuration information may be carried in a high-layer signaling PDSCH-Config.

Specifically, the network device may send data channel configuration information to the terminal device. The data channel configuration information indicates the DMRS type corresponding to the first MappingType and the DMRS type corresponding to the second MappingType. The DMRS type corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is the first type, and the FD-OCC length of the first type of DMRS is the first FD-OCC length. The DMRS type corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is the second type, and the FD-OCC length of the second type of DMRS is the second FD-OCC length.

The following is explained in conjunction with the signaling format of PDSCH-Config. The data channel configuration information may include a field dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingType, where dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeA is used to configure the data channel mapping type, and may specifically include DMRS configuration information (DMRS-DownlinkConfig) corresponding to MappingType.

For example, the first MappingType is MappingTypeA and the second MappingType is MappingTypeB. For example, the format of PDSCH-Config may be as shown in Table 4.

Table 4

Among them, the format of DMRS-DownlinkConfig corresponding to dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeA can be shown in Table 5 below.

table 5

The format of DMRS-DownlinkConfig corresponding to dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeB can be shown in Table 6 below.

Table 6

In Tables 5 and 6 above, the dmrs-Type field is used to configure the DMRS type. In the present application, the DMRS type may include four types: type1, type2, etype1, and etype2, where type1 and type2 may correspond to the DMRS of the first FD-OCC length, i.e., the DMRS of the FD-OCC length of 2. etype1 and etype2 correspond to the DMRS of the second FD-OCC length, i.e., the DMRS of the FD-OCC length of 4.

In the above Table 5, the dmrs-Type field in dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeA indicates a DMRS of type 1. Therefore, the FD-OCC length corresponding to MappingTypeA is the first FD-OCC length, that is, a DMRS with a FD-OCC length of 2.

In the above Table 6, the dmrs-Type field in dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeB indicates a DMRS of etype1. Therefore, the FD-OCC length corresponding to MappingTypeB is the second FD-OCC length, that is, a DMRS with a FD-OCC length of 4.

It should be understood that the above Tables 5 and 6 are only examples. In a specific implementation, the DMRS type corresponding to MappingTypeA may be type2, that is, the dmrs-Type field in dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeA indicates a DMRS of type2, and the DMRS type corresponding to MappingTypeB may be etype2, that is, the dmrs-Type field in dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeB indicates a DMRS of etype2.

Alternatively, the DMRS type corresponding to MappingTypeA may be etype1, that is, the dmrs-Type field in dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeA indicates DMRS of etype1, and the DMRS type corresponding to MappingTypeB may be type1, that is, the dmrs-Type field in dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeB indicates DMRS of type1.

Alternatively, the DMRS type corresponding to MappingTypeA may be etype2, that is, the dmrs-Type field in dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeA indicates a DMRS of etype2, and the DMRS type corresponding to MappingTypeB may be type2, that is, the dmrs-Type field in dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeB indicates a DMRS of type2. The specific signaling format is the same as that in Table 5 and Table 6, and will not be repeated here.

Optionally, if the dmrs-Type field is missing, the terminal device may adopt one of the above four DMRS types by default, for example, type 1 DMRS may be adopted by default, or type 2 DMRS may be adopted by default, and so on.

In the above manner, the first MappingType and the second MappingType are bound to different FD-OCC sequences, so that the network device can indicate the corresponding FD-OCC sequence by indicating the MappingType.

As an optional solution, the above time domain allocation set may be pre-configured by the network device through data channel configuration information. Exemplarily, the data channel configuration information may be carried in a high-layer signaling PDSCH-Config.

In a specific solution, the data channel configuration information may include a field pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList, wherein the pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList is used to configure the above-mentioned time domain allocation set. Exemplarily, the format of PDSCH-Config may be as shown in Table 7.

Table 7

Among them, the field PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocationList includes multiple subfields PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation. One PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation can correspond to one time domain resource allocation information. In one implementation, TimeDomainAllocationList can include up to 16 time domain resource allocation information. Exemplarily, the format of PDSCH-TimeDomainResourceAllocation can be shown in Table 8.

Table 8

The K0 field is used to indicate the slot offset between the DCI and the physical downlink shared channel scheduled by the DCI. The mappingType field is used to indicate the mapping type. The startSymbolAndLength field is used to indicate the starting time domain unit index and time domain length corresponding to the PDSCH.

The above describes the time domain allocation set. The following describes the method for determining the DCI by the network device.

In a possible implementation, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is determined according to channel parameters of a downlink channel between the terminal device.

For example, if the channel parameters of the downlink channel meet the preset conditions, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the first time domain resource allocation information, thereby indicating that the terminal device uses the first FD-OCC length. If the channel parameters of the downlink channel do not meet the preset conditions, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the second time domain resource allocation information, thereby indicating that the terminal device uses the second FD-OCC length.

Exemplarily, the channel parameters include at least one of the following parameters: maximum channel delay, channel delay spread, or average channel delay. Channel parameters can also be other forms related to the power delay spectrum of the channel, such as the root mean square delay spread of the channel, the maximum delay spread, etc. For example, assume that τ _k , a _k and P(τ _k ) represent the channel delay, amplitude and power of the kth path of the channel, respectively, and there are K paths in total, corresponding to indexes k=1,…,K respectively. The maximum delay of the channel can be expressed as τ _K . The maximum delay spread of the channel can be expressed as τ _K -τ ₁ . The average delay can be obtained based on the first-order moment of the channel power delay spectrum. The root mean square delay spread can be obtained based on the second-order moment of the channel power delay spectrum in Channel parameters can also be other parameters that reflect the frequency selective fading of the channel, such as the coherence bandwidth of the channel, for example

Taking the channel parameter as the channel delay spread as an example, assuming that the first FD-OCC length is 2 and the first FD-OCC length is 4, when the channel delay spread is greater than the first threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the time domain resource allocation information corresponding to the first MappingType, such as the time domain resource allocation information with an index of 1 in Table 3. When the channel delay spread is less than the first threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the time domain resource allocation information corresponding to the second MappingType, such as the time domain resource allocation information with an index of 9 in Table 3.

Alternatively, it can also be described as follows: when the channel delay spread is greater than the first threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the time domain resource allocation information corresponding to the MappingType associated with the non-expanded DMRS (such as type1 DMRS or type2 DMRS). When the channel delay spread is less than the first threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the time domain resource allocation information corresponding to the MappingType associated with the expanded DMRS (for details, please refer to the relevant description of the background introduction in the previous text).

It can be understood that when the channel delay spread is equal to the first threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI can be the first MappingType or the second MappingType, which is not specifically limited here.

Exemplarily, the first threshold may be 300ns, 500ns, etc.

Taking the channel parameter as the maximum channel delay as an example, assuming that the first FD-OCC length is 2 and the first FD-OCC length is 4, when the maximum channel delay is greater than the second threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the time domain resource allocation information corresponding to the first MappingType, such as the time domain resource allocation information with an index of 1 in Table 3. When the channel delay spread is less than the second threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the time domain resource allocation information corresponding to the second MappingType, such as the time domain resource allocation information with an index of 9 in Table 3.

Alternatively, it can also be described as follows: when the maximum channel delay is greater than the second threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the time domain resource allocation information corresponding to the MappingType associated with the non-expanded DMRS (such as type1 DMRS or type2 DMRS). When the maximum channel delay is less than the second threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the time domain resource allocation information corresponding to the MappingType associated with the expanded DMRS (for details, please refer to the relevant description of the background introduction in the previous text).

It can be understood that when the maximum channel delay is equal to the second threshold, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI can be the first MappingType or the second MappingType, which is not specifically limited here.

It should be understood that the channel parameter can also be other mathematical expressions related to parameters such as the maximum channel delay, the channel delay spread, or the average channel delay, such as the reciprocal, square, square root, etc. of the maximum channel delay, the channel delay spread, or the average channel delay. The mathematical expressions of the channel parameters are different, and the corresponding preset conditions will also be adjusted accordingly. For example, if the channel parameter is a parameter such as the maximum channel delay, the channel delay spread, or the average channel delay, the preset condition is greater than the corresponding threshold. If the channel parameter is the reciprocal of a parameter such as the maximum channel delay, the channel delay spread, or the average channel delay, the preset condition is less than the corresponding threshold.

Since different FD-OCC lengths are sensitive to channel characteristics such as channel delay spread or maximum delay, for scenarios with large channel delay spread or maximum delay, using a DMRS with a shorter FD-OCC length is beneficial for obtaining better channel estimation performance.

S202, the network device sends DCI to the terminal device.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the DCI.

Optionally, the network device may send the DCI via a transceiver, an antenna, etc., or the chip of the network device may output the DCI, which is not specifically limited here.

S203, the terminal device receives downlink data based on the time domain resource allocation information and reference signal indicated by the DCI.

Specifically, if the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the first time domain resource allocation information, the terminal device can perform channel estimation based on the reference signal of the first FD-OCC length.

If the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the DCI is the second time domain resource allocation information, the terminal device can perform channel estimation based on the reference signal of the second FD-OCC length.

If the time domain resource allocation information of the DCI indicates the third time domain resource allocation information in the time domain allocation table, and the data channel mapping type indicated by the third time domain resource allocation information is not configured with a corresponding sequence length, for example, the dmrs-Type field corresponding to the data channel mapping type indicated by the third time domain resource allocation information is default, the terminal device can use the reference signal of the first FD-OCC length/second FD-OCC length for channel estimation by default.

For example, if the dmrs-Type field is default, the terminal device can default to the DMRS type as type 1. When the dmrs-Type field corresponding to the data channel mapping type indicated by the third time domain resource allocation information is default, the terminal device can default to using DMRS with an FD-OCC length of 2 for channel estimation.

Optionally, after performing channel estimation, the terminal device may receive downlink data according to the result of the channel estimation.

In the embodiment of the present application, different time domain resource allocation information is associated with different FD-OCC lengths, so that the indication of the FD-OCC length can be achieved without affecting the scheduling of downlink data.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, by establishing an association between the data channel mapping type and the DMRS type, and establishing an association between the DMRS type and the FD-OCC length, the FD-OCC length can be indicated when indicating the data channel mapping type, which is conducive to the terminal device using a channel estimation method with better performance for channel estimation, thereby improving communication performance. Moreover, through the above method, on the one hand, the change to the protocol can be relatively small, and on the other hand, the indication overhead can be reduced.

Based on the same inventive concept as the method embodiment, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the structure of which may be as shown in FIG. 5 , including a communication unit 301 and a processing unit 302 .

In one embodiment, the communication device can be specifically used to implement the method executed by the terminal device in the embodiment of Figure 4. The device can be the terminal device itself, or a chip or a chipset in the terminal device or a part of the chip used to execute the function of the related method. Among them, the communication unit 301 is used to receive downlink control information, and the downlink control information is used to indicate a time domain resource allocation information in the time domain allocation set; the processing unit 302 is used to receive downlink data through the communication unit 301 based on the time domain resource allocation information and the reference signal indicated by the downlink control information. Among them, the time domain allocation set includes first time domain resource allocation information and second time domain resource allocation information; the first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to the first sequence length of the reference signal, and the second data channel mapping type corresponds to the second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length and the second sequence length are different.

Exemplarily, the time domain resource parameter indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is the same as the time domain resource parameter indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information.

Optionally, the communication unit 301 can also be used to: receive data channel configuration information from a network device; wherein the data channel configuration information indicates the type of reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type and the type of reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type; the type of reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is a first type, and the sequence length of the first type of reference signal is a first sequence length; the type of reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is a second type, and the sequence length of the second type of reference signal is a second sequence length.

Optionally, the processing unit 302 is specifically used to: if the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information is the first time domain resource allocation information, perform channel estimation based on the reference signal of the first sequence length; or, if the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information is the second time domain resource allocation information, perform channel estimation based on the reference signal of the second sequence length; or, if the time domain resource allocation information of the downlink control information is the third time domain resource allocation information in the time domain allocation table, and the data channel mapping type indicated by the third time domain resource allocation information is not configured with a corresponding sequence length, perform channel estimation based on the reference signal of the first sequence length.

Exemplarily, the length of the first sequence is 2, and the length of the second sequence is 4.

Optionally, the communication unit 301 may also be used to: receive data channel configuration information from a network device; wherein the data channel configuration information includes configuration information of a time domain allocation set.

In one embodiment, the communication device can be specifically used to implement the method executed by the network device in the embodiment of Figure 4. The device can be the network device itself, or it can be a chip or chipset in the network device or a part of the chip used to execute the function of the related method. Among them, the processing unit 302 is used to determine the downlink control information, and the downlink control information is used to indicate a time domain resource allocation information in the time domain allocation set; the communication unit 301 is used to send downlink control information to the terminal device. Among them, the time domain allocation set includes the first time domain resource allocation information and the second time domain resource allocation information; the first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to the first sequence length of the reference signal, and the second data channel mapping type corresponds to the second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length and the second sequence length are different.

Exemplarily, the time domain resource parameter indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is the same as the time domain resource parameter indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information.

Optionally, the communication unit 301 is also used to: send data channel configuration information to the terminal device; wherein the data channel configuration information indicates the type of reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type and the type of reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type; the type of reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is a first type, and the sequence length of the first type of reference signal is a first sequence length; the type of reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is a second type, and the sequence length of the second type of reference signal is a second sequence length.

Exemplarily, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is determined according to the channel parameters of the downlink channel between the terminal device.

Exemplarily, if the channel parameters of the downlink channel meet the preset conditions, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the first time domain resource allocation information; if the channel parameters of the downlink channel do not meet the preset conditions, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the second time domain resource allocation information.

Exemplarily, the channel parameters include at least one of the following parameters: maximum channel delay, channel delay spread, or average channel delay.

Exemplarily, the length of the first sequence is 2, and the length of the second sequence is 4.

Optionally, the communication unit 301 is further used to: send data channel configuration information to the terminal device; wherein the data channel configuration information includes configuration information of the time domain allocation set.

The division of modules in the embodiments of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. In addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into a processor, or may exist physically separately, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module. The above-mentioned integrated modules may be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It is understood that the functions or implementations of each module in the embodiments of the present application may further refer to the relevant description of the method embodiment.

In a possible manner, the communication device may be as shown in FIG6 , and the device may be a communication device or a chip in a communication device, wherein the communication device may be a terminal device in the above embodiment or a network device in the above embodiment. The device includes a processor 401 and a communication interface 402, and may also include a memory 403. Among them, the processing unit 302 may be the processor 401. The communication unit 301 may be the communication interface 402. Optionally, the processor 401 and the memory 403 may also be integrated together.

The processor 401 may be a CPU, or a digital processing unit, etc. The communication interface 402 may be a transceiver, or an interface circuit such as a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver chip, etc. The device further includes a memory 403 for storing programs executed by the processor 401. The memory 403 may be a non-volatile memory, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD). The memory 403 may be a solid-state drive (SSD), or a volatile memory such as a random-access memory (RAM). The memory 403 is any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto.

The processor 401 is used to execute the program code stored in the memory 403, specifically to execute the actions of the processing unit 302, which will not be described in detail in this application. The communication interface 402 is specifically used to execute the actions of the communication unit 301, which will not be described in detail in this application.

The specific connection medium between the communication interface 402, the processor 401 and the memory 403 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In FIG6 , the memory 403, the processor 401 and the communication interface 402 are connected by a bus 404. The bus is represented by a bold line in FIG6 . The connection mode between other components is only for schematic illustration and is not limited. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, only one bold line is used in FIG6 , but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing computer software instructions required to be executed by the above-mentioned processor, which includes a program required to be executed by the above-mentioned processor.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, including a communication device for implementing the terminal device function in the embodiment of Figure 4 and a communication device for implementing the network device function in the embodiment of Figure 4.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present application may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present application may adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment in combination with software and hardware. Moreover, the present application may adopt the form of a computer program product implemented in one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) that contain computer-usable program code.

The present application is described with reference to the flowchart and/or block diagram of the method, device (system), and computer program product according to the present application. It should be understood that each process and/or box in the flowchart and/or block diagram, as well as the combination of the process and/or box in the flowchart and/or block diagram, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce a device for implementing the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one box or multiple boxes in the block diagram.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce a manufactured product including an instruction device that implements the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and/or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operational steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, whereby the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and/or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims (31)

A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises: Receiving downlink control information from a network device, where the downlink control information is used to indicate time domain resource allocation information in a time domain allocation set; The time domain allocation set includes first time domain resource allocation information and second time domain resource allocation information; the first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to a first sequence length of a reference signal, the second data channel mapping type corresponds to a second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length is different from the second sequence length; Downlink data is received based on the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information and the reference signal. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the time domain resource parameters indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information are the same as the time domain resource parameters indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receiving data channel configuration information from the network device; The data channel configuration information indicates a type of the reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type and a type of the reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type; The type of the reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is a first type, and the sequence length of the reference signal of the first type is the first sequence length; The type of the reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is a second type, and the sequence length of the reference signal of the second type is the second sequence length. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the receiving downlink data based on the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information and the reference signal comprises: If the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information is the first time domain resource allocation information, performing channel estimation based on the reference signal of the first sequence length; Alternatively, if the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information is the second time domain resource allocation information, performing channel estimation based on the reference signal of the second sequence length; Alternatively, if the time domain resource allocation information of the downlink control information indicates the third time domain resource allocation information in the time domain allocation table, and the data channel mapping type indicated by the third time domain resource allocation information is not configured with a corresponding sequence length, channel estimation is performed based on the reference signal of the first sequence length. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that the first sequence length is 2 and the second sequence length is 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receiving data channel configuration information from the network device; The data channel configuration information includes configuration information of the time domain allocation set. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises: Determine downlink control information, where the downlink control information is used to indicate time domain resource allocation information in a time domain allocation set; The time domain allocation set includes first time domain resource allocation information and second time domain resource allocation information; the first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to a first sequence length of a reference signal, the second data channel mapping type corresponds to a second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length is different from the second sequence length; Send the downlink control information to the terminal device. The method according to claim 7 is characterized in that the time domain resource parameters indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information are the same as the time domain resource parameters indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information. The method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that the method further comprises: Sending data channel configuration information to the terminal device; The data channel configuration information indicates a type of the reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type and a type of the reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type; The type of the reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is a first type, and the reference signal of the first type The sequence length of is the first sequence length; The type of the reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is a second type, and the sequence length of the reference signal of the second type is the second sequence length. The method according to any one of claims 7-9 is characterized in that the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is determined based on the channel parameters of the downlink channel between the terminal device. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that if the channel parameter of the downlink channel meets a preset condition, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the first time domain resource allocation information; If the channel parameter of the downlink channel does not satisfy the preset condition, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the second time domain resource allocation information. The method according to claim 10 or 11 is characterized in that the channel parameters include at least one of the following parameters: maximum channel delay, channel delay spread, or average channel delay. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 12, characterized in that the first sequence length is 2 and the second sequence length is 4. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 13, characterized in that the method further comprises: Sending data channel configuration information to the terminal device; The data channel configuration information includes configuration information of the time domain allocation set. A communication device, characterized in that the device comprises: A communication unit, configured to receive downlink control information from a network device, wherein the downlink control information is used to indicate a time domain resource allocation information in a time domain allocation set; The time domain allocation set includes first time domain resource allocation information and second time domain resource allocation information; the first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to a first sequence length of a reference signal, the second data channel mapping type corresponds to a second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length is different from the second sequence length; A processing unit is used to receive downlink data through the communication unit based on the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information and the reference signal. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15 is characterized in that the time domain resource parameters indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information are the same as the time domain resource parameters indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information. The device according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that the communication unit is further used to: Receiving data channel configuration information from the network device; The data channel configuration information indicates a type of the reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type and a type of the reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type; The type of the reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is a first type, and the sequence length of the reference signal of the first type is the first sequence length; The type of the reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is a second type, and the sequence length of the reference signal of the second type is the second sequence length. The device according to any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein the processing unit is specifically used to: If the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information is the first time domain resource allocation information, performing channel estimation based on the reference signal of the first sequence length; Alternatively, if the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control information is the second time domain resource allocation information, performing channel estimation based on the reference signal of the second sequence length; Alternatively, if the time domain resource allocation information of the downlink control information indicates the third time domain resource allocation information in the time domain allocation table, and the data channel mapping type indicated by the third time domain resource allocation information is not configured with a corresponding sequence length, channel estimation is performed based on the reference signal of the first sequence length. The device according to any one of claims 15 to 18, characterized in that the first sequence length is 2 and the second sequence length is 4. The device according to any one of claims 15 to 19, wherein the communication unit is further used to: Receiving data channel configuration information from the network device; The data channel configuration information includes configuration information of the time domain allocation set. A communication device, characterized in that the device comprises: A processing unit, configured to determine downlink control information, where the downlink control information is used to indicate a time domain resource allocation information in a time domain allocation set; The time domain allocation set includes first time domain resource allocation information and second time domain resource allocation information; the first data channel mapping type indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information is different from the second data channel mapping type indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information, the first data channel mapping type corresponds to a first sequence length of a reference signal, the second data channel mapping type corresponds to a second sequence length of the reference signal, and the first sequence length is different from the second sequence length; A communication unit is used to send the downlink control information to the terminal device. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21 is characterized in that the time domain resource parameters indicated by the first time domain resource allocation information are the same as the time domain resource parameters indicated by the second time domain resource allocation information. The device according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that the communication unit is further used to: Sending data channel configuration information to the terminal device; The data channel configuration information indicates a type of the reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type and a type of the reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type; The type of the reference signal corresponding to the first data channel mapping type is a first type, and the sequence length of the reference signal of the first type is the first sequence length; The type of the reference signal corresponding to the second data channel mapping type is a second type, and the sequence length of the reference signal of the second type is the second sequence length. The apparatus as described in any one of claims 21-23 is characterized in that the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is determined based on channel parameters of the downlink channel between the terminal device. The device according to claim 24, characterized in that if the channel parameter of the downlink channel meets a preset condition, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the first time domain resource allocation information; If the channel parameter of the downlink channel does not satisfy the preset condition, the time domain resource allocation information indicated by the downlink control channel is the second time domain resource allocation information. The device as described in claim 24 or 25 is characterized in that the channel parameters include at least one of the following parameters: maximum channel delay, channel delay spread, or average channel delay. The device according to any one of claims 21 to 26, characterized in that the first sequence length is 2 and the second sequence length is 4. The device according to any one of claims 21 to 27, wherein the communication unit is further used to: Sending data channel configuration information to the terminal device; The data channel configuration information includes configuration information of the time domain allocation set. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a processor and a memory, the memory is used to store program instructions, and when the processor executes the program instructions, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is executed, or the method according to any one of claims 7 to 14 is executed. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer storage medium stores computer-readable instructions, and when the computer-readable instructions are executed on a communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is executed, or the method according to any one of claims 7 to 14 is executed. A computer program product, characterized in that when the computer program product is run on a device, the device is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 or the method according to any one of claims 7 to 14.