WO2025082287A1 - Communication method and communication apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and a communication apparatus, applied to the field of communications. In the technical solution provided by the present application, a first communication device can determine that a phase value of a phase shifter of an HBF unit of a second communication device is a first phase value, and sends the first phase value to the second communication device by means of first information. According to the technical solution provided by the present application, the second communication device can adjust the phase value of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device on the basis of the first phase value, so that the second communication device can realize frequency division multi-beam, thereby improving the spectral efficiency of the system.

Description

Communication method and communication device

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on October 20, 2023, with application number 202311375791.1 and application name “Communication Method and Communication Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

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

Background Art

Hybrid beamforming (HBF), as one of the key technologies in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna arrays, refers to a method of simultaneously utilizing baseband digital weighting and RF feeder network weighting to perform two-stage beamforming to jointly form a beam for beam domain communication.

At present, when communication equipment uses HBF units to send information, the data stream to be transmitted can be mapped to multiple RF channels through baseband precoding, and the data on the RF channels can be mapped to multiple antenna arrays through analog precoding before being sent out. Among them, baseband precoding is formed by digital weighting on the baseband, and analog precoding is formed by hardware weighting of the RF feeder network.

However, relevant technicians have found that when the communication device uses the existing HBF unit for communication, the communication performance is poor.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and a communication device to improve the communication performance of a communication device when communicating using a hybrid beamforming (HBF) unit.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a first communication device, and includes: determining first information, where the first information is used to indicate that a phase value of a phase shifter of an HBF unit of a second communication device is a first phase value; and sending the first information.

As an example, in a downlink communication scenario, the first communication device may be a network device (such as a base station), and the second communication device may be a terminal device.

As an example, in an uplink communication scenario, the first communication device may be a terminal device, and the second communication device may be a network device.

As an example, the first information may include multiple first phase values, corresponding one-to-one to multiple phase shifters in the HBF unit of the second communication device. It should be understood that the phase shifter mentioned in this technical solution is a phase shifter corresponding to one antenna element.

As an example, the first phase value may include a phase value of a phase shifter of a HBF unit of the second communication device at each sampling point within one (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbol period.

As an example, there should be at least two different phase values in the first phase value, so that the switching rate of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device is less than one OFDM symbol period.

In this technical solution, after determining the first information, the first communication device can send the first information to the second communication device to guide the phase switching of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device. Since the switching period of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device is less than one OFDM symbol period, the second communication device can realize frequency division multi-beam when using the HBF unit, thereby improving the spectrum efficiency of the system and the communication performance of the second communication device.

Optionally, the first communication device can also determine a second phase value for the phase shifter of its own HBF unit, so that the first communication device can adjust the phase shifter of its own HBF unit based on the second phase value, so that the first communication device can also realize frequency division multi-beam when using the HBF unit, thereby improving the spectrum efficiency of the system and improving the communication performance of the first communication device.

In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first phase value makes the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal meet a preset requirement, and the first signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal between the first communication device and the second communication device using the first phase value, and the second signal is a signal obtained by performing full digital beamforming DBF processing on the transmission signal.

As an example, the magnitude of the value of the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal may be determined by the modulus of the difference between the first signal and the second signal. For example, the smaller the modulus of the difference between the first signal and the second signal, the greater the value of the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal, and the more similar the first signal and the second signal are.

It should be noted that the present application does not impose any specific limitation on the specific implementation method of determining the similarity between signals.

As an example, the first similarity meeting the preset requirement can be understood as the value of the first similarity being greater than or equal to a preset threshold, wherein the preset threshold can be set according to actual needs and is not specifically limited here.

As an example, performing HBF processing on a transmission signal includes performing baseband precoding and analog precoding on the transmission signal; performing full digital beamforming (DBF) processing on the transmission signal includes performing baseband precoding on the transmission signal.

In this implementation, the second signal may be used as the target signal expected to be obtained after the transmission signal is subjected to HBF processing by the HBF unit. Therefore, the correctness of the first phase value may be determined by determining whether the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal meets a preset requirement.

In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first phase value is a phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, and the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter includes at least one of the following capabilities: a switching period supported by the phase shifter, a set of quantization phases supported by the phase shifter, a number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter, a power change value when the phase shifter switches phases, or a transition duration when the phase shifter switches phases.

As an example, the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device may be pre-configured in the second communication device.

As an example, if the switching period supported by the phase shifter is 50 nanoseconds (ns), it means that the phase shifter supports switching the phase every 50 ns.

As an example, the quantized phase set supported by the phase shifter includes at least one phase value. For example, when the quantized phase set Q={0,π/2}, the phase shifter supports switching from phase 0 to phase π/2, or from phase π/2 to phase 0.

As an example, the number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter can be used to determine a quantization phase set. For example, when the number of quantization bits is 1, the quantization phase set can include 2 phase values, such as phase 0 and phase π/2; when the number of quantization bits is 2, the quantization phase set can include 4 phase values, such as phase 0, phase π/2, phase π, and phase 3π/2. The mapping relationship between the number of quantization bits and the quantization phase set can be set according to actual needs, and no specific restrictions are made here.

As an example, the power change value when the phase shifter switches the phase is used to indicate the power change of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter when the phase shifter switches from the first phase to the second phase. For example, when the phase shifter switches from phase 0 to phase π/2, the power change can be: from 1 watt (W) down to 0.8W and then up to 1W.

As an example, the transition duration when the phase shifter switches the phase may be understood as the switching duration required when the phase shifter switches from the first phase to the second phase.

In this implementation, the first phase value needs to satisfy the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter, thereby improving the matching degree between the first phase value and the phase shifter.

In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first similarity is the maximum similarity among at least one similarity, the at least one similarity corresponds one-to-one to at least one HBF signal, the at least one HBF signal corresponds one-to-one to at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, each similarity in the at least one similarity is the similarity between the corresponding HBF signal and the second signal, and each HBF signal in the at least one HBF signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal using the corresponding phase value.

As an example, at least one phase value that satisfies the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter can be determined based on the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter, and HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal based on each phase value of the at least one phase value, so as to obtain at least one HBF signal. It should be understood that at least one HBF signal corresponds to at least one phase value one by one.

Further, based on each HBF signal in at least one HBF signal, the similarity between each HBF signal and the second signal can be determined, so as to obtain at least one similarity, and the maximum similarity in at least one similarity is determined as the first similarity. The first similarity being the maximum similarity in at least one similarity can be understood as the value of the first similarity being the maximum value of all similarities in at least one similarity. It should be understood that at least one similarity corresponds to at least one HBF signal one by one.

In this implementation, the maximum similarity among the at least one similarity is used as the first similarity, so that after the second communication device adjusts the phase value of the phase shifter based on the first phase value, the system spectrum efficiency when receiving the transmission signal is improved.

In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first information includes an index value of the first phase value in at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirement of the phase shifter.

In this implementation, the HBF signal corresponding to the first similarity can be used as the first HBF signal, and the phase value corresponding to the first HBF signal in at least one phase value that satisfies the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter is determined as the first phase value. Therefore, when the first information is used to indicate the first phase value, the index value of the first phase value in the at least one phase value can be indicated.

Optionally, at least one phase value satisfying the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter may be determined by the first communication device and sent to the second communication device, so that the second communication device may determine the first phase value from the at least one phase value based on the received index value.

Optionally, the second communication device may also determine at least one phase value that satisfies the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter based on the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter. In this case, the first communication device may only send an index value to the second communication device without sending at least one phase value, thereby reducing signaling overhead and transmission power consumption.

In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving second information, wherein the second information is used to indicate the resource type and/or resource granularity of the analog precoding of the transmission signal when HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal, and the resource type is one of the following types: subcarrier, resource block RB, subband, or carrier.

In this implementation, when the second communication device detects that the downlink transmission rate is less than the transmission threshold, it can send the second information to the first communication device; correspondingly, the first communication device can receive the second information. The transmission threshold can be set according to actual needs.

It should be noted that the spectrum efficiency of the system can be improved by implementing frequency division multi-beam, thereby improving the data transmission rate when the first communication device communicates with the second communication device. Therefore, the phase value of the phase shifter can be adjusted within an OFDM symbol period so that the weighted value of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter within an OFDM symbol period is dynamically changed, thereby realizing dynamic time domain weighting of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter. In the frequency domain, it can be understood that the corresponding analog precoding is configured for different frequency bands in the full frequency band, so that different frequency bands in the full frequency band can generate analog beams in different directions at the same time.

Therefore, after receiving the second information, the first communication device can determine the first phase value for the second communication device based on the second information, which can be understood in the frequency domain as configuring corresponding analog precoding for different frequency bands in the full frequency band carrying the transmission signal.

As an example, when the resource type of analog precoding is subcarrier, it is necessary to configure corresponding analog precoding for each subcarrier in the entire frequency band. The analog precoding corresponding to each subcarrier can be the same or different, and no specific limitation is made here.

As an example, the resource granularity of analog precoding is, for example, 4 subcarriers, 1 resource block (RB), 20 megabits (M) subband, 1 carrier, etc. For example, when the resource granularity of analog precoding is 1 RB, it is necessary to configure corresponding analog precoding for each RB in the full frequency band, and the analog precoding corresponding to each RB may be the same or different, and this application does not impose any specific restrictions on this.

Optionally, after receiving the second information, the first communication device may perform DBF processing on the transmission signal based on the second information, thereby obtaining the second signal.

In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving third information, where the third information is used to indicate a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In this implementation, the first communication device may receive third information from the second communication device, and may thereby determine at least one phase value satisfying the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device based on the third information, and further determine the first phase value.

In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: sending fourth information, where the fourth information is used to request a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In this implementation, after receiving the second information, the first communication device may send fourth information to the second communication device to instruct the second communication device to report the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a second communication device, and the method includes: receiving first information, wherein the first information is used to indicate that the phase value of a phase shifter of an HBF unit of the second communication device is a first phase value; and adjusting the phase shifter based on the first phase value.

As an example, in a downlink communication scenario, the first communication device may be a network device (such as a base station), and the second communication device may be a terminal device.

As an example, in an uplink communication scenario, the first communication device may be a terminal device, and the second communication device may be a network device.

As an example, the first information may include multiple first phase values, corresponding one to one with multiple phase shifters in the HBF unit. It should be understood that the phase shifter mentioned in the present technical solution is a phase shifter corresponding to one antenna element.

As an example, the first phase value includes a phase value of each sampling point of a phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device within one OFDM symbol period.

As an example, there should be at least two different phase values in the first phase value, so that the switching rate of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device is less than one OFDM symbol period.

In this technical solution, the first communication device sends the first information to the second communication device after determining the first information; accordingly, the second communication device can receive the first information and adjust the phase of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device based on the first phase value indicated by the first information, so that the second communication device can realize frequency division multi-beam when using the HBF unit, thereby improving the spectrum efficiency of the system and improving the communication performance of the second communication device.

In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first phase value makes the first phase value between the first signal and the second signal A similarity satisfies a preset requirement, the first signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on a transmission signal between the first communication device and the second communication device using the first phase value, and the second signal is a signal obtained by performing DBF processing on the transmission signal.

As an example, the magnitude of the value of the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal may be determined by the modulus of the difference between the first signal and the second signal. For example, the smaller the modulus of the difference between the first signal and the second signal, the greater the value of the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal, and the more similar the first signal and the second signal are.

It should be noted that the present application does not impose any specific limitation on the specific implementation method of determining the similarity between signals.

Optionally, the first similarity meeting the preset requirement can be understood as the value of the first similarity being greater than or equal to a preset threshold. The preset requirement and the preset threshold can be set according to actual needs and are not specifically limited here.

As an example, performing HBF processing on the transmission signal includes performing baseband precoding and analog precoding on the transmission signal; performing DBF processing on the transmission signal includes performing baseband precoding on the transmission signal.

In this implementation, the second signal may be used as the target signal expected to be obtained after the transmission signal is subjected to HBF processing by the HBF unit. Therefore, the correctness of the first phase value may be determined by determining whether the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal meets a preset requirement.

In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first phase value is a phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, and the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter includes at least one of the following capabilities: a switching period supported by the phase shifter, a set of quantization phases supported by the phase shifter, a number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter, a power change value when the phase shifter switches phases, or a transition duration when the phase shifter switches phases.

As an example, the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device may be pre-configured in the second communication device.

As an example, if the switching period supported by the phase shifter is 50 ns, it means that the phase shifter supports switching the phase every 50 ns.

As an example, the quantized phase set supported by the phase shifter includes at least one phase value. For example, when the quantized phase set Q={0,π/2}, the phase shifter supports switching from phase 0 to phase π/2, or from phase π/2 to phase 0.

As an example, the number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter can be used to determine a quantization phase set. For example, when the number of quantization bits is 1, the quantization phase set can include 2 phase values, such as phase 0 and phase π/2; when the number of quantization bits is 2, the quantization phase set can include 4 phase values, such as phase 0, phase π/2, phase π, and phase 3π/2. The mapping relationship between the number of quantization bits and the quantization phase set can be set according to actual needs, and no specific restrictions are made here.

As an example, the power change value when the phase shifter switches the phase is used to indicate the power change of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter when the phase shifter switches from the first phase to the second phase. For example, when the phase shifter switches from phase 0 to phase π/2, the power change can be: from 1w to 0.8w and then rise to 1w.

As an example, the transition duration when the phase shifter switches the phase may be understood as the switching duration required when the phase shifter switches from the first phase to the second phase.

In this implementation, the first phase value needs to satisfy not only the preset requirement but also the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter, thereby improving the matching degree between the first phase value and the phase shifter.

In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first similarity is the maximum similarity among at least one similarity, the at least one similarity corresponds one-to-one to at least one HBF signal, the at least one HBF signal corresponds one-to-one to at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, each similarity in the at least one similarity is the similarity between the corresponding HBF signal and the second signal, and each HBF signal in the at least one HBF signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal using the corresponding phase value.

As an example, at least one phase value that satisfies the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter can be determined based on the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter, and HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal based on each phase value of the at least one phase value, so as to obtain at least one HBF signal. It should be understood that at least one HBF signal corresponds to at least one phase value one by one.

Further, based on each HBF signal in at least one HBF signal, the similarity between each HBF signal and the second signal can be determined, so as to obtain at least one similarity, and the maximum similarity in at least one similarity is determined as the first similarity. The first similarity being the maximum similarity in at least one similarity can be understood as the value of the first similarity being the maximum value of all similarities in at least one similarity. It should be understood that at least one similarity corresponds to at least one HBF signal one by one.

In this implementation, the maximum similarity among the at least one similarity is used as the first similarity, so that after the second communication device adjusts the phase value of the phase shifter based on the first phase value, the system spectrum efficiency when receiving the transmission signal is improved.

In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first information includes the first phase value satisfying the phase shift The index value of at least one phase value required for the dynamic switching capability of the switch.

In this implementation, the HBF signal corresponding to the first similarity can be used as the first HBF signal, and the phase value corresponding to the first HBF signal in at least one phase value that satisfies the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter is determined as the first phase value. Therefore, when the first information is used to indicate the first phase value, the index value of the first phase value in the at least one phase value can be indicated.

Optionally, at least one phase value satisfying the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter may be determined by the first communication device and sent to the second communication device, so that the second communication device may determine the first phase value from the at least one phase value based on the received index value.

Optionally, the second communication device may also determine at least one phase value that satisfies the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter based on the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter. In this case, the first communication device may only send an index value to the second communication device without sending at least one phase value, thereby reducing signaling overhead and transmission power consumption.

In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: sending second information, wherein the second information is used to indicate the resource type and/or resource granularity of the analog precoding of the transmission signal when HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal, and the resource type is one of the following types: subcarrier, RB, subband, or carrier.

In this implementation, when the second communication device detects that the downlink transmission rate is less than the transmission threshold, the second communication device may send the second information to the first communication device.

It should be noted that the spectrum efficiency of the system can be improved by implementing frequency division multi-beam, thereby improving the data transmission rate when the first communication device communicates with the second communication device. Therefore, the phase value of the phase shifter can be adjusted within an OFDM symbol period so that the weighted value of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter within an OFDM symbol period is dynamically changed, thereby realizing dynamic time domain weighting of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter. In the frequency domain, it can be understood that the corresponding analog precoding is configured for different frequency bands in the full frequency band, so that different frequency bands in the full frequency band can generate analog beams in different directions at the same time.

Therefore, the second communication device can send second information to the first communication device to indicate the resource type and/or resource granularity of the analog precoding of the transmission signal, so that the first communication device can determine the first phase value for the second communication device based on the second information. In the frequency domain, it can be understood as configuring corresponding analog precoding for different frequency bands in the full frequency band carrying the transmission signal.

As an example, when the resource type of analog precoding is subcarrier, it is necessary to configure corresponding analog precoding for each subcarrier in the entire frequency band. The analog precoding corresponding to each subcarrier can be the same or different, and no specific limitation is made here.

As an example, the resource granularity of analog precoding is, for example, 4 subcarriers, 1 RB, 20M subband, 1 carrier, etc. For example, when the resource granularity of analog precoding is 1 RB, it is necessary to configure corresponding analog precoding for each RB in the full frequency band, and the analog precoding corresponding to each RB can be the same or different, and this application does not impose specific restrictions on this.

In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: sending third information, where the third information is used to indicate a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In this implementation, the second communication device may send third information to the first communication device to indicate the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device, so that the first communication device may determine at least one phase value that satisfies the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter based on the third information.

In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: receiving fourth information, where the fourth information is used to request a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In this implementation, after receiving the second information, the first communication device may send fourth information to the second communication device to instruct the second communication device to report the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device. Correspondingly, the second communication device may receive the fourth information, so that the second communication device may send the third information to the first communication device after receiving the fourth information.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes modules for implementing the method in the first aspect or any one of the implementations thereof, and each module can be implemented in the form of hardware and/or software.

For example, the apparatus may include: a processing module and a sending module. The processing module is used to determine first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the phase value of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device is a first phase value; and the sending module is used to send the first information.

In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the first phase value makes the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal meet a preset requirement, and the first signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal between the first communication device and the second communication device using the first phase value, and the second signal is a signal obtained by performing DBF processing on the transmission signal.

In combination with the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first phase value is a phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, and the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter includes at least one of the following capabilities: a switching period supported by the phase shifter, a quantization phase set supported by the phase shifter, a number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter, a power change value when the phase shifter switches phase, Or, the transition duration when the phase shifter switches phase.

In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the first similarity is the maximum similarity among at least one similarity, the at least one similarity corresponds one-to-one to at least one HBF signal, the at least one HBF signal corresponds one-to-one to at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, each similarity in the at least one similarity is the similarity between the corresponding HBF signal and the second signal, and each HBF signal in the at least one HBF signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal using the corresponding phase value.

In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the first information includes an index value of the first phase value in at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirement of the phase shifter.

In combination with the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the device may further include a receiving module. The receiving module is used to receive second information, where the second information is used to indicate a resource type and/or resource granularity of analog precoding of the transmission signal when HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal, where the resource type is one of the following types: subcarrier, RB, subband, or carrier.

In combination with the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the receiving module is further used to receive third information, where the third information is used to indicate the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In combination with the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the sending module is further used to send fourth information, where the fourth information is used to request a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes modules for implementing the method in the second aspect or any one of the implementations thereof, and each module can be implemented in the form of hardware and/or software.

For example, the apparatus may include: a receiving module and a processing module. The receiving module is used to receive first information indicating that the phase value of the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device is a first phase value; and the processing module is used to adjust the phase shifter based on the first phase value.

In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first phase value makes the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal meet a preset requirement, and the first signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal between the first communication device and the second communication device using the first phase value, and the second signal is a signal obtained by performing DBF processing on the transmission signal.

In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first phase value is a phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, and the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter includes at least one of the following capabilities: a switching period supported by the phase shifter, a set of quantization phases supported by the phase shifter, a number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter, a power change value when the phase shifter switches phases, or a transition duration when the phase shifter switches phases.

In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first similarity is the maximum similarity among at least one similarity, the at least one similarity corresponds one-to-one to at least one HBF signal, the at least one HBF signal corresponds one-to-one to at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, each similarity in the at least one similarity is the similarity between the corresponding HBF signal and the second signal, and each HBF signal in the at least one HBF signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal using the corresponding phase value.

In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first information includes an index value of the first phase value in at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirement of the phase shifter.

In combination with the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the device may further include a sending module. The sending module is used to send second information, where the second information is used to indicate a resource type and/or resource granularity of analog precoding of the transmission signal when HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal, where the resource type is one of the following types: subcarrier, RB, subband, or carrier.

In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the sending module is further used to send third information, where the third information is used to indicate the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In combination with the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the receiving module is further used to receive fourth information, where the fourth information is used to request the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including a processor, which can be coupled to a memory and is used to call a program code in the memory to execute the method as described in the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof. Optionally, the device also includes a memory. Optionally, the device also includes a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

Optionally, in a downlink communication scenario, the apparatus may be a network device, or a chip system, a hardware circuit and/or a software module applied to the network device. Optionally, the network device may be a base station.

Optionally, in an uplink communication scenario, the device may be a terminal device, or a chip system or hardware device used in the terminal device. circuits and/or software modules.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including a processor, which can be coupled to a memory and is used to call a program code in the memory to execute the method as described in the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof. Optionally, the device also includes a memory. Optionally, the device also includes a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

Optionally, in a downlink communication scenario, the apparatus may be a terminal device, or a chip system, a hardware circuit and/or a software module applied in the terminal device.

Optionally, in an uplink communication scenario, the apparatus may be a network device, or a chip system, a hardware circuit and/or a software module applied in the network device. Optionally, the network device may be a base station.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes the device in the third aspect or the fifth aspect, and the device in the fourth aspect or the sixth aspect.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or any possible implementation thereof.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable medium storing a program code for execution by a device, wherein the program code includes a method for executing the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or any possible implementation method thereof.

For the technical effects that can be achieved by any of the third to ninth aspects and any possible designs in any of the aspects, please refer to the description of the technical effects that can be brought about by the first to second aspects, and no further details will be repeated here.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system to which the present application is applicable;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of another communication system to which the present application is applicable;

FIG3 is a flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a switching capability of a phase shifter provided in one embodiment of the present application;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in another embodiment of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments will be described in detail herein, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the drawings, the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with the present application. Instead, they are merely examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects of the present application as detailed in the appended claims.

A wireless communication system includes communication devices, and communication devices can use air interface resources for wireless communication. Among them, the communication devices may include network devices and terminal devices. The air interface resources may include at least one of time domain resources, frequency domain resources, code resources, and space resources. In the embodiment of the present application, at least one may also be described as one or more, and a plurality may be two, three, four or more, which is not limited in the present application.

In the embodiments of the present application, for a technical feature, the technical features in the technical feature are distinguished by "first", "second", "third", "A", "B", "C" and "D", and there is no order of precedence or size between the technical features described by the "first", "second", "third", "A", "B", "C" and "D".

The terminal device involved in the embodiments of the present application can be called a terminal, which can be a device with wireless transceiver function, which can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld 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.). The terminal device can be a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE includes a handheld device, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device or a computing device with a wireless communication function. Exemplarily, the UE can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer or a computer with a wireless transceiver function. The terminal device can also be a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a wireless terminal in a smart home, etc. In the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal can be a terminal; it can also be a device that can support the terminal to realize the function, such as a chip system, which can be installed in the terminal. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices. The device is a terminal. Taking the terminal being a UE as an example, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

The network devices involved in the embodiments of the present application include access network devices, such as base stations (BS), which can be a device deployed in a wireless access network that can communicate wirelessly with a terminal. Among them, the base station may have multiple forms, such as a macro base station, a micro base station, a relay station, and an access point. Exemplarily, the base station involved in the embodiments of the present application may be a base station in 5G or an evolved base station (evolved node B, eNB) in LTE, wherein the base station in the fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) mobile communication system may also be called a transmission reception point (TRP) or a 5G base station (next-generation node B, gNB). In the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the network device may be a network device; it may also be a device that can support the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system, which can be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the network device is a network device, and the network device is a base station as an example to describe the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application.

The technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to wireless communication between communication devices. Wireless communication between communication devices may include: wireless communication between network devices and terminals, wireless communication between network devices and network devices, and wireless communication between terminals. In the embodiment of the present application, the term "wireless communication" may also be referred to as "communication", and the term "communication" may also be described as "data transmission", "information transmission" or "transmission".

As an example, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is applicable to a variety of communication systems including the 5G new radio (NR) system. As long as there is an entity in the communication system that needs to send indication information for indicating the transmission direction, another entity needs to receive the indication information and determine the characteristics of the transmission direction within a certain period of time according to the indication information.

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to the present application. As shown in FIG1 , the communication system includes a base station 110, a UE 120, a UE 130, a UE 140, a UE 150, and a UE 160. The number of UEs and base stations is only an example, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

In the communication system, the base station 110 can provide communication services for terminals (such as UE 120 to UE 160) in a cell. The base station 110 can send downlink information to the terminals (such as UE 120 to UE 160) in the cell. The downlink information can be control information or data information, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. The terminals (such as UE 120 to UE 160) in the cell can send uplink information to the base station 110.

In the communication system, UE 140, UE 150 and UE 160 may also form a communication system. Among them, base station 110 may send downlink information to UE 120, UE 130 and UE 140, and UE 140 may send downlink information to UE 150 and UE 160.

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of another communication system applicable to the present application. As shown in FIG2, the communication system includes but is not limited to a base station 210 and a UE 220. Among them, the base station 210 is an example of a network device, which can be understood as an entity on the network side for transmitting or receiving signals, and the UE 220 is an example of a terminal device, which can be understood as an entity on the user side for receiving or transmitting signals. It should be understood that the number of UEs and base stations is only an example, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

As shown in Figure 2, the base station 210 and the UE 220 may both include a radio resource control protocol (radio resource control, RRC) signaling interaction module, a medium access control (medium access control, MAC) signaling interaction module and a physical layer (physical, PHY) signaling and data interaction module. Among them, the RRC signaling interaction module is a module used to send and receive RRC signaling; the MAC signaling interaction module is a module used to send and receive media access control-control unit (MAC-control element, MAC-CE) signaling; the PHY signaling and data interaction module is used to transmit downlink control signaling and/or downlink data through the physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) and the physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH), and the PHY signaling and data interaction module is also used to transmit uplink signaling and/or uplink data through the physical uplink control channel (physical uplink control channel, PUCCH) and the physical uplink shared channel (physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH).

The problems existing in the existing communication method are explained by taking the downlink communication scenario between the base station and the UE as an example.

At present, when the base station uses the HBF unit to transmit a signal to the UE, the base station can map the data stream to be transmitted to multiple RF channels through baseband precoding (precoder), and the data on the RF channel is then mapped to multiple antenna elements through analog precoding and sent out, thereby realizing the transmission of information. Correspondingly, the UE can receive the signal sent by the base station. When the UE uses the HBF unit to receive a signal, it operates in a mirrored manner with the signal transmission process. For example, the UE can map the data received on the antenna element to multiple RF channels through analog precoding, and the data on the RF channel is then received through baseband precoding. Among them, when the UE uses the HBF unit to receive a signal, the analog precoding can be called an analog combiner (combiner), and the baseband precoding can be called a baseband combiner. The baseband precoding is formed by digital weighting, and the analog precoding is formed by RF feeder network hardware, and the RF feeder network hardware can be a phase shifter.

However, in the existing HBF unit, the phase of the phase shifter is fixed within an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol period, so that the weighted value of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter within an OFDM symbol period is fixed. value, in the frequency domain, it can be understood that the analog precoding of the signal is the same for the entire frequency band when it passes through the phase shifter, so that the entire frequency band can only generate analog beams in the same direction at the same time, that is, frequency division multi-beam cannot be realized. Among them, the phase of the phase shifter is fixed within an OFDM symbol period, which can be understood as the switching rate of the phase shifter is greater than or equal to an OFDM symbol period, and the switching rate of the phase shifter can be understood as the switching period of the phase shifter. The weighted value of the time domain signal is a fixed value, which can be understood as when the phase shifter adjusts the phase of the time domain signal within an OFDM symbol period, the phase adjustment value of the time domain signal is fixed. Frequency division multi-beam can be understood as different frequency bands can generate analog beams in different directions at the same time.

Therefore, when the base station or UE uses the existing HBF unit, it is impossible to realize frequency division multi-beam, so that when the base station or UE communicates using the existing HBF unit, there may be the following technical problems: when the control channel and the data channel coexist in the time domain, the base station or UE cannot simultaneously realize the control channel wide beam scanning and the data channel narrow beam communication and falls back to the control channel wide beam scanning, thereby causing loss of the antenna array gain of the data channel; when the base station or UE adopts a multi-frequency and multi-standard module, it is difficult to flexibly configure the analog beam directions of different frequency bands in the full frequency band, thereby restricting the system capacity; when the base station communicates with the UE, the transmitted data can only realize the same analog precoding in the full frequency band, and cannot realize the analog precoding at the subcarrier or resource block (RB) level, resulting in low system spectrum efficiency; the beam scanning time overhead of the base station and the UE is large.

In view of this, the present application provides a communication method and a communication device. In the technical solution provided by the present application, by utilizing the time domain freedom brought by the high-speed switching phase shifter, the frequency domain independent weighting of the subcarrier/RB/subband/carrier granularity is realized, thereby improving the spectrum efficiency of the system. In the technical solution provided by the present application, the switching rate of the phase shifter in the HBF unit of the base station and/or UE is less than one OFDM symbol period, so that the phase shifter can perform at least one phase switching within one OFDM symbol period, so that the weighted value of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter within one OFDM symbol period is dynamically changed, and in the frequency domain, it can be understood that different analog precoding is designed for different frequency bands (such as subcarrier/RB/subband/carrier) in the full frequency band, so that the base station and/or UE can realize frequency division multi-beam when using the HBF unit, thereby improving the communication performance of the base station and/or UE.

It should be noted that the communication method and communication device provided in the present application are based on the same technical concept. Since the principles of solving problems by the method and the device are similar, the implementation of the method and the device can refer to each other, and the repeated parts will not be repeated.

The technical solution of the present application is described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Fig. 3, the method may include S301 to S305.

Optionally, the communication method can be applied to a communication scenario in which a first communication device and a second communication device perform data transmission. The method can be executed by the first communication device, or by a chip system, hardware circuit and/or software module applied to the first communication device.

It should be understood that the first communication device and the second communication device are merely examples. Any device with the same function as the first communication device here can be included in the scope of the first communication device in the embodiment of the present application, and any device with the same function as the second communication device here can be included in the scope of the second communication device in the embodiment of the present application.

As an example, the first communication device may be a base station, the second communication device may be a UE, and the method may be applied to a downlink communication scenario between a base station and a UE.

S301, receiving second information, where the second information is used to indicate the resource type and/or resource granularity of analog precoding of the transmission signal when HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal, where the resource type is one of the following types: subcarrier, RB, subband or carrier.

In this embodiment, the base station performs HBF processing on the data stream to be transmitted to obtain a transmission signal, and sends the transmission signal to the UE; accordingly, the UE can perform HBF processing on the transmission signal, thereby receiving the transmission signal. The HBF processing on the transmission signal includes baseband precoding and analog precoding on the transmission signal, and the transmission signal is a transmission signal between the base station and the UE.

As an example, when the UE detects that the downlink transmission rate is less than the transmission threshold, or when the UE detects that the power of the received signal is less than the power threshold, the UE can send a second message to the base station to request the base station to determine the first phase value of the phase shifter of the UE's HBF unit for the UE, so that the UE can adjust the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the UE based on the first phase value to generate analog beams in different directions to improve the spectrum efficiency of the system, thereby increasing the data transmission rate when the base station communicates with the UE or increasing the power of the signal received by the UE. Accordingly, the base station can receive the second message. Among them, the transmission threshold and the power threshold can be set according to actual needs, and this application does not impose specific restrictions on this.

For example, when the UE detects that the download traffic of the video service is less than the traffic threshold, the UE may send the second information to the base station.

As an example, the UE may determine the second information based on an optimal communication beam determined by beam scanning.

For the convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present application, the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the UE may be referred to as a UE phase shifter.

It should be understood that the UE can implement frequency division by setting different analog precoding for different frequency bands in the full frequency band carrying the transmission signal. Therefore, after receiving the second information, the base station can configure corresponding analog precoding for different frequency bands in the full frequency band carrying the transmission signal based on the second information, which can be understood in the time domain as the base station determining the first phase value for the UE phase shifter.

As an example, the resource type of analog precoding includes: subcarrier, RB, subband or carrier. Among them, a carrier contains at least one subband, a subband contains at least one RB, and an RB contains at least one subcarrier. As an example, if the resource type of analog precoding is subcarrier, corresponding analog precoding needs to be configured for each subcarrier in the full frequency band.

As an example, the resource granularity of analog precoding is, for example, 4 subcarriers, 1 RB, 20 megabits (M) subband, 1 carrier, etc. For example, if the resource granularity of analog precoding is 1 RB, then corresponding analog precoding needs to be configured for each RB in the full frequency band.

Optionally, the first phase value includes a phase value of each sampling point of the UE phase shifter in one OFDM symbol period. It should be noted that the phase shifter mentioned in the embodiment of the present application is a phase shifter corresponding to one antenna element.

Optionally, there should be at least two different phase values in the first phase value, so that the phase switching rate of the UE phase shifter is less than one OFDM symbol period.

Optionally, the number of the first phase values may be multiple, corresponding one-to-one to multiple phase shifters included in the HBF unit of the UE.

S302: Send fourth information, where the fourth information is used to request a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In this embodiment, after receiving the second information, the base station may send fourth information to the UE to request the UE to report the dynamic switching capability of the UE phase shifter. Correspondingly, the UE may receive the fourth information.

Among them, the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter includes at least one of the following: a switching period supported by the phase shifter, a set of quantization phases supported by the phase shifter, a number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter, a power change value when the phase shifter switches phases, or a transition duration when the phase shifter switches phases.

Optionally, the dynamic switching capability of the UE phase shifter may be pre-configured in the UE at the factory.

As an example, if the switching period supported by the phase shifter may be 50 nanoseconds (ns), it means that the phase shifter supports switching the phase every 50 ns.

As an example, the quantized phase set supported by the phase shifter includes at least one phase value. For example, when the quantized phase set Q={0,π/2}, the phase shifter supports switching from phase 0 to phase π/2, or from phase π/2 to phase 0.

As an example, the number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter can be used to determine the quantization phase set supported by the phase shifter. For example, when the number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter is 1, the quantization phase set supported by the phase shifter can include 2 phase values, such as the quantization phase set Q can be {0, π/2}; when the number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter is 2, the quantization phase set supported by the phase shifter can include 4 phase values, such as the quantization phase set Q can be {0, π/2, π, 3π/2}. It should be understood that the present application does not specifically limit the correspondence between the number of quantization bits and the quantization phase set, and it can be set according to actual needs.

As an example, the power change value when the phase shifter switches the phase is used to indicate the power change of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter when the phase shifter switches from the first phase to the second phase. For example, when the phase shifter switches from phase 0 to phase π/2, the power change can be: from 1 watt (W) down to 0.8W and then up to 1W.

As an example, the transition time length when the phase shifter switches the phase can be understood as the switching time length required when the phase shifter switches from the first phase to the second phase. For example, the transition time length can be 10 ns.

For example, Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a switching capability of a phase shifter provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Fig. 4, the phase value of the phase shifter in _T1 is 0°, the phase value in _T2 is 90°, and the phase value in _T3 is 180°. The switching period of the phase shifter is _Tc , and the transition duration of the phase shifter when switching phase is _T4 .

S303: Receive third information, where the third information is used to indicate a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter.

In this embodiment, after receiving the fourth information, the UE may send third information to the base station based on the fourth information to indicate the dynamic switching capability of the UE phase shifter. Correspondingly, the base station may receive the third information.

S304: Determine first information, where the first information is used to indicate that a phase value of a UE phase shifter is a first phase value.

In this embodiment, after receiving the second information and the third information, the base station may determine that the phase value of the UE phase shifter is the first phase value based on the second information and the third information.

As an example, the base station may construct a switching codebook F of the UE phase shifter based on the dynamic switching capability of the UE phase shifter, wherein the switching codebook F includes k phase values, each of the k phase values is an N×1 vector, and is used to indicate the phase value of each sampling point of the UE phase shifter in one OFDM symbol period, and the phase value corresponding to each sampling point is a phase value in the quantized phase set Q supported by the UE phase shifter, and N is the number of sampling points in one OFDM symbol period. For example, the switching codebook F may be expressed by a mathematical formula as follows: switching codebook F={f ₁ ,…,f _k }, where f _u ∈C ^N×1 , 1≤u≤k, f _u (n)∈Q, 1≤n≤N. It should be understood that the k phase values may also be referred to as k codewords.

In one feasible manner, the base station may construct a switching codebook of a UE phase shifter in the following manner: determining the number of switching times A of the UE phase shifter based on the switching period supported by the UE phase shifter; dividing an OFDM symbol period into A+1 sampling intervals based on the switching number A, and the phase of the UE phase shifter in each sampling interval is the same; determining the phase value of the UE phase shifter corresponding to each sampling interval based on the quantized phase set supported by the UE phase shifter, thereby determining the switching codebook of the UE phase shifter.

As an example, if the switching period supported by the UE phase shifter is T _c , and the length of one OFDM symbol period is T _f , then the number of switching times A=T _f /(T _c ×B), where B is a positive integer and can be set according to actual requirements.

Optionally, the phase value of the UE phase shifter corresponding to each sampling interval can be determined by establishing a mapping relationship between each phase value in the quantized phase set and each sampling interval. The present application does not impose any specific restrictions on the specific method for establishing a mapping relationship between each phase value in the quantized phase set and each sampling interval.

In this embodiment, after determining the switching codebook of the UE phase shifter, the base station can perform HBF processing on the transmission signal based on each phase value in the switching codebook, so as to obtain k HBF signals, such as HBF signal y _h ={y ₁ , y ₂ , ..., y _k }. It should be understood that the k HBF signals correspond to the k phase values one by one, for example, the HBF signal y _k corresponds to the phase value f _k . Among them, performing HBF processing on the transmission signal based on the phase value can be understood as performing analog precoding on the transmission signal based on the phase shifter.

Optionally, when the phase shifter switches the phase, the power of the time domain signal passing through the phase shifter will change. Therefore, before performing HBF processing on the transmission signal based on the phase value to obtain the HBF signal, the transmission signal can be adjusted based on the phase value, the power change value when the phase shifter switches the phase, and the transition duration when the phase shifter switches the phase, for example, the power of the transmission signal is adjusted, and then the HBF processing is performed on the adjusted transmission signal based on the phase value to obtain the HBF signal. Among them, the power change value of the transmission signal is consistent with the power change value when the phase shifter switches the phase, and the power change duration of the transmission signal is consistent with the transition duration when the phase shifter switches the phase.

As an example, the base station may determine, based on the second information, an expected received signal after the UE uses the HBF unit to perform HBF processing on the transmission signal. The expected received signal may also be referred to as a target signal.

For example, the base station can perform full digital beamforming (DBF) processing on the transmission signal based on the second information, so as to obtain the expected received signal. The specific implementation method includes: setting the bandwidth of the full frequency band carrying the transmission signal to 100 megahertz (MHz), and the second information indicates that the resource granularity of the analog precoding of the transmission signal is a 20MHz sub-band and an 80MHz sub-band. In this case, when the base station performs DBF processing on the transmission signal, different digital precoding can be configured for the first 20MHz sub-band and the last 80MHz sub-band, respectively. For example, the digital precoding of the first 20MHz sub-band can be The digital precoding of the last 80MHz sub-band can be

It should be noted that and It can also be called frequency domain weight. The present application does not specifically limit the method for determining the digital precoding of each subband. As an example, the channel matrix corresponding to each subband can be processed based on matrix singular value decomposition (SVD), so that the digital precoding corresponding to each subband can be determined. For example, the channel matrix corresponding to a subband carrying a transmission signal is set to H ₁ , and the channel matrix H ₁ is decomposed by SVD to obtain: H ₁ =U∑V ^-1 , then for the receiving side of the transmission signal, the digital precoding corresponding to the subband can be U ^H , and for the sending side of the transmission signal, the digital precoding corresponding to the subband can be V. U and V are both orthogonal matrices, and ∑ represents a diagonal matrix containing singular values.

Therefore, k similarities can be determined based on k HBF signals and the expected received signal, and the k similarities correspond to the k HBF signals one by one, and each of the k similarities is the similarity between the corresponding HBF signal and the expected received signal. Among them, the specific implementation method of calculating the signal similarity is not specifically limited in this application.

Optionally, the HBF signal corresponding to the first similarity may be used as the first HBF signal, and the phase value corresponding to the first HBF signal may be determined as the first phase value, wherein the first phase value is the similarity with the largest similarity value among the k similarities.

S305, sending the first information.

In this embodiment, after determining the first phase value, the base station can send the first information to the UE; accordingly, the UE receives the first information and adjusts the phase of the UE phase shifter based on the first phase value indicated by the first information, thereby generating analog beams in multiple directions to receive transmission signals, thereby improving the spectrum efficiency of the system.

Optionally, the first information may be a first phase value.

Optionally, the first information may also be an index value of the first phase value in the switching codebook.

In this embodiment, the base station can determine a first phase value of the UE phase shifter for the UE, and send the first phase value to the UE to guide the switching of the UE phase shifter. Correspondingly, the UE can receive the first phase value and dynamically adjust the phase shifter based on the first phase value. In this embodiment, the UE can use the HBF unit to implement frequency division multi-beam, realize frequency domain independent weighting of subcarrier/RB/subband/carrier granularity, and improve the system spectrum efficiency.

In one possible implementation, the UE may send the second information and the third information to the base station together. In this implementation, the base station may After executing S301, S303 to S305 are directly executed without executing S302, thereby reducing signaling loss.

Optionally, the UE may carry the second information and the third information in the same message and send it to the base station.

Optionally, the UE may carry the second information and the third information in different messages and send them to the base station. For example, the UE may send the second information at a first moment and send the third information at a second moment, and the time difference between the first moment and the second moment satisfies the time threshold. The time threshold may be predefined by a protocol or configured by a base station, and this application does not impose specific restrictions on this. Optionally, the first moment may be later than the second moment or earlier than the second moment, and this application does not impose specific restrictions on this.

In another possible implementation, the UE may send the dynamic switching capability of the UE phase shifter to the base station when registering for network access, and the base station may store the received dynamic switching capability of the UE phase shifter for subsequent invocation. In this implementation, after receiving the second information, the base station may directly determine that the phase value of the UE phase shifter is the first phase value based on the dynamic switching capability of the UE phase shifter, and send the first phase value to the UE, thereby shortening the time for the base station to determine the first phase value and improving efficiency.

It should be understood that in this implementation, the base station may directly execute S304 and S305 after executing S301, without executing S302 and S303, thereby reducing signaling loss.

Furthermore, in the field of communications, before the base station and the UE communicate, the base station and the UE can determine the optimal communication beam through beam scanning. Therefore, the base station can determine, based on the optimal communication beam, the resource type and/or resource granularity of the analog precoding of the transmission signal when the UE performs HBF processing on the transmission signal to receive the transmission signal, that is, the second information. In this case, the base station can determine that the phase value of the UE phase shifter is the first phase value by executing S304 and S305, and send the determined first phase value to the UE. It should be understood that in this case, the base station can only execute S304 and S305 without executing S301 to S303, thereby reducing signaling loss and transmission power consumption.

On the basis of the above embodiments, it should be understood that the switching rate of the base station phase shifter may also be less than one OFDM symbol period. Therefore, the base station may also determine the switching codebook of the base station phase shifter based on the dynamic switching capability of the base station phase shifter, thereby determining the second phase value of the base station phase shifter, so that the base station can adjust the base station phase shifter based on the second phase value, thereby improving the spectrum efficiency of the system. Among them, the specific implementation method of the base station determining the second phase value can refer to the implementation method of the base station determining the first phase value for the UE phase shifter, which will not be repeated here. Among them, the base station phase shifter can be understood as the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the base station. It should be understood that when the base station determines the second phase value, only S304 can be executed without executing S301, S302, S303 and S305.

In an achievable manner, the method provided in the embodiment of the present application can also be applied to an uplink communication scenario, in which case the first communication device can be a UE, and the second communication device can be a base station, and the UE is used as the execution subject to implement the method shown in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the UE can determine a second phase value for a base station phase shifter, and send the second phase value to the base station to guide the switching of the base station phase shifter; the UE can also determine a first phase value for the UE phase shifter, and adjust the UE phase shifter based on the first phase value, so that both the base station and the UE can achieve frequency division multi-beam, thereby improving the communication performance of the base station and the UE.

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG5 , the communication device 500 may include: a receiving module 510 , a sending module 520 and a processing module 530 .

In a possible implementation manner, the apparatus 500 may be used to implement each step/operation performed by the first communication device in the method shown in FIG. 3 .

For example, when the apparatus 500 is used to implement the method implemented by the first communication device in FIG. 3 , the receiving module 510 can be used to implement the operations performed by the first communication device in S301 and S303; the sending module 520 can be used to implement the operations performed by the first communication device in S302 and S305; and the processing module 530 can be used to implement S304.

In another possible implementation manner, the apparatus 500 may be used to implement each step/operation performed by the second communication device in the method shown in FIG. 3 .

For example, when the apparatus 500 is used to implement the method implemented by the second communication device in FIG. 3 , the receiving module 510 can be used to implement the operations performed by the second communication device in S302 and S305; the sending module 520 can be used to implement the operations performed by the second communication device in S301 and S303, and the processing module 530 is used to adjust the phase shifter of the HBF unit of the second communication device based on the first information.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided by another embodiment of the present application. The device 600 shown in Fig. 6 can be used to implement the method executed by the first communication device or the second communication device in the above embodiment.

As shown in Fig. 6, the device 600 of this embodiment includes: a memory 610, a processor 620, a communication interface 630 and a bus 640. The memory 610, the processor 620 and the communication interface 630 are connected to each other through the bus 640.

The memory 610 may be a read only memory (ROM), a static storage device, a dynamic storage device or a random access memory (RAM). The memory 610 may store a program. When the program stored in the memory 610 is executed by the processor 620, the processor 620 is used to execute the various operations executed by the first communication device or the second communication device in the above-mentioned embodiments. Steps/Actions.

The processor 620 can adopt a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits to execute relevant programs to implement the communication method shown in the method embodiment of the present application.

The processor 620 may also be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capability. In the implementation process, each step of the communication method shown in the method embodiment of the present application may be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor 620 or by instructions in the form of software.

The processor 620 may also be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components. The methods, steps and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or executed. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor, etc.

The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiment of the present application can be directly embodied as being executed by a hardware decoding processor, or being executed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module can be located in a mature storage medium in the art such as a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory, or an electrically erasable programmable memory, a register, etc. The storage medium is located in the memory 610, and the processor 620 reads the information in the memory 610, and completes the functions required to be performed by the units included in the communication device of the present application in combination with its hardware. For example, each step/function performed by the first communication device or the second communication device in Figure 3 can be executed.

Optionally, the memory 610 and the processor 620 may be integrated together.

The communication interface 630 may use, but is not limited to, a transceiver or other transceiver device to implement communication between the apparatus 600 and other devices or apparatuses.

The bus 640 may include a path for transmitting information between the various components of the device 600 (eg, the memory 610 , the processor 620 , and the communication interface 630 ).

In some embodiments of the present application, a computer program product is also provided, which can implement the method shown in the above embodiments when the computer program product is run on a processor. In some embodiments of the present application, a computer-readable storage medium is also provided, which contains computer instructions, which can implement the method shown in the above embodiments when the computer instructions are run on a processor.

It should be noted that the modules or components shown in the above embodiments may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, such as one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or one or more microprocessors (digital signal processors, DSPs), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc. For another example, when a module above is implemented in the form of a processing element calling a program code, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU) or other processors that can call program codes, such as a controller. For another example, these modules may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, software module or any combination thereof. When software is used for implementation, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loading and executing computer program instructions on a computer, the process or function according to the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network or other programmable devices. The computer instruction can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instruction can be transmitted from a website site, computer, server or data center by wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) mode to another website site, computer, server or data center. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server, a data center, etc. that contains one or more available media integrations. Available media can be magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, tapes), optical media (e.g., DVDs), or semiconductor media (e.g., solid state drives (SSDs)).

The term "plurality" in this article refers to two or more than two. The term "and/or" in this article is only a description of 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. In addition, the character "/" in this article generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship; in the formula, the character "/" indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in a "division" relationship. In addition, it should be understood that in the description of this application, words such as "first" and "second" are only used for the purpose of distinguishing descriptions, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance, nor can they be understood as indicating or implying order.

It should be understood that the various numerical numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only used for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

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

Claims (20)

A communication method, characterized in that the method is applied to a first communication device, and the method comprises: Determine first information, where the first information is used to indicate that a phase value of a phase shifter of a hybrid beamforming (HBF) unit of the second communication device is a first phase value; Send the first message. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the first phase value makes the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal meet a preset requirement, the first signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal between the first communication device and the second communication device using the first phase value, and the second signal is a signal obtained by performing full digital beamforming DBF processing on the transmission signal. The method according to claim 2 is characterized in that the first phase value is a phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, and the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter includes at least one of the following capabilities: a switching period supported by the phase shifter, a quantization phase set supported by the phase shifter, a number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter, a power change value when the phase shifter switches phase, or a transition duration when the phase shifter switches phase. The method according to claim 3 is characterized in that the first similarity is the maximum similarity among at least one similarity, the at least one similarity corresponds one-to-one to at least one HBF signal, the at least one HBF signal corresponds one-to-one to at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirement of the phase shifter, each similarity in the at least one similarity is the similarity between the corresponding HBF signal and the second signal, and each HBF signal in the at least one HBF signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal using the corresponding phase value. The method according to claim 4 is characterized in that the first information includes an index value of the first phase value in at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirement of the phase shifter. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 5, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receive second information, where the second information is used to indicate the resource type and/or resource granularity of the analog precoding of the transmission signal when HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal, and the resource type is one of the following types: subcarrier, resource block RB, subband, or carrier. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 6, characterized in that the method further comprises: Third information is received, where the third information is used to indicate a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the method further comprises: Fourth information is sent, where the fourth information is used to request a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter. A communication method, characterized in that the method is applied to a second communication device, and the method comprises: receiving first information, where the first information is used to indicate that a phase value of a phase shifter of a hybrid beamforming (HBF) unit of the second communication device is a first phase value; The phase shifter is adjusted based on the first phase value. The method according to claim 9 is characterized in that the first phase value makes the first similarity between the first signal and the second signal meet a preset requirement, the first signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal between the first communication device and the second communication device using the first phase value, and the second signal is a signal obtained by performing full digital beamforming DBF processing on the transmission signal. The method according to claim 10 is characterized in that the first phase value is a phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirements of the phase shifter, and the dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter includes at least one of the following capabilities: a switching period supported by the phase shifter, a quantization phase set supported by the phase shifter, a number of quantization bits supported by the phase shifter, a power change value when the phase shifter switches phase, or a transition duration when the phase shifter switches phase. The method according to claim 11 is characterized in that the first similarity is the maximum similarity among at least one similarity, the at least one similarity corresponds one-to-one to at least one HBF signal, the at least one HBF signal corresponds one-to-one to at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirement of the phase shifter, each similarity in the at least one similarity is the similarity between the corresponding HBF signal and the second signal, and each HBF signal in the at least one HBF signal is a signal obtained by performing HBF processing on the transmission signal using the corresponding phase value. The method according to claim 11 or 12 is characterized in that the first information includes an index value of the first phase value in at least one phase value that meets the dynamic switching capability requirement of the phase shifter. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, characterized in that the method further comprises: Send second information, where the second information is used to indicate the resource type and/or resource granularity of the analog precoding of the transmission signal when HBF processing is performed on the transmission signal, and the resource type is one of the following types: subcarrier, resource block RB, subband, or carrier. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 14, characterized in that the method further comprises: Sending third information, where the third information is used to indicate a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the method further comprises: Fourth information is received, where the fourth information is used to request a dynamic switching capability of the phase shifter. A communication device, characterized by comprising functional modules for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 or any one of claims 9 to 16. A communication device, characterized in that it comprises: a processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, the memory is used to store a computer program, when the processor calls the computer program, the device executes the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 8 or any one of claims 9 to 16. A computer program product, characterized in that it comprises computer program code, and when the computer program code is run on a computer, the computer implements the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 or any one of claims 9 to 16. A computer-readable medium, characterized in that the computer-readable medium stores program code for computer execution, the program code comprising instructions for executing the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 or any one of claims 9 to 16.