WO2025139991A1 - Communication method and communication apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and a communication apparatus. The method comprises: a network device inputs first environment information into a first model, so as to obtain N precoding matrices, wherein the first environment information is used for indicating a communication environment within the coverage range of the network device, and N is a positive integer; and further, the network device sends N pilot signals on the basis of the N precoding matrices. By means of the method, the network device calculates the precoding matrices corresponding to the current communication environment on the basis of environment information (i.e., the first environment information) of the current communication environment and the first model, so that the adaptability of the precoding matrices and the current environment can be improved, thereby improving the communication performance.

Description

A communication method and a communication device

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on December 28, 2023, with application number 202311837535.X, and priority to the Chinese patent application with the invention name “A communication method and communication device”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

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

Background Art

Precoding technology is a technology that transmits/receives signals in a specific direction through a precoding matrix. Specifically, precoding technology adjusts the amplitude and phase of each antenna transceiver unit through the precoding matrix, so that the transmit/receive signals of the antenna array in the specific direction are coherently superimposed, while the signals in other directions cancel each other out.

Generally, the higher the adaptability of the precoding matrix used by a communication device to the communication environment in which the communication device is located, the higher the communication quality between the communication device and other communication devices. How to improve the adaptability of the precoding matrix used by a communication device to the current communication environment is an urgent problem to be solved.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are beneficial to improving the adaptability of the precoding matrix used by the communication equipment to the current communication environment, thereby helping to improve the communication quality.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a network device, or to a module in a network device (such as a chip or a chip system, etc.). Taking the application to a network device as an example, the method includes: the network device inputs first environmental information into a first model to obtain N precoding matrices, and the first environmental information is used to indicate the communication environment within the coverage range of the network device, where N is a positive integer; further, the network device sends N pilot signals based on the N precoding matrices.

Based on the method described in the first aspect, the network device calculates the precoding matrix corresponding to the current communication environment based on the environmental information of the current communication environment (i.e., the first environmental information) and the first model. It can be understood that the connection between the communication environment and the precoding matrix is learned through the first model, and the precoding matrix can be adapted to the current communication environment based on the first model, which is conducive to improving the adaptability of the precoding matrix to the current environment, thereby helping to improve communication performance.

In a possible implementation, the N precoding matrices are used to obtain N beams corresponding to sending the N pilot signals, and the pilot signals correspond to the beams one-to-one; wherein each beam corresponds to at least one beam direction.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information includes environmental information of a first direction corresponding to the network device and environmental information of a second direction corresponding to the network device; if the terminal density in the first direction is greater than the terminal density in the second direction, the beam intensity of the first beam is greater than the beam intensity of the second beam, and the first beam is the beam corresponding to the first direction among the N beams, and the second beam is the beam corresponding to the second direction among the N beams.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information includes environmental information of a third direction corresponding to the network device and environmental information of a fourth direction corresponding to the network device, the third direction being the direction from the network device to the first position, and the fourth direction being the direction from the network device to the second position; if the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the first position is greater than the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the second position, the beam intensity of the third beam is greater than the beam intensity of the fourth beam, the third beam is the beam among the N beams corresponding to the third direction, and the fourth beam is the beam among the N beams corresponding to the fourth direction.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information includes one or more of the following information: location information of the network device, the cell division method corresponding to the network device, the antenna layout and orientation of the network device, the building layout within the coverage of the network device, the building material within the coverage of the network device, the street layout within the coverage of the network device, the environmental map within the coverage of the network device, the vegetation layout information within the coverage of the network device, and the water system layout within the coverage of the network device.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information also includes location distribution information of multiple terminal devices served by the network device, and the location distribution information includes one or more of the following information: terminal density within the coverage of the network device, a heat map of the multiple terminal devices served by the network device in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device, and movement trajectories of the multiple terminal devices served by the network device in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device.

In a possible implementation, the output of the first model also includes N probability values, the N probability values correspond one-to-one to the N precoding matrices, and the probability value is used to indicate the importance of the precoding matrix corresponding to the probability value among the N precoding matrices.

In one possible implementation, the probability value associated with the first direction among the N probability values is greater than the probability value associated with the second direction; and/or, the probability value associated with the third direction among the N probability values is greater than the probability value associated with the fourth direction.

In a possible implementation, the network device sends the N pilot signals to the first terminal device in a sending order, and the sending order is determined based on the probability value output by the first model, or the sending order is obtained based on the historical measurement data corresponding to the communication environment; further, the network device sends the N pilot signals to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices and the sending order. By implementing this possible implementation, the network device can send N pilot signals according to a variety of sending orders, which is conducive to improving the flexibility of communication.

In a possible implementation, the network device sends the N precoding matrices to the first terminal device, and the N precoding matrices are used by the first terminal device to perform the first detection task according to the second model. By implementing this possible implementation, the first detection task can be performed in combination with the precoding matrix related to the current communication environment, which is conducive to improving the detection accuracy of the first detection task.

In a possible implementation, the network device receives a measurement result from the first terminal device, where the measurement result is the signal strength of the N pilot signals; further, the network device inputs the N precoding matrices and the signal strength of the N pilot signals into a second model to perform a first detection task. By implementing this possible implementation, the network device can perform the first detection task in combination with a precoding matrix related to the current communication environment, which is conducive to improving the detection accuracy of the first detection task.

In one possible implementation, a network device sends configuration information, where the configuration information is used to configure a sending period of a pilot signal corresponding to at least one detection task, and/or the configuration information is used to configure a sending number of pilot signals corresponding to the at least one detection task, where the sending number of pilot signals is the number of pilot signals sent within one sending period.

The number of pilot signals sent corresponding to the detection task can also be understood as the number of beams in the beam combination corresponding to the detection task.

In a possible implementation manner, different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending periods, and/or different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending quantities.

In a possible implementation, the second detection task is any one of the at least one detection task, and the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending cycles, and each sending cycle corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task; or, the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending quantities, and each sending quantity corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task.

In a possible implementation, the at least one detection task includes one or more of a positioning task, a beam prediction task, a channel prediction task, or an environment reconstruction task.

In a possible implementation, the network device obtains the first data, and updates the model parameters of the second model based on the first data; the first data is related to the first detection task. By implementing this possible implementation, after the second model is deployed on the network device, the network device will fine-tune the second model based on the first data (i.e., update the model parameters), which is conducive to improving the adaptability of the second model to the network device and the current communication environment, and is conducive to improving the accuracy of the second model.

In one possible implementation, the first detection task is an environment reconstruction task, and the first data includes pilot signal measurement results of multiple terminal devices served by the network device and environmental information within the coverage area of the network device; or, the first detection task is a positioning task, and the first data includes pilot signal measurement results of terminal devices served by the network device and location information of terminal devices served by the network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the input of the first model also includes distribution information of multiple terminal devices served by the network device.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a first terminal device, or to a module in the first terminal device (such as a chip or a chip system, etc.). Taking the application to the first terminal device as an example, the method includes: the first terminal device receives N precoding matrices from a network device, and the N precoding matrices are related to the communication environment within the coverage range of the network device, and N is a positive integer; the first terminal device measures N pilot signals from the network device to obtain signal strengths of the N pilot signals, and the N pilot signals are sent based on the N precoding matrices; further, the first terminal device inputs the signal strengths of the N pilot signals and the N precoding matrices into a second model to perform a first detection task.

Based on the method described in the second aspect, the first terminal device can perform the first detection task in combination with the precoding matrix related to the current communication environment, which can be understood as taking into account the impact of the communication environment on the first detection task, thereby facilitating improving the detection accuracy of performing the first detection task under the communication environment.

In a possible implementation, the first terminal device receives the transmission order of the N pilot signals from the network device; further, the first terminal device measures the first K pilot signals based on the transmission order of the N pilot signals to obtain the signal strengths of the N pilot signals, where K is a positive integer less than or equal to N. By implementing this possible implementation, the first terminal device can flexibly choose to measure the N pilot signals, or measure part of the N pilot signals, during the process of performing the first detection task, which is conducive to saving power consumption of the terminal device in performing the first detection task.

In one possible implementation, the first terminal device receives configuration information from a network device, where the configuration information is used to configure a sending period of a pilot signal corresponding to at least one detection task, and/or to configure a sending number of pilot signals corresponding to the at least one detection task, where the sending number of pilot signals is the number of pilot signals sent within one sending period.

In a possible implementation manner, different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending periods, and/or different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending quantities.

In a possible implementation, the second detection task is any one of the at least one detection task, and the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending cycles, and each sending cycle corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task; or, the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending quantities, and each sending quantity corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task.

In a possible implementation, the at least one detection task includes one or more of a positioning task, a beam prediction task, a channel prediction task, or an environment reconstruction task.

In a possible implementation, the first terminal device obtains the first data, and based on the first data, updates the model parameters of the second model deployed; the first data is related to the first detection task. By implementing this possible implementation, after the second model is deployed on the first terminal device, the first terminal device will fine-tune the second model based on the first data (i.e., update the model parameters), which is conducive to improving the adaptability of the second model to the first terminal device and the current communication environment, and is conducive to improving the accuracy of the second model.

In a possible implementation, the first detection task is a positioning task, and the first data includes a measurement result of a pilot signal of a terminal device served by the network device and location information of the terminal device served by the network device.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a network device, or a device in a network device, or a device that can be used in combination with a network device. The communication device may also be a chip system. The communication device may execute the method described in the first aspect. The functions of the communication device may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software implementations. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions. The unit or module may be software and/or hardware. The operations and beneficial effects performed by the communication device may refer to the method and beneficial effects described in the first aspect above.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a first terminal device, or a device in the first terminal device, or a device that can be used in combination with the first terminal device. The communication device may also be a chip system. The communication device may execute the method described in the second aspect. The functions of the communication device may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software implementations. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions. The unit or module may be software and/or hardware. The operations and beneficial effects performed by the communication device may refer to the method and beneficial effects described in the second aspect above.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, comprising a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method described in the first aspect through a logic circuit or by executing code instructions, or the processor is used to implement the method described in the second aspect through a logic circuit or by executing code instructions.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the communication device comprising a processor, the processor being connected to a memory, and being used to call a computer program or instruction stored in the memory to execute the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect. The memory may be located within the network device or the first terminal device, or may be located outside the network device or the first terminal device. And the processor includes one or more.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the method described in the first aspect is implemented, or the method described in the second aspect is implemented.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising a computer program or instructions. When a communication device reads and executes the computer program or instructions, the communication device executes the method as described in the first aspect, or the communication device executes the method as described in the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, comprising a communication device for executing the method described in the first aspect and a communication device for executing the method described in the second aspect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1a is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG1b is another schematic diagram of a wireless communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG2 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the signal strength of each pilot signal provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4 is a schematic diagram of sending a pilot signal through a precoding matrix provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG5 is another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG6 is another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG7 is a logic diagram of a model training provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In order to facilitate a specific understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the system architecture involved in the embodiments of the present application is first introduced below.

FIG. 1a is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system 1000 used in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1a , the communication system includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (such as 110a and 110b in FIG. 1a , collectively referred to as 110), and may also include at least one terminal (such as 120a-120j in FIG. 1a , collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as a wireless relay device and/or a wireless backhaul device (not shown in FIG. 1a ). The terminal 120 is connected to the RAN node 110 wirelessly, and the RAN node 110 is connected to the core network 200 wirelessly or by wire. The core network device in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 may be independent and different physical devices, or may be the same physical device that integrates the logical functions of the core network device and the logical functions of the RAN node. Terminals and terminals as well as RAN nodes and RAN nodes may be connected to each other via wired or wireless means.

RAN100 may be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a new radio (NR) system, and a future radio access system defined in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). RAN100 may also include two or more of the above different radio access systems. RAN100 may also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

RAN node, also known as radio access network equipment, RAN entity or access node, RAN node may also be referred to as network equipment in the following text, which is used to help terminals access the communication system through wireless means. In an application scenario, the RAN node may be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, a next generation NodeB in the sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. The RAN node may be a macro base station (such as 110a in FIG. 1a), a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in FIG. 1a), or a relay node or a donor node.

In another application scenario, the cooperation of multiple RAN nodes can help the terminal achieve wireless access, and different RAN nodes respectively implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the RAN node can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU) or a radio unit (RU). The CU here completes the functions of the radio resource control protocol and the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) of the base station, and can also complete the function of the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP); the DU completes the functions of the radio link control layer and the medium access control (MAC) layer of the base station, and can also complete the functions of part or all of the physical layer. For the specific description of the above-mentioned protocol layers, please refer to the relevant technical specifications of 3GPP. RU can be used to implement the transceiver function of the radio frequency signal. CU and DU can be two independent RAN nodes, or they can be integrated in the same RAN node, such as integrated in the baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device, such as a remote radio unit (RRU) or an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU may be further divided into two types of RAN nodes: CU-control plane and CU-user plane.

RAN nodes can support one or more types of fronthaul interfaces. Different fronthaul interfaces correspond to DUs and RUs with different functions. If the fronthaul interface between DU and RU is a common public radio interface (CPRI), DU is configured to implement one or more baseband functions, and RU is configured to implement one or more radio frequency functions. If the fronthaul interface between DU and RU is an enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI), relative to CPRI, part of the downlink and/or uplink baseband functions are moved from DU to RU for implementation. Different division methods between DU and RU correspond to different types (category, Cat) of eCPRI, such as eCPRI Cat A, B, C, D, E, and F.

Taking eCPRI Cat A as an example, for downlink transmission, based on layer mapping, DU is configured to implement layer mapping and one or more functions before it (i.e., one or more of coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping), while other functions after layer mapping (for example, one or more of resource element (RE) mapping, digital beamforming (BF), or inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT)/adding cyclic prefix (CP)) are moved to RU for implementation. For uplink transmission, with RE demapping as the division, DU is configured to implement demapping and one or more functions before it (i.e. decoding, rate matching, descrambling, demodulation, inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT), channel equalization, one or more functions of RE demapping), while other functions after demapping (e.g., one or more of digital BF or fast Fourier transform (FFT)/CP removal) are moved to RU for implementation. It is understandable that the functional description of DU and RU corresponding to various types of eCPRI can be referred to the eCPRI protocol, which will not be repeated here.

In one possible design, the processing unit for implementing the baseband function in the BBU is called a baseband high layer (BBH) unit, and the processing unit for implementing the baseband function in the RRU/AAU/RRH is called a baseband low layer (BBL) unit.

In different systems, RAN nodes may have different names. For example, in an O-RAN system, CU may be called an open CU (open CU, O-CU), DU may be called an open DU (open DU, O-DU), and RU may be called an open RU (open RU, O-RU). The RAN node in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module. For example, the RAN node may be a server loaded with a corresponding software module. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the RAN node. For ease of description, the following description takes a base station as an example of a RAN node.

A terminal is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can send signals to a base station or receive signals from a base station. A terminal can also be called a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. Terminals can be widely used in various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, automatic driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. A terminal can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a wearable device, a vehicle, an airplane, a ship, a robot, a mechanical arm, a smart home device, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal.

Base stations and terminals can be fixed or movable. Base stations and terminals can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on the water surface; they can also be deployed on airplanes, balloons, and artificial satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of base stations and terminals.

The roles of the base station and the terminal can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in FIG. 1a can be configured as a mobile base station. For the terminal 120j that accesses the wireless access network 100 through 120i, the terminal 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, that is, 110a and 120i communicate through the wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate through the interface protocol between base stations. In this case, relative to 110a, 120i is also a base station. Therefore, base stations and terminals can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in FIG. 1a can be referred to as communication devices with base station functions, and 120a-120j in FIG. 1a can be referred to as communication devices with terminal functions.

Base stations and terminals, base stations and base stations, and terminals and terminals can communicate through authorized spectrum, unauthorized spectrum, or both; they can communicate through spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), spectrum above 6 GHz, or spectrum below 6 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station may also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station, or by a control subsystem including the base station function. The control subsystem including the base station function here may be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, smart transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal may also be performed by a module (such as a chip or a modem) in the terminal, or by a device including the terminal function.

Please refer to FIG. 1b , which is another schematic diagram of a wireless communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in FIG. 1b , the wireless communication system includes a RAN intelligent controller (RIC). As an example, the RIC can be used to implement functions related to artificial intelligence (AI). As an example, the RIC includes a near-real-time RIC (near-RT RIC) and a non-real-time RIC (non-real-time RIC). Among them, the non-real-time RIC mainly processes non-real-time information, such as data that is not sensitive to delay, and the delay of the data can be in the order of seconds. The real-time RIC mainly processes near-real-time information, such as data that is relatively sensitive to delay, and the delay of the data is in the order of tens of milliseconds.

The near real-time RIC is used for model training and reasoning. For example, it is used to train an AI model and use the AI model for reasoning. The near real-time RIC can obtain information on the network side and/or the terminal side from a RAN node (e.g., CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU, and/or RU) and/or a terminal. This information can be used as training data or reasoning data. Optionally, the near real-time RIC can submit the reasoning results to the RAN node and/or the terminal. Optionally, the reasoning results can be exchanged between the CU and the DU, and/or between the DU and the RU. For example, the near real-time RIC submits the reasoning results to the DU, and the DU sends it to the RU.

The non-real-time RIC is also used for model training and reasoning. For example, it is used to train an AI model and use the model for reasoning. The non-real-time RIC can obtain information on the network side and/or the terminal side from a RAN node (such as a CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and/or RU) and/or a terminal. The information can be used as training data or reasoning data, and the reasoning results can be submitted to the RAN node and/or the terminal. Optionally, the reasoning results can be exchanged between the CU and the DU, and/or between the DU and the RU. For example, the non-real-time RIC submits the reasoning results to the DU, and the DU sends it to the RU.

The near real-time RIC and the non-real-time RIC may also be separately set as a network element. Optionally, the near real-time RIC and the non-real-time RIC may also be part of other devices, for example, the near real-time RIC is set in a RAN node (for example, in a CU or DU), while the non-real-time RIC is set in an operation, administration and maintenance (OAM), a cloud server, a core network device, or other network devices.

In practical applications, the wireless communication system may include multiple network devices (also called access network devices) at the same time, and may also include multiple terminal devices at the same time, without limitation. A network device may serve one or more terminal devices at the same time. A terminal device may also access one or more network devices at the same time. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the number of terminal devices and network devices included in the wireless communication system.

In order to facilitate understanding of the relevant contents of the embodiments of the present application, some of the terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are explained below. This part is only for ease of understanding and cannot be regarded as a disclosure or specific limitation of the technical solution of the present application.

1. Neural Networks

The neural network may be composed of neural units, and the neural unit may refer to an operation unit that takes _xs as input, and the output of the operation unit may be as shown in formula (1).

Where s=1, 2, ...n, n is a natural number greater than 1, _Ws is the weight of _xs , and b is the bias of the neural unit. f is the activation function of the neural unit, which is used to introduce nonlinear characteristics into the neural network to convert the input signal in the neural unit into the output signal. The output signal of the activation function can be used as the input of the next convolution layer. The activation function can be a sigmoid function. A neural network is a network formed by connecting many of the above-mentioned single neural units together, that is, the output of one neural unit can be the input of another neural unit. The input of each neural unit can be connected to the local receptive field of the previous layer to extract the characteristics of the local receptive field. The local receptive field can be an area composed of several neural units.

It should be noted that the neural network model mentioned in the present application (such as the first model or the second model mentioned below) can be a network model of a neural network, a network model of a deep neural network (DNN), a network model of a convolutional neural network (CNN), a network model of a recurrent neural network (RNN), a network model of a generative adversarial network, or one or more of the above, or a variation (or combination) of a combination thereof, and the present application does not make any specific limitations on this.

2. Pilot

The pilot may also be called pilot information, pilot signal, reference signal (RS), reference sequence, etc. The pilot may include an uplink pilot and a downlink pilot. The uplink pilot is used for uplink channel measurement and estimation of uplink channel state information (CSI) (or estimation of uplink channel matrix). The downlink pilot is used for downlink channel measurement and estimation of downlink CSI (or downlink channel matrix). Exemplarily, the uplink pilot may be a sounding reference signal (SRS), and the downlink pilot may be a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or a synchronization signal block (SSB).

It should be noted that the reference signals listed above are only examples and should not constitute any limitation to the present application. The present application does not exclude the possibility of defining other reference signals in future protocols to achieve the same or similar functions.

3. Beam

The embodiment of beam in NR protocol can be spatial filter, spatial parameters, or precoder. The beam used to send signals can be called transmission beam (Tx beam), which can be called spatial transmission filter or spatial transmission parameter; the beam used to receive signals can be called reception beam (Rx beam), which can be called spatial reception filter or spatial reception parameter.

The transmit beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions of space after the signal is transmitted by the antenna, and the receive beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions of space of the wireless signal received from the antenna.

It should be understood that the embodiment of beams in the NR protocol listed above is only an example and should not constitute any limitation to this application. This application does not exclude the possibility of defining other terms in other protocols to express the same or similar meanings.

In addition, the beam may be a wide beam, a narrow beam, or other types of beams. Different beams may be considered to correspond to different resources (including one or more of time domain resources, frequency domain resources, or spatial domain resources). The same information or different information may be sent through different beams. The technology for forming the beam may be a beamforming technology or other technology.

Optionally, a beam may correspond to one or more antenna ports for transmitting data, control signaling, or detection signals, etc. One or more antenna ports forming a beam may also be regarded as an antenna port set. For the description of antenna ports, please refer to the relevant content later in this application.

4. Beamforming Technology

In a single-antenna communication mode (i.e., electromagnetic wave propagation from a single antenna to a single antenna between a network device and a terminal device), without physical adjustment (i.e., without adjusting the amplitude and/or phase of the antenna transmitting signal), the antenna radiation direction is fixed, and there will be a problem of limited number of users that can be served at the same frequency at the same time. In order to solve the problem of limited number of users, beamforming technology is proposed. This beamforming technology can also be called precoding technology. In beamforming technology, a network device has multiple antennas, and the amplitude and/or phase of the signals transmitted by each antenna can be adjusted to form an effective superposition of electromagnetic waves at the receiving point of the terminal device, thereby generating a stronger signal gain to overcome the loss, thereby achieving the purpose of improving the received signal strength.

Generally, beamforming technology may include: digital beam forming (DBF), analog beam forming (ABF) or hybrid beam forming (also called hybrid digital/analog beam forming). DBF is a method of adjusting the amplitude and phase weights of the signal by processing the input signal in the digital domain; ABF is a method of changing the phase of the signal by applying the phase weight to the analog signal (for example, by using a phase shifter at the radio frequency).

5. Beamforming Matrix

The beamforming matrix is a parameter that supports the antenna array to generate a specific beam. The specific beam here includes but is not limited to a beam in a specific direction, a beam in a specific shape, and a beam with a specific power (or energy).

In one possibility, the beamforming matrix may also be referred to as a weight matrix, that is, each element in the beamforming matrix is a weight, and the weight is used to perform vector multiplication with the wireless signal received and/or transmitted by the antenna, which is so-called "weighting the antenna".

In some embodiments, the weights may also be replaced by other parameters used to implement beamforming, such as a steering vector, a precoding matrix, a signal amplitude and phase of an antenna port, etc.

Generally, the higher the adaptability of the precoding matrix used by a communication device to the communication environment in which the communication device is located, the higher the communication quality between the communication device and other communication devices. In order to improve the adaptability of the precoding matrix used by a communication device to the current communication environment, the present application provides a communication method, which is conducive to improving the adaptability between the communication environment and the precoding matrix, thereby helping to improve the communication quality. The communication method and communication device provided by the present application are further introduced below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings:

Please refer to Figure 2, which is a flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, the communication method includes the following S201~S202. The execution subject of the method shown in Figure 2 can be a network device and a first terminal device, or the execution subject of the method shown in Figure 2 can be a module in the network device and a module in the first terminal device, or the execution subject of the method shown in Figure 2 can be a chip of the network device and a chip of the first terminal device. Figure 2 takes the network device and the first terminal device as the execution subject of the method as an example, and the first terminal device is any terminal device that provides services to the network device. It should be noted that the network device mentioned in this application can be the RAN node shown in Figure 1a or Figure 1b, and the terminal device mentioned in this application can be the terminal device shown in Figure 1a or Figure 1b, and this application does not make specific limitations. Among them:

S201: A network device inputs first environment information into a first model to obtain N precoding matrices, where N is a positive integer. The first environment information is used to indicate a communication environment within a coverage area of the network device.

That is to say, after the network device determines the environmental information of the communication environment (or understands the communication environment within the coverage range), the environmental information is recorded as the first environmental information, and the first environmental information is input into the first model to obtain N precoding matrices. Among them, the first model can be a neural network model deployed on the network device, or a neural network model deployed in a device having a communication connection with the network device, and this application does not specifically limit this.

It should be noted that the present application does not specifically limit the specific form of expression of environmental information (such as the first environmental information) used to indicate the communication environment. In one possible implementation, the first environmental information includes the location information of the network device, the cell division method corresponding to the network device, the antenna layout and orientation of the network device, map information within the coverage of the network device (such as satellite images, aerial photos, elevation maps, drone photography maps, 2D or 3D maps obtained through the network (such as obtained from a database providing map services)), etc.), environmental layout information within the coverage of the network device (such as building layout, building material, height or volume of each building, street layout information, vegetation layout information, water system layout information, etc.) or one or more of the radar point cloud map.

It should also be noted that the present application does not specifically limit the manner in which the network device determines the first environmental information. For example, the network device can obtain the first environmental information corresponding to the communication environment within the coverage range from a database (such as the memory of the network device, a cloud database, etc.) that has a communication connection with the network device based on its own location information and signal coverage range. For another example, the network device can sense the environment within the coverage range of the network device through a neural network model, radar detector, camera, satellite, drone or global positioning system (GPS) for environmental perception, and obtain the first environmental information corresponding to the communication environment within the coverage range.

Optionally, the network device may serve multiple terminal devices (represented as M terminal devices). In another possible implementation, the first environmental information also includes distribution information (or location distribution information) of the M terminal devices. The location distribution information includes one or more of the following information: the density of the M terminal devices in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device, the heat map of the M terminal devices in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device, and the movement trajectory of the M terminal devices in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device. It should be noted that the present application does not specifically limit the way in which the network device obtains location distribution information. For example, the location distribution information may be obtained by the network device based on historical data statistics.

In a possible implementation, the N precoding matrices mentioned in the present application are used to obtain N beams for sending pilot signals (i.e., the N pilot signals in S202), the pilot signals (or precoding matrices) correspond to the beams one by one, and each of the N beams corresponds to at least one beam direction, the beam direction refers to the direction in which the beam sends the pilot signal, and the beam strength refers to the strength of the beam sending the pilot signal. Generally, the stronger the beam strength in a certain direction, the stronger the beam in that direction.

It can be understood that there is an association relationship between the first environmental information and the N precoding matrices, and the first model is used to learn the association relationship between the environmental information (including the first environmental information) and the precoding matrix. In other words, when the first environmental information changes, the N precoding matrices obtained by the first model may also change accordingly. It can be understood that when the first environmental information changes, the N beams will also change, that is, the beam direction and/or beam strength of the N beams will also change according to the change of the first environmental information.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information includes environmental information in Q directions corresponding to the network device, where Q is a positive integer greater than or equal to N; N precoding matrices can be obtained through the first model, and each precoding matrix is used to form a beam in at least one direction of the Q directions and send a pilot signal. For example, the network device obtains the omnidirectional environmental information corresponding to the network device (that is, it can be understood that Q is greater than N), the number of precoding matrices output by the first model is a first value (that is, the value of N mentioned in this application, and the first value can be adjusted by the network device according to the specific application environment), and the network device inputs the omnidirectional environmental information (which can be regarded as the first environmental information mentioned in this application) into the first model to obtain N precoding matrices. For another example, the network device obtains the environmental information in N directions corresponding to the network device (that is, Q is equal to N), and further, the network device inputs the environmental information in N directions (which can be regarded as the first environmental information mentioned in this application) into the first model to obtain the precoding matrices corresponding to the N directions respectively. It should be noted that the "omnidirectional environmental information corresponding to the network device" mentioned in this application can be understood as the environmental information in all directions corresponding to the network device; or, it can also be understood as not dividing the environmental information by direction, and the omnidirectional environmental information is the environmental information within a certain area corresponding to the network device (for example, part or all of the area covered by the signal of the network device).

Optionally, the Q directions include a first direction and a second direction, that is, the first environmental information includes environmental information of the first direction corresponding to the network device and environmental information of the second direction corresponding to the network device. In this case, if the terminal density in the first direction (or understood as the number of terminals corresponding to the first direction within the coverage area of the network device) is greater than the terminal density in the second direction, the beam intensity of the first beam is greater than the beam intensity of the second beam, and the first beam is the beam corresponding to the first direction among the N beams, and the second beam is the beam corresponding to the second direction among the N beams. Conversely, if the terminal density in the first direction is less than the terminal density in the second direction, the beam intensity of the first beam is less than the beam intensity of the second beam.

In Example 1, the first environmental information includes environmental information from the network device to direction #1 of building A, and environmental information from the network device to direction #2 of river B. Generally, the possibility of the existence of terminal devices in building A (or the number of terminal devices) is greater than the possibility of the existence of terminal devices on river B. In this case, it can be understood that the terminal density in building A (i.e., the terminal density in direction #1) is greater than the terminal density of river B (the terminal density in direction #2). In this case, the beam strength of the beam formed by the precoding matrix corresponding to direction #1 is greater than the beam strength of the beam formed by the precoding matrix corresponding to direction #2.

In Example 2, the first environment information includes environment information of direction #3 from the network device to position 1, and environment information of direction #4 from the network device to position 2. Position 1 and position 2 can be determined from the position distribution information in the first environment information, respectively, and the terminal density of position 1 is greater than the terminal density of position 2. In this case, the beam strength of the beam formed by the precoding matrix corresponding to direction #3 is greater than the beam strength of the beam formed by the precoding matrix corresponding to direction #4.

Optionally, the Q directions include a third direction and a fourth direction, that is, the first environmental information includes environmental information of the third direction corresponding to the network device and environmental information of the fourth direction corresponding to the network device, the third direction is the direction from the network device to the first position, and the fourth direction is the direction from the network device to the second position. In this case, if the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the first position is greater than the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the second position, the beam strength of the third beam is greater than the beam strength of the fourth beam, the third beam is the beam corresponding to the third direction among the N beams, and the fourth beam is the beam corresponding to the fourth direction among the N beams.

In Example 3, the first environmental information includes environmental information of direction #5 from the network device to position 3, and environmental information of direction #6 from the network device to position 4. According to the first environmental information, it can be analyzed that there are 5 signal transmission paths for signals to be transmitted from the network device to position 3, and there are 3 signal transmission paths for signals to be transmitted from the network device to position 4. In this case, the beam strength of the beam formed by the precoding matrix corresponding to direction #5 is greater than the beam strength of the beam formed by the precoding matrix corresponding to direction #6.

It should be noted that the N precoding matrices obtained according to the first model mentioned in this application include any of the following two understandings: ①, the output of the first model is the N precoding matrices; that is, after the first environmental information is input into the first model, the first model outputs the element values of each precoding matrix in the N precoding matrices; ②, the output of the first model is an indication of the N precoding matrices; that is, after the first environmental information is input into the first model, the output of the first model is obtained, and the network device can determine (or understand as selecting) the N precoding matrices from the preset multiple precoding matrices according to the output of the first model. It should also be noted that the precoding matrix mentioned in this application can be an analog precoding matrix or a digital precoding matrix. When the precoding matrix is an analog precoding matrix, the number of element values of the analog precoding matrix is the same as the number of antennas, and each element corresponds to a real part and an imaginary part; when the precoding matrix is a digital precoding matrix, the number of element values of the digital precoding matrix is the same as the product of the number of antenna ports and the number of transmission layers, and each element corresponds to a real part and an imaginary part.

In a possible implementation, the output of the first model also includes N probability values, which correspond one-to-one to the N precoding matrices; the probability value is used to indicate the importance of the precoding matrix corresponding to the probability value in the N precoding matrices.

That is to say, in addition to being associated with the N precoding matrices, the first environmental information is also associated with the probability values corresponding to the N precoding matrices, and the first model can also be used to learn the association between the environmental information and the probability values corresponding to the precoding matrices. When the first environmental information changes, the probability values corresponding to the N precoding matrices may also change accordingly.

Optionally, the Q directions include a first direction and a second direction, that is, the first environment information includes environment information of the first direction corresponding to the network device and environment information of the second direction corresponding to the network device. In this case, if the terminal density in the first direction is greater than the terminal density in the second direction, the probability value associated with the first direction among the N probability values is greater than the probability value associated with the second direction.

For example, following the above example 1, the first environmental information includes environmental information from the network device to the direction #1 of the building A, and environmental information from the network device to the direction #2 of the river B. In this example 1, the terminal density in the building A (i.e., the terminal density in the direction #1) is greater than the terminal density in the river B (i.e., the terminal density in the direction #2). In this case, the probability value associated with the direction #1 (i.e., the probability value corresponding to the precoding matrix corresponding to the direction #1) is greater than the probability value associated with the direction #2.

For another example, following the above example 2, the first environmental information includes environmental information from the network device to direction #3 of position 1, and environmental information from the network device to direction #4 of position 2. In this example 2, the terminal density of position 1 is greater than the terminal density of position 2. In this case, the probability value associated with direction #3 is greater than the probability value associated with direction #4.

Optionally, the Q directions include a third direction and a fourth direction, that is, the first environment information includes environment information of the third direction corresponding to the network device and environment information of the fourth direction corresponding to the network device, the third direction is the direction from the network device to the first position, and the fourth direction is the direction from the network device to the second position. In this case, if the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the first position is greater than the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the second position, then the probability value associated with the third direction among the N probability values is greater than the probability value associated with the fourth direction.

For example, following the above example 3, the first environment information includes environment information of direction #5 from the network device to position 3, and environment information of direction #6 from the network device to position 4. In this example 3, there are 5 signal transmission paths for signals to be transmitted from the network device to position 3, and there are 3 signal transmission paths for signals to be transmitted from the network device to position 4. In this case, the probability value associated with direction #5 is greater than the probability value associated with direction #6.

S202. The network device sends N pilot signals to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices.

That is to say, the network device forms N beams through the N precoding matrices, and sends N pilot signals respectively through the N beams. It can be understood that the precoding matrix corresponds to the beam (or understood as the beam direction) one-to-one, the beam corresponds to the pilot signal one-to-one, and the precoding matrix corresponds to the pilot signal one-to-one. It should be noted that, in the absence of special instructions and logical conflicts, the pilot signals and beams in this application are interchangeable. For example, S202 can also be described as the network device sending N beams to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices. It should also be noted that the network device sending the N pilot signals can be broadcast, unicast, or multicast, and this application does not limit this.

For example, the N precoding matrices include precoding matrix 1 and precoding matrix 2, beam 1 may be formed based on precoding matrix 1, and beam 2 may be formed based on precoding matrix 2. In this case, the network device sends a pilot signal through beam 1 based on precoding matrix 1, and sends a pilot signal through beam 2 based on precoding matrix 2.

Typically, the N beams formed by the network device through the N precoding matrices correspond to beam indices, and the N beams correspond to different beam directions, respectively, that is, it can be understood that different beam indices correspond to different beam directions. In the case where the network device and the first terminal device do not exchange the order of sending pilot signals, the network device can send pilot signals through different beams in sequence according to the default sending order (for example, in the order of beam index from small to large, or in the order of beam index from large to small). For example, the network device can form 8 beams through 8 precoding matrices: beam #0 to beam #7, and the network device can send pilot signals through beam #0 to beam #7 in sequence according to the order of beam index from small to large.

In a possible implementation, the network device sends the N pilot signals to the first terminal device in a sending order, where the sending order is output by the first model, or the sending order is obtained based on historical measurement data corresponding to the communication environment. Further, the network device sends the N pilot signals to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices and the sending order.

That is, after the network device obtains the sending order of the N pilot signals, it sends the sending order of the N pilot signals to the first terminal device, so that the network device and the first terminal device reach an agreement on the sending order of the N pilot signals. Further, the network device sends the N pilot signals to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices and the sending order; that is, the first terminal device receives the N pilot signals based on the sending order.

For example, the network device can obtain 8 pilot signals through 8 precoding matrices, and the beam indexes corresponding to the 8 pilot signals are beam #0 to beam #7. Furthermore, the network device obtains the sending order of the 8 pilot signals: beam #1, beam #3, beam #0, beam #4, beam #5, beam #6, beam #7. According to the sending order, the network device first sends the pilot signal to the first terminal device through the precoding matrix corresponding to beam #1, and finally sends the pilot signal to the first terminal device through the precoding matrix corresponding to beam #7.

In one possible implementation, the sending order is related to the transmission characteristics of the pilot signals sent by the N precoding matrices (or understood as the N beams) predicted (or estimated, calculated) by the network device, and the transmission characteristics include one or more of transmission delay, signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio or path loss. It can be understood that the lower the transmission delay of the pilot signal, the greater the signal strength, the greater the signal-to-noise ratio or the smaller the path loss, the better the transmission characteristics of the pilot signal; or, the sending order is related to the environmental perception capability of the pilot signals sent by the N precoding matrices predicted by the network device, and it can be understood that the more diverse the wireless paths covered by the pilot signals, the stronger the environmental perception capability of the pilot signals; or, the sending order is related to the coverage capability of the pilot signals sent by the N precoding matrices predicted by the network device, and it can be understood that the more users (or the number of terminal devices) covered by the pilot signal, the stronger the coverage capability of the pilot signal. Optionally, the better the transmission characteristics of a certain pilot signal, the stronger the environment perception capability or the stronger the coverage capability, the earlier the sending order of the pilot signal among the N pilot signals.

For example, the signal strengths of the pilot signals respectively transmitted by beams #0 to #7 predicted by the network device are shown in FIG3 , where the signal strength of the pilot signal transmitted by beam #1 is the strongest, and the signal strength of the pilot signal transmitted by beam #7 is the weakest. Based on the transmission characteristics of each pilot signal shown in FIG3 , the network device can determine the transmission order of the eight pilot signals: beam #1, beam #2, beam #0, beam #3, beam #4, beam #5, beam #6, beam #7.

It should be noted that: ①. The sending order of the N pilot signals mentioned in this application can also be understood as the order of use of the N precoding matrices, or as the sending order of the N beams. ②. The sending order mentioned in this application is output by the first model, which can be understood as the network device predicting the sending order of the N pilot signals through the first model; or, it can also be understood that the network device predicts the strong and weak relationship of the transmission characteristics of the N pilot signals through the first model, and the network device can determine the sending order of the N pilot signals according to the strong and weak relationship of the transmission characteristics of the N pilot signals; or, it can also be understood that the sending order is determined according to the N probability values output by the first model, for example, the larger the probability value, the earlier the sending order of the pilot signal sent by the precoding matrix corresponding to the probability value. That is to say, the input of the first model is the first environmental information, or the first environmental information and distribution information; the output of the first model includes, in addition to the N precoding matrices, the sending order of the N pilot signals corresponding to the N precoding matrices, or the strength relationship of the transmission characteristics of the N pilot signals, or the N probability values. ③. The sending order mentioned in the present application is obtained based on the historical measurement data corresponding to the communication environment, which can be understood as the network device obtaining (for example, obtaining from a memory) the historical measurement data of the transmitted signals in multiple directions (including the beam directions corresponding to the N beams) in the communication environment, and estimating (or understanding as calculating) the transmission characteristics of the pilot signals sent by the N precoding matrices based on the historical measurement data of the transmitted signals in the multiple directions, and obtaining the sending order of the N pilot signals. Among them, the historical measurement data of the transmitted signals in the multiple directions include but are not limited to the transmission characteristics of the transmitted signals in each direction.

In summary, by implementing the communication method described in FIG. 2 of the present application, the network device can calculate the precoding matrix corresponding to the current communication environment based on the environmental information of the current communication environment (i.e., the first environmental information) and the first model, that is, the connection between the communication environment and the precoding matrix is learned through the first model. Compared with sending a pilot signal according to a plurality of precoding matrices set in advance, the beam formed when each precoding matrix sends a pilot signal has a preset beam direction (as shown in the comparison scheme in FIG. 4), by implementing the communication method described in FIG. 2 of the present application, the plurality of precoding matrices obtained in combination with the current environmental information can be used to make the beam formed when each precoding matrix sends a pilot signal adapt to the current communication environment (even if the precoding matrix adapts to the current communication environment), and each beam can have at least one beam direction, which is conducive to improving the adaptability of the precoding matrix to the current environment, thereby facilitating improving communication performance.

It should be noted that the pilot signal mentioned in this application may be SRS, SSB, or CSI-RS, and this application does not specifically limit this. The pilot signal mentioned in this application can be used to perform a detection task, which includes but is not limited to one or more of the following detection tasks: positioning tasks, beam prediction tasks, channel prediction tasks, or environmental reconstruction tasks. Among them, the positioning task is used to locate the first terminal device, the beam prediction task is used to determine the available beam pair (for example, the optimal beam pair, including a transmit beam and a receive beam) between the network device and the first terminal device, the channel prediction task is used to predict the channel information between the network device and the first terminal device, and the environmental reconstruction task is used to construct a three-dimensional reconstruction model (or understand it as a virtual scene) of the communication environment in which the network device is located. For ease of understanding, the process of performing a detection task through the pilot signal in Figure 2 is described in detail below in conjunction with Figures 5 and 6, wherein Figure 5 is a process in which the first terminal device performs a detection task based on the pilot signal, and Figure 6 is a process in which the network device performs a detection task based on the pilot signal.

Please refer to Figure 5, which is a flow chart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5, the communication method includes the following S501~S505. The execution subject of the method shown in Figure 5 can be a network device and a first terminal device, or the execution subject of the method shown in Figure 5 can be a module in the network device and a module in the first terminal device, or the execution subject of the method shown in Figure 5 can be a chip of the network device and a chip of the first terminal device. Figure 5 takes the network device and the first terminal device as the execution subject of the method as an example for explanation. Among them:

S501 (optional): The network device sends configuration information to the first terminal device.

The configuration information is used to configure the transmission period of the pilot signal corresponding to at least one detection task, and/or the configuration information is used to configure the number of pilot signals transmitted corresponding to the at least one detection task, and the number of pilot signals transmitted is the number of pilot signals transmitted in one transmission period. It should be understood that S502-S505 below are described by taking a first detection task in the at least one detection task as an example, and the number of pilot signals transmitted corresponding to the first detection task is N.

For example, the network device sends configuration information to the first terminal device, and the sending periods and the number of pilot signals sent corresponding to the multiple detection tasks configured by the configuration information are shown in Table 1. Among them, the sending period corresponding to the positioning task is 20ms, and the corresponding number of pilot signals sent is 12; the sending period corresponding to the positioning task is 5ms, and the corresponding number of pilot signals sent is 6; the sending period corresponding to the channel prediction task is 40ms, and the corresponding number of pilot signals sent is 18; the sending period corresponding to the environment reconstruction task is 160ms, and the corresponding number of pilot signals sent is 24.

Table 1

It should be noted that different detection tasks may correspond to different transmission periods, and/or different detection tasks may correspond to different numbers of pilot signal transmissions. In other words, different detection tasks may correspond to different transmission periods and different numbers of pilot signal transmissions; or, different detection tasks may correspond to the same transmission period but different numbers of pilot signal transmissions; or, different detection tasks may correspond to different transmission periods but the same number of pilot signal transmissions. This application does not specifically limit this.

It should also be noted that any one of the at least one detection tasks configured by the configuration information (recorded as the second detection task) can correspond to multiple sending cycles, and each sending cycle corresponding to the second detection task respectively corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task; and/or, the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending quantities, and each sending quantity corresponding to the second detection task respectively corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task.

For example, when the second detection task is an environment reconstruction task, the sending period and the sending quantity corresponding to the second detection task are shown in Table 2. In Table 2, when the detection accuracy of the environment reconstruction task is 80%, the sending period corresponding to the environment reconstruction task under this detection accuracy is 160ms, and the corresponding sending quantity is 24; when the detection accuracy of the environment reconstruction task is 90%, the sending period corresponding to the environment reconstruction task under this detection accuracy is 270ms, and the corresponding sending quantity is 48.

Table 2

Optionally, when the second detection task corresponds to one transmission cycle but corresponds to multiple transmission quantities, the pilot signal of the second detection task can be designed in a nested manner, which is beneficial to avoid the additional overhead caused by multiple sorting of pilot signals of the same detection task. For example, the beam prediction task corresponds to transmission quantities of 6 and 10. In this case, the transmission order of the pilot signal used to perform the beam prediction task is shown in Table 3.

Table 3

That is to say, taking the example that the number of transmissions corresponding to the detection task includes a first number and a second number, and the first number is greater than the second number, the sending order of the first number of pilot signals (for example, the sending order of 10 pilot signals in Table 3) includes the sending order of the second number of pilot signals (for example, the sending order of 6 pilot signals in Table 3).

S502: The network device inputs the first environment information into the first model to obtain N precoding matrices, where N is a positive integer.

The specific implementation of S502 can refer to the description of the specific implementation of S201 above, which will not be repeated here.

S503. The network device sends the N precoding matrices to the first terminal device.

After obtaining the N precoding matrices, the network device sends the N precoding matrices to the first terminal device (that is, it can be understood as directly sending the values of the N precoding matrices). Correspondingly, the first terminal device receives the N precoding matrices from the network device.

Alternatively, after obtaining the N precoding matrices, the network device sends indication information indicating the N precoding matrices to the first terminal device. Accordingly, the first terminal device receives the indication information indicating the N precoding matrices from the network device, and determines the N precoding matrices according to the indication information.

S504. The first terminal device measures N pilot signals from the network device to obtain the strengths of the N pilot signals.

That is to say, the network device sends the N pilot signals to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices. The specific implementation method can be found in the description of the specific implementation method of the aforementioned S202, which will not be repeated here. Correspondingly, the first terminal device receives the N pilot signals and measures the N pilot signals to obtain the strength of the N pilot signals.

It is understandable that, when S501 is executed, the first terminal device knows the transmission period of the pilot signal corresponding to the first detection task, and the number of transmissions of the pilot signal corresponding to the first detection task. The network device sends N pilot signals of the first detection task to the first terminal device based on the transmission period corresponding to the first detection task and the number of transmissions corresponding to the first detection task. Accordingly, the first terminal device can measure N pilot signals based on the transmission period corresponding to the first detection task and the number of transmissions corresponding to the first detection task.

In one possible implementation, the network device may send the sending order of the N pilot signals to the first terminal device before sending the N pilot signals to the first terminal device. After the first terminal device receives the sending order of the N pilot signals from the network device, the first terminal device measures the first K pilot signals based on the sending order to obtain the strengths of the N pilot signals.

Among them, K is a positive integer less than or equal to N, and the specific value of K is not specifically limited in this application. Optionally, the specific value of K is related to the demand for detection accuracy of performing the detection task, or is related to the beam scanning overhead during the execution of the detection task. For example, the specific value of K is positively correlated with the demand for detection accuracy; that is, when the first terminal device has a higher demand for detection accuracy for the first detection task of performing S504, the larger the specific value of K, the greater the beam scanning overhead during the execution of the detection task (for example, the longer the time required for beam scanning). It should be understood that the smaller the gap between the detection result obtained by performing the detection task and the actual result, the higher the detection accuracy of performing the detection task. Conversely, the larger the gap between the detection result obtained by performing the detection task and the actual result, the lower the detection accuracy of performing the detection task. Optionally, the specific value of K can be determined by the network device in this application and sent to the first terminal device, or it can be determined by the first terminal device itself, and this is not limited.

In a possible example, the device for performing the first detection task (the first terminal device in FIG. 5 and the network device in FIG. 6) can determine the specific value of K according to its own requirements for detection accuracy. For example, the transmission period corresponding to the beam prediction task is 5ms, the number of pilot signals sent corresponding to the beam prediction task is 10, and the transmission order of the 10 pilot signals is: beam #3, beam #4, beam #0, beam #2, beam #1, beam #5, beam #8, beam #6, beam #7, beam #9. According to calculations, when the device performing the first detection task measures the first 6 pilot signals (i.e., beam #3, beam #4, beam #0, beam #2, beam #1, beam #5), the detection accuracy corresponding to the beam prediction task is 80%; when the device performing the first detection task measures the 10 pilot signals, the detection accuracy corresponding to the beam prediction task is 100%. If the device performing the first detection task requires a detection accuracy greater than or equal to 80%, in this case, N is 10 and K is 6.

It should be understood that if the first terminal device only measures the first K pilot signals of the N pilot signals according to the transmission order, in this case, the first terminal device sets the signal strength of the unmeasured pilot signals in the N pilot signals to 0. For example, taking K as 6, N as 8, and the transmission order of the 8 pilot signals: beam #1, beam #3, beam #0, beam #4, beam #5, beam #6, beam #7 as an example, the first terminal device measures the signal strength of the pilot signals except those transmitted by beam #6 and beam #7 in sequence according to the transmission order, sets the signal strength of the pilot signals transmitted by beam #6 and beam #7 to 0, and obtains the signal strength of the 8 pilot signals.

S505. The first terminal device inputs the signal strengths of the N pilot signals and the N precoding matrices into a second model to perform a first detection task.

After the first terminal device obtains the signal strengths of the N pilot signals, it inputs the signal strengths of the N pilot signals and the N precoding matrices into the second model, and performs the first detection task through the second model.

Please refer to Figure 6, which is a flow chart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 6, the communication method includes the following S601~S605. The execution subject of the method shown in Figure 6 can be a network device and a first terminal device, or the execution subject of the method shown in Figure 6 can be a module in the network device and a module in the first terminal device, or the execution subject of the method shown in Figure 6 can be a chip of the network device and a chip of the first terminal device. Figure 6 takes the network device and the first terminal device as the execution subject of the method as an example for explanation. Among them:

S601 (optional): The network device sends configuration information to the first terminal device.

S602: The network device inputs the first environment information into the first model to obtain N precoding matrices, where N is a positive integer.

The specific implementation of S601 to S602 can refer to the description of the specific implementation of S501 to S502 above, which will not be repeated here.

S603: The network device sends the N pilot signals to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices.

The specific implementation of S603 can refer to the description of the specific implementation of S202 above, which will not be repeated here.

S604: The network device receives a measurement result from the first terminal device, where the measurement result is the signal strength of N pilot signals.

That is, the terminal device receives N pilot signals from the network device, and measures the N pilot signals to obtain the signal strength of each pilot signal in the N pilot signals. Further, the first terminal device sends the signal strength of the N pilot signals to the network device.

Among them, regarding the specific implementation method of the first terminal device obtaining the strength of the N pilot signals, please refer to the description of the specific implementation method of the aforementioned S504, which will not be repeated here.

S605: The network device inputs the signal strengths of the N pilot signals and the N precoding matrices into a second model to perform a first detection task.

After obtaining the signal strengths of the N pilot signals, the network device inputs the signal strengths of the N pilot signals and the N precoding matrices into a second model, and performs the first detection task through the second model.

To summarize, by implementing the communication method described in Figure 5 or 6 of the present application, the device used to perform the first detection task can perform the first detection task in combination with the precoding matrix related to the current communication environment, which is conducive to improving the detection accuracy of performing the first detection task.

In a possible application scenario, in order to improve the adaptability of the first model and the second model, the first model and the second model can be jointly trained.

Exemplarily, as shown in FIG7 , the present application also provides a model training method. The execution subject of the method shown in FIG7 may be a network device, a first terminal device, or a server for model training, etc., which is not limited in the present application. It should be noted that in the training method shown in FIG7 , the input of the first model is taken as environmental information and distribution information as an example. In a possible implementation, the input of the first model may also be only environmental information, which is not limited in the present application. For ease of understanding, FIG7 takes the updating of model parameters of the first model and the second model according to any data in the training data set (recorded as the first training data) as an example.

Among them, the first training data includes environmental information E, distribution information D corresponding to multiple terminal devices, location information and label information of the multiple terminal devices, and the first training data is any data in the training data set. In this case, the training process of the first model and the second model according to the first training data is shown in Figure 7. The first training data (i.e., environmental information E and distribution information D) is input into the first model to obtain the precoding matrix W corresponding to the first training data. In addition, the environmental information E and the location information of multiple terminal devices are simulated by a ray tracing simulation model to obtain multiple signal information h, and the signal strength Z is calculated based on the precoding matrix W, multiple signal information h and noise n (such as random noise). The precoding matrix W and the signal strength Z are input into the second model, and the detection task is performed to output the detection result. Based on the detection result and the label data corresponding to the first training data, the model parameters of the first model and the model parameters of the second model are updated.

The label data is related to the detection task corresponding to the second model. For example, if the detection task corresponding to the second model is a positioning task, the label information is the location information of the multiple terminal devices; if the detection task corresponding to the second model is a channel prediction task, the label information is the channel information h; if the detection task corresponding to the second model is an environment reconstruction task, the label information is the environment information E; if the detection task corresponding to the second model is a beam prediction task, the label information is the beam information between the network device and each terminal device, and the beam information includes beam indication information and beam strength information.

In a possible implementation, after the second model is deployed on a device for performing the first detection task (i.e., the first terminal device in FIG. 5 or the network device in FIG. 6, hereinafter referred to as the deployment device), in order to improve the adaptability of the second model to the communication environment in which the deployment device is located, the deployment device can obtain the first data, and update the model parameters of the second model based on the first data (or understand it as fine-tuning the model). The first data is related to the first detection task. For example, when the first detection task is an environmental reconstruction task, the deployment device obtains the first data (including the signal strength of the pilot signal measured by multiple terminal devices served by the network device, and the environmental information within the coverage of the network device), inputs the signal strength of the pilot signal measured by the multiple terminal devices into the second model respectively, and obtains the output of the second model; and based on the output of the second model and the environmental information within the coverage of the network device, updates the model parameters of the second model. When the first detection task is a positioning task, the deployment device obtains first data (including the signal strength of the pilot signal measured by at least one terminal device served by the network device, and the location information of the at least one terminal device), inputs the signal strength of the pilot signal measured by the at least one terminal device into the second model, and obtains the output of the second model; and based on the output of the second model and the location information of the at least one terminal device, updates the model parameters of the second model.

It should be noted that, in the case of no logical conflict, when the deployment device is the first terminal device in FIG5, part or all of the first data can be collected by the network device and sent to the first terminal device; when the deployment device is the network device in FIG6, part or all of the first data can be collected by the terminal device and sent to the network device. For example, when the second model is a model for performing a positioning task and the deployment device of the second model is a network device, the terminal device can obtain the location information through a positioning system such as GPS and then send the location information of the terminal device to the network device.

It is understandable that, in order to realize the above functions, the above-mentioned device includes hardware structures and/or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

The embodiment of the present application can divide the network device or the first terminal device into functional modules according to the above method example. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated module can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

Please refer to Figure 8, which shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device 800 of an embodiment of the present application. The communication device shown in Figure 8 may be a network device, or a device in a network device, or a device that can be used in combination with a network device. The communication device shown in Figure 8 may include a communication unit 801 and a processing unit 802; the communication device shown in Figure 8 may be a first terminal device, or a device in a first terminal device, or a device that can be used in combination with a first terminal device. The communication device shown in Figure 8 may include a communication unit 801 and a processing unit 802. Specifically, the processing unit 802 is used to process data, which may be data received by the communication unit 801, and the processed data may also be sent by the communication unit 801; the communication unit 801 may be understood as a transceiver unit, including a receiving module and/or a sending module, the receiving module is used to perform the receiving action of the device (i.e., the network device or the first terminal device) in any embodiment of Figure 2, Figure 5 or Figure 6, and the sending module is used to perform the sending action of the device (i.e., the network device or the first terminal device) in any embodiment of Figure 2, Figure 5 or Figure 6.

In one implementation, the communication device 800 is a network device, a device in a network device (such as a chip or chip system in the network device), or a device that can be used in conjunction with a network device, wherein:

The processing unit 802 is used to input the first environmental information into the first model to obtain N precoding matrices, where the first environmental information is used to indicate the communication environment within the coverage of the network device, and N is a positive integer; further, the processing unit 802 is used to call the communication unit 801 to send N pilot signals based on the N precoding matrices.

In a possible implementation, the N precoding matrices are used to obtain N beams corresponding to sending the N pilot signals, and the pilot signals correspond to the beams one-to-one; wherein each beam corresponds to at least one beam direction.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information includes environmental information of a first direction corresponding to the network device and environmental information of a second direction corresponding to the network device; if the terminal density in the first direction is greater than the terminal density in the second direction, the beam intensity of the first beam is greater than the beam intensity of the second beam, and the first beam is the beam corresponding to the first direction among the N beams, and the second beam is the beam corresponding to the second direction among the N beams.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information includes environmental information of a third direction corresponding to the network device and environmental information of a fourth direction corresponding to the network device, the third direction being the direction from the network device to the first position, and the fourth direction being the direction from the network device to the second position; if the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the first position is greater than the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the second position, the beam intensity of the third beam is greater than the beam intensity of the fourth beam, the third beam is the beam among the N beams corresponding to the third direction, and the fourth beam is the beam among the N beams corresponding to the fourth direction.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information includes one or more of the following information: location information of the network device, the cell division method corresponding to the network device, the antenna layout and orientation of the network device, the building layout within the coverage of the network device, the building material within the coverage of the network device, the street layout within the coverage of the network device, the environmental map within the coverage of the network device, the vegetation layout information within the coverage of the network device, and the water system layout within the coverage of the network device.

In a possible implementation, the first environmental information also includes location distribution information of multiple terminal devices served by the network device, and the location distribution information includes one or more of the following information: terminal density within the coverage of the network device, a heat map of the multiple terminal devices served by the network device in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device, and movement trajectories of the multiple terminal devices served by the network device in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device.

In a possible implementation, the output of the first model also includes N probability values, the N probability values correspond one-to-one to the N precoding matrices, and the probability value is used to indicate the importance of the precoding matrix corresponding to the probability value among the N precoding matrices.

In one possible implementation, the probability value associated with the first direction among the N probability values is greater than the probability value associated with the second direction; and/or, the probability value associated with the third direction among the N probability values is greater than the probability value associated with the fourth direction.

In one possible implementation, the communication unit 801 is also used to send the N pilot signals to the first terminal device in an order of sending, and the sending order is determined based on the probability value output by the first model, or the sending order is obtained based on historical measurement data corresponding to the communication environment; further, the communication unit 801 is also used to send the N pilot signals to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices and the sending order.

In a possible implementation, the communication unit 801 is further used to send the N precoding matrices to the first terminal device, and the N precoding matrices are used by the first terminal device to perform the first detection task according to the second model.

In one possible implementation, the communication unit 801 is also used to receive a measurement result from the first terminal device, which is the signal strength of the N pilot signals; further, the processing unit 802 is also used to input the N precoding matrices and the signal strength of the N pilot signals into a second model to perform a first detection task.

In one possible implementation, the communication unit 801 is also used to send configuration information, which is used to configure the sending period of the pilot signal corresponding to at least one detection task, and/or, the configuration information is used to configure the sending number of the pilot signal corresponding to the at least one detection task, and the sending number of the pilot signal is the number of pilot signals sent within one sending period.

In a possible implementation, different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending periods, and/or different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending quantities.

In one possible implementation, the second detection task is any one of the at least one detection task, and the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending cycles, and each sending cycle corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task; or, the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending quantities, and each sending quantity corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task.

In one possible implementation, the at least one detection task includes one or more of a positioning task, a beam prediction task, a channel prediction task, or an environment reconstruction task.

In a possible implementation, the processing unit 802 is further configured to obtain first data, and update model parameters of the second model based on the first data; the first data is related to the first detection task.

In one possible implementation, the first detection task is an environment reconstruction task, and the first data includes pilot signal measurement results of multiple terminal devices served by the network device and environmental information within the coverage area of the network device; or, the first detection task is a positioning task, and the first data includes pilot signal measurement results of terminal devices served by the network device and location information of terminal devices served by the network device.

In a possible implementation, the input of the first model also includes distribution information of multiple terminal devices served by the network device.

For a more detailed description of the communication unit 801 and the processing unit 802, reference may be made to the related description of the network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , FIG. 5 or FIG. 6 .

In one implementation, the communication device 800 is a first terminal device, a device in the first terminal device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with the first terminal device, wherein:

The communication unit 801 is used to receive N precoding matrices from a network device, where the N precoding matrices are related to the communication environment within the coverage of the network device, and N is a positive integer; the processing unit 802 is used to measure N pilot signals from the network device to obtain signal strengths of the N pilot signals, where the N pilot signals are sent based on the N precoding matrices; further, the processing unit 802 is also used to input the signal strengths of the N pilot signals and the N precoding matrices into a second model to perform a first detection task.

In a possible implementation, the communication unit 801 is further used to receive the sending order of the N pilot signals from the network device; further, the processing unit 802 is further used to measure the first K pilot signals based on the sending order of the N pilot signals to obtain the signal strength of the N pilot signals, where K is a positive integer less than or equal to N.

In one possible implementation, the communication unit 801 is also used to receive configuration information from a network device, where the configuration information is used to configure a sending period of a pilot signal corresponding to at least one detection task, and/or to configure a sending number of pilot signals corresponding to the at least one detection task, where the sending number of pilot signals is the number of pilot signals sent within one sending period.

In a possible implementation manner, different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending periods, and/or different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending quantities.

In a possible implementation, the second detection task is any one of the at least one detection task, and the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending cycles, and each sending cycle corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task; or, the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending quantities, and each sending quantity corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task.

In a possible implementation, the at least one detection task includes one or more of a positioning task, a beam prediction task, a channel prediction task, or an environment reconstruction task.

In a possible implementation, the processing unit 802 is further configured to obtain first data, and update model parameters deployed in the second model based on the first data; the first data is related to the first detection task.

In a possible implementation, the first detection task is a positioning task, and the first data includes a measurement result of a pilot signal of a terminal device served by the network device and location information of the terminal device served by the network device.

For a more detailed description of the above-mentioned communication unit 801 and the processing unit 802, reference may be made to the relevant description of the first terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 5 or FIG. 6.

In a possible implementation, when the communication device 800 is a chip, the communication unit 801 may be a communication interface, a pin or a circuit, etc. The communication interface may be used to input data to be processed to the processor, and may output the processing result of the processor to the outside. In a specific implementation, the communication interface may be a general purpose input output (GPIO) interface, which may be connected to multiple peripheral devices (such as a display (LCD), a camera (camera), a radio frequency (RF) module, an antenna, etc.). The communication interface is connected to the processor via a bus.

The processing unit 802 may be a processor, which may execute a computer program or instruction stored in a storage module so that the chip executes the method involved in any of the embodiments shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 5 or FIG. 6. Further, the processor may include a controller, an operator and a register. Exemplarily, the controller is mainly responsible for decoding the computer program or instruction and issuing a control signal for the operation corresponding to the computer program or instruction. The operator is mainly responsible for performing fixed-point or floating-point arithmetic operations, shift operations and logical operations, etc., and may also perform address operations and conversions. The register is mainly responsible for storing register operands and intermediate operation results temporarily stored during the execution of the computer program or instruction. In a specific implementation, the hardware architecture of the processor may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) architecture, a microprocessor without interlocked piped stages architecture (MIPS) architecture, an advanced reduced instruction set machine (ARM) architecture or a second processor (NP) architecture, etc. The processor may be single-core or multi-core. The storage module may be a storage module within the chip, such as a register, a cache, etc. The storage module may also be a storage module located outside the chip, such as a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and computer programs or instructions, a random access memory (RAM), etc.

It should be noted that the functions corresponding to the processor and the interface can be implemented through hardware design, software design, or a combination of hardware and software, and there is no limitation here.

FIG9 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. It is understood that the communication device 900 includes necessary means such as modules, units, elements, circuits, or interfaces, which are appropriately configured together to implement the present solution. The communication device 900 can be the above-mentioned network device or the first terminal device, or a component (such as a chip) in these devices, to implement the method described in the above-mentioned method embodiment.

In one possible design, as shown in Fig. 9, the communication device 900 includes a processor 910 and an interface circuit 920. The processor 910 and the interface circuit 920 are coupled to each other.

Optionally, the communication device 900 may include one or more processors 910. The processor 910 may be a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor, etc. For example, it may be a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor may be used to process the communication protocol and communication data, and the central processing unit may be used to control the communication device (such as a terminal device, a network device, or a chip, etc.), execute a computer program or instruction, and process the data of the computer program or instruction.

It can be understood that the interface circuit 920 can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. When the communication device 900 is a network device or a first terminal device, the interface circuit 920 is a transceiver, including a transmitter and/or a receiver. Among them, the transmitter can be called a sending unit, a transmitter or a sending circuit, etc., for realizing the sending function, and the receiver can be called a receiving unit, a receiver or a receiving circuit, etc., for realizing the receiving function. When the communication device 900 is a chip in a network device or a first terminal device, the interface circuit 920 is the input-output interface of the chip. Optionally, the communication device 900 may also include an antenna (not shown in the figure), and the interface circuit 920 may sometimes be called a transceiver unit, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., for realizing the transceiver function of the communication device through the antenna.

Optionally, the communication device 900 may further include a memory 930 for storing a computer program or instruction executed by the processor 910, or storing input data required for the processor 910 to run the computer program or instruction, or storing data generated after the processor 910 runs the computer program or instruction. Optionally, the processor 910 and the memory 930 may be provided separately or integrated together.

When the communication device 900 is used to implement the method shown in FIG. 2 , FIG. 5 or FIG. 6 , the processor 910 is used to implement the function of the processing unit 802 , and the interface circuit 920 is used to implement the function of the communication unit 801 .

When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a network device, the terminal chip implements the function of the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The network device chip receives information from the first terminal device, which can be understood as the information is first received by other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and then sent to the network device chip by these modules. The network device chip sends information to the first terminal device, which can be understood as the information is first sent to other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and then sent to the first terminal device by these modules.

When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to the first terminal device, the first terminal device chip implements the function of the first terminal device in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The first terminal device chip receives information from the network device, which can be understood as the information is first received by other modules in the first terminal device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and then sent to the first terminal device chip by these modules. The first terminal device chip sends information to the network device, which can be understood as the information is sent to other modules in the first terminal device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and then sent to the network device by these modules.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed, the computer executes any method described in any of the embodiments in Figure 2, Figure 5 or Figure 6.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, which includes: a computer program code, and when the computer program code is executed by a computer, the computer executes any of the methods described in any of the embodiments shown in FIG. 2 , FIG. 5 , or FIG. 6 .

In the present application, when entity A sends information to entity B, it can be that A sends it directly to B, or that A sends it to B indirectly through other entities. Similarly, when entity B receives information from entity A, it can be that entity B directly receives the information sent by entity A, or that entity B indirectly receives the information sent by entity A through other entities. Entities A and B here can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules inside the RAN nodes or terminals. The sending and receiving of information can be information interaction between a RAN node and a terminal, for example, information interaction between a base station and a terminal; the sending and receiving of information can also be information interaction between two RAN nodes, for example, information interaction between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be information interaction between different modules inside a device, for example, information interaction between a terminal chip and other modules of the terminal, or information interaction between a base station chip and other modules in the base station.

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

The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions that can be executed by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, register, hard disk, mobile hard disk, CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also be present in a base station or a terminal as discrete components.

In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, 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 programs or instructions. When the computer program or instruction is loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is executed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device or other programmable device. The computer program or instruction may 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 program or instruction may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that integrates one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape; it may also be an optical medium, for example, a digital video disc; it may also be a semiconductor medium, for example, a solid-state hard disk. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

Reference to "embodiments" herein means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in conjunction with the embodiments may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearance of the phrase in various locations in the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor is it an independent or alternative embodiment that is mutually exclusive with other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.

In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or provided for in any logical conflict, the terms and/or descriptions between the different embodiments are consistent and may be referenced to each other, and the technical features in the different embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "more than one" means two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and/or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In the text description of the present application, the character "/" generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship; in the formula of the present application, the character "/" indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in a "division" relationship. "Including at least one of A, B and C" can mean: including A; including B; including C; including A and B; including A and C; including B and C; including A, B and C.

The terms "first" and "second" and the like in the specification, claims and drawings of this application are used to distinguish different objects, rather than to describe a specific order. In addition, the terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product or device that includes a series of operations or units is not limited to the listed operations or units, but may optionally include operations or units that are not listed, or may optionally include other operations or units that are inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

"Send" and "receive" in this application indicate the direction of signal transmission. For example, "send information to XX" can be understood as the destination of the information is XX, which can include direct transmission through the air interface, and also include indirect transmission through the air interface by other units or modules. "Receive information from YY" can be understood as the source of the information is YY, which can include direct reception from YY through the air interface, and can also include indirect reception from YY through the air interface from other units or modules. "Send" can also be understood as the "output" of the chip interface, and "receive" can also be understood as the "input" of the chip interface. In other words, sending and receiving can be carried out between devices, for example, between network devices and terminal devices, or within the device, for example, through a bus, a line or an interface between components, modules, chips, software modules or hardware modules within the device. It is understandable that the information may be processed as necessary between the source and destination of the information transmission, such as encoding, modulation, etc., but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in this application can be understood in a similar way and will not be repeated.

"Indication" in this application may include direct indication and indirect indication, and may also include explicit indication and implicit indication. The information indicated by a certain information (such as the indication information described below) is called information to be indicated. In the specific implementation process, there are many ways to indicate the information to be indicated, such as but not limited to, the information to be indicated can be directly indicated, such as the information to be indicated itself or the index of the information to be indicated. The information to be indicated can also be indirectly indicated by indicating other information, wherein there is an association relationship between the other information and the information to be indicated; it is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while the other part of the information to be indicated is known or agreed in advance, for example, the indication of specific information can be realized by means of the arrangement order of each information agreed in advance (such as predefined by the protocol), thereby reducing the indication overhead to a certain extent. This application does not limit the specific method of indication. It can be understood that for the sender of the indication information, the indication information can be used to indicate the information to be indicated, and for the receiver of the indication information, the indication information can be used to determine the information to be indicated.

It is understood that the various numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the sequence number of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

Claims (24)

A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises: Inputting first environment information into a first model to obtain N precoding matrices, wherein the first environment information is used to indicate a communication environment within a coverage range of the network device, and N is a positive integer; N pilot signals are sent based on the N precoding matrices. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the N precoding matrices are used to obtain N beams corresponding to sending the N pilot signals, and the pilot signals correspond to the beams one-to-one; wherein each beam corresponds to at least one beam direction. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the first environmental information includes environmental information of a first direction corresponding to the network device and environmental information of a second direction corresponding to the network device; If the terminal density in the first direction is greater than the terminal density in the second direction, the beam intensity of the first beam is greater than the beam intensity of the second beam, the first beam is the beam corresponding to the first direction among the N beams, and the second beam is the beam corresponding to the second direction among the N beams. The method according to claim 2 or 3 is characterized in that the first environmental information includes environmental information of a third direction corresponding to the network device and environmental information of a fourth direction corresponding to the network device, the third direction is the direction from the network device to the first position, and the fourth direction is the direction from the network device to the second position; If the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the first position is greater than the number of signal transmission paths from the network device to the second position, the beam intensity of the third beam is greater than the beam intensity of the fourth beam, the third beam is the beam corresponding to the third direction among the N beams, and the fourth beam is the beam corresponding to the fourth direction among the N beams. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the first environment information includes one or more of the following information: The location information of the network device, the cell division method corresponding to the network device, the antenna layout and orientation of the network device, the building layout within the coverage area of the network device, the building material within the coverage area of the network device, the street layout within the coverage area of the network device, the environmental map within the coverage area of the network device, the vegetation layout information within the coverage area of the network device, and the water system layout within the coverage area of the network device. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that the first environmental information also includes location distribution information of multiple terminal devices served by the network device, and the location distribution information includes one or more of the following information: The terminal density within the coverage of the network device, the heat map of the multiple terminal devices served by the network device in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device, and the movement trajectories of the multiple terminal devices served by the network device in the communication environment within the coverage of the network device. The method according to any one of claims 1-6 is characterized in that the output of the first model also includes N probability values, the N probability values correspond to the N precoding matrices one-to-one, and the probability value is used to indicate the importance of the precoding matrix corresponding to the probability value in the N precoding matrices. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the probability value associated with the first direction among the N probability values is greater than the probability value associated with the second direction; And/or, the probability value associated with the third direction among the N probability values is greater than the probability value associated with the fourth direction. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the method further comprises: A sending order of the N pilot signals to the first terminal device, wherein the sending order is determined based on the probability value output by the first model, or the sending order is obtained based on historical measurement data corresponding to the communication environment; The sending N pilot signals to the first terminal device based on the N precoding matrices includes: Based on the N precoding matrices and the sending order, the N pilot signals are sent to the first terminal device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the method further comprises: The N precoding matrices are sent to the first terminal device, and the N precoding matrices are used by the first terminal device to perform a first detection task according to a second model. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receiving a measurement result from the first terminal device, the measurement result being the signal strength of the N pilot signals; The signal strengths of the N precoding matrices and the N pilot signals are input into a second model to perform a first detection task. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the method further comprises: Send configuration information, wherein the configuration information is used to configure a sending period of a pilot signal corresponding to at least one detection task, and/or the configuration information is used to configure a sending number of pilot signals corresponding to the at least one detection task, wherein the sending number of pilot signals is the number of pilot signals sent within one sending period. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises: Receiving N precoding matrices from a network device, where the N precoding matrices are related to a communication environment within a coverage area of the network device, and N is a positive integer; Measuring N pilot signals from the network device to obtain signal strengths of the N pilot signals, where the N pilot signals are sent based on the N precoding matrices; The signal strengths of the N pilot signals and the N precoding matrices are input into a second model to perform a first detection task. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that the method further comprises: receiving a transmission order of the N pilot signals from the network device; The measuring N pilot signals from the network device to obtain signal strengths of the N pilot signals includes: The first K pilot signals are measured based on the sending order of the N pilot signals to obtain signal strengths of the N pilot signals, where K is a positive integer less than or equal to N. The method according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receive configuration information from the network device, wherein the configuration information is used to configure a sending period of a pilot signal corresponding to at least one detection task, and/or to configure a sending number of pilot signals corresponding to at least one detection task, wherein the sending number of pilot signals is the number of pilot signals sent within one sending period. The method according to claim 12 or 15 is characterized in that different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending periods, and/or different detection tasks in the at least one detection task correspond to different sending quantities. The method according to claim 12, 15 or 16, characterized in that the second detection task is any one of the at least one detection task, the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending cycles, and each sending cycle corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task; Alternatively, the second detection task corresponds to multiple sending quantities, and each sending quantity corresponding to the second detection task corresponds to a different detection accuracy of the second detection task. The method according to claim 12, 15, 16 or 17 is characterized in that the at least one detection task includes one or more of a positioning task, a beam prediction task, a channel prediction task or an environment reconstruction task. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 18, characterized in that the method further comprises: Acquire first data; The model parameters of the second model are updated based on the first data, where the first data is related to the first detection task. The method according to claim 19 is characterized in that the first detection task is an environment reconstruction task, and the first data includes pilot signal measurement results of multiple terminal devices served by the network device and environment information within the coverage range of the network device; Alternatively, the first detection task is a positioning task, and the first data includes a measurement result of a pilot signal of a terminal device served by the network device, and location information of the terminal device served by the network device. A communication device, characterized by comprising a module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 1-20. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method described in any one of claims 1-20 through a logic circuit or executing code instructions. A computer program product, characterized in that when the computer program product is executed, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 20. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions or programs, and when the computer instructions or programs are executed, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 20.