WO2025213968A1 - Communication method and apparatus, storage medium, and computer program product - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and apparatus, a storage medium, and a computer program product, which are used for improving the throughput of a communication system. In the present application, a terminal apparatus receives first information from a first communication apparatus. The first information comprises information of a second communication apparatus. On the basis of the first information, the terminal apparatus receives a second synchronization signal from the second communication apparatus. The terminal apparatus receives third data. The third data comprises first data and second data. The first data and the second data occupy a first resource. The first data is from the first communication apparatus, and the second data is from the second communication apparatus. The terminal apparatus acquires the first data and the second data from the third data. Since a plurality of communication apparatuses send different data to the terminal apparatus on the same resource, the throughput of a communication system can be improved according to the solution. Moreover, since the terminal apparatus can receive the second synchronization signal on the basis of the first information, the complexity of the terminal apparatus maintaining synchronization with the second communication apparatus can be reduced.

Description

Communication method, device, storage medium and computer program product

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on April 11, 2024, with application number 202410433055.5 and application name "A communication method, device, storage medium and computer program product", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular to a communication method, device, storage medium, and computer program product.

Background Art

Currently, the fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) technology is evolving from revision (R) 18 to R19. Simultaneously, NR technology has entered the commercial deployment phase, moving from standardization. The NR standard protocol is a wireless communication technology designed for terrestrial cellular network scenarios, providing users with wireless communication services featuring ultra-low latency, ultra-reliability, ultra-high speeds, and an excessive number of connections. Compared to terrestrial communications, non-terrestrial networks (NTN) offer wide coverage and flexible networking, enabling seamless global network coverage. NTN communications utilize networking equipment such as drones, high-altitude platforms, and satellites to provide data transmission, voice communication, and other services to user equipment (UE).

For terrestrial communications and/or non-terrestrial communications, there is an urgent need for a solution to improve the throughput of a communication system.

Summary of the Invention

The present application provides a communication method, device, storage medium, and computer program product for sending different data to the same terminal device on the same resources through multiple communication devices, thereby improving the throughput of the communication system.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be performed by a terminal device. The terminal device can include a terminal device or a chip system inside the terminal device.

A terminal device receives first information from a first communication device. The first information includes information about a second communication device, and the first information is used to assist the terminal device in receiving a synchronization signal from the second communication device. Based on the first information, the terminal device receives a second synchronization signal from the second communication device. The terminal device receives third data. The third data includes first data and second data, with the first data occupying a first resource. The second data occupies the first resource, with the first data originating from the first communication device and the second data originating from the second communication device. The terminal device obtains the first data and the second data from the third data.

In the method provided in the present application, multiple communication devices (e.g., a first communication device and a second communication device) can use the same resources (e.g., time-frequency and/or frequency domain resources) to transmit different data to the same terminal device, thereby improving the throughput and/or spectrum efficiency of the communication system.

The difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device may be greater than the cyclic prefix, or may be less than or equal to the cyclic prefix. When the time difference between the data from multiple communication devices arriving at the terminal device is large, the terminal device can also better recover the data sent by each communication device from the received data. Based on this, it can be seen that in the solution provided by the implementation of this application, regardless of whether the time difference between the data from multiple communication devices arriving at the terminal device is small or large, the embodiment of this application can be applied. In addition, since in the NTN network, the difference between the downlink timings of multiple satellite devices may be greater than the cyclic prefix (CP), that is, the time difference between the data from multiple satellite devices arriving at the terminal device may be large, the embodiment of this application can also be applied to the NTN network. The solution provided by this application can reduce the restrictions on the satellite device sending data, thereby reducing the complexity of data transmission on the satellite device side, and then improving the throughput and/or spectrum efficiency of the NTN communication system.

In one possible implementation, a terminal device can maintain synchronization with multiple communication devices, but the terminal device can establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the first communication device, without establishing an RRC connection with other communication devices. For example, the terminal device receives a first synchronization signal from the first communication device and then establishes an RRC connection with the first communication device. The terminal device receives a second synchronization signal from the second communication device and does not establish an RRC connection with the second communication device. The communication device that establishes an RRC connection with the terminal device can also be referred to as a primary communication device (e.g., a primary satellite device); other communication devices that do not establish an RRC connection with the terminal device, but for which the terminal device maintains downlink synchronization, can be referred to as secondary communication devices (e.g., secondary satellite devices). Because the terminal device only establishes an RRC connection with the first communication device, this solution can reduce the complexity of the solution on the terminal device side. Furthermore, because the terminal device can synchronize with multiple communication devices, the terminal device can decode data sent from multiple communication devices on the same resources and then recover the data sent by each of the multiple communication devices.

In one possible implementation, the first information may include information about the second communication device. The first information may be used to assist the terminal device in receiving the synchronization signal from the second communication device. In this way, the terminal device can receive the synchronization signal from the second communication device based on the first information, thereby reducing the complexity of blind detection by the terminal device and the complexity of receiving the synchronization signal from the second communication device, thereby improving the efficiency of successfully receiving the synchronization signal.

For example, the first information includes information used to indicate at least one of the following: an index of information of the second communication device; ephemeris information of the second communication device; a cell identifier corresponding to the second communication device; a measurement timing configuration corresponding to the second communication device; a frequency of a synchronization signal of the second communication device; polarization information of the synchronization signal of the second communication device; and sequence information corresponding to the synchronization signal of the second communication device.

In one possible implementation, the terminal device sends second information to the first communication device. The second information indicates that the terminal device supports the first data transmission mode and/or the number of multiple communication devices supported by the terminal device that send data to the terminal device on the same resource.

For example, the first data transmission mode includes multiple communication devices sending data to a terminal device on the same resource. In another example, the first data transmission mode includes multiple communication devices sending data to the terminal device on the same resource, and a difference between downlink timings corresponding to data sent by two of the multiple communication devices to the terminal device on the same resource is greater than a cyclic prefix.

In the case where the second information includes information indicating that the terminal device supports the first data transmission mode, the first communication device can determine the capabilities of the terminal device based on the content of the second information, that is, whether the terminal device supports the first data transmission mode. The first communication device can then configure the data transmission mode for the terminal device based on the capabilities of the terminal device. For example, the first communication device can configure multiple communication devices to transmit data to the terminal device on the same resources for a terminal device that supports the first data transmission mode, so as to improve the throughput and/or spectrum efficiency of the communication system. For another example, the first communication device can configure a single communication device to transmit data for a terminal device that does not support the first data transmission mode, so as to avoid the data transmission mode exceeding the capabilities of the terminal device, thereby causing data transmission failure.

In the case where the second information includes the number of multiple communication devices supported by the terminal device for sending data to the terminal device on the same resource, the first communication device configures different data transmission modes for the terminal device based on the capabilities of each terminal device. For example, the number of communication devices configured by the first communication device for sending data to the terminal device on the same resource may not exceed the capability range of the terminal device, thereby preventing the occurrence of communication failures. On the other hand, the more communication devices supported by the terminal device, the more communication devices the first communication device can configure for the terminal device. It can be seen that the first communication device can be flexibly configured in combination with the capabilities of each terminal device, so that the solution can be better compatible with terminal devices of different capabilities, thereby maximizing the throughput and/or communication spectrum efficiency of the communication system.

In one possible implementation, the terminal device transmits third information. The third information indicates at least one of the following: the terminal device has detected a synchronization signal from a second communication device; or the terminal device has established downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device. After receiving a synchronization signal from at least one communication device, or establishing downlink timing synchronization with at least one communication device, the terminal device may transmit the third information to indicate to the first communication device which communication devices the terminal device can receive data from, thereby enabling the first communication device to configure a communication device for the terminal device that can transmit data to the terminal device on the same resources.

In one possible implementation, the third information includes at least one of the following: an index corresponding to the information of the second communication device, an identifier of the second communication device, an identifier of a cell corresponding to the second communication device, and measurement result information corresponding to the second communication device. The measurement result information may, for example, include at least one of a signal detection result, link quality, channel quality, and signal quality.

If the third information includes an index corresponding to the information of the second communication device, the first communication device can search for an association between the index and the communication device based on the index corresponding to the information of the second communication device, and then determine that the communication device corresponding to the index is the communication device that detected the synchronization signal or established downlink timing synchronization with the terminal device. This solution can reduce the number of bits occupied by the information in the third information, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

When the third information includes measurement result information corresponding to the second communication device, the first communication device can know the link quality corresponding to the second communication device, and then can configure the auxiliary communication device for the terminal device in combination with the link quality. For example, the communication device with better link quality can be configured as the auxiliary communication device, thereby improving the communication performance.

In one possible implementation, the terminal device receives fourth information. The fourth information includes information for indicating the second communication device, and the fourth information indicates that the first communication device and the second communication device send data to the terminal device on the same resource. Based on the fourth information, the terminal device maintains synchronization with the downlink timing of the second communication device. The communication device indicated by the fourth information can be understood as an activated communication device, or a communication device set as an auxiliary communication device. It can be seen from this scheme that the first communication device can select some or all of the communication devices from the communication devices from which the terminal device can receive synchronization signals as auxiliary communication devices (for example, they can be selected based on link quality) so that they can subsequently send data to the terminal device on the same resource together with the auxiliary communication device. On the other hand, in this scheme, since the first communication device can select an auxiliary communication device for activation, the first communication device can select a more suitable communication device as the auxiliary communication device based on multiple factors. For example, the auxiliary communication device can be selected based on information such as the load amount and/or link quality of the auxiliary communication device. This scheme can improve communication performance.

In one possible implementation, the fourth information further instructs the terminal device to select a first data processing mode for receiving data from the first communication device and the second communication device. The first data processing mode is capable of processing data transmitted via the first data transmission mode. If the fourth information indicates the data processing mode of the terminal device, the terminal device may process the received data using an appropriate data processing mode based on the fourth information, thereby increasing the probability of correct data reception and thereby improving communication performance.

In one possible implementation, the terminal device receives fifth information. The fifth information instructs the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device on the same resources as the first communication device. The terminal device then stops maintaining downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device. The communication device indicated by the fifth information can be understood as a deactivated communication device, or a communication device that no longer belongs to the auxiliary communication device. After receiving the fifth information, the terminal device can stop maintaining downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device. This can reduce the complexity of the solution.

In one possible implementation, the first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a second satellite device. The solutions provided in this application are applicable regardless of whether the time difference between data from multiple communication devices reaching a terminal device is small or large. Furthermore, in an NTN network, the difference between the downlink timings of multiple satellite devices may be greater than the CP, meaning that the time difference between data from multiple satellite devices reaching a terminal device may be large. Therefore, the solutions provided in this application are also applicable to NTN networks. The solutions provided in this application can reduce restrictions on data transmission by satellite devices, thereby reducing the complexity of data transmission on the satellite device side, thereby improving the throughput and/or spectrum efficiency of the NTN communication system.

In one possible implementation, the terminal device obtains the first data from the third data. Based on the first data and the influence of the channel on the signal, the terminal device obtains fourth data, where the fourth data includes the first data affected by the channel. The terminal device removes the fourth data from the third data to obtain fifth data. The terminal device obtains the second data from the fifth data. The above solution can eliminate interference between signals sent to the terminal device by multiple communication devices. Furthermore, the above interference elimination method can better obtain data sent by multiple communication devices from the received superimposed signal.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be performed by a first communication device. The first communication device may include a network device or a chip system inside the network device. For example, the first communication device may include a satellite device or a chip (or chip system) inside the satellite device. For another example, the first communication device may include a ground station or a chip (or chip system) inside the ground station. The ground station may, for example, include a network device deployed on the ground (such as an access network device).

A first communication device sends first information. The first information includes information about a second communication device, and the first information is used to assist a terminal device in receiving a synchronization signal from the second communication device. The first communication device sends first data to a terminal device over a first resource, and the first resource is also used by the second communication device to send second data to the terminal device.

In the method provided in the present application, multiple communication devices (e.g., a first communication device and a second communication device) can use the same resources (e.g., time-frequency and/or frequency domain resources) to transmit different data to the same terminal device, thereby improving the throughput and/or spectrum efficiency of the communication system.

In one possible implementation, a first communication device sends configuration information of a first resource to a second communication device. The second communication device can then determine the first resource based on the configuration information and subsequently send data to the terminal device over the first resource. In this solution, the first communication device can directly determine which resources are shared by multiple communication devices for data transmission, reducing the complexity of the solution for the first communication device.

The first communication device sends the second data to the second communication device. In this way, the first communication device can distribute the data sent by other communication devices to the terminal device. For example, the first communication device can more reasonably distribute the data sent by each communication device to the terminal device based on factors such as workload and link quality, thereby improving communication performance.

In one possible implementation, a first communication device sends information indicating a first area to a second communication device. The terminal device is located in the first area. For example, the information indicating the first area includes: wave position information within the first area, and/or location information of the terminal device. In one possible implementation, the information indicating the first area is used to enable the second communication device to send a synchronization signal to the first area. After receiving the information indicating the first area, the second communication device can determine the area where the terminal device is located, and then can send a synchronization signal to the area to enable the terminal device to subsequently maintain synchronization with the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, the first communication device sends sixth information to the second communication device, wherein the sixth information is used to instruct the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device using the same resource as the first communication device.

In one possible implementation, the sixth information is further used to cause the second communication device to stop sending synchronization signals to the area where the terminal device is located. After receiving the sixth information, the second communication device may stop sending synchronization signals to the area where the terminal device is located, thereby reducing power consumption of the second communication device.

In one possible implementation, the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device is greater than the cyclic prefix. For related content and beneficial effects, please refer to the relevant description of the first aspect or possible implementation of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a possible implementation manner, the relevant content and beneficial effects of the first information can be found in the relevant description of the aforementioned first aspect or possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

In a possible implementation, the first communication device receives the second information. The relevant content and beneficial effects of the second information are described in the above-mentioned first aspect or the possible implementation of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a possible implementation, the first communication device receives third information. For relevant content and beneficial effects of the third information, refer to the relevant description of the first aspect or possible implementation of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a possible implementation, the first communication device sends fourth information. For the relevant content and beneficial effects of the fourth information, please refer to the relevant description of the first aspect or possible implementation of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a possible implementation, the first communication device sends fifth information. For the relevant content and beneficial effects of the fifth information, please refer to the relevant description of the first aspect or possible implementation of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a possible implementation, the first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a second satellite device.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be performed by a second communication device. The second communication device may include a network device or a chip system inside the network device. For example, the second communication device may include a satellite device or a chip (or chip system) inside the satellite device. For another example, the second communication device may include a ground station or a chip (or chip system) inside the ground station. The ground station may, for example, include a network device deployed on the ground (such as an access network device).

The second communication device sends a second synchronization signal. The second communication device sends second data to the terminal device on the first resource, and the first resource is also used by the first communication device to send first data to the terminal device.

In the method provided in the present application, multiple communication devices (e.g., a first communication device and a second communication device) can use the same resources (e.g., time-frequency and/or frequency domain resources) to transmit different data to the same terminal device, thereby improving the throughput and/or spectrum efficiency of the communication system.

In a possible implementation, the second communication device receives the configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data. For related contents and beneficial effects, please refer to the related description of the second aspect or possible implementation of the second aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In one possible implementation, the second communication device receives information indicating a first area, and the terminal device is located in the first area. The second communication device transmits a second synchronization signal to the first area. In one possible implementation, the information indicating the first area includes: wave position information within the first area, and/or location information of the terminal device. For related content and beneficial effects, refer to the description of the second aspect or possible implementations of the second aspect, and will not be repeated here.

In one possible implementation, the second communication device receives sixth information. The sixth information is used to instruct the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device using a first transmission mode, where the first transmission mode includes the second communication device and the first communication device sending data to the terminal device using the same resources. The second communication device stops sending the second synchronization signal to the area where the terminal device is located. For related content and beneficial effects, refer to the description of the second aspect or possible implementations of the second aspect, and will not be repeated here.

In one possible implementation, the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device is greater than the cyclic prefix. For related content and beneficial effects, refer to the description of the first aspect, possible implementation of the first aspect, second aspect, or possible implementation of the second aspect, and will not be repeated here.

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be the aforementioned terminal device, the first communication device, or the second communication device. The communication device may include a communication unit and a processing unit to perform any of the above-mentioned first to third aspects, or to perform any possible implementation of the first to third aspects. The communication unit is used to perform functions related to sending and receiving. The communication unit may be referred to as a transceiver unit. Optionally, the communication unit includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. In one design, the communication device is a communication chip, the processing unit may be one or more processors or processor cores, and the communication unit may be an input/output circuit, an input/output interface, or an antenna port of the communication chip.

In another design, the communication unit may be a transmitter and a receiver, or the communication unit may be a transmitter and a receiver.

Optionally, the communication device further includes modules that can be used to execute any one of the first to third aspects above, or execute any possible implementation of the first to third aspects.

In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be the aforementioned terminal device, the first communication device, or the second communication device. The communication device may include a processor and a memory to perform any of the above-mentioned first to third aspects, or to perform any possible implementation of the first to third aspects. Optionally, it also includes a transceiver, the memory is used to store a computer program or instruction, and the processor is used to call and run the computer program or instruction from the memory. When the processor executes the computer program or instruction in the memory, the communication device performs any of the above-mentioned first to third aspects, or to perform any possible implementation of the first to third aspects.

Optionally, there are one or more processors and one or more memories.

Optionally, the memory may be integrated with the processor, or the memory may be provided separately from the processor.

Optionally, the transceiver may include a transmitter (transmitter) and a receiver (receiver).

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided. This communication device can be the aforementioned terminal device, the first communication device, or the second communication device. The communication device can include a processor to perform any of the aforementioned aspects 1 to 3, or any possible implementation of the aspects 1 to 3. The processor is coupled to a memory. Optionally, the communication device also includes a memory. Optionally, the communication device also includes a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

In one implementation, when the communication device is a terminal device, a first communication device, or a second communication device, the communication interface may be a transceiver or an input/output interface. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In another implementation, when the communication device is a chip or a chip system, the communication interface may be an input/output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin, or related circuits on the chip or chip system. The processor may also be embodied as a processing circuit or a logic circuit.

In a seventh aspect, a system is provided, which includes the above-mentioned terminal device.

In a possible implementation, the system may further include a first communication device and a second communication device.

In an eighth aspect, a computer program product is provided, which includes: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions), which, when executed, enables a computer to execute any one of the above-mentioned first to third aspects, or any possible implementation of the first to third aspects.

In the ninth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions). When the computer program is run on a computer, the computer executes any one of the above-mentioned first to third aspects, or executes any possible implementation of the first to third aspects.

In a tenth aspect, a processing device is provided, comprising: an interface circuit and a processing circuit. The interface circuit may include an input circuit and an output circuit. The processing circuit is configured to receive signals via the input circuit and transmit signals via the output circuit, thereby implementing any of the first to third aspects, or any possible implementation of the first to third aspects.

In a specific implementation, the processing device may be a chip, the input circuit may be an input pin, the output circuit may be an output pin, and the processing circuit may be a transistor, a gate circuit, a trigger, or various logic circuits. The input signal received by the input circuit may be, for example, but not limited to, received and input by a receiver, and the signal output by the output circuit may be, for example, but not limited to, output to and transmitted by a transmitter. The input circuit and the output circuit may be the same circuit, which functions as an input circuit and an output circuit at different times. This application does not limit the specific implementation of the processor and various circuits.

In one implementation, when the communication device is a terminal device, a first communication device, or a second communication device, the interface circuit may be a radio frequency processing chip in the terminal device, the first communication device, or the second communication device, and the processing circuit may be a baseband processing chip in the terminal device, the first communication device, or the second communication device.

In another implementation, the communication device may be a component of a terminal device, a first communication device, or a second communication device, such as an integrated circuit product such as a system-on-chip (SoC) or a communication chip. The interface circuit may be an input/output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin, or related circuit on the chip or chip system. The processing circuit may be a logic circuit on the chip.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1A is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG1B is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG1C is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG1D is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG1E is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG1F is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG1G is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

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

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of possible information transmitted by multiple communication devices reaching a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4 is a schematic flow chart of a possible method for a terminal device to obtain data provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a possible flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG6 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG7 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

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

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following is an introduction to the terms and nouns involved in the embodiments of this application.

(1) Resources.

The resources in the embodiments of the present application may include, for example, time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources.

(1.1) Time domain resources.

Time domain resources may include at least one of a radio frame, a subframe, a slot, a mini slot or a symbol (for example, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (DFT-spread OFDM, DFT-S-OFDM), orthogonal time frequency and space (OTFS), etc.).

A time domain unit may include a radio frame, a subframe, a time slot, a mini-slot, or an OFDM symbol. A time domain unit may also include resources composed of multiple radio frames, multiple subframes, multiple time slots, multiple mini-slots, or multiple OFDM symbols. Among them, a radio frame may include multiple subframes, a subframe may include one or more time slots, and a time slot may include at least one symbol. Alternatively, a radio frame may include multiple time slots, and a time slot may include at least one symbol. It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present application, an OFDM symbol may also be simply referred to as a symbol.

Depending on the subcarrier spacing, the length of each symbol can be different, and therefore the time slot length can be different. For example, a time slot length corresponding to a 15kHz subcarrier spacing is 0.5ms, a time slot length corresponding to a 60kHz subcarrier spacing is 0.125ms, and so on.

In the embodiment of the present application, the time domain unit can also be replaced by: a time domain resource unit or a time domain unit, etc.

(1.2) Frequency domain resources.

In the frequency domain, frequency domain resources may include one or more frequency domain units. A frequency domain unit may be a resource block (RB), a physical resource block (PRB), a subcarrier, a resource block group (RBG), a predefined subband, a precoding resource block group (PRG), a resource pool, a bandwidth part (BWP), a resource element (RE) (also known as a resource unit or resource particle), a carrier, or a serving cell. PRB and RB are interchangeable. Optionally, a resource pool may include one or more resources, which may include at least one of time domain resources, frequency domain resources, code domain resources, or spatial domain resources. The number and size of resources included in a resource pool may be predetermined or configured by signaling.

Subcarrier or RE refers to a minimum frequency domain unit on a specific symbol in a multi-carrier system. Subcarrier spacing (SCS) is the spacing value between the center position or peak position of two adjacent subcarriers in the frequency domain in an OFDM system. In 5G NR, a variety of subcarrier spacings are introduced, and different carriers can have different subcarrier spacings. The baseline is 15kHz, which can be 15kHz×2n, where n is an integer from 3.75, 7.5 to 480kHz. In the embodiment of the present application, RE may refer to a resource unit of time-frequency resources, for example, it can be regarded as the smallest time-frequency resource unit. In this application, subcarriers and RE can be used interchangeably, and their contents are the same.

A subchannel is the smallest unit of frequency domain resources occupied by the physical sidelink shared channel. A subchannel can include one or more resource blocks (RBs). The bandwidth of a wireless communication system in the frequency domain can include multiple RBs. For example, in each possible bandwidth of an LTE system, the number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) included can be 6, 15, 25, 50, and so on. In the frequency domain, an RB can include several subcarriers. For example, in an LTE system, an RB includes 12 subcarriers, where each subcarrier is spaced 15 kHz apart. Of course, other subcarrier spacings can also be used, such as 3.75 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, or 120 kHz subcarrier spacing, without limitation here.

A frequency domain unit may include an RE, an RB, a channel, a sub-channel, a carrier, or a bandwidth part (BWP). A frequency domain unit may also include resources composed of multiple REs, multiple RBs, multiple sub-channels, multiple carriers, or multiple BWPs. In the embodiment of the present application, the channel can be equivalently replaced by a resource block set (RB set), and the frequency domain bandwidth of an RB set can be 20 megahertz (MHz).

In the embodiment of the present application, the frequency domain unit may also be replaced by: a frequency domain resource unit or a frequency unit, etc.

A frequency domain resource set may include one or more frequency domain units. A frequency domain resource set may also be referred to as a frequency domain resource collection, a frequency domain resource group, etc. A frequency domain resource set may include, for example, a resource block set (RBset), an RB, a subchannel, a resource pool, a carrier, and a BWP.

(2) Reference signal.

The reference signals in the embodiments of the present application may include at least one of a positioning reference signal (PRS), a sounding reference signal (SRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a phase-tracking reference signal (PTRS), or a synchronization signal-physical sidelink broadcast channel block (SSB).

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as terrestrial communication systems, NTN communication systems, and satellite communication systems. Among them, the satellite communication system can be integrated with the mobile communication system. For example, the mobile communication system can be a fourth-generation (4G) communication system (for example, a long-term evolution (LTE) system), a world-wide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, a fifth-generation (5G) communication system (for example, a new radio (NR) system), and future mobile communication systems. The mobile communication system can also be a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) system or an Internet of Things (IoT) system.

(3) Region.

Region (e.g., the first region involved in the embodiments of this application): Unless otherwise specified, the term "region" in the following embodiments of this application refers to a geographic region. A region is fixed relative to the Earth, or it can be understood that a region refers to a fixed geographic area relative to the Earth. For example, a region can have at least one of the following attributes: shape, outline, size, radius, area, geographic location, etc.

"Region" can also have an altitude attribute, that is, a region can be understood as a geographical area of a given altitude or altitude range. By default, a region can refer to a geographical area with an altitude of 0 kilometers (km) above sea level or an altitude of about 0 km (such as in the range of [-2, 2] km), or a geographical area with a certain average altitude. In addition, it can also refer to geographical areas of other specific altitudes or specific altitude ranges, such as a geographical area with an altitude of 10 km above sea level, or a geographical area with an altitude of about 10 km (such as in the range of [7, 13] km).

In a possible implementation, the above-mentioned region fixed relative to the earth may also be referred to as a "wave position", "geographical region", etc. Of course, other names are also possible, and this application does not specifically limit the name of the region fixed relative to the earth.

The shapes, outlines, sizes, radii, and areas of different regions may or may not be the same. Different regions may have different geographical locations. Different regions may or may not overlap.

In one possible implementation, a region is fixed relative to the Earth, which can be understood as: the region's outline, size, or geographic location remains unchanged. For example, the region's outline, size, or geographic location does not change over time. Alternatively, a region is fixed relative to the Earth, which can be understood as: the region's outline and points within the region can be described using an Earth-fixed coordinate system, or the coordinates of each point on the region's outline in the Earth-fixed coordinate system are fixed and unchanging.

In a possible embodiment, the shape of the region may be a regular hexagon, or other shapes such as a regular pentagon, a circle, an ellipse, etc. Alternatively, the shape of the region may be an irregular shape, which is not limited.

For example, the shape of a region can be defined by a protocol or by a network device. The region shapes defined by different network devices can be the same or different. The same network device can also define multiple region shapes. Similarly, the size, radius, and area of a region can be defined by a protocol or by a network device. The size, radius, and area of a region defined by different network devices can be the same or different. The same network device can also define multiple region sizes, multiple region radii, or multiple region areas.

In one possible implementation, the Earth's surface can be divided into multiple regions, and the regions can be indexed (e.g., numbered). The terminal device and the network device can agree on a numbering method for these regions (e.g., starting with 1 or 0) and a correspondence between regions and indices. Alternatively, a protocol can define a numbering method for these regions and a correspondence between regions and indices. Based on the region index, information such as the region's geographic location can be determined.

Optionally, the multiple divided areas may completely cover the surface of the earth, such as any location on the surface of the earth belongs to a certain area; or, the multiple divided areas may also cover partial geographical locations on the earth, for example, the multiple areas may not cover the South Pole and/or North Pole of the earth, that is, the South Pole and/or the North Pole may not exist in this area.

Optionally, the method of dividing multiple areas can be defined by a protocol or by a network device. The division methods defined by different network devices can be the same or different. The same network device can also define multiple division methods.

As a first possible division method, the Earth's surface can be divided using a latitude and longitude grid of a certain granularity. For example, the Earth's surface can be divided into a latitude and longitude grid with a granularity of 1 degree. If only this discrete method is used, the world can be divided into 360 × 360 = 129,600 regions. Terminal devices and network devices can agree on the indexes of these 129,600 regions as 0, 1, ..., 129599, or 1, 2, ..., 129,600.

Optionally, after introducing the altitude attribute of a geographic region, multiple grids can be defined to divide the Earth's surface. For example, at an altitude of 0 kilometers (km) or within the range of [-2, 2] km, the Earth's surface can be divided using a latitude and longitude grid with a granularity of 1 degree, resulting in 129,600 regions. At an altitude of 10 km or within the range of [7, 13] km, the Earth's surface can be divided using a latitude and longitude grid with a granularity of 1 degree, resulting in another 129,600 regions. When indexing these regions, the index range needs to be expanded. For example, the total index is 0, 1, ..., 129599, 129600, 129601, ..., 259199, where the first 129,600 numbers represent the region indexes at an altitude of 0 km or within the range of [-2, 2] km, and the last 129,600 numbers represent the region indexes at an altitude of 10 km or within the range of [7, 13] km.

For example, the granularity of the latitude and longitude grid can be determined based on the type of network device. For example, if the network device is a LEO satellite, a relatively small granularity can be used for discretization; if the network device is a geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite, a relatively large granularity can be used for discretization.

As a second possible division method, the earth's surface can be divided using latitude and longitude grids of various granularities. For example, a part of the earth's surface or a part of the administrative area can be divided using a latitude and longitude grid with a granularity of 1 degree, and another part of the earth's surface or administrative area can be divided using a latitude and longitude grid with a granularity of 2 degrees.

Alternatively, after introducing the height attribute of the geographic area, the earth's surface can be divided into a latitude and longitude grid with a granularity of 1 degree at an altitude of 0 km, and the earth's surface can be divided into a latitude and longitude grid with a granularity of 2 degrees at an altitude of 10 km.

As a third possible division method, the Earth's surface can be divided into administrative regions. For example, a township-level administrative region can be considered as a region.

As a fourth possible division method, for GEO satellites, the projection of a GEO satellite beam on the ground can be considered as a region. Since GEO satellites are stationary relative to the Earth, the projection of a GEO satellite beam on the ground can be considered fixed relative to the Earth.

In practical applications, the Earth's surface can be divided in a combination of multiple division methods. For example, a part of the Earth's surface or administrative area can be divided by a latitude and longitude grid with a granularity of 1, and another part of the Earth's surface or administrative area can be divided according to administrative regions.

In one possible implementation, when the earth's surface is divided into multiple regions, different levels of regional division can be performed on the same surface range. For example, for a certain surface range, the first level of regional division can be performed with a longitude and latitude grid with a granularity of 10 degrees, the second level of regional division can be performed with a longitude and latitude grid with a granularity of 6, and the third level of regional division can be performed with a longitude and latitude grid with a granularity of 1. At this time, within the surface range, the number of regions in the first level is greater than the number of regions in the second level, and the number of regions in the second level is greater than the number of regions in the third level. In addition, in this scenario, the regions of each level can be numbered separately.

FIG1A exemplarily illustrates an architectural diagram of a communication system 1000 applicable to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG1A , the communication system includes a radio access network 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The radio access network 100 may include at least one radio access network device (such as 110a and 110b in FIG1A ) and at least one terminal device (such as 120a-120j in FIG1A ). The terminal device is wirelessly connected to the radio access network device, and the radio access network device is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the core network. The core network device and the radio access network device may be independent and distinct physical devices, or the functions of the core network device and the logical functions of the radio access network device may be integrated into the same physical device, or a single physical device may integrate some of the functions of the core network device and some of the functions of the radio access network device. Terminal devices and radio access network devices may be connected to each other via wired or wireless means. FIG1A is only a schematic diagram. The communication system may further include other network devices, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in FIG1A .

The network devices involved in the embodiments of the present application include, for example, radio access network (RAN) devices. A radio access network device may be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a transmission point (TP), a next-generation NodeB (gNB) in a fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system. It may also be a module or unit that performs some of the functions of a base station, for example, a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or a radio unit (RU). The CU implements the base station's radio resource control protocol and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) functions, and can also implement the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) functions. The DU implements the base station's radio link control layer and medium access control (MAC) layer functions, and can also implement some or all of the physical layer functions. For detailed descriptions of each of these protocol layers, please refer to the relevant technical specifications of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The CU and DU can be configured separately or included in the same network element, such as the baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or radio unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), active antenna unit (AAU), or remote radio head (RRH). In different systems, CU, DU or RU may have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an open radio access network (ORAN) system, CU may also be called an open CU (open-CU, O-CU), DU may also be called an open DU (open-DU, O-DU), and RU may also be called an open RU (open-RU, O-RU). Any unit in the CU (or CU control plane (CU control plane, CU-CP), CU user plane (CU user plane, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module. CU-CP may also be called an open CU-CP (open-CU-CP, O-CU-CP), and CU-UP may also be called an open CU-UP (open-CU-UP, O-CU-UP).

Figure 1B illustrates an exemplary O-RAN system architecture diagram provided in an embodiment of the present application. The O-RAN system in the embodiment provided in the present application may include components other than those shown in Figure 1B. As shown in Figure 1B, an access network device (RAN, which may be, for example, an eNB, gNB, or next-generation access network device) communicates with the core network (CN) via a backhaul link and with user equipment (UE) via an air interface. For example, a baseband unit (BBU) in the access network device communicates with the core network via a backhaul link, and a radio unit (RU) in the access network device communicates with at least one UE via an air interface. The BBU communicates with at least one RU via a fronthaul link, and the BBU and RU may or may not be co-located. The BBU includes at least one control unit (CU) and at least one distributed unit (DU), which may communicate via at least one midhaul link. In an embodiment of the present application, the first communication device can configure information of the auxiliary communication device to the terminal device (e.g., UE), and can also send signaling for activating or deactivating one or more communication devices to the terminal device. These signalings can be sent by the CU and/or DU in the first communication device to the terminal device.

Figure 1C illustrates an exemplary O-RAN system architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1C , the O-RAN may include an O-CU-CP, an O-CU-UP, an O-DU, and an O-RU. The system architecture may also include an open cloud (O-cloud), a service management and orchestration framework (service management and orchestration framework), an open eNB (O-eNB), a near-real-time (RT) RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), and a non-real-time (NR) RIC. The non-RT RIC can monitor, configure, manage, and control the radio resources of at least one of multiple O-CU-CPs, O-CU-UPs, DUs, or O-eNBs. As shown in Figure 1C , 3GPP-defined interfaces include, for example, E1, F1 (e.g., F1-c, F1-u), NG (e.g., NG-c, NG-u), Xn (e.g., Xn-c, Xn-u), and X2 (e.g., X2-c, X2-u). For example, the O-RAN communication system also includes interfaces such as O1, O2, E2, A1, and Open Fronthaul (FH) (e.g., the Open FH control (M) plane and the Open FH control, user, and synchronization (CUS) plane). The names of the interfaces and the connection methods of the various units shown in Figure 1C are merely examples. In actual applications, the O-RAN system may include more or fewer interfaces or more or fewer units.

The wireless access network device can be a macro base station (such as 110a in Figure 1A), a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in Figure 1A), a relay node, a donor node, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and device form used by the wireless access network device. For ease of description, the following description uses a base station as an example of a wireless access network device.

Terminal devices may also be referred to as terminal devices, user equipment (UE), mobile stations, mobile terminal devices, etc. Terminal devices 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, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearables, smart transportation, smart cities, etc. Terminal devices can be mobile phones, tablet computers, computers with wireless transceiver functions, wearable devices, vehicles, drones, helicopters, airplanes, ships, robots, robotic arms, smart home devices, sensors, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form used by the terminal devices.

The terminal device can establish a connection with the operator network through an interface provided by the operator network (such as N1, etc.) and use data and/or voice services provided by the operator network. The terminal device can also access the domain name system (DNS) through the operator network and use operator services deployed on the DNS and/or services provided by a third party. The third party can be a service provider outside the operator network and the terminal device, and can provide other data and/or voice services to the terminal device. The specific form of the third party can be determined according to the actual application scenario and is not limited here.

Terminal devices may also be referred to as terminal devices, user equipment (UE), mobile stations, mobile terminal devices, etc. Terminal devices 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, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearables, smart transportation, smart cities, etc. Terminal devices can be mobile phones, tablet computers, computers with wireless transceiver functions, wearable devices, vehicles, drones, helicopters, airplanes, ships, robots, robotic arms, smart home devices, roadside units (RSUs), etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form used by the terminal devices.

Base stations and terminal devices can be fixed or mobile. They can be deployed on land, indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; on water; or in the air on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of base stations and terminal devices.

The roles of base stations and terminal devices can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in Figure 1A can be configured as a mobile base station. To terminal devices 120j accessing the wireless access network 100 via 120i, terminal device 120i is a base station. However, to base station 110a, 120i is a terminal device, meaning that communication between 110a and 120i occurs via a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, communication between 110a and 120i can also occur via a base station-to-base station interface protocol. In this case, 120i is also a base station relative to 110a. Therefore, base stations and terminal devices can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in Figure 1A can be referred to as communication devices with base station functionality, while 120a-120j in Figure 1A can be referred to as communication devices with terminal functionality.

Communication between base stations and terminal devices, between base stations, and between terminal devices can be carried out through authorized spectrum, unauthorized spectrum, or both; communication can be carried out 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 that includes the base station functions. The control subsystem that includes the base station functions 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 device may also be performed by a module (such as a chip or a modem) in the terminal device, or by a device that includes the terminal device functions.

In this application, a base station sends downlink signals or downlink information to a terminal device, and the downlink information is carried on a downlink channel; the terminal device sends uplink signals or uplink information to the base station, and the uplink information is carried on an uplink channel. In order to communicate with the base station, the terminal device needs to establish a wireless connection with the cell controlled by the base station. The cell with which the terminal device has established a wireless connection is called the serving cell of the terminal device. When the terminal device communicates with the serving cell, it will also be interfered with by signals from neighboring cells.

The core network involved in the embodiments of the present application may include network devices that process and forward user signaling and data. For example, it includes access and mobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF), user plane gateway, positioning management equipment and other core network devices. Among them, the user plane gateway can be a server with functions such as mobility management, routing, and forwarding of user plane data, generally located on the network side, such as serving gateway (SGW) or packet data network gateway (PGW) or user plane function entity (UPF). AMF and SMF are equivalent to the mobility management entity (MME) in the long-term evolution (LTE) system. AMF is mainly responsible for access, and SMF is mainly responsible for session management. Of course, the core network can also include other network elements, which are not listed here.

FIG1A is only a schematic diagram. The wireless communication system may further include other devices, such as core network devices, wireless relay devices and/or wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in FIG1A .

Figures 1D and 1E illustrate exemplary network architecture diagrams of several communication systems applicable to embodiments of the present application. These communication systems may include satellites, network equipment, and terminal devices. These systems may also include gateways and core network equipment. Figures 1D and 1E illustrate exemplary converged network architectures for NTNs and terrestrial networks. These are described below with reference to the accompanying figures.

The satellite can be a highly elliptical orbiting (HEO) satellite, a GEO satellite, a medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite, or a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the operating mode of the satellite. For example, the operating mode of the satellite can be a transparent mode or a regenerative mode. FIG1D illustrates the operating mode of the satellite in the transparent mode as an example, and FIG1E illustrates the operating mode of the satellite in the regenerative mode as an example.

When the satellite operates in transparent transmission mode, it performs the transparent forwarding function of a relay. The gateway has the functions of a network device (such as a base station) or some of them. In this case, the gateway can be considered a network device (such as a base station). Alternatively, the network device (such as a base station) can be deployed separately from the gateway. In this case, the feeder link latency includes both the satellite-to-gateway and gateway-to-gNB delays. The transparent transmission mode discussed below is based on the case where the gateway and gNB are located together or close together. For cases where the gateway and gNB are farther apart, the feeder link latency is simply the sum of the satellite-to-gateway and gateway-to-gNB delays.

When the satellite operates in regenerative mode, it has data processing capabilities, the functions of a network device (such as a base station) or partial functions of a network device (such as a base station). At this time, the satellite can be regarded as a network device (such as a base station).

Satellites can wirelessly communicate with terminals by broadcasting communication and navigation signals. Optionally, each satellite can provide terminal devices with communication, navigation, and positioning services using multiple beams. For example, each satellite can use multiple beams to cover its service area, and the relationships between the beams can be one or more of time division, frequency division, and space division.

A gateway (also known as a ground station, earth station, gateway, or gateway station) can be used to connect satellites and terrestrial network equipment (such as terrestrial base stations). One or more satellites can be connected to one or more terrestrial network equipment (such as terrestrial base stations) through one or more gateways, without limitation. The link between the satellite and the terminal is called a service link, and the link between the satellite and the gateway is called a feeder link. Network equipment can be deployed separately from the gateway, so the feeder link latency can include both the satellite-to-gateway and gateway-to-network equipment latency.

The network devices in the embodiments of the present application may include network devices deployed on satellites (such as satellite base stations), network devices deployed on gateways, and network devices deployed on the ground (such as ground base stations). For example, the network devices may be the radio access network (RAN) nodes shown in Figures 1A, 1B, and 1C, or RAN nodes in an O-RAN system. For related content, please refer to the above description and will not be repeated here.

A core network (CN) is a ground-based device that communicates with other NTN devices in the NTN system. For example, the CN may be the CN described in Figures 1A, 1B, and 1C. The details are described above and are omitted here.

The terminal may be the terminal involved in FIG. 1A , FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C . For related contents, please refer to the above description and will not be repeated here.

The embodiments of the present application may also be applicable to other communication system architectures, such as an air-to-ground (ATG) communication system, which includes at least one network device and at least one high-altitude terminal. High-altitude terminals include, for example, high-altitude aircraft and onboard terminals. The satellites in Figures 1D and 1E above may also be replaced with other relay devices, such as high-altitude platforms (HAPS) and other NTN devices. The communication system shown in Figures 1D or 1E is an example and does not limit the communication system to which the method provided in the embodiments of the present application is applicable.

It is understood that the embodiments of the present application may also be applicable to air-to-ground (ATG) communication systems. As an example, see FIG1F , which is a schematic diagram of the network architecture of another communication system applicable to the embodiments of the present application. The communication system includes at least one network device and at least one high-altitude terminal device. The high-altitude terminal device includes, for example, a high-altitude aircraft and an onboard terminal device.

FIG1G exemplarily shows another possible communication system architecture diagram applicable to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG1G, the communication system includes a first communication device, a second communication device and a terminal device. The terminal device can be a terminal or a chip system inside the terminal involved in FIG1A, FIG1B, FIG1C, FIG1D, FIG1E or FIG1F. The first communication device in the embodiment of the present application can be a satellite in FIG1D, FIG1E or FIG1F or a chip system inside a satellite, or it can be a network device (such as an access network device, a ground station, etc.) or a chip system inside a network device involved in FIG1A, FIG1B, FIG1C, FIG1D, FIG1E or FIG1F. The second communication device in the embodiment of the present application can be a satellite in FIG1D, FIG1E or FIG1F or a chip system inside a satellite, or it can be a network device (such as an access network device, a ground station, etc.) or a chip system inside a network device involved in FIG1A, FIG1B, FIG1C, FIG1D, FIG1E or FIG1F.

The communication device in the embodiments of the present application may also be replaced by a cell. For example, the first communication device may also be replaced by a cell, a first cell, or a primary cell. The second communication device may be replaced by a cell, a second cell, or a secondary cell. The secondary communication device involved in the embodiments of the present application may also be replaced by a secondary cell. When the first communication device is a first cell and the second communication device is a second cell, the first cell and the second cell may belong to cells within the coverage of different network devices, or the first cell and the second cell may belong to cells within the coverage of the same network device, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to this. When the first communication device is a first cell and the second communication device is a second cell, the solution provided in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as multi-cell joint transmission. When the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by the two communication devices is greater than the CP, this transmission mode may be referred to as multi-cell joint asynchronous transmission. When the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by the two communication devices is less than or equal to the CP, this transmission mode may be referred to as multi-cell joint quasi-synchronous transmission. In the embodiments of the present application, when the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by the two communication devices is equal to the CP, this transmission mode is multi-cell joint quasi-synchronous transmission, and this is used as an example in the embodiments of the present application. In other possible implementations, when the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by two communication devices is equal to the CP, this transmission mode may also be referred to as multi-cell joint asynchronous transmission, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this. When the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by two communication devices is equal to the CP, if the transmission mode is multi-cell joint asynchronous transmission, then the transmission mode can refer to the processing mode corresponding to the terminal device when the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by the two communication devices is greater than the CP, and no further details will be given.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first communication device and the second communication device can be devices of the same type or different types. For example, the first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a second satellite device. In this case, the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application can also be called multi-satellite joint transmission. When the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by the two communication devices is less than the CP, this transmission mode can be called multi-satellite joint quasi-synchronous transmission. When the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by the two communication devices is equal to the CP, this transmission mode can also be called multi-satellite joint quasi-synchronous (or asynchronous) transmission. When the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the signals transmitted by the two communication devices is greater than the CP, this transmission mode can be called multi-satellite joint asynchronous transmission. In the embodiment of the present application, when the first communication device and the second communication device are satellite devices, the first communication device can operate in transparent transmission mode or regeneration mode, and the second communication device can operate in transparent transmission mode or regeneration mode. The operating modes of the first communication device and the second communication device can be the same or different. The satellite device in the embodiment of the present application (for example, the first satellite device and the second satellite device) can be the satellite in Figure 1D, Figure 1E or Figure 1F or the chip system inside the satellite. For another example, the first communication device and the second communication device are two network devices (eg, access network devices, ground stations, etc.). For another example, the first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a network device (eg, access network devices, ground stations, etc.).

FIG1G illustrates an example in which the first communication device and the second communication device are satellite devices. In actual applications, the first communication device and the second communication device may also be other devices.

Based on the contents shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, or 1G, as well as the other contents described above, Figure 2 exemplarily illustrates a possible flow diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. For ease of understanding, Figure 2 uses the interaction between a terminal device, a first communication device, and a second communication device as an example for description. For relevant examples of the terminal device, the first communication device, and the second communication device, please refer to the description of Figure 1G above, and no further details will be given.

The following is an introduction with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Step 201: A first communication device sends first information.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information.

The first information includes information about the second communication device. The first information can be used to assist the terminal device in receiving the synchronization signal from the second communication device. In this way, the terminal device can receive the synchronization signal from the second communication device based on the first information, thereby reducing the complexity of blind detection by the terminal device and the complexity of receiving the synchronization signal from the second communication device, thereby improving the efficiency of successfully receiving the synchronization signal.

In one possible implementation, the first information may include one or more of the following information A1 (index of information of the second communication device), information A2 (ephemeris information of the second communication device), information A3 (cell identifier corresponding to the second communication device), information A4 (measurement timing configuration corresponding to the second communication device), information A5 (frequency of the second synchronization signal), information A6 (polarization information of the second synchronization signal), and information A7 (sequence information corresponding to the second synchronization signal).

Information A1: index of information of the second communication device.

The terminal device can obtain information about at least one communication device (e.g., at least one secondary satellite device), where each piece of information can correspond to an index. The information about the second communication device belongs to the information about the at least one communication device. After receiving the first information, the terminal device can search for an association between the index and the information about the communication device based on the index in the first information, then find the information about the communication device associated with the index in the first information, and use the information about the communication device as the information about the second communication device.

Taking a second communication device as an example, the information of a communication device will be described. For example, the information of the second communication device may include one or more of the following: ephemeris information of the second communication device, a cell identifier corresponding to the second communication device, a measurement timing configuration corresponding to the second communication device, a frequency of a synchronization signal of the second communication device, polarization information of the synchronization signal of the second communication device, and sequence information corresponding to the synchronization signal of the second communication device. The sequence information corresponding to the synchronization signal of the second communication device may include, for example, information used to generate a sequence of the synchronization signal of the second communication device.

Table 1 below illustrates examples of information about several communication devices. Taking the second row of Table 1 as an example (the header in this table is considered the first row, and in other possible implementations, the header may not be called the first row. In this case, the second row of Table 1 may also be called the first row of Table 1), the index of this row is 0, indicating that the index of the information about the communication device is 0. The information about the communication device with index 0 includes: ephemeris information ephemeris #0 for the communication device, cell identifier #0 for the communication device, downlink synchronization signal frequency f#0 for the communication device, SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) #0 for the communication device, and polarization information for the communication device, which is left polarization, and sequence information #1 for the synchronization signal sent by the communication device. The meanings of the other rows in Table 1 are similar and will not be repeated here. In one possible implementation, a communication device may correspond to one or more measurement timing configurations. Table 1 uses an example in which a communication device is configured with one measurement timing configuration, and the measurement timing configuration is SMTC, as an example.

The communication device information shown in Table 1 is for example only. In actual applications, the communication device information may include more or less information. For example, the communication device information may not include a cell identifier. The table format provided in Table 1 is for example only. In actual applications, the rows and/or columns of Table 1 may vary, and Table 1 may include more or fewer rows and/or columns.

Table 1 Example of information of communication device

In one possible implementation, a terminal device may obtain information about at least one communication device (e.g., at least one secondary satellite device) in various ways. For example, the information about the at least one communication device (e.g., at least one secondary satellite device) may be protocol-defined, preconfigured, or sent to the terminal device by the first communication device. For example, the first communication device may send the information about the at least one communication device via a broadcast message, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

Information A2: ephemeris information of the second communication device.

When the second communication device is a satellite device, the ephemeris information of the second communication device may include, for example, the speed information of the satellite device, the motion trajectory information of the satellite device, the position information of the satellite device, and the time information corresponding to the position information of the satellite device.

Information A3: the cell identifier corresponding to the second communication device.

The cell corresponding to the second communication device may include one or more cells within the signal coverage of the second communication device. The cell identifier corresponding to the second communication device may include, for example, a physical cell identifier (PCI) of the cell.

Information A4, measurement timing configuration corresponding to the second communication device.

The measurement timing configuration corresponding to the second communication device may include, for example, SMTC.

The SMTC corresponding to the second communication device may include, for example, a timing configuration sent by the second communication device to the terminal device when the terminal device performs SSB-based measurement on a cell corresponding to the second communication device. For example, the SMTC corresponding to the second communication device includes an SMTC period, an SMTC duration, and an SMTC offset.

The SMTC period may represent the repetition period of the measurement action. The SMTC period (periodicity) may be no less than the SSB scanning period of the cell to be measured. This can reduce ineffective searches and SSB measurements by the terminal device, thereby reducing power waste.

The SMTC offset can indicate the starting subframe of the measurement action within a period. The SMTC offset can determine the SMTC start offset (the time at which the measurement starts after the start of each SMTC period).

The SMTC duration can represent the duration of the measurement action after the measurement action starts. The SMTC duration can be greater than or equal to the effective scanning time in each SSB scanning cycle of the cell to be measured. For example, if the effective scanning time of the SSB scanning cycle is 4 milliseconds (ms), the SMTC duration needs to be greater than or equal to 4ms to ensure that the terminal can detect all potential SSBs.

In a possible implementation, the SMTC start frame number and the SMTC start subframe number may be calculated according to the following formulas (1) and (2):

SFN mod T＝FLOOR(offset/10)......Formula (1)

subframe＝offset mod 10……Formula (2)

In formula (1) and formula (2), SFN is the starting frame number of SMTC, T = periodicity/10, periodicity is the SMTC period (or period duration), offset is the SMTC offset, subframe is the starting subframe number of SMTC, mod is the modulo operation, and FLOOR is rounding down.

For example, if the periodicity is 20 milliseconds (ms), the offset is 1 ms, and the SMTC duration is 2 ms, then the SMTC start frame number is calculated to be 0 and the SMTC start subframe number is 1 using the above formulas (1) and (2). The detection duration can be further determined by combining the start frame number and the start subframe number with the duration.

Information A5: the frequency of the synchronization signal of the second communication device.

Frequency can be understood as carrier frequency or carrier frequency. For example, the frequency can be 2 gigahertz (GHz), 20 GHz, or 30 GHz.

Information A6: polarization information of the synchronization signal of the second communication device.

The polarization information of the synchronization signal of the second communication device may include, for example, left polarization, right polarization, or linear polarization.

Information A7: sequence information corresponding to the synchronization signal of the second communication device.

The sequence information corresponding to the synchronization signal of the second communication device may include, for example, information of the sequence used to generate the synchronization signal, such as the sequence number of the root sequence used to generate the synchronization signal, the index number of the synchronization signal sequence (the corresponding synchronization sequence is determined by looking up a table), etc.

Step 202: The second communication device sends a second synchronization signal.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives a second synchronization signal from the second communication device based on the first information.

For the purpose of distinction, in the embodiments of the present application, the synchronization signal sent by the first communication device is referred to as the first synchronization signal, and the synchronization signal sent by the second communication device is referred to as the second synchronization signal. The terms "first" and "second" (e.g., the first synchronization signal, the second synchronization signal, and the subsequent first data, second data, and third data) in the embodiments of the present application are for the purpose of distinction and have no other limiting meaning.

With the assistance of the first information, the terminal device can reduce the complexity of blind detection, and then speed up the speed of successfully receiving the second synchronization signal, thereby improving communication efficiency.

Step 203: The first communication device sends first data to the terminal device on the first resource.

Step 204: The second communication device sends second data to the terminal device via the first resource.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first data and the second data.

In steps 203 and 204, since the first data and the second data are from the same resource, the terminal device receives the superposition of the first and second data. For the sake of distinction, in this embodiment of the present application, the data received by the terminal device on the first resource is referred to as third data, which includes the first data and the second data.

The first data comes from a first communication device. The first resource is used by the first communication device to transmit the first data, and the first data occupies the first resource. The second data comes from a second communication device. The first resource is also used by the second communication device to transmit the second data, and the second data occupies the first resource. The first data and the second data may be the same data or different data. Alternatively, the first data and the second data may carry the same information or different information.

In an embodiment of the present application, the first resource may include a time domain resource and a frequency domain resource. In this embodiment, the first data and the second data have the same time domain resource and the same frequency domain resource. In another possible embodiment, the first resource may include a time domain resource or a frequency domain resource. In this embodiment, the first data and the second data have the same time domain resource or the same frequency domain resource. The relevant concepts can be found in the above description and will not be repeated here.

Step 205: The terminal device obtains the first data and the second data.

In step 205, the terminal device receives the third data and obtains the first data and the second data from the third data.

In the embodiment of the present application, the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device can be less than the CP, equal to the CP, or greater than the CP. The difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first data and the downlink timing corresponding to the second data can be less than the CP, equal to the CP, or greater than the CP.

The downlink timing in the embodiment of the present application can be replaced with downlink synchronization timing, and the English name of downlink timing can be called downlink timing. Downlink timing is used to enable the terminal device to determine the frame boundary, subframe boundary, time slot boundary, symbol boundary, or receiving window position of the frame sent by the communication device. For example, the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device can also be replaced by/include: the downlink timing difference between the first communication device and the second communication device, the difference in frame boundaries of the downlink frames of the first communication device and the second communication device, the downlink timing difference, the synchronization position difference, etc. For another example, the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device can also be replaced by/include: the time difference between the frame boundaries of the same frame number of the two downlink signals received by the terminal device from the first communication device and the second communication device respectively, the time difference between the time slot boundaries of the same time slot number, or the time difference between the symbol boundaries of the same symbol index number.

The difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device may be a variable, and the difference may be associated with the difference in data transmission delay between the first communication device and the second communication device. The difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device may be equal to or different from the difference in data transmission delay between the first communication device and the second communication device.

For example, the first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a second satellite device. The first satellite device and the second satellite device simultaneously send data (e.g., first data and second data) to the terminal device. The time difference between the two data arriving at the terminal device is the difference in data transmission delay between the first satellite device and the second satellite device. However, in actual applications, the satellite devices may advance or delay the time of information transmission, and the relative positions between the two satellite devices may also change during the movement of the satellite devices. Therefore, the downlink timing difference between the first satellite device and the second satellite device is not necessarily equal to the difference in data transmission delay between the first satellite device and the second satellite device. Because the distances between the two satellite devices and the terminal device are different, the distances between the satellite devices and the terminal device are also far, and the relative positions between the two satellite devices may also change, the difference in the distances between the two satellite devices and the terminal device may also change. This may also cause a large difference in the time delays for the information simultaneously sent by the two satellite devices to reach the terminal device, which in turn causes the time delay difference for the information simultaneously sent by the two satellite devices to reach the terminal device to be greater than the CP. In some cases, the time delay difference for the information simultaneously sent by the two satellite devices to reach the terminal device may be less than or equal to the CP.

FIG3 exemplarily shows a schematic diagram of a possible information transmission by multiple communication devices arriving at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG3 , the data sent by the first communication device to the terminal device includes S1 and S2. The data sent by the second communication device to the terminal device includes S3. The time when the data sent by the first communication device arrives at the terminal device is t ₀ , and the time when the data sent by the second communication device arrives at the terminal device is (t ₀ +t ₁ ). t ₁ is the time difference between the data sent by the first communication device and the data sent by the second communication device arriving at the terminal device. t ₁ can also be understood as the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device. _{t 1} may be less than or equal to CP, or may be greater than CP.

When the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device is greater than the CP, the terminal device may need a more complex solution to eliminate interference between signals. In order to reduce the complexity of obtaining data on the terminal device side, an embodiment of the present application provides a data processing method. For ease of distinction, the data processing method is referred to as the first data processing method in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the first data processing method includes: the terminal device obtains first data from the third data. The terminal device obtains fourth data based on the first data and the influence of the channel on the signal. The fourth data includes the first data affected by the channel. The terminal device removes the fourth data from the third data to obtain fifth data. The terminal device obtains second data from the fifth data.

As an example, FIG4 shows a flow chart of a possible method for a terminal device to obtain data provided by an embodiment of the present application, with reference to FIG3 . Referring to FIG4 , the process may include the following steps.

(1) First data transmitted by a first communication device arrives at a terminal device via a channel corresponding to the first communication device. Second data transmitted by a second communication device arrives at the terminal device via a channel corresponding to the second communication device. The first data and the second data occupy the same resources. The terminal device receives third data (the third data includes the first data and the second data). The terminal device decodes the first data (e.g., S1 and S2) from the third data.

(2) The terminal device obtains fourth data based on the first data and the influence of the channel on the signal. The fourth data includes the first data affected by the channel. For example, the terminal device reconstructs the signal based on the decoding results of signals S1 and S2 to obtain fourth data, such as (S1*h1+S2*h2). Where h1 and h2 represent the influence of the channel on the signal.

(3) The terminal device removes the fourth data from the third data to obtain the fifth data. For example, the terminal device uses the superimposed signal (i.e., the third data) received from the two communication devices minus the recovered fourth data (S1*h1+S2*h2) to obtain the fifth data. This process can be understood as a successive interference cancellation (SIC) signal processing method.

(4) The terminal device obtains the second data (for example, S3) from the fifth data.

The above scheme can eliminate the interference of signals sent by multiple communication devices to the terminal device. Moreover, the above interference elimination method can better obtain the data sent by multiple communication devices from the received superimposed signal. For example, the terminal device can first treat the signal other than the signal of the first communication device (such as the signal of the second communication device) as an interference signal for interference elimination, or treat it as a background noise, and then restore the signal of the first communication device. Alternatively, the terminal device performs interference elimination on the signal of the second communication device, for example, it can decode the signal of the second communication device, and then subtract the signal from the second communication device from the received signal, and then obtain the signal of the first communication device. This process can be understood as an interference elimination processing method. Among them, if the signal of the second communication device is processed in an interference elimination manner, the terminal device needs to obtain information such as the scrambling code, coding modulation method, and resources occupied by the signal (such as the first resource) of the signal sent by the second communication device. This information can be sent by the first communication device to the terminal device so that the terminal device can eliminate interference with the received signal.

It can be seen from the scheme provided in Figure 2 that in an embodiment of the present application, multiple communication devices can use the same resources (such as time-frequency and/or frequency domain resources) to transmit different data to the same terminal device, thereby improving the throughput and/or spectrum efficiency of the communication system.

On the other hand, because multiple communication devices use the same resources (e.g., time-frequency and/or frequency-domain resources) to transmit different data to the same terminal device, the solution provided by the embodiments of the present application allows the terminal device to better recover the data sent by each communication device from the received data when the time difference between the data from multiple communication devices reaching the terminal device is large (e.g., based on the solution provided in FIG. 4 ). Based on this, it can be seen that the solution provided by the embodiments of the present application is applicable regardless of whether the time difference between the data from multiple communication devices reaching the terminal device is small or large. Furthermore, because the difference between the downlink timings of multiple satellite devices in an NTN network may be greater than the CP, i.e., the time difference between the data from multiple satellite devices reaching the terminal device may be large, the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to NTN networks. Furthermore, when applying the solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, when multiple satellite devices in an NTN network transmit data to a terminal device using the same resources (e.g., the same time-domain resources and the same frequency-domain resources), there is no need to restrict the difference between the downlink timings of the multiple satellite devices to be less than or equal to the CP. Even if the difference between the downlink timings of the multiple satellite devices is greater than the CP, the terminal device can recover the data of each satellite device from the received data in the solution provided by the embodiments of the present application. It can be seen that the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application provides a solution for multiple satellite devices in the NTN network to send data to the terminal device on the same resources (such as the same time domain resources and the same frequency domain resources), and this solution can reduce the restrictions on the satellite devices sending data, thereby reducing the complexity of data transmission on the satellite device side.

The term "same resources" involved in the embodiments of the present application can be replaced with/include: "same time domain and frequency domain resources", or can be replaced with/include "same time domain resources (frequency domain resources may be the same or different)" or "same frequency domain resources (time domain resources may be the same or different)", and there are many specific examples. The meaning of the term in other locations can be found in the description of that place, and the description will not be repeated. For ease of understanding, some of the contents in the embodiments of the present application are introduced using "same resources" including "same time domain and frequency domain resources" as an example.

For example, when the first communication device is a first satellite device and the second communication device is a second satellite device. Since the satellite devices are constantly moving and the distance between the satellite devices and the terminal device is relatively far, the distance difference between the two satellite devices and the terminal device is a variable, which may cause the delay of the signals from multiple satellite devices reaching the terminal device to be relatively large (for example, the delay of the signals from multiple satellite devices reaching the terminal device is greater than the CP), resulting in the terminal device needing to asynchronously receive data from multiple satellite devices in the time domain (asynchronous reception means that the delay of the signals from multiple satellite devices reaching the terminal device is greater than the CP). The receiving end can recover the data sent by each satellite device by performing asynchronous interference elimination on the received data (asynchronous interference elimination can be, for example, the data processing method provided in FIG. 4 above). However, the asynchronous interference elimination at the receiving end requires the terminal device to continuously maintain timing synchronization with the downlink signals of multiple satellite devices, that is, the asynchronous interference elimination method requires the terminal device to synchronize with the downlink signals of multiple satellite devices in order to perform interference elimination. In the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the first communication device will send the first information to the terminal device, and the terminal device can receive the synchronization signal of the second communication device based on the first information, and then maintain timing synchronization with the downlink signal of the second communication device, so as to facilitate the terminal device to recover the data sent by each satellite device by performing asynchronous interference elimination on the received data. In this solution, the terminal device can receive the synchronization signal of the second communication device based on the first information, and then reduce the complexity of the downlink signal synchronization between the terminal device and the second communication device, thereby improving communication efficiency. For example, through link simulation verification, when the first communication device and the second communication device are satellite devices or chips or chip systems in satellite devices, the spectral efficiency of the communication system when the two satellite devices transmit data to the terminal device is 20% higher than the spectral efficiency of the communication system when a single satellite device transmits data to the terminal device. In the implementation of this application, the terminal device can be a single-antenna terminal or a multi-antenna terminal.

Based on the contents shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F or 1G, Figures 2, 3, and 4, as well as the other contents described above, Figure 5 exemplarily illustrates a possible flow diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. For ease of understanding, Figure 5 uses the interaction between a terminal device, a first communication device, and a second communication device as an example for description. For an introduction to the terminal device, the first communication device, and the second communication device, please refer to the relevant introduction to Figure 2 above, and no further details will be given.

Step 501: A terminal device establishes an RRC connection with a first communication device.

In an embodiment of the present application, during the process of establishing an RRC connection between the terminal device and the first communication device, the terminal device can first receive a synchronization signal (e.g., a first synchronization signal) from the first communication device, then synchronize with the first communication device, and then establish an RRC connection with the first communication device.

In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can maintain synchronization with multiple communication devices, but the terminal device can establish an RRC connection with the first communication device, and does not need to establish an RRC connection with other communication devices. For example, the terminal device receives the first synchronization signal of the first communication device, and then establishes an RRC connection with the first communication device. The terminal device receives the second synchronization signal of the second communication device, and does not establish an RRC connection with the second communication device. The communication device that establishes an RRC connection with the terminal device can also be called a primary communication device (such as a primary satellite device); other communication devices that do not establish an RRC connection with the terminal device, but the terminal device maintains the downlink synchronization of the communication device, can be called secondary communication devices (such as secondary satellite devices). Since the terminal device only establishes an RRC connection with the first communication device, this solution can reduce the complexity of the solution on the terminal device side. Since the terminal device can synchronize with multiple communication devices, the terminal device can decode the data sent from multiple communication devices on the same resources, and then recover the data sent by each of the multiple communication devices.

Step 502: The terminal device sends second information to the first communication device.

Correspondingly, the first communication device receives the second information.

In one possible implementation, the second information may include the following information B1 (information used to indicate that the terminal device supports the first data transmission mode) and/or information B2 (information used to indicate the number of multiple communication devices supported by the terminal device for sending data to the terminal device on the same resources).

Information B1 is used to indicate that the terminal device supports the first data transmission mode.

In one possible implementation, the first data transmission mode includes multiple communication devices sending data to the terminal device on the same resources. The difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the data sent by two communication devices among the multiple communication devices to the terminal device on the same resources may be less than, equal to, or greater than the cyclic prefix. In the embodiment of the present application, the first data transmission mode may also be replaced by other names, for example, it may be replaced by: data transmission mode, signal transmission mode, information transmission mode, transmission mode, multi-satellite joint transmission mode, or multi-cell joint transmission mode.

In another possible implementation, the first data transmission mode includes: multiple communication devices sending data to the terminal device on the same resources, and the difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the data sent by two communication devices among the multiple communication devices to the terminal device on the same resources is greater than the cyclic prefix. In this implementation, the first data transmission mode can also be replaced by a multi-satellite joint asynchronous transmission mode or a multi-cell joint asynchronous transmission mode. In an embodiment of the present application, the data sent by any two communication devices among the multiple communication devices to the terminal device on the same resources can carry the same information or carry different information.

A terminal device supporting the first data transmission mode may require a higher cache capacity and a higher data processing capacity. The terminal device supporting the first data transmission mode may be replaced by: the terminal device supports asynchronous interference cancellation decoding (such as SIC). Alternatively, the terminal device supporting the first data transmission mode may be replaced by/include: when the terminal device receives data sent from multiple communication devices on the same resource, if the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the data sent to the terminal device by two communication devices among the multiple communication devices on the same resource is greater than the cyclic prefix, the terminal device can recover the data of each communication device from the received data.

In another possible implementation, the terminal device supporting the first data transmission mode can also be replaced by: the terminal device has the ability to simultaneously detect synchronization signals of multiple communication devices, and has the ability to maintain timing synchronization with multiple communication devices. When the terminal device has the ability to synchronize with multiple communication devices, the terminal device maintains timing synchronization (for example, downlink timing synchronization) with the multiple communication devices, and then the terminal device can receive different data sent by multiple communication devices on the same resources.

In the case where the second information includes information indicating that the terminal device supports the first data transmission mode, the first communication device can determine the capabilities of the terminal device based on the content of the second information, that is, whether the terminal device supports the first data transmission mode. The first communication device can then configure the data transmission mode for the terminal device based on the capabilities of the terminal device. For example, the first communication device can configure multiple communication devices to transmit data to the terminal device on the same resources for a terminal device that supports the first data transmission mode, so as to improve the throughput and/or spectrum efficiency of the communication system. For another example, the first communication device can configure a single communication device to transmit data for a terminal device that does not support the first data transmission mode, so as to avoid the data transmission mode exceeding the capabilities of the terminal device, thereby causing data transmission failure.

Information B2 is used to indicate the number of multiple communication devices supported by the terminal device that send data to the terminal device on the same resource.

The second information may indicate the number of communication devices supported by the terminal device, or the maximum number. For example, information B2 indicates that the number is five. Based on this, the first communication device can determine that the terminal device can support a maximum of five communication devices to send data to the terminal device on the same resource. The data sent by two communication devices (or any two communication devices) among the five communication devices may be the same or different. For example, the data sent by the five communication devices is the same, and for example, the data sent by any two communication devices among the five communication devices is different.

In the case where the second information includes the number of multiple communication devices supported by the terminal device for sending data to the terminal device on the same resource, the first communication device configures different data transmission modes for the terminal device based on the capabilities of each terminal device. For example, the number of communication devices configured by the first communication device for sending data to the terminal device on the same resource may not exceed the capability range of the terminal device, thereby preventing the occurrence of communication failures. On the other hand, the more communication devices supported by the terminal device, the more communication devices the first communication device can configure for the terminal device. It can be seen that the first communication device can be flexibly configured in combination with the capabilities of each terminal device, so that the solution can be better compatible with terminal devices of different capabilities, thereby maximizing the throughput and/or communication spectrum efficiency of the communication system.

The terminal device sending the second information may be reporting the terminal device's capabilities. There are various opportunities for the terminal device to send the second information. For example, the terminal device may proactively report the capability information during system access or after completing initial access. For another example, a first communications device may send information to the terminal device to query the terminal device's capabilities. After receiving the information, the terminal device may send the second information to the first communications device.

Step 503: The first communication device sends first information.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information.

The relevant contents of step 503 can be found in the relevant description of the aforementioned step 201 and will not be repeated here.

The first information may include information about one or more communication devices. For information about a communication device included in the first information, refer to the aforementioned description of the information about the second communication device. When the first information includes information about multiple communication devices, the types of information about the multiple communication devices may be the same or different. For example, the information about communication device #1 included in the first information may be the ephemeris information of communication device #1, and the information about communication device #2 included in the first information may be the frequency of the synchronization signal of communication device #2.

The information about the communication device (e.g., the second communication device) included in the first information may be information about candidate secondary communication devices configured by the first communication device for the terminal device. In one possible implementation, the number of communication devices indicated by the first information does not include the maximum number of communication devices supported by the terminal device (e.g., the number of communication devices indicated by the aforementioned second information). In this way, the number of candidate secondary communication devices configured by the first communication device for the terminal device does not exceed the terminal device's capabilities, thereby avoiding communication errors.

Step 504: The terminal device sends third information.

Correspondingly, the first communication device receives the third information.

The third information indicates at least one of the following: the terminal device detecting a synchronization signal from at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device); or the terminal device establishing downlink timing synchronization with at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device). After receiving the synchronization signal from at least one communication device or establishing downlink timing synchronization with at least one communication device, the terminal device may transmit the third information to indicate to the first communication device which communication devices the terminal device can receive data from. This allows the first communication device to configure a communication device for the terminal device that can transmit data to the terminal device on the same resources, thereby improving the success rate of multiple communication devices transmitting data to the terminal device.

For example, the third information may include at least one of the following: an index corresponding to the information of at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device), an identifier of at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device), and an identifier of a cell corresponding to at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device). For example, the third information includes an index corresponding to the information of the second communication device. The first communication device can search for the association between the index and the communication device (e.g., the association in Table 1 above) based on the index corresponding to the information of the second communication device, and then determine the communication device corresponding to the index (e.g., the communication device corresponding to the cell identifier associated with the index in Table 1) as the communication device that detects the synchronization signal or establishes downlink timing synchronization for the terminal device. This solution can reduce the bits occupied by the information in the third information, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

In one possible implementation, after receiving the synchronization signal from the second communication device, the terminal device may measure the signal from the second communication device and obtain measurement result information. The measurement result information may reflect link quality and/or signal quality, etc. For example, the measurement result information in the embodiments of the present application may include at least one of a signal detection result, link quality, channel quality, and signal quality. For example, the measurement result information may include signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), bit energy to noise power spectral density ratio (Eb/N0), reference signal received power (RSRP), channel quality indicator (CQI), signal-to-interference plus noise power ratio (SINR), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or decoding performance (e.g., packet loss rate). Link quality can be determined from the measurement result information (e.g., based on a reference signal or data signal). For example, the link quality can include poor link quality or excellent link quality. For example, the third information may include at least one of the following: an index corresponding to information of at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device), an identifier of at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device), an identifier of a cell corresponding to at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device), measurement result information corresponding to at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device), and a link quality corresponding to at least one communication device (e.g., a second communication device). In this way, the first communication device can know the link quality corresponding to the communication device, and then can configure the auxiliary communication device for the terminal device in combination with the link quality. For example, a communication device with better link quality can be configured as an auxiliary communication device, thereby improving communication performance.

In another possible implementation, the terminal device may perform blind detection on the synchronization signal of the at least one communication device indicated by the first information based on the information of the at least one communication device indicated by the first information. The communication device reported by the terminal device through the third information belongs to the communication device indicated by the first information.

Step 505: The first communication device sends fourth information.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the fourth information.

The fourth information includes information indicating at least one communication device (the at least one communication device includes the second communication device). For example, the fourth information includes at least one of the following: an index corresponding to information of the at least one communication device (e.g., the second communication device), an identifier of the at least one communication device (e.g., the second communication device), and an identifier of a cell corresponding to the at least one communication device (e.g., the second communication device). The terminal device can determine the communication device indicated by the fourth information based on the fourth information.

The communication device indicated by the fourth information may be understood as an activated communication device, or a communication device set as a secondary communication device.

This description uses the example of a first communication device configuring at least a second communication device as a secondary satellite device, or the first communication device activating the second communication device. In this example, the fourth information includes information indicating the second communication device. The fourth information indicates the second communication device. Alternatively, the fourth information indicates that the first communication device and the second communication device are transmitting data to the terminal device using the same resource. The difference between the downlink timings corresponding to the data transmitted by the first and second communication devices to the terminal device using the same resource may be greater than, less than, or equal to the cyclic prefix.

In another possible implementation, the fourth information indicates that the first communication device and the second communication device send data to the terminal device on the same resource, and the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the data sent by the first communication device and the second communication device to the terminal device on the same resource is greater than the cyclic prefix. The terminal device determines that the communication device indicated by the fourth information is an activated communication device (or the communication device is an auxiliary communication device, or the communication device needs to be a communication device that transmits data on the same resource as the first communication device). It can be seen from this scheme that the first communication device can select some or all of the communication devices from the communication devices that the terminal device can receive the synchronization signal as auxiliary communication devices (for example, it can be selected based on link quality) so that it can subsequently send data to the terminal device on the same resource together with the auxiliary communication device. On the other hand, in this scheme, since the first communication device can select an auxiliary communication device for activation, the first communication device can select a more suitable communication device as an auxiliary communication device based on multiple factors. For example, the auxiliary communication device can be selected based on information such as the load amount and/or link quality of the auxiliary communication device. This scheme can improve communication performance.

In another possible implementation, the fourth information may also be used to indicate a data processing mode of the terminal device. For example, the fourth information includes information indicating a first data processing mode. For example, the fourth information instructs the terminal device to select the first data processing mode to receive data from the first communication device and the second communication device. The first data processing mode has the ability to process data transmitted via the first data transmission mode. The first data processing mode may, for example, include step 205 of FIG. 2 and/or the data processing mode shown in FIG. 4 . The first data processing mode may be replaced by other names, such as a data processing mode, a decoding mode, or a data decoding mode.

For example, the fourth information includes information for indicating the second communication device. After receiving the information, the terminal device determines that the first communication device activates the second communication device and determines that data from the first communication device and the second communication device need to be received using the first data processing method.

When the fourth information indicates the data processing method of the terminal device, the terminal device can process the received data using an appropriate data processing method based on the fourth information, thereby increasing the probability of correct data reception and thus improving communication performance.

Step 506: The terminal device determines that it needs to maintain downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device.

In step 506 , the terminal device maintains synchronization with the downlink timing of the first communication device, and may also maintain synchronization with the downlink timing of at least one communication device (the at least one communication device includes the second communication device).

In a possible implementation, the terminal device may determine at least one communication device indicated by the fourth information, and the communication device for which the terminal device maintains downlink timing synchronization belongs to the at least one communication device indicated by the fourth information.

The terminal device maintains downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device: it can be replaced by the terminal device being able to continuously track the synchronization signal of the second communication device; or replaced by continuously receiving the synchronization signal of the second communication device; or replaced by the terminal device determining the frame boundary of the frame sent by the communication device.

Step 507: The first communication device sends information indicating the first area to the second communication device.

Correspondingly, the second communication device receives information indicating the first area.

The terminal device is located in the first area. The information used to indicate the first area includes: the wave position information within the first area, and/or the location information of the terminal device. The location information of the terminal device may, for example, include the coordinates of the location of the terminal device in a coordinate system, or include the administrative location of the terminal device, such as which road number it is located on. The wave position can be understood as a location area divided on the ground. The wave position information may include, for example, information for identifying the wave position, such as the wave position identifier. For the relevant content about the wave position and area, please refer to the above description and will not be repeated here.

After receiving the information indicating the first area, the second communication device may determine the area where the terminal device is located, and then may send a synchronization signal to the area, so that the terminal device can subsequently maintain synchronization with the second communication device.

Step 508: The second communication device sends a second synchronization signal to the first area.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second synchronization signal.

The second communication device may send a synchronization signal to the first area after receiving the information indicating the first area, and the information indicating the first area may be used to enable the second communication device to send a synchronization signal to the first area. In step 508, the second communication device sending the second synchronization signal to the first area may include: the second communication device periodically sends the second synchronization signal to the first area with a shorter period duration (e.g., the first period duration). Alternatively, the second communication device sending the second synchronization signal to the first area may include: the second communication device continuously sends the second synchronization signal to the first area. Alternatively, the second communication device sending the second synchronization signal to the first area may include: the second communication device sends the second synchronization signal to the first area at a higher frequency (e.g., the first frequency).

In the embodiment of the present application, the second communication device may not have sent a synchronization signal to the first area before receiving the information indicating the first area. In this embodiment, the aforementioned step 504 may not be performed.

Alternatively, the second communication device may have already sent a synchronization signal to the first area before receiving the information indicating the first area. However, before step 508, the second communication device may have sent a synchronization signal to the first area less frequently, or the synchronization signal sent by the second communication device to the first area may have a longer period (e.g., the synchronization signal is sent at a second period, where the second period is greater than the first period), or the synchronization signal sent by the second communication device to the first area may have a lower frequency (e.g., a second frequency, where the second frequency is less than the first frequency).

For example, the second communication device periodically sends a synchronization signal to the first area with a longer second duration before step 508, and the second duration is greater than the first duration. In step 508, the second communication device may periodically send a synchronization signal to the area where the terminal device is located (i.e., the first area) with a shorter first duration based on the received information indicating the first area.

The relevant contents of step 508 may refer to the relevant description of the aforementioned step 202. For example, the terminal device may receive the second synchronization signal based on the first information, and the relevant contents will not be repeated here.

Steps 507 and 508 may be performed before step 505 or step 506. In this way, the terminal device may continue to receive the synchronization signal of the second communication device after receiving the fourth information. Alternatively, steps 507 and 508 may be performed after step 505 or step 506. After the terminal device determines based on the fourth information that it is necessary to maintain downlink timing synchronization of the second communication device, it may continue to search for the synchronization signal of the second communication device until the search is successful.

Step 509: The first communication device sends the configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data to the second communication device.

Correspondingly, the second communication device receives the configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data.

In embodiments of the present application, the configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data may also be obtained by the second communication device from another device. For example, the configuration information of the first resource may be sent by another network device to the second communication device. In another example, the second data may be sent by another network device to the second communication device. Figure 5 illustrates an example of a first communication device sending the configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data to a second communication device.

When a first communication device sends configuration information about a first resource to a second communication device, the second communication device can determine the first resource based on the configuration information and then send data to the terminal device on the first resource. In this solution, the first communication device can directly determine which resources are used in common by multiple communication devices to transmit data, which can reduce the complexity of the solution for the first communication device.

When a first communication device transmits second data to a second communication device, the first communication device may distribute data transmitted by other communication devices to the terminal device. For example, the first communication device may more reasonably distribute data transmitted by each communication device to the terminal device based on factors such as workload and link quality, thereby improving communication performance.

Step 510: The first communication device sends first data to the terminal device on a first resource.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first data.

The relevant contents of step 510 can be found in the relevant description of the aforementioned step 203 and will not be repeated here.

Step 511: The second communication device sends second data to the terminal device on the first resource.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second data.

The relevant contents of step 511 can be found in the relevant description of the aforementioned step 204 and will not be repeated here.

Step 512: The terminal device obtains the first data and the second data.

The relevant content of step 512 can be found in the relevant description of the aforementioned step 205 and will not be repeated here.

Step 513: The first communication device sends sixth information to the second communication device.

Correspondingly, the second communication device receives the sixth information.

The sixth information is used to instruct the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device through the same resource as the first communication device.

The sixth information is also used for the second communication device to stop sending the synchronization signal to the area where the terminal device is located.

After receiving the sixth information, the second communication device may stop sending the synchronization signal to the first area, or may continue sending the synchronization signal to the first area.

For example, after receiving the sixth information, the second communication device stops sending the synchronization signal to the first area with a shorter duration (such as the first duration) as a cycle, and instead sends the synchronization signal to the first area with a longer duration (such as the second duration) as a cycle.

For another example, after receiving the sixth information, the second communication device stops sending the synchronization signal to the first area at a higher frequency (eg, the first frequency), and instead sends the synchronization signal to the first area at a lower frequency (eg, the second frequency).

The above solutions can reduce the power consumption of the second communication device and also reduce the complexity of implementing the solutions on the communication device side.

Step 514: The first communication device sends fifth information.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the fifth information.

The fifth information includes information indicating at least one communication device (the at least one communication device includes the second communication device). For example, the fifth information includes: an index corresponding to the information of the at least one communication device (e.g., the second communication device), an identifier of the at least one communication device (e.g., the second communication device), and an identifier of a cell corresponding to the at least one communication device (e.g., the second communication device). The terminal device can determine the communication device indicated by the fifth information based on the fifth information.

The communication device indicated by the fifth information may be understood as a deactivated communication device, or a communication device that no longer belongs to a secondary communication device.

This description uses the example of a first communication device deactivating at least a second communication device, or the first communication device determining that the second communication device is no longer a secondary communication device. In this example, the fifth information includes information indicating the second communication device. The fifth information instructs the second communication device. Alternatively, the fifth information instructs the second communication device to stop transmitting data to the terminal device using the same resources as the first communication device.

In another possible implementation, the fifth information may also be used to indicate a data processing mode for the terminal device. For example, the fifth information instructs the terminal device to stop using the first data processing mode to receive data from the first communication device and the second communication device. The first data processing mode may, for example, include step 205 of FIG. 2 and/or the data processing mode shown in FIG. 4 . For example, the fifth information includes information indicating the second communication device. After receiving this information, the terminal device determines that the first communication device has deactivated the second communication device and determines to stop receiving data from the first communication device and the second communication device using the first data processing mode.

After receiving the fifth information, the terminal device may stop maintaining downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device (e.g., stop searching for a synchronization signal sent by the second communication device, or stop determining frame boundaries of information sent by the second communication device). This can reduce the complexity of the solution.

In the embodiment of the present application, after the terminal device receives the fifth information, it can determine that the first communication device has stopped transmitting data to the terminal device on the same resource as the first communication device. However, the first communication device may continue to transmit data to the terminal device independently, or the second communication device may continue to transmit data to the terminal device independently, or the first communication device and a communication device other than the second communication device may transmit data to the terminal device on the same resource, and this embodiment of the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

In the embodiment of the present application, the information that the first communication device needs to send (such as the fourth information, the information indicating the first area, the configuration information of the first resource sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, the fifth information, or one or more of the sixth information) can be carried in at least one of the broadcast information such as system information block (SIB) 1, other system information (OSI), and master system information block (MIB), and broadcast or multicasted by the first communication device to the terminal device. This can avoid scheduling different resources for different terminal devices in order to send the above-mentioned signaling, thereby saving the signaling overhead of scheduling resources and reducing the complexity of system scheduling.

In another possible implementation, if the first communication device sends information (such as the fourth information, information indicating the first area, configuration information of the first resource sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, the second data sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, the fifth information, or one or more of the sixth information) during the radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment phase and subsequent communication process, then this information can be carried in RRC signaling (for example, RRC establishment (RRC setup) message, RRC reconfiguration signaling (RRC reconfiguration), RRC resume signaling (RRC resume) etc.), downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI), group DCI, media access control (MAC) control element (CE) control element, and at least one of these information can be indicated through signaling or in a table. Alternatively, the information that the first communication device needs to send (such as the fourth information, information indicating the first area, configuration information of the first resource sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, second data sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, the fifth information, or one or more of the sixth information) can be carried along with the data transmission or in a separately allocated physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). The information that the first communication device needs to indicate (such as the fourth information, information indicating the first area, configuration information of the first resource sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, second data sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, the fifth information, or one or more of the sixth information) can be sent via unicast or multicast. In this way, the information corresponding to each/each group of terminal devices can be flexibly controlled.

It is understandable that in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the first communication device, the second communication device, and the terminal device may include hardware structures and/or software modules that perform the corresponding functions. Those skilled in the art should readily appreciate that, in combination with the units and method steps of the various examples described in the embodiments disclosed in this application, 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 hardware or in a manner driven by computer software depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

Figures 6, 7 and 8 are schematic diagrams of the structures of possible communication devices provided by embodiments of the present application. These communication devices shown in Figures 6, 7 and 8 can be used to implement the functions of the terminal device, the first communication device or the second communication device in the above-mentioned method embodiment, and therefore can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above-mentioned method embodiment. In an embodiment of the present application, the communication device can be a terminal device as shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F or 1G, or a network device as shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F or 1G (such as a satellite device, or a network device deployed on the ground), or a chip (or chip system) applied to the terminal device or network device shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F or 1G.

As shown in Figure 6, communication device 1300 includes a processing unit 1310 and a transceiver unit 1320. Communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device, the first communication device, or the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2. Transceiver unit 1320 may also be referred to as a communication unit. Transceiver unit 1320 may include a transmitting unit and a receiving unit.

When communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of a terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in one possible implementation, transceiver unit 1320 is configured to receive first information from a first communication device, receive a second synchronization signal from a second communication device based on the first information, and receive third data. Processing unit 1310 is configured to obtain the first data and the second data from the third data.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send the second information to the first communication device.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send the third information.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2 or Figure 5, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to receive the fourth information. The processing unit 1310 is used to maintain downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device based on the fourth information.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2 or Figure 5, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to receive the fifth information. The processing unit 1310 is used to stop maintaining synchronization with the downlink timing of the second communication device.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in one possible implementation, the processing unit 1310 is used to establish an RRC connection with the first communication device.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send the first information and send the first data to the terminal device on the first resource.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2 or Figure 5, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send the configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data to the second communication device.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send information indicating the first area to the second communication device.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in a possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send the sixth information to the second communication device.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to receive the second information.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to receive the third information.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send the fourth information.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send the fifth information.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in one possible implementation, the processing unit 1310 is used to establish an RRC connection with the terminal device.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2 or Figure 5, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to send a second synchronization signal and send second data to the terminal device on the first resource.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to receive configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2 or Figure 5, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to receive information indicating the first area and send a second synchronization signal to the first area.

When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2 or Figure 5, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to receive the sixth information. The processing unit 1310 is used to stop sending the second synchronization signal to the area where the terminal device is located.

For a more detailed description of the processing unit 1310 and the transceiver unit 1320 , reference may be made to the relevant description in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 .

As shown in Figure 7, communication device 1400 includes a processor 1410 and an interface circuit 1420. Processor 1410 and interface circuit 1420 are coupled to each other. It will be understood that interface circuit 1420 can be a transceiver or an input/output interface. The input/output interface is used to input and/or output information, where output can be understood as sending and input can be understood as receiving. Optionally, communication device 1400 may also include a memory 1430 for storing instructions executed by processor 1410, or storing input data required by processor 1410 to execute instructions, or storing data generated after processor 1410 executes instructions.

When the communication device 1400 is used to implement the method shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , the processor 1410 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 1310 , and the interface circuit 1420 is used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 1320 .

Referring to Figure 8 , the communication device shown in Figure 8 may also be a schematic diagram of a possible baseband architecture. As shown in Figure 8 , the communication device may include a processing system, which may include one or more processors, which may be configured to execute processes, such as process #1 through process #N shown in Figure 8 .

A processing system can be implemented using a bus architecture, typically represented by a bus. The bus can include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges, depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system. The bus communicatively couples various circuits together, including one or more processors (typically represented by a processor), memory, and computer-readable media (typically represented by computer-readable media, such as computer-readable media #1...computer-readable media #N shown in Figure 8). The bus can also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and, therefore, will not be described further. The bus interface provides an interface between the bus and transceivers, and between the bus and the interface.

The communication device may further include a transceiver (not shown in FIG8 ), which may also be replaced by an interface circuit or a communication interface, etc. The transceiver provides a communication interface or device for communicating with various other devices via a wireless transmission medium. The transceiver may be coupled to an antenna array, and the transceiver and antenna array may be used together to communicate with the corresponding network type. At least one interface (e.g., a network interface and/or a user interface) provides a communication interface or device for communicating via an internal bus or via an external transmission medium.

The processor is responsible for managing the bus and general processing, including executing software stored on a computer-readable medium. When the software is executed by the processor, the software causes the processing system to perform various functions described below for any specific device. The functions that can be implemented by the processor, memory, and computer-readable medium may include: encoding, decoding, rate matching, rate dematching, scrambling, descrambling, modulation, demodulation, layer mapping, fast Fourier transform (FFT), inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT), inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT), precoding, resource element (RE) mapping, channel equalization, RE demapping, digital beamforming (BF), adding CP, removing CP, etc. One or more of the following.

The signaling involved in the embodiments of the present application (such as the fourth information, the information for indicating the first area, the configuration information of the first resource sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, the second data sent by the first communication device to the second communication device, the fifth information, or one or more of the sixth information) can be implemented by a processor, a memory, and a computer-readable medium. For example, the above-mentioned signaling sent by the first communication device (such as a satellite device) to the terminal device is sent to the terminal device after the processor, memory, and computer-readable medium in Figure 8 process the above-mentioned parameters.

When the communication device shown in FIG. 8 is used to implement the method shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 , the processor 1410 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 1310 , and the interface circuit 1420 is used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 1320 .

When the above-mentioned communication device (such as the communication device shown in Figure 6, Figure 7 or Figure 8) is a chip applied to a terminal, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal device in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The terminal chip receives information from the base station, which can be understood as the information being first received by other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the terminal chip by these modules. The terminal chip sends information to the base station, which can be understood as the information being first sent to other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the base station by these modules.

When the above-mentioned communication device (such as the communication device shown in Figure 6, Figure 7 or Figure 8) is a chip applied to a base station (such as a satellite base station), the base station chip implements the function of the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The base station chip receives information from the terminal, which can be understood as the information being first received by other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the base station chip by these modules. The base station chip sends information to the terminal, which can be understood as the information being sent to other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the terminal by these modules.

In this application, when entity A sends information to entity B, it can be done directly from A to B or indirectly through another entity. Similarly, when entity B receives information from entity A, it can be done directly from entity B or indirectly through another entity. Entities A and B herein can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules within a RAN node or terminal. The sending and receiving of information can be information exchange between a RAN node and a terminal, for example, between a base station and a terminal; the sending and receiving of information can also be information exchange between two RAN nodes, for example, between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be information exchange between different modules within a device, for example, between a terminal chip and other modules in the terminal, or between a base station chip and other modules within the base station.

It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application (e.g., the processor 1410 in FIG. 7 and/or the processor in the processing system in FIG. 8 ) may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may be 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, registers, hard disks, mobile hard disks, compact disc read-only memory (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 an integral part 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 exist in a base station or a terminal as discrete components.

In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented using software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. A computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions of the embodiments of the present application are performed. 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 instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transferred from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer program or instructions may be transferred from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. The available media may be magnetic media, such as floppy disks, hard disks, or magnetic tapes; optical media, such as digital video disks; or semiconductor media, such as solid-state drives. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

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

In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "more" 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 this application, the character "/" generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship; in the formula of this 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.

It is understood that the various numbers involved in the embodiments of this application (such as the numerical numbers "first" and "second", and the letter numbers "Implementation A1", "Implementation B1", "Implementation C1", etc.) are only for the convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The order of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

Claims (44)

A communication method, characterized in that the method is applicable to a terminal device, and the method comprises: receiving first information from a first communication device, where the first information includes information of a second communication device, and the first information is used to assist the terminal device in receiving a synchronization signal from the second communication device; receiving a second synchronization signal from the second communication device based on the first information; receiving third data, the third data including first data and second data, the first data occupying a first resource, the second data occupying the first resource, the first data coming from the first communication device, and the second data coming from the second communication device; The first data and the second data are obtained from the third data. The method according to claim 1, wherein a difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device is greater than a cyclic prefix. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the first information includes information of the second communication device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first information includes information indicating at least one of the following: an index of the information of the second communication device; ephemeris information of the second communication device; a cell identifier corresponding to the second communication device; a measurement timing configuration corresponding to the second communication device; a frequency of a synchronization signal of the second communication device; polarization information of the synchronization signal of the second communication device; Sequence information corresponding to the synchronization signal of the second communication device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: Second information is sent to the first communication device, where the second information indicates that the terminal device supports a first data transmission mode, where the first data transmission mode includes multiple communication devices sending data to the terminal device on the same resource. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: Second information is sent to the first communication device, where the second information indicates the number of multiple communication devices supported by the terminal device that send data to the terminal device on the same resource. The method according to claim 5 or 6 is characterized in that the first data transmission mode includes: the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the data sent by two communication devices among the multiple communication devices to the terminal device on the same resources is greater than the cyclic prefix. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising: Sending a third message; The third information indicates at least one of the following: the terminal device detects the synchronization signal of the second communication device; the terminal device establishes downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device. The method according to claim 8, wherein the third information includes at least one of the following: an index corresponding to the information of the second communication device; an identifier of the second communication device; an identifier of a cell corresponding to the second communication device; The measurement result information corresponding to the second communication device includes at least one of a signal detection result, a link quality, a channel quality, and a signal quality. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising: receiving fourth information, the fourth information including information for indicating the second communication device, the fourth information indicating that the first communication device and the second communication device send data to the terminal device on the same resource; Based on the fourth information, synchronization with the downlink timing of the second communication device is maintained. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the fourth information further instructs the terminal device to select a first data processing mode to receive data from the first communication device and the second communication device, and the first data processing mode has the ability to process data transmitted via the first data transmission mode. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, further comprising: receiving fifth information, the fifth information instructing the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device on the same resource as the first communication device; Stop maintaining synchronization with the downlink timing of the second communication device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a second satellite device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein obtaining the first data and the second data from the third data comprises: Obtaining the first data from the third data; obtaining fourth data based on the first data and the influence of the channel on the signal, wherein the fourth data includes the first data influenced by the channel; removing the fourth data from the third data to obtain fifth data; The second data is obtained from the fifth data. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that The first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a second satellite device. A communication method, characterized in that the method is applicable to a first communication device, and the method comprises: Sending first information, where the first information includes information of a second communication device, and the first information is used to assist the terminal device in receiving a synchronization signal from the second communication device; First data is sent to the terminal device on a first resource, and the first resource is also used for a second communication device to send second data to the terminal device. The method according to claim 16, further comprising: Receive configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 17, further comprising: receiving information indicating a first area, wherein the terminal device is located in the first area; The sending of the second synchronization signal comprises: The second synchronization signal is sent to the first area. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 18, further comprising: receiving sixth information, the sixth information being used to instruct the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device through a first transmission mode, where the first transmission mode includes the second communication device sending data to the terminal device using the same resources as the first communication device; Stop sending the second synchronization signal to the area where the terminal device is located. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein a difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device is greater than a cyclic prefix. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 20, wherein the first information may include information of the second communication device. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 21, wherein the first information includes information indicating at least one of the following: an index of the information of the second communication device; ephemeris information of the second communication device; a cell identifier corresponding to the second communication device; a measurement timing configuration corresponding to the second communication device; a frequency of a synchronization signal of the second communication device; polarization information of the synchronization signal of the second communication device; Sequence information corresponding to the synchronization signal of the second communication device. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 22, further comprising: Second information is received, where the second information indicates that the terminal device supports a first data transmission mode, where the first data transmission mode includes multiple communication devices sending data to the terminal device on the same resource. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 23, further comprising: Second information is received, where the second information indicates the number of multiple communication devices supported by the terminal device and transmitting data to the terminal device on the same resource. The method as claimed in claim 24 is characterized in that the first data transmission mode includes: the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the data sent by two communication devices among the multiple communication devices to the terminal device on the same resources is greater than the cyclic prefix. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 25, further comprising: receiving third information; The third information indicates at least one of the following: the terminal device detects the synchronization signal of the second communication device; the terminal device establishes downlink timing synchronization with the second communication device. The method according to claim 26, wherein the third information includes at least one of the following: an index corresponding to the information of the second communication device; an identifier of the second communication device; an identifier of a cell corresponding to the second communication device; The measurement result information corresponding to the second communication device includes at least one of a signal detection result, a link quality, a channel quality, and a signal quality. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 27, further comprising: Send fourth information, the fourth information including information for indicating the second communication device, the fourth information indicating that the first communication device and the second communication device send data to the terminal device on the same resources, and the fourth information is used by the terminal device to maintain synchronization with the downlink timing of the second communication device. The method as claimed in claim 28 is characterized in that the fourth information also instructs the terminal device to select a first data processing mode to receive data from the first communication device and the second communication device, and the first data processing mode has the ability to process data transmitted via the first data transmission mode. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 29, further comprising: Sending fifth information, wherein the fifth information instructs the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device on the same resources as the first communication device, and the fifth information is used by the terminal device to stop maintaining synchronization with the downlink timing of the second communication device. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 30, further comprising: Send the configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data to the second communication device. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 31, further comprising: Information indicating a first area is sent to the second communication device, and the terminal device is located in the first area. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 32, further comprising: Sixth information is sent to the second communication device, where the sixth information is used to instruct the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device using the same resources as the first communication device. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 33, wherein: The first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a second satellite device. A communication method, characterized in that the method is applicable to a second communication device, and the method comprises: sending a second synchronization signal; The second data is sent to the terminal device on the first resource, and the first resource is also used by the first communication device to send the first data to the terminal device. The method as claimed in claim 35 is characterized in that the difference between the downlink timing corresponding to the first communication device and the downlink timing corresponding to the second communication device is greater than the cyclic prefix. The method according to claim 35 or 36, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receive configuration information of the first resource and/or the second data. The method according to any one of claims 35 to 37, further comprising: receiving information indicating a first area, wherein the terminal device is located in the first area; The sending of the second synchronization signal comprises: The second synchronization signal is sent to the first area. The method according to any one of claims 35 to 38, further comprising: receiving sixth information, the sixth information being used to instruct the second communication device to stop sending data to the terminal device through a first transmission mode, where the first transmission mode includes the second communication device sending data to the terminal device using the same resources as the first communication device; Stop sending the second synchronization signal to the area where the terminal device is located. The method according to any one of claims 35 to 39, wherein: The first communication device is a first satellite device, and the second communication device is a second satellite device. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 15, or includes a module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 16 to 34, or includes a module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 35 to 40. 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 and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices, and the processor is used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, or the method according to any one of claims 16 to 34, or the method according to any one of claims 35 to 40 through a logic circuit or executing code instructions. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program or instruction is stored in the storage medium, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, or the method according to any one of claims 16 to 34, or the method according to any one of claims 35 to 40 is implemented. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product stores a computer program, the computer program including program instructions, which, when executed by a computer, implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, or the method according to any one of claims 16 to 34, or the method according to any one of claims 35 to 40.