WO2025232164A1 - Communication method, and related apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication method, and a related apparatus. In the method, first information acquired by a first communication apparatus is used for indicating multipath component information of a communication channel, and the first communication apparatus can determine second information on the basis of the first information and first channel information obtained by the measurement of a reference signal, the second information indicating multipath phase information. The first information and the second information may be used for determining second channel information of the communication channel. In other words, by means of the channel information (namely the first channel information) obtained by the measurement of the reference signal, the first communication apparatus can determine the multipath phase information, and the multipath phase information and the multipath component information can be used for determining other channel information (namely the second channel information) of the same communication channel. Therefore, channel information can be determined on the basis of the multipath phase information and the multipath component information, which reduces the overhead of the reference signal, thereby improving the resource utilization rate, and reducing the power consumption of terminal devices.

Description

A communication method and related apparatus

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202410588518.5, filed on May 10, 2024, entitled "A Communication Method and Related Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

This application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly to a communication method and related apparatus.

Background Technology

Wireless communication can be a transmission communication between two or more communication devices that does not propagate through conductors or cables. Generally, the two or more communication devices include network devices and terminal devices, or the two or more communication devices include different terminal devices.

Currently, different communication devices can communicate using Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) technology. During this communication process, the acquisition of channel information can meet the demands of high-speed transmission. For example, communication devices can use the precoding information corresponding to the channel information to perform high-speed data transmission. Furthermore, communication devices can use channel information to allocate resources among multiple users, reducing interference between different users and improving the overall system performance. Generally, channel information is obtained through the measurement of a reference signal, and the overhead of the reference signal is related to the number of ports on the communication device that transmit the reference signal.

However, with the increase in frequency bands and the growing demand for high-speed communication, the number of ports used by communication equipment to transmit reference signals may gradually increase. This will lead to an increase in the overhead of reference signals used to obtain channel information and occupy more transmission resources, thereby increasing the power consumption of communication equipment.

Summary of the Invention

This application provides a communication method and related apparatus for reducing the overhead of reference signals and improving the accuracy of channel information determined based on multipath composition information and multipath phase information.

A first aspect of this application provides a communication method executed by a first communication device. The first communication device may be a communication equipment (such as a terminal device or network device), or it may be a component of a communication equipment (such as a processor, chip, or chip system), or it may be a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the communication equipment. In this method, the first communication device acquires first information indicating the composition information of a multipath communication channel between the first and second communication devices. The first communication device determines second information based on the first information and the first channel information, where the first channel information is obtained by measuring a first reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, and the second information indicates the phase information of the multipath. The first information and the second information are used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel.

Based on the above scheme, the first information acquired by the first communication device is used to indicate the multipath composition information of the communication channel. Furthermore, the first communication device can determine second information based on the first information and the first channel information obtained through measurement of a reference signal. This second information indicates the phase information of the multipath. The first and second information can be used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel. In other words, the first communication device can determine the phase information of the multipath through the channel information obtained through measurement of the reference signal (i.e., the first channel information). The phase information and the composition information of the multipath can be used to determine other channel information (i.e., the second channel information) of the same communication channel. Therefore, channel information can be determined through the phase information and composition information of the multipath, reducing the overhead of the reference signal, thereby improving resource utilization and reducing device power consumption.

Furthermore, in MIMO systems, both multipath component information and multipath phase information are factors influencing channel information. Therefore, compared to determining channel information solely based on multipath component information, the above scheme, by also incorporating multipath phase information, can improve the accuracy of channel information determined based on both multipath component and phase information.

In this application, on the communication channel between the first and second communication devices, after either communication device transmits a signal, the signal received by the other communication device can be used to reflect the channel characteristic information of the communication channel. This channel characteristic information can be used to determine the channel information of the communication channel. The channel characteristic information can include information that is likely to remain unchanged over a long period and information that is likely to change over a short period. The former can be called long-time (LT) information, and the latter can be called instantaneous (IN) information. Furthermore, this information can be used to reflect the time-angular domain channel property (TADCP) of the communication channel. Therefore, LT information can also be called TADCP-LT information, and IN information can also be called TADCP-IN information.

As an example, LT information can be called multipath component information or multipath component (MPC) information, which includes one or more of the following: the number of multipaths, the intensity of the paths, the angle of the paths, and the time delay of the paths. In the above scheme, the first information can indicate the multipath component information, and correspondingly, the first information can be called LT information, or TADCP-LT information, etc., which can include one or more of the following: the number of multipaths, the intensity of the paths, the angle of the paths, and the time delay of the paths.

As an example, the IN information may include multipath phase information (e.g., the multipath phase information indicated by the second information mentioned above), and other information about the communication channel, including but not limited to one or more of the following: frequency shift, time offset, frequency deviation, and instantaneous channel error. In the above scheme, the second information may indicate IN information or TADCP-IN information. Accordingly, in addition to indicating the multipath phase information of the communication channel between the first and second communication devices, the second information may also indicate one or more of the following: frequency shift, time offset, frequency deviation, and instantaneous channel error. In this way, the second information can indicate other information about the communication channel besides phase, so that the second channel information determined based on the second information can reflect the influence of this other information, thereby further improving the accuracy of the second channel information.

Optionally, the second information is determined based on the first information and the first channel information. This second information can be further updated zero, one, or more times to obtain more accurate IN information. Therefore, the multipath phase information indicated by this second information can be called the initial phase information of the multipath.

Optionally, the phase information of the multipath indicated by the second information may include the phase information of each path in the multipath. The phase information of each path may include the phase of one or more polarization directions. For example, if the transmitter has x types of polarization and the receiver has y types of polarization, then the phase information of each path may include x multiplied by the phase of the y polarizations. For instance, if the transmitter includes both horizontal and vertical polarizations, and the receiver also includes both horizontal and vertical polarizations, then each path includes four polarizations, corresponding to: a combination of horizontal polarization at the transmitter and horizontal polarization at the receiver; a combination of vertical polarization at the transmitter and horizontal polarization at the receiver; a combination of horizontal polarization at the transmitter and vertical polarization at the receiver; and a combination of vertical polarization at the transmitter and vertical polarization at the receiver.

It should be understood that the first and second information are used to determine the second channel information, which can be understood as the first and second information being used to estimate, predict, or infer the second channel information. In other words, the second channel information can be estimated, predicted, or inferred channel information.

In this application, the transmission of reference signals (e.g., a first reference signal, a second reference signal, a third reference signal, or a fourth reference signal, etc., mentioned below) can be beamformed, and the beam direction of the beamformation is determined by the multipath composition information (e.g., first information, MPC information, etc.). For example, if the multipath composition information is known, the communication device can select the direction of the stronger path (e.g., the strongest path) in the multipath as the beam direction to improve communication quality.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device determining the second channel information based on the first information and the second information.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can determine the second channel information based on the first information and the second information, and conduct communication based on the second channel information (for example, the first communication device determines the precoding information of the transmitted signal based on the second channel information), so that the first communication device can perform high-speed signal transmission based on the second channel information.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device acquiring third channel information, the third channel information being measured based on a second reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, the time-frequency resources occupied by the second reference signal being the same as the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information;

If the correlation between the second channel information and the third channel information is less than a threshold, the first communication device sends any of the following:

The third piece of information is used to update the first information and/or the second information;

The fourth information is used to request a third reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the third reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information.

This is the third reference signal.

Optionally, "correlation below a threshold" refers to assessing whether the correlation (or similarity) between two channel matrices is below a certain threshold. For example, the correlation can be characterized by the mathematical calculation results of the two channel matrices, which may include mean square error (MSE), normalized mean square error (NMSE), or cosine similarity. Alternatively, the two channel matrices can be processed first, such as calculating the covariance matrix or the vectors resulting from the SVD decomposition of the channel matrices, and then the correlation can be characterized based on the corresponding mathematical calculation results.

Based on the above scheme, the second channel information determined by the first and second information by the first communication device is the predicted channel information, and the third channel information acquired by the first communication device is the channel information obtained based on the measurement of the reference signal. In the above scheme, if the correlation between the second and third channel information is lower than a threshold, the first communication device can determine that the prediction accuracy corresponding to the second channel information is low. Therefore, the first communication device can trigger the update of the first and/or second information through any of the above information, and can improve the accuracy of the predicted channel information through the updated first and/or second information.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device sending the second information.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can send second information, enabling the recipient of the second information (e.g., the second communication device) to determine the second channel information based on the first and second information, and to communicate based on the second channel information, thereby enabling the second communication device to perform high-speed signal transmission based on the second channel information.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving any one of the following:

The fifth piece of information is used to update the first and/or the second information;

The sixth information is used to request a fourth reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the fourth reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information.

The fourth reference signal.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can trigger the update of the first information and/or the second information through any of the above information, and can improve the accuracy of the predicted channel information through the updated first information and/or the second information.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal are different from the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information.

Based on the above scheme, the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal used to determine the first channel information are different from the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information obtained by prediction. That is, the first channel information corresponding to the first reference signal can be used in the channel prediction process of other time-frequency resources, so that the communication device can determine the channel information on other time-frequency resources without the need for the transmission of the reference signal, thereby reducing the overhead of the reference signal, improving resource utilization and reducing device power consumption.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device sending the first information.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can generate/obtain/acquire first information locally, and the first communication device can send the first information, so that the receiver of the first information (e.g., the second communication device) can determine the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, which can reduce the complexity of the receiver.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the first communication device acquiring the first information includes: the first communication device receiving the first information.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can determine the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device based on the first information sent by other communication devices (such as the second communication device), which can reduce the complexity of the first communication device.

Optionally, both the first and second communication devices can determine the first information locally through wireless signal sensing, reference signal measurement, ray tracing, artificial intelligence (AI), or other means, without transmitting the first information, thereby reducing overhead.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the signal quality of each path in the multipath is greater than or equal to a threshold. Alternatively, the communication channel between the first and second communication devices includes N (N is a positive integer) paths, and the multipath indicated by the first and second information can be M (M is a positive integer less than or equal to N) of the N paths, where the signal quality of the M paths is greater than or equal to the signal quality of the other N-M paths.

Optionally, signal quality can be characterized by various parameters. For example, some parameters, such as received signal power, received signal strength, and signal-to-noise ratio, are positively correlated with signal quality. Conversely, some parameters, such as block error rate and bit error rate, are negatively correlated with signal quality.

Based on the above scheme, the multipath used to determine the second channel information can be the path with better signal quality. In this way, the path with poor signal quality does not need to be considered in the process of determining the channel information, which can reduce the implementation complexity.

Optionally, the signal arrival time of each path in the multipath is less than or equal to a threshold, or the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device includes N (N is a positive integer) paths, and the multipath indicated by the first information and the second information can be M (M is a positive integer less than or equal to N) paths among the N paths, in which the signal arrival time of the M paths is earlier than or equal to the signal arrival time of the other N-M paths.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving or transmitting at least one of the following:

The first instruction information is used to instruct the transmission of the first information and/or the second information.

The second indication information is used to indicate the measurement result of the reference signal used to determine the second information;

The third indication information is used to indicate the number of paths contained in the multipath;

The fourth indication information is used to indicate the periodicity of the first information and/or the second information;

The fifth instruction information is used to indicate the identifier of the model that generated the first information;

The sixth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the movement information of the communication device;

The seventh indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the movement information of the communication device;

The eighth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the transmission density of the reference signal;

The ninth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the transmission density of the reference signal;

The tenth indication information is used to indicate the configuration information corresponding to the second information (for example, the configuration information includes at least one of the following: frequency offset value, time offset value, frequency shift value caused by Doppler effect, and channel error value).

The eleventh instruction information is used to indicate the relevance threshold that triggers the update of the first information and/or the second information;

The twelfth instruction is used to indicate the number of iterations of the second information.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can receive or send at least one of the above, so that the first communication device and the second communication device can determine the first information and the second information through the interaction of the above at least one.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving or sending seventh information, the seventh information being used to update the first information.

Based on the above scheme, when the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device changes, the first communication device can update the first information through the seventh information to improve the accuracy of the channel information obtained based on the first information.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the first communication device determines the second information based on the first information and the first channel information, including: the first communication device processes the pre-configured phase based on the first channel information, the first information and the pre-configured phase-determined channel information to determine the second information.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can set a pre-configured phase for each path in the multipath. Then, the first communication device can determine the corresponding channel information based on the first information and the pre-configured phase, and process the pre-configured phase based on the difference information between the determined channel information and the channel information obtained based on the reference signal (i.e., the first channel information) (e.g., one or more iterative processes) to determine the second information.

Optionally, the first communication device may determine the second information in other ways. For example, the first communication device may determine the second information based on the first information and the first channel information by using an AI model to determine the second information based on the first information and the first channel information.

Optionally, terms such as AI model, neural network model, AI neural network model, machine learning model, and AI processing model can be used interchangeably.

A second aspect of this application provides a communication method executed by a second communication device. The second communication device may be a communication equipment (e.g., a terminal device or a network device), or it may be a component of a communication equipment (e.g., a processor, chip, or chip system), or it may be a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the communication equipment. In this method, the second communication device acquires first information indicating the composition information of a multipath communication channel between the first and second communication devices; the second communication device receives second information indicating the phase information of the multipath; and the second communication device determines second channel information of the communication channel based on the first and second information.

Based on the above scheme, the first information acquired by the second communication device is used to indicate the multipath composition information of the communication channel, and the second communication device can receive second information indicating the phase information of the multipath. The first and second information can be used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel. In other words, the phase information and composition information of the multipath can be used to determine other channel information (i.e., second channel information) of the same communication channel. Therefore, by using the phase information and composition information of the multipath, channel information can be determined, reducing the overhead of the reference signal, thereby improving resource utilization and reducing device power consumption.

Furthermore, in MIMO systems, both multipath component information and multipath phase information are factors influencing channel information. Therefore, compared to determining channel information solely based on multipath component information, the above scheme, by also incorporating multipath phase information, can improve the accuracy of channel information determined based on both multipath component and phase information.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second communication device receiving any of the following:

The third piece of information is used to update the first information and/or the second information;

The fourth information is used to request a third reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the third reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information.

This is the third reference signal.

Based on the above scheme, the second communication device can trigger the update of the first information and/or the second information through any of the above information, and can improve the accuracy of the predicted channel information through the updated first information and/or the second information.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second communication device acquiring third channel information, the third channel information being measured based on a second reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, the time-frequency resources occupied by the second reference signal being the same as the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information;

If the correlation between the second channel information and the third channel information is less than a threshold, the method further includes: sending any one of the following:

The fifth piece of information is used to update the first and/or the second information;

The sixth information is used to request a fourth reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the fourth reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information.

The fourth reference signal.

Based on the above scheme, the second communication device determines the second channel information using the first and second information as the predicted channel information, and the third channel information acquired by the second communication device is the channel information obtained based on the measurement of the reference signal. In the above scheme, if the correlation between the second and third channel information is lower than a threshold, the second communication device can determine that the prediction accuracy corresponding to the second channel information is low. Therefore, the second communication device can trigger the update of the first and/or second information using any of the above information, and can improve the accuracy of the predicted channel information through the updated first and/or second information.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal are different from the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information.

Optionally, the number of time-frequency units of the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information is greater than the number of time-frequency units of the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal. For example, the second channel information is broadband channel information, and the first channel information is narrowband channel information.

Based on the above scheme, the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal used to determine the first channel information are different from the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information obtained by prediction. That is, the first channel information corresponding to the first reference signal can be used in the channel prediction process of other time-frequency resources, so that the communication device can determine the channel information on other time-frequency resources without the need for the transmission of the reference signal, thereby reducing the overhead of the reference signal, improving resource utilization and reducing device power consumption.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second communication device sending the first information.

Based on the above scheme, the second communication device can generate/obtain/acquire the first information locally, and the second communication device can send the first information, so that the recipient of the first information (e.g., the first communication device) can determine the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, which can reduce the complexity of the recipient.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the second communication device acquiring the first information includes: the second communication device receiving the first information.

Based on the above scheme, the second communication device can determine the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device based on the first information sent by other communication devices (such as the first communication device), which can reduce the complexity of the first communication device.

Optionally, both the first and second communication devices can determine the first information locally by means of reference signal measurement, ray tracing, artificial intelligence (AI), or other methods, without transmitting the first information, which can reduce overhead.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the signal quality of each path in the multipath is greater than or equal to a threshold. Alternatively, the communication channel between the first and second communication devices includes N (N is a positive integer) paths, and the multipath indicated by the first and second information can be M (M is a positive integer less than or equal to N) of the N paths, where the signal quality of the M paths is greater than or equal to the signal quality of the other N-M paths.

Optionally, signal quality can be characterized by various parameters. For example, some parameters, such as received signal power, received signal strength, and signal-to-noise ratio, are positively correlated with signal quality. Conversely, some parameters, such as block error rate and bit error rate, are negatively correlated with signal quality.

Based on the above scheme, the multipath used to determine the second channel information can be the path with better signal quality. In this way, the path with poor signal quality does not need to be considered in the process of determining the channel information, which can reduce the implementation complexity.

Optionally, the signal arrival time of each path in the multipath is less than or equal to a threshold, or the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device includes N (N is a positive integer) paths, and the multipath indicated by the first information and the second information can be M (M is a positive integer less than or equal to N) paths among the N paths, in which the signal arrival time of the M paths is earlier than or equal to the signal arrival time of the other N-M paths.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second communication device receiving or transmitting at least one of the following:

The first instruction information is used to instruct the transmission of the first information and/or the second information.

The second indication information is used to indicate the measurement result of the reference signal used to determine the second information;

The third indication information is used to indicate the number of paths contained in the multipath;

The fourth indication information is used to indicate the periodicity of the first information and/or the second information;

The fifth instruction information is used to indicate the identifier of the model that generated the first information;

The sixth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the movement information of the communication device;

The seventh indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the movement information of the communication device;

The eighth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the transmission density of the reference signal;

The ninth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the transmission density of the reference signal;

The tenth indication information is used to indicate the configuration information corresponding to the second information (for example, the configuration information includes at least one of the following: frequency offset value, time offset value, frequency shift value caused by Doppler effect, and channel error value).

The eleventh instruction information is used to indicate the relevance threshold that triggers the update of the first information and/or the second information;

The twelfth instruction is used to indicate the number of iterations of the second information.

Based on the above scheme, the second communication device can receive or send at least one of the above, so that the first communication device and the second communication device can determine the first information and the second information through the interaction of the above at least one.

A third aspect of this application provides a communication device, which is a first communication device, comprising a transceiver unit and a processing unit; the processing unit is configured to acquire first information, the first information being used to indicate the multipath composition information of a communication channel between the first communication device and a second communication device; the processing unit is further configured to determine second information based on the first information and the first channel information, the first channel information being obtained by measuring a first reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, and the second information indicating the phase information of the multipath; wherein the first information and the second information are used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel.

In the third aspect of this application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to execute the steps performed in various possible implementations of the first aspect and achieve the corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

A fourth aspect of this application provides a communication device, which is a second communication device. The device includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The processing unit is used to acquire first information, which indicates the multipath composition information of a communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device. The transceiver unit is used to receive second information, which indicates the phase information of the multipath. The processing unit is also used to determine second channel information of the communication channel based on the first information and the second information.

In the fourth aspect of this application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to perform the steps executed in various possible implementations of the second aspect and achieve the corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the second aspect, which will not be repeated here.

A fifth aspect of this application provides a communication device including at least one processor coupled to a memory; the memory is used to store a program or instructions; the at least one processor is used to execute the program or instructions to cause the device to implement any possible implementation of the method described in any of the first to second aspects. Optionally, the communication device may include the memory.

The sixth aspect of this application provides a communication device including at least one logic circuit and an input/output interface; the logic circuit is used to perform the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects described above.

The seventh aspect of this application provides a communication system, which includes the first communication device and the second communication device described above.

The eighth aspect of this application provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing one or more computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a processor, perform a method as described in any possible implementation of any of the first to second aspects above.

The ninth aspect of this application provides a computer program product (or computer program) in which, when the computer program in the computer program product is executed by the processor, the processor executes the method of any possible implementation of any of the first to second aspects described above.

The tenth aspect of this application provides a chip or chip system including at least one processor for supporting a communication device in implementing any possible implementation of any of the first to second aspects described above. For example, the chip may be a baseband chip, a modem chip, a system-on-chip (SoC) chip containing a modem core, a system-in-package (SIP) chip, or a communication module, etc.

In one possible design, the chip or chip system may further include a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the communication device. The chip system may be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices. Optionally, the chip system may also include interface circuitry that provides program instructions and/or data to the at least one processor.

The technical effects of any of the design methods in aspects three through ten can be found in the technical effects of the different design methods in aspects one through two above, and will not be repeated here.

Attached Figure Description

Figures 1a to 1c are schematic diagrams of the communication system provided in this application;

Figures 1d, 1e, and 2a to 2c are schematic diagrams of the AI processing involved in this application;

Figure 3 is an interactive schematic diagram of the communication method provided in this application;

Figures 4 to 6 are some schematic diagrams of the information processing process provided in this application;

Figures 7 to 11 are schematic diagrams of the communication device provided in this application.

Detailed Implementation

First, some terms used in the embodiments of this application will be explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

(1) Terminal device: can be a wireless terminal device that can receive network device scheduling and instruction information. The wireless terminal device can be a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to the user, or a handheld device with wireless connection function, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem.

Terminal devices can communicate with one or more core networks or the Internet via a radio access network (RAN). Terminal devices can be mobile terminal devices, such as mobile phones (or "cellular" phones), computers, and data cards. For example, they can be portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer-embedded, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices that exchange voice and/or data with the RAN. Examples include personal communication service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets, and computers with wireless transceiver capabilities. Wireless terminal equipment can also be referred to as a system, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station (MS), remote station, access point (AP), remote terminal, access terminal, user terminal, user agent, subscriber station (SS), customer premises equipment (CPE), terminal, user equipment (UE), mobile terminal (MT), etc.

By way of example and not limitation, in this embodiment, the terminal device can also be a wearable device. Wearable devices, also known as wearable smart devices or smart wearable devices, are a general term for devices that utilize wearable technology to intelligently design and develop everyday wearables, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. Wearable devices are portable devices that are worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothing or accessories. Wearable devices are not merely hardware devices, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include those that are feature-rich, large in size, and can achieve complete or partial functions without relying on a smartphone, such as smartwatches or smart glasses, as well as those that focus on a specific type of application function and require the use of other devices such as smartphones, such as various smart bracelets, smart helmets, and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

Terminals can also be drones, robots, devices in device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicles to everything (V2X) communication, virtual reality (VR) terminal devices, augmented reality (AR) terminal devices, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical care, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, and wireless terminals in smart homes, etc.

Furthermore, terminal devices can also be terminal devices in communication systems evolved from fifth-generation (5G) communication systems (such as sixth-generation (6G) communication systems) or in future public land mobile networks (PLMNs). For example, 6G networks can further expand the form and function of 5G communication terminals; 6G terminals include, but are not limited to, vehicles, cellular network terminals (integrating satellite terminal functions), drones, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

In this embodiment, the terminal device can also obtain AI services provided by the network device. Optionally, the terminal device can also have AI processing capabilities.

(2) Network equipment: This can be equipment in a wireless network. For example, network equipment can be a RAN node (or device) that connects terminal devices to the wireless network, and can also be called a base station. Currently, some examples of RAN equipment include: base station, evolved NodeB (eNodeB), gNB (gNodeB) in 5G communication systems, transmission reception point (TRP), evolved Node B (eNB), radio network controller (RNC), Node B (NB), home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), base band unit (BBU), or wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) access point (AP), etc. In addition, in a network structure, network equipment can include centralized unit (CU) nodes, distributed unit (DU) nodes, or RAN equipment including CU nodes and DU nodes.

Optionally, RAN nodes can also be macro base stations, micro base stations or indoor stations, relay nodes or donor nodes, or radio controllers in cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenarios. RAN nodes can also be servers, wearable devices, vehicles, or in-vehicle equipment. For example, the access network equipment in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can be a roadside unit (RSU).

In another possible scenario, multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist the terminal in achieving wireless access, with each RAN node performing a portion of the base station's functions. For example, RAN nodes can be central units (CUs), distributed units (DUs), CU-control plane (CPs), CU-user plane (UPs), or radio units (RUs). CUs and DUs can be separate entities or included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). RUs can be included in radio frequency equipment or radio frequency units, such as remote radio units (RRUs), active antenna units (AAUs), or remote radio heads (RRHs).

In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU, or RU may have different names, but those skilled in the art will understand their meaning. For example, in an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN, or ORAN) system, CU can also be called O-CU (open CU), DU can also be called O-DU, CU-CP can also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP can also be called O-CU-UP, and RU can also be called O-RU. For ease of description, this application uses CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU, and RU as examples. Any of the units among CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU, and RU in this application can be implemented through software modules, hardware modules, or a combination of software modules and hardware modules.

Communication between access network devices and terminal devices follows a specific protocol layer structure. This protocol layer may include a control plane protocol layer and a user plane protocol layer. The control plane protocol layer may include at least one of the following: radio resource control (RRC) layer, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, radio link control (RLC) layer, media access control (MAC) layer, or physical (PHY) layer, etc. The user plane protocol layer may include at least one of the following: service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, or physical layer, etc.

The correspondence between network elements and their achievable protocol layer functions in the ORAN system can be found in Table 1 below.

Table 1

Network devices can be other devices that provide wireless communication functions for terminal devices. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology or form of the network device. For ease of description, the embodiments of this application are not limited.

Network equipment may also include core network equipment, such as the Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Serving Gateway (S-GW), Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), and Public Data Network Gateway (PDN Gateway) in 4G networks; and access and mobility management function (AMF), user plane function (UPF), or session management function (SMF) in 5G networks. Furthermore, this core network equipment may also include other core network equipment in 5G networks and next-generation networks of 5G networks.

In this embodiment of the application, the network device may also have network nodes with AI capabilities, which can provide AI services to terminals or other network devices. For example, it may be an AI node, computing node, RAN node with AI capabilities, or core network element with AI capabilities on the network side (access network or core network).

In this application embodiment, the device for implementing the function of the network device can be the network device itself, or it can be a device capable of supporting the network device in implementing that function, such as a chip system, which can be installed in the network device. In the technical solutions provided in this application embodiment, the example of a network device being used to implement the function of the network device is used to describe the technical solutions provided in this application embodiment.

(3) Configuration and Pre-configuration: In this application, both configuration and pre-configuration are used. Configuration refers to the network device and/or server sending configuration information or parameter values to the terminal via messages or signaling, so that the terminal can determine communication parameters or resources for transmission based on these values or information. Pre-configuration is similar to configuration; it can be parameter information or parameter values pre-negotiated between the network device and/or server and the terminal device, or parameter information or parameter values specified by standard protocols for use by the base station/network device or terminal device, or parameter information or parameter values pre-stored in the base station and/or server or terminal device. This application does not limit this.

Furthermore, these values and parameters can be changed or updated.

(4) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of this application can be used interchangeably. "Multiple" refers to two or more. "And/or" describes the relationship between related objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A and/or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, or B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the related objects before and after are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, "at least one of A, B and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC or ABC. And, unless otherwise specified, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of this application are used to distinguish multiple objects and are not used to limit the order, sequence, priority or importance of multiple objects.

(5) In the embodiments of this application, "send" and "receive" indicate the direction of signal transmission. For example, "send information to XX" can be understood as the destination of the information being XX, which may include sending directly through the air interface or sending indirectly through the air interface by other units or modules. "Receive information from YY" can be understood as the source of the information being YY, which may include receiving directly from YY through the air interface or receiving indirectly from YY through the air interface by other units or modules. "Send" can also be understood as the "output" of the chip interface, and "receive" can also be understood as the "input" of the chip interface.

In other words, sending and receiving can occur between devices, such as between network devices and terminal devices, or within a device, such as between components, modules, chips, software modules, or hardware modules within the device via buses, wiring, or interfaces.

It is understandable that information may undergo necessary processing, such as encoding and modulation, between the source and destination, but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar statements in this application can be interpreted in a similar way and will not be elaborated further.

(6) In the embodiments of this application, "instruction" may include direct instruction and indirect instruction, as well as explicit instruction and implicit instruction. The information indicated by a certain piece of information (as described below, the instruction information) is called the information to be instructed. In the specific implementation process, there are many ways to indicate the information to be instructed, such as, but not limited to, directly indicating the information to be instructed, such as the information to be instructed itself or its index. It can also indirectly indicate the information to be instructed by indicating other information, where there is an association between the other information and the information to be instructed; or it can only indicate a part of the information to be instructed, while the other parts of the information to be instructed are known or pre-agreed upon. For example, the instruction can be implemented by using a pre-agreed (e.g., protocol predefined) arrangement order of various information, thereby reducing the instruction overhead to a certain extent. This application does not limit the specific method of instruction. It is understood that for the sender of the instruction information, the instruction information can be used to indicate the information to be instructed, and for the receiver of the instruction information, the instruction information can be used to determine the information to be instructed.

In this application, unless otherwise specified, the same or similar parts between the various embodiments can be referred to each other. In the various embodiments of this application, and the various methods/designs/implementations within each embodiment, unless otherwise specified or logically conflicting, the terminology and/or descriptions between different embodiments and between the various methods/designs/implementations within each embodiment are consistent and can be mutually referenced. The technical features in different embodiments and the various methods/designs/implementations within each embodiment can be combined to form new embodiments, methods, or implementations based on their inherent logical relationships. The following descriptions of the embodiments of this application do not constitute a limitation on the scope of protection of this application.

This application can be applied to long-term evolution (LTE) systems, new radio (NR) systems, or communication systems evolving after 5G (such as 6G). The communication system includes at least one network device and/or at least one terminal device.

Please refer to Figure 1a, which is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to this application. Figure 1a exemplarily shows one network device and six terminal devices, namely terminal device 1, terminal device 2, terminal device 3, terminal device 4, terminal device 5, and terminal device 6. In the example shown in Figure 1a, terminal device 1 is a smart teacup, terminal device 2 is a smart air conditioner, terminal device 3 is a smart gas pump, terminal device 4 is a vehicle, terminal device 5 is a mobile phone, and terminal device 6 is a printer.

As shown in Figure 1a, the entity sending AI configuration information can be a network device. The entity receiving AI configuration information can be terminal devices 1-6. In this case, the network device and terminal devices 1-6 form a communication system. In this communication system, terminal devices 1-6 can send data to the network device, and the network device needs to receive the data sent by terminal devices 1-6. At the same time, the network device can send configuration information to terminal devices 1-6.

For example, in Figure 1a, terminal devices 4 to 6 can also form a communication system. Terminal device 5 acts as a network device, i.e., the entity sending AI configuration information; terminal devices 4 and 6 act as terminal devices, i.e., the entities receiving AI configuration information. For instance, in a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) system, terminal device 5 sends AI configuration information to terminal devices 4 and 6 respectively, and receives data sent by terminal devices 4 and 6; correspondingly, terminal devices 4 and 6 receive the AI configuration information sent by terminal device 5 and send data back to terminal device 5.

Taking the communication system shown in Figure 1a as an example, in addition to performing communication-related services, different devices (including network devices and network devices, network devices and terminal devices, and/or terminal devices and terminal devices) may also perform AI-related services.

As shown in Figure 1b, taking a network device as a base station as an example, the base station can perform communication-related services and AI-related services with one or more terminal devices, and different terminal devices can also perform communication-related services and AI-related services.

As shown in Figure 1c, taking terminal devices including televisions and mobile phones as an example, televisions and mobile phones can also perform communication-related services and AI-related services.

The technical solutions provided in this application can be applied to wireless communication systems (such as the systems shown in Figures 1a, 1b, or 1c). For example, AI network elements can be introduced into the communication system provided in this application to realize some or all AI-related operations. AI network elements can also be called AI nodes, AI devices, AI entities, AI modules, AI models, or AI units, etc. The AI network element can be built into a network element within the communication system. For example, the AI network element can be an AI module built into: access network equipment, core network equipment, cloud server, or operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) management system, to implement AI-related functions. The OAM can be the management system of the core network equipment and/or the management system of the access network equipment. Alternatively, the AI network element can also be an independently set network element in the communication system. Optionally, the terminal or its built-in chip can also include an AI entity to implement AI-related functions.

The following is a brief introduction to the artificial intelligence (AI) that may be involved in this application.

Artificial intelligence (AI) enables machines to possess human-like intelligence, such as allowing them to use computer hardware and software to simulate certain intelligent human behaviors. To achieve AI, machine learning methods can be employed. In machine learning, machines learn (or train) a model using training data. This model represents the mapping between inputs and outputs. The learned model can be used for reasoning (or prediction), that is, it can be used to predict the output corresponding to a given input. This output can also be called the reasoning result (or prediction result).

Machine learning can include supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning. Unsupervised learning can also be called learning without supervision.

Supervised learning, based on collected sample values and labels, uses machine learning algorithms to learn the mapping relationship between sample values and labels, and then expresses this learned mapping relationship using an AI model. The process of training the machine learning model is the process of learning this mapping relationship. During training, sample values are input into the model to obtain the model's predicted values, and the model parameters are optimized by calculating the error between the model's predicted values and the sample labels (ideal values). After the mapping relationship is learned, it can be used to predict new sample labels. The mapping relationship learned in supervised learning can include linear or non-linear mappings. Based on the type of label, the learning task can be divided into classification tasks and regression tasks.

Unsupervised learning relies on collected sample values to discover inherent patterns within the samples themselves. One type of unsupervised learning algorithm uses the samples themselves as supervisory signals, meaning the model learns the mapping relationship from sample to sample; this is called self-supervised learning. During training, model parameters are optimized by calculating the error between the model's predictions and the samples themselves. Self-supervised learning can be used for signal compression and decompression recovery applications; common algorithms include autoencoders and generative adversarial networks.

Reinforcement learning, unlike supervised learning, is a type of algorithm that learns problem-solving strategies through interaction with the environment. Unlike supervised and unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning problems do not have explicit "correct" action labels. The algorithm needs to interact with the environment to obtain reward signals from the environment, and then adjust its decision actions to obtain a larger reward signal value. For example, in downlink power control, the reinforcement learning model adjusts the downlink transmission power of each user based on the total system throughput feedback from the wireless network, aiming to achieve a higher system throughput. The goal of reinforcement learning is also to learn the mapping relationship between the environment state and a better (e.g., optimal) decision action. However, because the label of the "correct action" cannot be obtained in advance, the network cannot be optimized by calculating the error between the action and the "correct action." Reinforcement learning training is achieved through iterative interaction with the environment.

Neural networks (NNs) are a specific model in machine learning techniques. According to the general approximation theorem, neural networks can theoretically approximate any continuous function, thus enabling them to learn arbitrary mappings. Traditional communication systems rely on extensive expert knowledge to design communication modules, while deep learning communication systems based on neural networks can automatically discover hidden pattern structures from large datasets, establish mapping relationships between data, and achieve performance superior to traditional modeling methods.

The idea behind neural networks comes from the neuronal structure of the brain. For example, each neuron performs a weighted summation of its input values and outputs the result through an activation function.

Figure 1d shows a schematic diagram of a neuron structure. Assume the neuron's input is x = [ _x0 , _x1 , ..., _xn ], and the corresponding weights for each input are w = [ _w0 , _w1 , ..., _wn ], where n is a positive integer, and w_{_i} and _xi can be decimals, integers (e.g., 0, positive integers, or negative integers), or complex numbers, etc. _{w_i} is used as the weight for _xi , and is used to weight _xi . The bias for the weighted summation of the input values based on the weights is, for example, b. The activation function can take many forms. Assuming a neuron's activation function is y = f(z) = max(0, z), then the neuron's output is: For example, if the activation function of a neuron is y = f(z) = z, then the output of that neuron is: Here, b can be any possible type, such as a decimal, an integer (e.g., 0, a positive integer, or a negative integer), or a complex number. The activation functions of different neurons in a neural network can be the same or different.

Furthermore, neural networks generally consist of multiple layers, each of which may include one or more neurons. Increasing the depth and/or width of a neural network can improve its expressive power, providing more powerful information extraction and abstract modeling capabilities for complex systems. The depth of a neural network can refer to the number of layers it includes, and the number of neurons in each layer can be called the width of that layer. In one implementation, a neural network includes an input layer and an output layer. The input layer processes the received input information through neurons and passes the processing result to the output layer, which then obtains the output of the neural network. In another implementation, a neural network includes an input layer, hidden layers, and an output layer. The input layer processes the received input information through neurons and passes the processing result to the hidden layer. The hidden layer calculates the received processing result and passes the calculation result to the output layer or the next adjacent hidden layer, ultimately obtaining the output of the neural network. A neural network may include one hidden layer or multiple sequentially connected hidden layers, without limitation.

Neural networks, for example, are deep neural networks (DNNs). Depending on how the network is constructed, DNNs can include feedforward neural networks (FNNs), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and recurrent neural networks (RNNs).

Figure 1e is a schematic diagram of an FNN network. A characteristic of FNN networks is that neurons in adjacent layers are completely connected pairwise. This characteristic makes FNNs typically require a large amount of storage space, leading to high computational complexity.

CNNs are neural networks specifically designed to process data with a grid-like structure. For example, time-series data (discrete sampling along the time axis) and image data (two-dimensional discrete sampling) can both be considered grid-like data. CNNs do not use all the input information at once for computation; instead, they use a fixed-size window to extract a portion of the information for convolution operations, which significantly reduces the computational cost of model parameters. Furthermore, depending on the type of information extracted by the window (such as people and objects in an image representing different types of information), each window can use different convolution kernels, allowing CNNs to better extract features from the input data.

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are a type of distributed neural network (DNN) that utilizes feedback time-series information. Their input includes the current input value and their own output value from the previous time step. RNNs are well-suited for acquiring temporally correlated sequence features, and are particularly applicable to applications such as speech recognition and channel coding/decoding.

In the model training process described above for machine learning, a loss function can be defined. The loss function describes the difference or discrepancy between the model's output value and the ideal target value. The loss function can be expressed in various forms, and there are no restrictions on its specific form. The model training process can be viewed as follows: by adjusting some or all of the model's parameters, the value of the loss function is made to be less than a threshold value or to meet the target requirement.

A model can also be called an AI model, a rule, or other names. An AI model can be considered a specific method for implementing AI functions. An AI model represents the mapping relationship or function between the model's input and output. AI functions can include one or more of the following: data collection, model training (or model learning), model information dissemination, model inference (or model reasoning, inference, or prediction, etc.), model monitoring or model validation, or inference result publication, etc. AI functions can also be called AI (related) operations or AI-related functions.

The implementation process of a fully connected neural network will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. A fully connected neural network is also called a multilayer perceptron (MLP).

As shown in Figure 2a, an MLP consists of an input layer (left side), an output layer (right side), and multiple hidden layers (middle). Each layer of an MLP contains several nodes, called neurons. Neurons in adjacent layers are connected pairwise.

Optionally, considering neurons in two adjacent layers, the output h of a neuron in the next layer is the weighted sum of all neurons x in the previous layer connected to it, after passing through an activation function, and can be expressed as:
h = f(wx + b).

Where w is the weight matrix, b is the bias vector, and f is the activation function.

Alternatively, the output of the neural network can be recursively expressed as:
y=f _n (w _n f _n-1 (…)+b _n ).

Where n is the index of the neural network layer, 1 <= n <= N, and N is the total number of layers in the neural network.

In other words, a neural network can be understood as a mapping from an input data set to an output data set. Neural networks are typically initialized randomly; the process of obtaining this mapping from random values w and b using existing data is called training the neural network.

Optionally, the training process can involve using a loss function to evaluate the output of the neural network.

As shown in Figure 2b, the error can be backpropagated, and the neural network parameters (including w and b) can be iteratively optimized using gradient descent until the loss function reaches its minimum value, which is the "better point (e.g., the optimal point)" in Figure 2b. It can be understood that the neural network parameters corresponding to the "better point (e.g., the optimal point)" in Figure 2b can be used as the neural network parameters in the trained AI model information.

Alternatively, the gradient descent process can be represented as:

Where θ represents the parameters to be optimized (including w and b), L is the loss function, and η is the learning rate, controlling the step size of gradient descent. This represents the differentiation operation. This indicates taking the derivative of θ with respect to L.

Alternatively, the backpropagation process can utilize the chain rule for partial derivatives.

As shown in Figure 2c, the gradient of the parameters in the previous layer can be recursively calculated from the gradient of the parameters in the next layer, and can be expressed as:

Where w_{_ij} is the weight connecting node j to node i, and s _{_i} is the weighted sum of the inputs at node i.

The technical solution provided in this application can be applied to wireless communication systems (such as the systems shown in Figure 1a, 1b, or 1c). In wireless communication systems, MIMO technology is typically used to increase system capacity, i.e., multiple antennas are used simultaneously at the transmitting and receiving ends. In this case, signal transmission between the transmitting and receiving ends can be multipath propagation. Multipath propagation occurs when a signal in the wireless propagation environment travels through two or more paths before reaching the receiving antenna. Reflection and diffraction of electromagnetic waves by objects in the environment lead to multipath propagation. Signals traveling through different paths have different time delays and phases, and the receiving antenna receives the superposition of these multipath signals. The time delay spread of multipath propagation leads to inter-symbol interference, and the cancellation caused by multipath propagation leads to signal fading. Although multipath propagation brings these problems to communication systems, it also increases the spatial multiplexing stream count of the communication system. Therefore, predicting multipath propagation in the wireless propagation environment is crucial for improving the service capability of communication systems. Multipath prediction refers to predicting the possible multipath characteristics when a terminal communication device communicates with a base station at a certain spatial location, such as the number of paths, the strength of the paths, the angle of the paths, the time delay spread of the multipath, and the angular spread of the multipath.

In MIMO communication, the acquisition of channel information can be used to meet the demands of high-speed transmission. For example, communication devices can use the precoding information corresponding to the channel information to perform high-speed data transmission. Furthermore, communication devices can use channel information to allocate resources among multiple users, reducing interference between different users and improving the overall system performance. Generally, channel information is obtained through the measurement of a reference signal, and the overhead of the reference signal is related to the number of ports on the communication device that transmit that reference signal.

However, with the increase in frequency bands and the growing demand for high-speed communication, the number of ports used by communication equipment to transmit reference signals may gradually increase. This will lead to an increase in the overhead of reference signals used to obtain channel information and occupy more transmission resources, thereby increasing the power consumption of communication equipment.

One possible implementation involves modeling the real environment in a virtual physical world, reproducing the size, position, and material of objects in the real world as accurately as possible. Next, base stations and terminal devices are placed in the virtual physical world at the locations where multipath propagation is to be predicted. Ray-tracing is then used to simulate the composition information of the multipath paths between them (or an AI neural network model can be used to process environmental information to obtain multipath composition information). Channel information is then determined based on this multipath composition information. This method can obtain channel information without the need for the transmission of a reference signal.

However, while the composition information of multipaths (such as one or more of the MPC information including the number of multipaths, their intensity, angle, and time delay) can be obtained, the phase of each path cannot be obtained through simulation. This is because the phase of a path changes with wavelength-level variations in the environment (the location of communication devices and environmental information cannot be accurate to the wavelength level). Therefore, the phase of multipaths in real-world scenarios cannot be obtained through simulation. Similarly, information such as frequency shift, time offset, frequency deviation, and instantaneous channel errors in the communication channel may also be unavailable through simulation. Furthermore, this information (especially the phase of the paths) significantly impacts the characteristic patterns between communication devices, thereby affecting the accuracy of channel information.

To address the aforementioned problems, this application provides a communication method and related apparatus, which will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Please refer to Figure 3, which is a schematic diagram of an implementation of the communication method provided in this application. The method includes the following steps.

It should be noted that Figure 3 uses the first and second communication devices as examples to illustrate the method, but this application does not limit the execution subject of the interaction. For example, in Figure 3, the execution subject of the method can be replaced by a chip, chip system, processor, logic module, or software in the communication device.

As an example, the first communication device can be a terminal device and the second communication device can be a network device.

As another example, the first communication device can be a network device, and the second communication device can be a terminal device.

As another example, both the first and second communication devices are terminal devices, meaning that the scheme shown in Figure 3 can be applied to side link communication scenarios.

S300. The first communication device acquires first information. The first information is used to indicate the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device.

S301. The first communication device determines second information based on first information and first channel information. The first channel information is obtained by measuring a first reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, and the second information indicates the phase information of the multipath; wherein the first information and the second information are used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel.

In this application, on the communication channel between the first and second communication devices, after either communication device transmits a signal, the signal received by the other communication device can be used to reflect the channel characteristic information of the communication channel. This channel characteristic information can be used to determine the channel information of the communication channel. The channel characteristic information can include information that is likely to remain unchanged over a long period and information that is likely to change over a short period. The former can be called long-time (LT) information, and the latter can be called instantaneous (IN) information. Furthermore, this information can be used to reflect the time-angular domain channel property (TADCP) of the communication channel. Therefore, LT information can also be called TADCP-LT information, and IN information can also be called TADCP-IN information.

As an example, LT information can be called multipath component information or multipath component (MPC) information, which includes one or more of the following: the number of multipaths, the intensity of the paths, the angle of the paths, and the time delay of the paths. In the above scheme, the first information can indicate the multipath component information, and correspondingly, the first information can be called LT information, or TADCP-LT information, etc., which can include one or more of the following: the number of multipaths, the intensity of the paths, the angle of the paths, and the time delay of the paths.

As an example, the IN information may include multipath phase information (e.g., the multipath phase information indicated by the second information mentioned above), and other information about the communication channel, including but not limited to one or more of the following: frequency shift, time offset, frequency deviation, and instantaneous channel error. In the above scheme, the second information may indicate IN information or TADCP-IN information. Accordingly, in addition to indicating the multipath phase information of the communication channel between the first and second communication devices, the second information may also indicate one or more of the following: frequency shift, time offset, frequency deviation, and instantaneous channel error. In this way, the second information can indicate other information about the communication channel besides phase, so that the second channel information determined based on the second information can reflect the influence of this other information, thereby further improving the accuracy of the second channel information.

Optionally, the phase information of the multipath indicated by the second information may include the phase information of each path in the multipath. The phase information of each path may include the phase of one or more polarization directions.

It should be understood that the first and second information are used to determine the second channel information, which can be understood as the first and second information being used to estimate, predict, or infer the second channel information. In other words, the second channel information can be estimated, predicted, or inferred channel information.

In one possible implementation, the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal are different from those corresponding to the second channel information. In other words, the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal used to determine the first channel information are different from those corresponding to the second channel information obtained through prediction. This means that the first channel information corresponding to the first reference signal can be used in the channel prediction process for other time-frequency resources, allowing the communication device to determine the channel information on those other time-frequency resources without transmitting a reference signal. This reduces the overhead of the reference signal, thereby improving resource utilization and reducing device power consumption.

Optionally, the number of time-frequency units in the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information is greater than the number of time-frequency units in the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal. For example, the second channel information is wideband channel information, while the first channel information is narrowband channel information. In other words, the first reference signal used to determine the first channel information occupies a smaller amount of time-frequency resources, while the time-frequency resources corresponding to the predicted second channel information are larger. This means that the reference signal transmitted with smaller time-frequency resources can be used in the channel prediction process with larger time-frequency resources, reducing the overhead of the reference signal, thereby improving resource utilization and reducing device power consumption.

In one possible implementation, the first information is used to indicate the composition information of the multipath of the communication channel between the first and second communication devices, wherein the signal quality of each path in the multipath is greater than or equal to a threshold. Alternatively, the communication channel between the first and second communication devices includes N (N is a positive integer) paths, and the multipath indicated by the first and second information can be M (M is a positive integer less than or equal to N) of the N paths, wherein the signal quality of the M paths is greater than or equal to the signal quality of the other N-M paths.

Optionally, signal quality can be characterized by various parameters. For example, some parameters, such as received signal power, received signal strength, and signal-to-noise ratio, are positively correlated with signal quality. Conversely, some parameters, such as block error rate and bit error rate, are negatively correlated with signal quality.

Specifically, the multipath used to determine the second channel information can be the path with better signal quality. In this way, the path with poorer signal quality does not need to be considered in the process of determining the channel information, which can reduce the implementation complexity.

Optionally, the signal arrival time of each path in the multipath is less than or equal to a threshold, or the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device includes N (N is a positive integer) paths, and the multipath indicated by the first information and the second information can be M (M is a positive integer less than or equal to N) paths among the N paths, in which the signal arrival time of the M paths is earlier than or equal to the signal arrival time of the other N-M paths.

In one possible implementation of step S301, the first communication device can determine the second information in a variety of ways, which will be described below with reference to some implementation examples.

Example A: In step S301, the first communication device processes the pre-configured phase based on the first channel information, the first information, and the pre-configured phase to determine the second information. In other words, the first communication device can set a pre-configured phase for each path in the multipath. Then, the first communication device can determine the corresponding channel information based on the first information and the pre-configured phase, and process the pre-configured phase based on the difference between the determined channel information and the channel information obtained based on the reference signal (i.e., the first channel information) (e.g., one or more iterative processes) to determine the second information.

As shown in Figure 4, this is a schematic diagram of one implementation of Example A, including the following steps:

Step ①. The first communication device processes the first information and the pre-configured phase through a time-frequency domain conversion module to obtain the predicted channel information. As described above, the first information can indicate the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first and second communication devices, and correspondingly, the pre-configured phase can include the phase of each path in the multipath.

Optionally, the phase of each path may correspond to one or more polarization directions, and correspondingly, the pre-configured phase may include the phase of each path in each polarization direction in the multipath.

Optionally, in step ①, the time-frequency domain conversion module can be implemented using mathematical models, simulation models, AI models, or other methods.

Step 2. The first communication device performs loss calculation on the predicted channel information and the first channel information to obtain the loss calculation result.

Optionally, the loss calculation result can be a method for calculating the deviation (or difference, distinction, etc.) between the predicted value and the true value, such as mean absolute error (MAE), mean square error (MSE), normalized mean square error (NMSE), or correlation calculation (such as the process for determining the degree of correlation described above, where a higher degree of correlation indicates a smaller deviation, and vice versa). It should be understood that in step ②, the "predicted value" refers to the predicted channel information, and the first channel information is obtained based on measurements of the reference signal; therefore, this first channel information can be the "true value".

Optionally, in step ②, the loss calculation can be implemented using mathematical models, simulation models, AI models, etc.

It should be noted that after step ②, the first communication device can determine whether to execute steps ① and ② again based on the loss calculation results.

For example, if the loss indicated by the loss calculation result is below a certain threshold, the first communication device can determine that the difference between the predicted channel information corresponding to the pre-configured phase and the first channel information obtained by measurement through the reference signal is small, i.e., the correlation between the two is relatively high. Therefore, the first communication device does not need to execute steps ① and ② again; that is, the first communication device can use the pre-configured phase as the phase information indicated by the second information to determine the second information.

For example, if the loss indicated by the loss calculation result is higher than a certain threshold, the first communication device can determine that the difference between the predicted channel information corresponding to the pre-configured phase and the first channel information obtained by measurement through the reference signal is large, that is, the correlation between the two is relatively low. Therefore, the first communication device executes steps ① and ② again. That is, the first communication device can update the pre-configured phase based on the loss calculation result, obtain the first phase, replace the pre-configured phase in step ① with the first phase, and obtain the first loss calculation result through the processing of steps ① and ②.

Subsequently, the first communication device can determine whether to execute steps ① and ② again based on the first loss result. If no execution is required, the first loss calculation result is used as the phase information of the second information indication to determine the second information. If execution is still required, the first phase is updated to the second phase based on the first loss calculation result, and steps ① and ② are executed again until the loss indicated by a certain loss calculation result is lower than a certain threshold or until the number of repetitions of steps ① and ② reaches a certain threshold. Then, the phase corresponding to the loss calculation result is used as the phase information of the second information indication to determine the second information.

Optionally, the above formula can be repeatedly executed by step ① and step ② using gradient descent, stochastic gradient descent, or other methods.

Optionally, as described above, the second information, in addition to indicating the phase information of the multipath communication channel between the first and second communication devices, may also indicate one or more of the following: frequency shift, time offset, frequency deviation, and instantaneous channel error of the communication channel. Correspondingly, the process for determining these one or more of these parameters can also refer to the phase determination process shown in Figure 4 above.

Example B: In step S301, the first communication device determines the second information based on the first information and the first channel information, including: the first communication device determines the second information based on the first information and the first channel information using an AI model. For example, the first communication device can use the first information and the first channel information as input to the AI model, and obtain the second information after processing by the AI model.

Optionally, the terms AI model, neural network model, AI neural network model, machine learning model, AI processing model, etc. used in this application can be used interchangeably.

Based on the scheme shown in Figure 3, the first information acquired by the first communication device in step S300 is used to indicate the multipath composition information of the communication channel. In step S301, the first communication device can determine second information based on the first information and the first channel information obtained by measuring the reference signal. The second information indicates the phase information of the multipath. The first information and the second information can be used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel. In other words, the first communication device can determine the phase information of the multipath through the channel information obtained by measuring the reference signal (i.e., the first channel information). The phase information and the composition information of the multipath can be used to determine other channel information (i.e., the second channel information) of the same communication channel. Therefore, the channel information can be determined through the phase information and composition information of the multipath, which can reduce the overhead of the reference signal, thereby improving resource utilization and reducing device power consumption.

Furthermore, in MIMO systems, both multipath component information and multipath phase information are factors influencing channel information. Therefore, compared to determining channel information solely based on multipath component information, the above scheme, by also incorporating multipath phase information, can improve the accuracy of channel information determined based on both multipath component and phase information.

In one possible implementation of the method shown in Figure 3, the second information determined by the first communication device in step S301 can be used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel between the first and second communication devices. The process of determining the second channel information can be implemented in various ways, some of which will be described below.

Implementation Method 1: The first communication device determines the second channel information.

In implementation method one, the method shown in Figure 3 further includes: the first communication device determining the second channel information based on the first information and the second information. Specifically, the first communication device can determine the second channel information based on the first information and the second information, and perform communication based on the second channel information (for example, the first communication device determines the precoding information of the transmitted signal based on the second channel information), enabling the first communication device to perform high-speed signal transmission based on the second channel information.

In one possible implementation of the first method, the method further includes: the first communication device acquiring third channel information, the third channel information being measured based on a second reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, the second reference signal occupying the same time-frequency resources as the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information; if the correlation between the second channel information and the third channel information is lower than a threshold (e.g., the correlation threshold described in the eleventh indication information below), the first communication device sends any of the following:

The third piece of information is used to update the first information and/or the second information;

The fourth information is used to request a third reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the third reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information.

This is the third reference signal.

Specifically, the first communication device determines the second channel information using the first and second information as the predicted channel information, and the first communication device acquires the third channel information as the channel information obtained based on a measurement of a reference signal. In the above scheme, if the correlation between the second and third channel information is lower than a threshold, the first communication device can determine that the prediction accuracy corresponding to the second channel information is low. Therefore, the first communication device can trigger the update of the first and/or second information using any of the aforementioned information, and can improve the accuracy of the predicted channel information through the updated first and/or second information.

It should be understood that the transmission density of the reference signal is positively correlated with the number of times the reference signal is transmitted within a certain period of time; that is, the more times the reference signal is transmitted within a certain period of time, the greater the transmission density of the reference signal; conversely, the fewer times the reference signal is transmitted within a certain period of time, the smaller the transmission density of the reference signal. Accordingly, the transmission density of the reference signal can also be replaced by other terms, such as the transmission frequency of the reference signal, or the transmission frequency of the reference signal, etc.

Furthermore, the statement that the transmission density of one reference signal is greater than that of another reference signal (e.g., the transmission density of a third reference signal is greater than that of the first reference signal, or, as described later, the transmission density of a fourth reference signal is greater than that of the first reference signal) can be replaced with other descriptions. For example, the transmission frequency of one reference signal is greater than that of another reference signal. Or, the transmission period of one reference signal is shorter than that of another reference signal.

Optionally, the process for determining the correlation between the second and third channel information can refer to the implementation process of loss calculation described above.

Implementation Method 2: The first communication device sends second information, enabling the recipient of the second information (e.g., the second communication device) to determine the second channel information.

As shown in Figure 3, the method also includes:

S302. The first communication device sends the second information, and correspondingly, the second communication device receives the second information.

In the second implementation, the first communication device can send second information, enabling the recipient of the second information (e.g., the second communication device) to determine the second channel information based on the first and second information, and to communicate based on the second channel information, so that the second communication device can perform high-speed signal transmission based on the second channel information.

As shown in Figure 5, the second communication device can process the first and second information through a time-frequency domain conversion module to obtain the second channel information. The implementation of this time-frequency domain conversion module can be found in Figure 4 and the related description above.

Optionally, in Figure 5, after determining the second channel information, the second communication device can also determine precoding information (or interference information, etc.) based on the second channel information, and improve the communication quality through the precoding information.

In one possible implementation of the second method, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving any one of the following:

The fifth piece of information is used to update the first and/or the second information;

The sixth information is used to request a fourth reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the fourth reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information.

The fourth reference signal.

Specifically, the first communication device can trigger the update of the first and/or second information through any of the aforementioned information, thereby improving the accuracy of the predicted channel information. The fifth, sixth, or fourth reference signal can originate from the second communication device, similar to the implementation in Method 1. This second communication device can trigger the transmission of the fifth, sixth, or fourth reference signal based on the correlation between the second and third channel information.

As can be seen from the above implementation method one and implementation method two, both the first communication device and the second communication device may obtain the first information. In the above scheme, the two communication devices can obtain the first information in a variety of ways.

Method A. Both the first and second communication devices can determine the first information locally by means of reference signal measurement, ray tracing, artificial intelligence (AI), or other means, without transmitting the first information, which can reduce overhead.

Method B. The first communication device generates first information locally and sends the first information to the second communication device. In other words, the first communication device can generate/obtain/acquire the first information locally, and the first communication device can send the first information, so that the recipient of the first information (e.g., the second communication device) can determine the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first and second communication devices, thereby reducing the complexity of the recipient.

Method C. The second communication device generates first information locally, and sends the first information to the first communication device. In other words, the second communication device can generate/obtain/acquire the first information locally, and can send the first information, so that the recipient of the first information (e.g., the first communication device) can determine the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first and second communication devices, thereby reducing the complexity of the first communication device.

As shown in Figure 6, taking mode C as an example, the first communication device can receive first information from the second communication device, and the first communication device can obtain first channel information based on the measurement of the first reference signal; thereafter, the first communication device can obtain second information based on the first information and the first channel information, and send the second information to the second communication device, so that the second communication device can determine the second channel information based on the second information (refer to the example shown in Figure 5 above).

Optionally, in any of methods A to C, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving or transmitting seventh information, the seventh information being used to update the first information. Specifically, when the transmission of multipath component information of the communication channel between the first and second communication devices changes, the first communication device can update the first information through the aforementioned seventh information to improve the accuracy of the channel information obtained based on the first information. The change in the transmission of multipath component information may include one or more of the following: path generation and destruction, path intensity change, path angle change, and path delay change.

As can be seen from the above implementation process, the first and second communication devices may exchange some information (such as first information, second information, seventh information, etc.) to determine channel information. This information can be called TADCP information. To further reduce overhead, TADCP information can be processed by compression quantization and decompression quantization. The processing parameters for compression quantization and decompression quantization can be configured through tables, formulas, etc.

As an example, let's take the processing parameters for compression quantization and decompression quantization corresponding to the first and second information in the table configuration as an example. Taking the pre-configured table with a maximum granularity of Y=8 as an example (where the larger the granularity, the higher the precision of the first and second information that can be represented), as shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2

It should be understood that in Table 2, the azimuth and elevation angles are one implementation example of the angles of the path included in the first information, the time delay is one implementation example of the time delay of the path included in the first information, and the phase is one implementation example of the phase information indicated by the second information. Furthermore, in order to accurately transmit LT information, such as the intensity and time delay of the path, with minimal overhead, this information can be normalized first. The processing parameters for this normalization process can include the normalization amplitude shown in Table 2.

For example, regarding the intensity of a diameter, the amplitude of the strongest diameter can be scaled to 1, and the amplitudes of other diameters can be scaled proportionally. Then, sending the diameter intensity using a lookup table improves the accuracy of the information and avoids excessive deviations in the values obtained from the lookup table. For instance, given two diameters with intensities of 0.3 and 0.15 respectively, without normalization and directly looking up the table (Table 2), the intensities of the two diameters can be represented as 1/4 and 1/8 respectively, which deviates from the true values. If normalization is performed, the intensities of the two diameters become 1 and 0.5. By default, during normalization, the strongest diameter's intensity of 1 can be sent instead of the actual intensity of 0.3 (without using a lookup table), while the second diameter is sent using a lookup table, i.e., 1/2. This provides a more accurate value. Because the intensity of diameters varies greatly, normalization is necessary to represent the intensities of each diameter in a table. In addition, the normalized amplitude of the radius in the table can be used to represent the amplitude of the radius, or the power of the radius (in mW, W, dB, or dBm), etc.

Similarly, the path delay can be normalized in advance. For example, the delay of the first arriving path can be offset to 0ns, and the delays of other paths can be offset in the same way. If there are two paths with arrival times of 50ns and 80ns, they can be normalized first to obtain arrival times of 0ns and 30ns. In this case, the first path does not need to be sent, and the second path sends the 32ns message by looking up a table.

Based on the configuration in Table 2, the first and second communication devices can indicate various parameters by indexing. More table examples will be used for illustration below.

As shown in Table 3, this is an example of an implementation of indicating the first information. In Table 3, we take an example where the number of paths corresponding to the first information is 4.

Table 3

In the example shown in Table 3, combined with the configuration in Table 2, we can see that:

The first line of information indicates the path with index "0", azimuth angle of 1/8, elevation angle of 4/12, and delay of 16ns;

The second line of information indicates the path with index "1", azimuth angle of 3/8, elevation angle of 8/12, and delay of 32ns;

The third line of information indicates the path with index "2", azimuth angle of 2/8, elevation angle of 10/12, and delay of 64ns;

The fourth line of information indicates the path with index "3", azimuth angle of 5/8, elevation angle of 9/12, and delay of 128ns.

As shown in Table 4, this is an example of an implementation of indicating the second information. In Table 4, we take an example where the number of paths corresponding to the second information is 4.

Table 4

In the example shown in Table 4, combined with the configuration in Table 2, we can see that:

The first line of information indicates the path with index "0" and a phase of 1/8;

The second line of information indicates the path with index "1" and a phase of 3/8;

The third line of information indicates the path with index "2" and a phase of 7/8;

The fourth line of information indicates the path with index "3" and a phase of 4/8.

As another example, let's take the processing parameters for compression quantization and decompression quantization corresponding to the seventh information in the table configuration as an example. Taking the pre-configured table with a maximum granularity of Y=8 as an example (where the larger the granularity, the higher the precision of the seventh information that can be represented), as shown in Table 5 below.

Table 5

It should be understood that the parameters in Table 5 are offset values. That is, the recipient of the seventh information will determine the updated azimuth, elevation, normalization amplitude, time delay, etc. based on the offset values configured in Table 5 and the parameters used most recently.

Based on the configuration in Table 5, the first and second communication devices can indicate various parameters by indexing. More table examples will be used for illustration below.

As shown in Table 6, this is an example of an implementation of indicating the seventh information. In Table 6, we take an example where the number of paths corresponding to the first information is 4.

Table 6

In the example shown in Table 3, combined with the configuration in Table 2, we can see that:

The first line of information indicates the path with index "0", the azimuth offset is -3/16, the elevation offset is -2/24, and the time delay offset is -40.

The second line of information indicates the path with index "1", the azimuth offset is -1/16, the pitch offset is 2/24, and the time delay offset is -30.

The third line of information indicates the path with index "2", the azimuth offset is -2/16, the pitch offset is 4/24, and the time delay offset is -20.

The fourth line of information indicates the path with index "3", the azimuth offset is 2/16, the pitch offset is 3/24, and the time delay offset is -10.

As an example, taking the first communication device as the terminal device and the second communication device as the network device, the interaction of the first information in mode B and mode C, and the interaction of the second information in step S301 will be described in an exemplary manner below.

As described above, the first information can be LT information (i.e., information that is likely to remain unchanged for a relatively long time). For example, the first information can be sent during the random access procedure, and it can be carried in message 3 (MSG3), message 4 (MSG4), or other messages. Alternatively, the first information can be sent after the RRC connection is established via channel state information (CSI). Or, the first information can be sent based on a request from the peer.

As described above, the second information can be IN information (i.e., information that is likely to change within a short period of time). For example, the second information can be sent via CSI feedback after an RRC connection is established. Alternatively, the second information can be triggered by a request from a network device.

Furthermore, since the changes in the first and second information may differ—the first information being the deterministic part and changing slowly, while the second information is the transient part and changing rapidly—they do not need to be sent together every time, thus reducing overall air interface resource overhead. For example, after the network device and terminal device align the deterministic part, the terminal device calibrates the transient part and sends it to the network device, allowing the network device to reconstruct the channel information based on the deterministic and transient parts.

In one possible implementation of the method shown in Figure 3, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving or transmitting at least one of the following:

The first instruction information is used to instruct the transmission of the first information and/or the second information.

The second indication information is used to indicate the measurement result of the reference signal used to determine the second information (i.e., feedback TADCP);

The third indication information is used to indicate the number of paths contained in the multipath;

The fourth indication information is used to indicate the periodicity of the first information and/or the second information;

The fifth instruction information is used to indicate the identifier of the model that generated the first information;

The sixth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the movement information of the communication device;

The seventh indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the movement information of the communication device;

The eighth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the transmission density of the reference signal;

The ninth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the transmission density of the reference signal;

The tenth indication information is used to indicate the configuration information corresponding to the second information (for example, the configuration information includes at least one of the following: frequency offset value, time offset value, frequency shift value caused by Doppler effect, and channel error value).

The eleventh instruction information is used to indicate the relevance threshold that triggers the update of the first information and/or the second information (e.g., the threshold described in Implementation Method 1 and Implementation Method 2 above);

The twelfth instruction is used to indicate the number of iterations of the second information (e.g., the number of times steps ① and ② are executed, as shown in Figure 4 above).

Specifically, the first communication device can receive or send at least one of the above, enabling the first communication device and the second communication device to determine the first information and the second information through the interaction of the above at least one.

The above instructions will be described in detail below with some implementation examples.

For example, the first indication information can be carried in the system information block (SIB) or capability information (such as UE capability information).

For example, the second indication information can be carried in the Channel State Information Report Configuration (CSI-ReportConfig) information.

For example, any one of the third, fourth, and fifth instruction information can be contained in the TADCP feedback information or the TADCP report configuration information.

For example, the mapping relationships for the sixth to ninth instruction information can be indicated using tables, formulas, or other methods. The following explanation uses a table configuration as an example; please refer to Table 7 below.

Table 7

It is understandable that the "Sending period of the first message (ms)" in the first column of Table 7, and the last three columns of the row containing the "Sending period of the first message (ms)" are an implementation example of the sixth instruction message mentioned above.

The "Sending Period of Second Message (ms)" in the first column of Table 7, and the last three columns of the row containing "Sending Period of Second Message (ms)" in the first column, are an example of an implementation of the seventh instruction message mentioned above.

The “Sending period of the first message (ms)” in the first column of Table 7, and the “Level” column in the row containing the “Sending period of the first message (ms)” in the first column, are an example of an implementation of the eighth instruction message mentioned above.

The “Second Message Sending Cycle (ms)” in the first column of Table 7, and the “Level” column in the row containing the “Second Message Sending Cycle (ms)” in the first column, are an example of an implementation of the ninth instruction message mentioned above.

Please refer to Figure 7. This application embodiment provides a communication device 700, which can realize the functions of the second communication device or the first communication device in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments. In this application embodiment, the communication device 700 can be the first communication device (or the second communication device), or it can be an integrated circuit or component inside the first communication device (or the second communication device), such as a chip.

It should be noted that the transceiver unit 702 may include a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, which are used to perform transmitting and receiving respectively.

In one possible implementation, when the device 700 is used to execute the method performed by the first communication device in the foregoing embodiments, the device 700 includes a processing unit 701; the processing unit 701 is used to acquire first information, which indicates the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device; the processing unit 701 is also used to determine second information based on the first information and the first channel information, where the first channel information is obtained by measuring a first reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, and the second information indicates the phase information of the multipath; wherein the first information and the second information are used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel.

In one possible implementation, when the device 700 is used to execute the method performed by the second communication device in the foregoing embodiments, the device 700 includes a processing unit 701 and a transceiver unit 702; the processing unit 701 is used to acquire first information, which indicates the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device; the transceiver unit 702 is used to receive second information, which indicates the phase information of the multipath; the processing unit is also used to determine second channel information of the communication channel based on the first information and the second information.

It should be noted that the information execution process of the unit of the above-mentioned communication device 700 can be specifically described in the method embodiment shown above in this application, and will not be repeated here.

Please refer to Figure 8, which is another schematic structural diagram of the communication device 800 provided in this application. The communication device 800 includes a logic circuit 801 and an input/output interface 802. The communication device 800 can be a chip or an integrated circuit.

In this context, the transceiver unit 702 shown in Figure 7 can be a communication interface, which can be the input/output interface 802 in Figure 8, and the input/output interface 802 can include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication interface can also be a transceiver circuit, which can include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

Optionally, the logic circuit 801 is used to acquire first information, which indicates the composition information of the multipath of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device; the logic circuit 801 is also used to determine second information based on the first information and the first channel information, where the first channel information is obtained by measuring a first reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, and the second information indicates the phase information of the multipath; wherein the first information and the second information are used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel.

Optionally, the logic circuit 801 acquires first information, which is used to indicate the composition information of the multipath of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device; the input/output interface 802 is used to receive second information, which indicates the phase information of the multipath; the processing unit is also used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel based on the first information and the second information.

The logic circuit 801 and the input/output interface 802 can also perform other steps performed by the first or second communication device in any embodiment and achieve corresponding beneficial effects, which will not be elaborated here.

In one possible implementation, the processing unit 701 shown in FIG7 can be the logic circuit 801 in FIG8.

Optionally, the logic circuit 801 can be a processing device, the functions of which can be partially or entirely implemented in software.

Optionally, the processing apparatus may include a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the memory to perform the corresponding processing and/or steps in any of the method embodiments.

Optionally, the processing device may consist of only a processor. A memory for storing computer programs is located outside the processing device, and the processor is connected to the memory via circuitry/wires to read and execute the computer programs stored in the memory. The memory and processor may be integrated together or physically independent of each other.

Optionally, the processing device may be one or more chips, or one or more integrated circuits. For example, the processing device may be one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), system-on-chips (SoCs), central processing units (CPUs), network processors (NPs), digital signal processors (DSPs), microcontroller units (MCUs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or other integrated chips, or any combination of the above chips or processors.

Please refer to Figure 9, which shows the communication device 900 involved in the above embodiments provided in the embodiments of this application. Specifically, the communication device 900 can be the communication device as a terminal device in the above embodiments. The example shown in Figure 9 is that the terminal device is implemented through the terminal device (or the components in the terminal device).

The present invention provides a possible logical structure diagram of the communication device 900, which may include, but is not limited to, at least one processor 901 and a communication port 902.

In Figure 7, the transceiver unit 702 can be a communication interface, which can be the communication port 902 in Figure 9. The communication port 902 can include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication port 902 can also be a transceiver circuit, which can include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

Further optionally, the device may also include at least one of a memory 903 and a bus 904. In the embodiments of this application, the at least one processor 901 is used to control the operation of the communication device 900.

Furthermore, the processor 901 can be a central processing unit, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field-programmable gate array, or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It can implement or execute the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the disclosure of this application. The processor can also be a combination that implements computing functions, such as a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, etc. Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for the sake of convenience and brevity, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can be referred to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

It should be noted that the communication device 900 shown in Figure 9 can be used to implement the steps implemented by the terminal device in the aforementioned method embodiments and to achieve the corresponding technical effects of the terminal device. The specific implementation of the communication device shown in Figure 9 can be referred to the description in the aforementioned method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

Please refer to Figure 10, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device 1000 involved in the above embodiments provided in the embodiments of this application. The communication device 1000 can specifically be a communication device as a network device in the above embodiments. The example shown in Figure 10 is that the network device is implemented through a network device (or a component in the network device). The structure of the communication device can refer to the structure shown in Figure 10.

The communication device 1000 includes at least one processor 1011 and at least one network interface 1014. Optionally, the communication device further includes at least one memory 1012, at least one transceiver 1013, and one or more antennas 1015. The processor 1011, memory 1012, transceiver 1013, and network interface 1014 are connected, for example, via a bus. In this embodiment, the connection may include various interfaces, transmission lines, or buses, etc., and this embodiment is not limited thereto. The antenna 1015 is connected to the transceiver 1013. The network interface 1014 enables the communication device to communicate with other communication devices through a communication link. For example, the network interface 1014 may include a network interface between the communication device and core network equipment, such as an S1 interface; the network interface may also include a network interface between the communication device and other communication devices (e.g., other network devices or core network equipment), such as an X2 or Xn interface.

In this context, the transceiver unit 702 shown in Figure 7 can be a communication interface, which can be the network interface 1014 in Figure 10. The network interface 1014 can include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the network interface 1014 can also be a transceiver circuit, which can include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

The processor 1011 is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process data from these programs, for example, to support the actions described in the embodiments of the communication device. The communication device may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit (CPU). The baseband processor is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, while the CPU is primarily used to control the entire terminal device, execute software programs, and process data from these programs. The processor 1011 in Figure 10 can integrate the functions of both a baseband processor and a CPU. Those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and CPU can also be independent processors interconnected via technologies such as buses. Those skilled in the art will understand that a terminal device can include multiple baseband processors to adapt to different network standards, and multiple CPUs to enhance its processing capabilities. Various components of the terminal device can be connected via various buses. The baseband processor can also be described as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The CPU can also be described as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing communication protocols and communication data can be built into the processor or stored in memory as a software program, which is then executed by the processor to implement the baseband processing function.

The memory is primarily used to store software programs and data. The memory 1012 can exist independently or be connected to the processor 1011. Optionally, the memory 1012 can be integrated with the processor 1011, for example, integrated within a single chip. The memory 1012 can store program code that executes the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, and its execution is controlled by the processor 1011. The various types of computer program code being executed can also be considered as drivers for the processor 1011.

Figure 10 shows only one memory and one processor. In actual terminal devices, there may be multiple processors and multiple memories. Memory can also be called storage medium or storage device, etc. Memory can be a storage element on the same chip as the processor, i.e., an on-chip storage element, or it can be a separate storage element; this application does not limit this.

Transceiver 1013 can be used to support the reception or transmission of radio frequency (RF) signals between a communication device and a terminal. Transceiver 1013 can be connected to antenna 1015. Transceiver 1013 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. Specifically, one or more antennas 1015 can receive RF signals. The receiver Rx of transceiver 1013 is used to receive the RF signals from the antennas, convert the RF signals into digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency (IF) signals, and provide the digital baseband signals or IF signals to processor 1011 so that processor 1011 can perform further processing on the digital baseband signals or IF signals, such as demodulation and decoding. In addition, the transmitter Tx in transceiver 1013 is also used to receive modulated digital baseband signals or IF signals from processor 1011, convert the modulated digital baseband signals or IF signals into RF signals, and transmit the RF signals through one or more antennas 1015. Specifically, the receiver Rx can selectively perform one or more stages of downmixing and analog-to-digital conversion on the radio frequency signal to obtain a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency (IF) signal. The order of these downmixing and IF conversion processes is adjustable. The transmitter Tx can selectively perform one or more stages of upmixing and digital-to-analog conversion on the modulated digital baseband signal or digital IF signal to obtain a radio frequency signal. The order of these upmixing and IF conversion processes is also adjustable. The digital baseband signal and the digital IF signal can be collectively referred to as digital signals.

The transceiver 1013 can also be called a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiver device, etc. Optionally, the device in the transceiver unit that performs the receiving function can be regarded as the receiving unit, and the device in the transceiver unit that performs the transmitting function can be regarded as the transmitting unit. That is, the transceiver unit includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit can also be called a receiver, input port, receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit can be called a transmitter, transmitter, or transmitting circuit, etc.

It should be noted that the communication device 1000 shown in Figure 10 can be used to implement the steps implemented by the network device in the aforementioned method embodiments and to achieve the corresponding technical effects of the network device. The specific implementation of the communication device 1000 shown in Figure 10 can be referred to the description in the aforementioned method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

Please refer to Figure 11, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device involved in the above embodiments provided in the embodiments of this application.

It is understood that the communication device 110 includes, for example, modules, units, elements, circuits, or interfaces, which are appropriately configured together to execute the technical solutions provided in this application. The communication device 110 may be the terminal device or network device described above, or a component (e.g., a chip) within these devices, used to implement the methods described in the following method embodiments. The communication device 110 includes one or more processors 111. The processor 111 may be a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor, for example, a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor can be used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processing unit can be used to control the communication device (e.g., a RAN node, terminal, or chip), execute software programs, and process data from the software programs.

Optionally, in one design, the processor 111 may include a program 113 (sometimes also referred to as code or instructions) that can be executed on the processor 111 to cause the communication device 110 to perform the methods described in the embodiments below. In yet another possible design, the communication device 110 includes circuitry (not shown in FIG11).

Optionally, the communication device 110 may include one or more memories 112 storing a program 114 (sometimes referred to as code or instructions), which can be run on the processor 111 to cause the communication device 110 to perform the methods described in the above method embodiments.

Optionally, the processor 111 and/or memory 112 may include AI modules 117 and 118, which are used to implement AI-related functions. The AI modules can be implemented through software, hardware, or a combination of both. For example, the AI module may include a radio intelligence control (RIC) module. For example, the AI module may be a near real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC.

Optionally, the processor 111 and/or memory 112 may also store data. The processor and memory may be configured separately or integrated together.

Optionally, the communication device 110 may further include a transceiver 115 and/or an antenna 116. The processor 111, sometimes referred to as a processing unit, controls the communication device (e.g., a RAN node or terminal). The transceiver 115, sometimes referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiver circuit, or transceiver, is used to realize the transmission and reception functions of the communication device through the antenna 116.

In this context, the processing unit 701 shown in Figure 7 can be a processor 111. The transceiver unit 702 shown in Figure 7 can be a communication interface, which can be the transceiver 115 in Figure 11. The transceiver 115 can include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the transceiver 115 can also be a transceiver circuit, which can include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

This application also provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing one or more computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor performs the method described in the possible implementations of the first or second communication device in the foregoing embodiments.

This application also provides a computer program product (or computer program) that, when executed by a processor, executes the method described above for the possible implementation of the first or second communication device.

This application also provides a chip system including at least one processor for supporting a communication device in implementing the functions involved in the possible implementations of the communication device described above. Optionally, the chip system further includes an interface circuit that provides program instructions and/or data to the at least one processor. In one possible design, the chip system may also include a memory for storing the program instructions and data necessary for the communication device. The chip system may be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices, wherein the communication device may specifically be the first communication device or the second communication device in the aforementioned method embodiments.

This application also provides a communication system, the network system architecture of which includes a first communication device and a second communication device in any of the above embodiments.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, apparatuses, and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative; for instance, the division of units is only a logical functional division, and in actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not executed. Furthermore, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be an indirect coupling or communication connection between apparatuses or units through some interfaces, and may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of this application can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be implemented in hardware or as a software functional unit. If the integrated unit is implemented as a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes, or all or part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: USB flash drives, portable hard drives, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, optical disks, and other media capable of storing program code.

Claims (26)

A communication method, characterized in that it includes: Obtain first information, which is used to indicate the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device; The second information is determined based on the first information and the first channel information, wherein the first channel information is obtained by measuring the first reference signal transmitted on the communication channel, and the second information indicates the phase information of the multipath; wherein the first information and the second information are used to determine the second channel information of the communication channel. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises: The second channel information is determined based on the first information and the second information. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: The third channel information is obtained by measuring a second reference signal transmitted on the communication channel. The time-frequency resources occupied by the second reference signal are the same as those corresponding to the second channel information. If the correlation between the second channel information and the third channel information is less than a threshold, send any of the following: The third piece of information is used to update the first information and/or the second information; The fourth information is used to request a third reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the third reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information. The third reference signal. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises: Send the second message. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the method further comprises: receiving any one of the following: The fifth piece of information is used to update the first information and/or the second information; The sixth piece of information is used to request a fourth reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the fourth reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information. The fourth reference signal. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is characterized in that the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal are different from the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the method further comprises: Send the first message. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein obtaining the first information comprises: Receive the first information. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 is characterized in that the signal quality of each path in the multipath is greater than or equal to a threshold. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receive or send at least one of the following: The first instruction information is used to instruct the transmission of the first information and/or the second information to be initiated. The second indication information is used to indicate the measurement result of the reference signal used to determine the second information; The third indication information is used to indicate the number of paths included in the multipath; The fourth indication information is used to indicate the periodic information of the first information and/or the second information; The fifth instruction information is used to indicate the identifier of the model that generated the first information; The sixth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the movement information of the communication device; The seventh indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the movement information of the communication device; The eighth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the transmission density of the reference signal; The ninth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the transmission density of the reference signal; The tenth instruction information is used to indicate the configuration information corresponding to the second information; The eleventh indication information is used to indicate the relevance threshold that triggers the update of the first information and/or the second information; The twelfth instruction is used to indicate the number of iterations of the second information. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receive or send a seventh message, which is used to update the first message. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that determining the second information based on the first information and the first channel information includes: Based on the first channel information, the first information, and the channel information determined by the pre-configured phase, the pre-configured phase is processed to determine the second information. A communication method, characterized in that it includes: Obtain first information, which is used to indicate the multipath composition information of the communication channel between the first communication device and the second communication device; Receive second information, the second information indicating the phase information of the multipath; The second channel information of the communication channel is determined based on the first information and the second information. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receive any of the following: The third piece of information is used to update the first information and/or the second information; The fourth information is used to request a third reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the third reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information. The third reference signal. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that the method further comprises: The third channel information is obtained by measuring a second reference signal transmitted on the communication channel. The time-frequency resources occupied by the second reference signal are the same as those corresponding to the second channel information. If the correlation between the second channel information and the third channel information is less than a threshold, the method further includes: sending any one of the following: The fifth piece of information is used to update the first information and/or the second information; The sixth piece of information is used to request a fourth reference signal, the transmission density of which is greater than that of the first reference signal; wherein the measurement result of the fourth reference signal is used to update the first information and/or the second information. The fourth reference signal. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 15 is characterized in that the time-frequency resources occupied by the first reference signal are different from the time-frequency resources corresponding to the second channel information. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 16, characterized in that the method further comprises: Send the first message. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 17, wherein obtaining the first information comprises: Receive the first information. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 18 is characterized in that the signal quality of each path in the multipath is greater than or equal to a threshold. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 19, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receive or send at least one of the following: The first instruction information is used to instruct the transmission of the first information and/or the second information to be initiated. The second indication information is used to indicate the measurement result of the reference signal used to determine the second information; The third indication information is used to indicate the number of paths included in the multipath; The fourth indication information is used to indicate the periodic information of the first information and/or the second information; The fifth instruction information is used to indicate the identifier of the model that generated the first information; The sixth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the movement information of the communication device; The seventh indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the movement information of the communication device; The eighth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the first information and the transmission density of the reference signal; The ninth indication information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the periodic information of the second information and the transmission density of the reference signal; The tenth instruction information is used to indicate the configuration information corresponding to the second information; The eleventh indication information is used to indicate the relevance threshold that triggers the update of the first information and/or the second information; The twelfth instruction is used to indicate the number of iterations of the second information. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 20, characterized in that the method further comprises: Receive or send a seventh message, which is used to update the first message. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a module for performing the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 21. A communication device, characterized in that it includes at least one processor, said at least one processor being configured to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 21. The communication device according to claim 23 is characterized in that the communication device is a chip or a chip system. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program or instructions that, when executed by a communication device, implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 21. A computer program product, characterized in that it includes a computer program or instructions, which, when executed by a computer, implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 21.