CN116801296A

CN116801296A - Measurement method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN116801296A
Application number: CN202210248605.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 颜矛; 刘凤威; 杨博; 马传辉
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-14
Filing date: 2022-03-14
Publication date: 2023-09-22

Abstract

Provided are a measurement method and a communication device, the method including: receiving first configuration information from a network device, the first configuration information being used to configure a receive beam of a reference signal; receiving a reference signal from a terminal device based on the first configuration information; measuring the reference signal to obtain a measurement result; and sending the measurement result to the network equipment. The relay device obtains the measurement result by measuring the reference signal from the terminal device and reports the measurement result to the network device without forwarding the reference signal to the network device for measurement, so that the network device does not need to always receive the reference signal and measure the reference signal, thereby being beneficial to saving the cost of the network device.

Description

Measurement method and communication device

Technical Field

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

Background

In a wireless communication system, beamforming techniques are used to limit the energy of a wireless signal to a certain beam direction, thereby increasing the efficiency of signal reception. The beam forming technology can effectively enlarge the transmission range of wireless signals and reduce signal interference, thereby achieving higher communication efficiency and obtaining higher network capacity. In a communication system adopting a beam forming technology, one of a network device and a terminal device can send a reference signal for measurement by the other, so as to obtain a beam with better quality.

In some scenarios, the distance between the network device and the terminal device is relatively long, and the corresponding path loss is high, so that the terminal device may not be able to directly communicate with the network device. A simple way is to facilitate the communication between the network device and the terminal device by means of a relay device. For example, the relay device directly amplifies the received signal and forwards the amplified signal. In general, a relay device has two antenna panels, one for communication with a network device (referred to as backhaul side) and the other for communication with a terminal device (referred to as access side).

After the relay device is added, when the relay device access side has a plurality of beams, to determine the beams with better quality on the relay device access side, one method is to determine how many beams are on the relay device access side, one of the network device or the terminal device needs to send the same number of reference signals, and the reference signals are forwarded through the relay device, so that the beams with better quality are obtained through the measurement of the other party. It is conceivable that as the number of beams on the access side of the relay device increases, the overhead incurred by the network device to receive or transmit reference signals to the relay device increases.

It is therefore desirable to provide a method to reduce the overhead of network devices during beam measurements.

Disclosure of Invention

The present application provides a measurement method and a communication apparatus, which are expected to reduce the overhead of network equipment in the beam measurement process.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a measurement method, which may be performed by a relay device, or may also be performed by a component (such as a chip, a system on a chip, etc.) configured in the relay device, or may also be implemented by a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the relay device, which is not limited in this application.

Illustratively, the method includes: receiving first configuration information from a network device, the first configuration information being used to configure a receive beam of a reference signal; receiving a reference signal from a terminal device based on the first configuration information; measuring the reference signal to obtain a measurement result; and sending the measurement result to the network equipment.

In the above technical solution, the relay device receives the reference signal from the terminal device based on the received first configuration information from the network device, and measures the received reference signal to obtain a measurement result, and reports the measurement result to the network device. That is, the communication system added to the relay device can obtain the measurement result by measuring the reference signal by the relay device, that is, the quality of the received beam corresponding to which reference signal can be obtained is better, and the reference signal is not required to be forwarded to the network device for measurement.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, receiving, based on the first configuration information, a reference signal from the terminal device includes: the reference signal from the terminal device is received by one or more beams, which are part or all of the received beams of the reference signal.

The first configuration information may be used to configure reception beams of the reference signal, and the relay device may receive the reference signal from the terminal device based on some or all of the reception beams. For example, for a reference signal of one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbol, the relay device may receive through one beam or may receive through a plurality of beams. The relay device can scan a plurality of beams in one OFDM symbol, so that the relay device can scan more beams in one OFDM symbol, thereby being beneficial to improving the efficiency of beam scanning, reducing the cost of beam scanning and improving the beam gain. For another example, for reference signals of multiple OFDM symbols, the relay device may combine and receive the reference signals through one beam, which is beneficial to improve the receiving performance of the relay device.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, the beam for receiving the reference signal is a plurality of beams, and a number of the plurality of beams is related to a transmission comb (transmissionComb) of the reference signal.

For reference signals of one OFDM symbol, the relay device may receive through a plurality of beams, the number of which may be determined based on the transmission comb. For example, for the sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal, SRS) signal, the first configuration information may be further configured with a transmission comb of the SRS signal, and if the configuration value of the transmission comb is 4, the relay device may receive the reference signal of one OFDM symbol through 4 beams, thereby being beneficial to improving the beam scanning efficiency and further being beneficial to reducing the beam scanning overhead.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain possible implementation manners of the first aspect, before receiving the first configuration information from the network device, the method further includes: transmitting, to the network device, beam capability information including one or more of: one or more beam sets supported by the relay device, a number of beams in each beam set, quasi co-location information for each beam set, and quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set; the first configuration information is determined based on the beam capability information.

The relay device may report the beam capability information of its access side to the network device before receiving the first configuration information from the network device, so that the network device configures the receiving beam of the reference signal for the relay device based on the beam capability information, which is beneficial to reducing resource waste caused by the network device configuring the receiving beam for the relay device too much. For example, if the relay device reports 8 beams supported by its access side to the network device, the network device may configure the relay device with less than or equal to 8 beams, so as to reduce resource waste.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain possible implementation manners of the first aspect, before receiving a reference signal from a terminal device, the method further includes: second configuration information is received from the network device, the second configuration information being used to configure reference signal resources for transmitting reference signals.

The second configuration information and the first configuration information may be carried in the same signaling. In other words, the network device may configure the relay device with the reception beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource through one signaling transmission. The second configuration information and the first configuration information may also be carried in different signaling. In other words, the network device may configure the relay device with the received beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource, respectively, through different signaling. The application is not limited in this regard. The network device configures the reference signal resource for the relay device, which is beneficial to the relay device to receive the reference signal on the corresponding resource and to promote the receiving performance of the reference signal.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the first aspect, before receiving the second configuration information from the network device, the method further includes: measurement capability information is sent to the network device, the measurement capability information being used to determine the manner in which the reference signal resources are configured.

The relay device can report its own measurement capability to the network device before receiving the reference signal resource configured by the network device, so that the network device selects a suitable reference resource configuration mode based on the measurement capability of the relay device, which is beneficial to improving the rationality of configuring the reference signal resource. Wherein the relay device transmits measurement capability information to the network device, the relay device may indicate the measurement capability of the relay device by means of the indication information, for example. For example, the measurement capability of the device may be indicated by 1 bit of indication information, for example, a bit of 1 corresponds to a higher measurement capability and a bit of 0 corresponds to a lower measurement capability. The measurement capability of the relay device is higher, the network device can select a mode of configuring reference signal resources with more parameters, and the network device can select a mode of configuring reference signal resources with fewer parameters, in other words, the measurement capability of the relay device corresponds to a mode of configuring reference signal resources for the relay device by the network device one by one, and the network device can select a proper mode of configuring reference signal resources based on the measurement capability reported by the relay device.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving third configuration information from the network device, wherein the third configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal device, and the reference signal resources and/or the beams are used for transmitting reference signals by the terminal device; and sending the third configuration information to the terminal equipment.

The relay device may also receive third configuration information from the network device, and forward the third configuration information to the terminal device, so that the terminal device obtains a reference signal resource and/or a beam, and further, the terminal device sends a reference signal to the relay device based on the third configuration information, so as to be used for measurement by the relay device.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving first indication information from a network device, the first indication information including one or more of: the method comprises the steps of repeating one or more signals, amplifying and repeating multiples of the signals by a relay device, using beams of the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot and pre-coding weights of the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot, wherein the time for repeating the signals is used for indicating time required by the relay device to repeat signals between a network device and a terminal device, and the time for repeating the signals corresponds to the signal or signals.

The relay device may further receive the first indication information from the network device after reporting the measurement result to the network device, so as to indicate subsequent communication of the relay device, thereby being beneficial to improving the receiving performance of the relay device. For example, if the first indication information includes a beam used by the relay device on each OFDM symbol or slot, the relay device may communicate with the terminal device through the beam. For another example, the first indication information includes a multiple of amplification and forwarding of the relay device, and the relay device may amplify and forward the received signal based on the multiple.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, the number of groups of the measurement results is related to a transmission comb of the reference signal.

The relay device obtains a measurement result based on the measurement of the reference signal, and reports the measurement result to the network device, and the number of the reported measurement result groups is related to the transmission comb of the reference signal in the process of reporting the measurement result. For example, the relay device determines the number of sets of measurement results reported to the network device based on the transmission comb, thereby being beneficial to reasonably reporting the measurement results.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a measurement method, which may be performed by a network device, or may also be performed by a component (such as a chip, a system on a chip, etc.) configured in the network device, or may also be implemented by a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the network device, where the application is not limited in this regard.

Illustratively, the method includes: transmitting first configuration information to the relay device, the first configuration information being used for configuring a reception beam of the reference signal; a measurement result is received from the relay device, the measurement result being derived by the relay device based on the measurement of the reference signal.

In the above technical solution, the network device may configure the relay device with a reception beam of the reference signal, so that the relay device receives the reference signal based on the reception beam configured by the network device to obtain the measurement result, and the network device only needs to receive the measurement result from the relay device, so that the network device indicates subsequent communication to the relay device, and the network device is not required to always receive the reference signal and measure the reference signal, thereby being beneficial to saving the cost of the network device.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, before sending the first configuration information to the relay device, the method further includes: receiving beam capability information from a relay device, the beam capability information including one or more of: one or more beam sets supported by the relay device, a number of beams in each beam set, quasi co-location information for each beam set, and quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set; the first configuration information is determined based on the beam capability information.

The network device may receive the beam capability information from the relay device before configuring the beam for the relay device, so as to configure the received beam of the reference signal for the relay device based on the beam capability information, thereby being beneficial to reducing resource waste caused by excessive network device configuring the received beam for the relay device. For example, if the relay device reports 8 beams supported by its access side to the network device, the network device may configure the relay device with less than or equal to 8 beams, so as to reduce resource waste.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: and sending second configuration information to the relay device, wherein the second configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources, and the reference signal resources are used for transmitting reference signals.

The second configuration information and the first configuration information may be carried in the same signaling, in other words, the network device may configure the receiving beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource for the relay device through sending a signaling. The second configuration information and the first configuration information may also be carried in different signaling. In other words, the network device configures the relay device with the received beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource, respectively, through different signaling. The application is not limited in this regard. The network device configures the reference signal resource for the relay device, which is beneficial to the relay device to receive the reference signal on the corresponding resource and to promote the receiving performance of the reference signal.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, before sending the second configuration information to the relay device, the method further includes: measurement capability information is received from the relay device, the measurement capability information being used to determine a manner in which to configure the reference signal resources.

Before configuring the reference signal resource for the relay device, the network device can acquire the measurement capability of the relay device, so that the network device can select a proper reference resource configuration mode based on the measurement capability of the relay device, and the rationality of configuring the reference signal resource can be improved. For example, if the measurement capability of the relay device is higher, the network device may select a manner of configuring the reference signal resource with more parameters, and if the measurement capability of the relay device is lower, the network device may select a manner of configuring the reference signal resource with less parameters, in other words, the measurement capability of the relay device corresponds to the manner of configuring the reference signal resource for the relay device by the network device one by one, and the network device may select a suitable manner of configuring the reference signal resource based on the measurement capability reported by the relay device.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: and sending third configuration information to the relay device for forwarding to the terminal device by the relay device, wherein the third configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal device, and the reference signal resources and/or the beams are used for sending reference signals by the terminal device.

The network device may forward the reference signal resource and/or the beam of the terminal device to the terminal device through the relay device, thereby facilitating the terminal device to send the reference signal to the relay device based on the reference signal resource and/or the beam, so as to be measured by the relay device.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: transmitting first indication information to the relay device, the first indication information including one or more of: the method comprises the steps of repeating one or more signals, amplifying and repeating multiples of the signals by a relay device, using beams of the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot and pre-coding weights of the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot, wherein the time for repeating the signals is used for indicating time required by the relay device to repeat signals between a network device and a terminal device, and the time for repeating the signals corresponds to the signal or signals.

After the relay device reports the measurement result to the network device, the network device may send the first indication information to the relay device, so as to indicate subsequent communication of the relay device, thereby being beneficial to improving the receiving performance of the relay device. For example, if the first indication information includes a beam used by the relay device on each OFDM symbol or slot, the relay device may communicate with the terminal device through the beam. For another example, the first indication information includes a multiple of amplification and forwarding of the relay device, and the relay device may amplify and forward the received signal based on the multiple.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, the number of sets of measurement results is related to a transmission comb of the reference signal.

In the process of reporting the measurement result, the relay device correlates the number of the reported measurement result groups with the sending comb of the reference signal. For example, the relay device determines the number of sets of measurement results reported to the network device based on the transmission comb, thereby being beneficial to reasonably reporting the measurement results.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a measurement method, which may be performed by a relay device, or may also be performed by a component (such as a chip, a system on a chip, etc.) configured in the relay device, or may also be implemented by a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the relay device, which is not limited in this aspect.

Illustratively, the method includes: receiving first configuration information from a network device, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources, and the reference signal resources are used for transmitting reference signals; and transmitting a reference signal to the terminal equipment based on the first configuration information, wherein the reference signal is used for measurement by the terminal equipment.

In the above technical solution, the relay device may send a reference signal to the terminal device based on the first configuration information from the network device, and specifically, the relay device may actively generate the reference signal based on the first configuration information and send the reference signal to the terminal device, so that the terminal device obtains a measurement result based on measurement of the reference signal. The relay equipment actively generates the reference signal without generating and transmitting the reference signal by the network equipment, so that the network equipment does not need to generate and transmit the reference signal, and the cost of the network equipment is further saved.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, the first configuration information is further used to configure a sequence scrambling index, where the sequence scrambling index is related to an identity of the relay device.

The sequence scrambling index used by the relay device in generating the sequence corresponding to the reference signal is related to the identity of the relay device. For example, the sequence scrambling index may be a cell-radio network temporary identity (cell radio network temporary identifier, C-RNTI) of the relay device. As another example, the sequence scrambling index is a temporary mobile station identity (temporary mobile station identity, TMSI) of the relay device.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: second configuration information is received from the network device, the second configuration information being used to configure a receive beam of the reference signal.

The second configuration information and the first configuration information may be carried in the same signaling, in other words, the network device may configure the receiving beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource for the relay device through sending the signaling once. The second configuration information and the first configuration information may also be carried in different signaling. In other words, the network device may configure the relay device with the received beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource, respectively, through different signaling. The application is not limited in this regard. The network device configures the reference signal resource and/or the wave beam for the relay device, which is beneficial to the relay device to receive the reference signal on the corresponding resource and/or the wave beam and to the improvement of the receiving performance of the reference signal.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, before receiving the second configuration information from the network device, the method further includes:

transmitting beam capability information to the network device, the beam capability information including one or more of: the second configuration information is determined based on the beam capability information, the one or more beam sets supported by the relay device, the number of beams in each beam set, the quasi co-location information for each beam set, and the quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set.

The relay device may report the beam capability information of its access side to the network device before receiving the second configuration information from the network device, so that the network device configures the receiving beam of the reference signal for the relay device based on the beam capability information, which is beneficial to reducing resource waste caused by the network device configuring the receiving beam for the relay device too much. For example, if the relay device reports 8 beams supported by its access side to the network device, the network device may configure the relay device with less than or equal to 8 beams, so as to reduce resource waste.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, before sending the reference signal to the terminal device, the method further includes:

The transmit power used to transmit the reference signal is determined, either configured by the network device or based on the amplification capability of the relay device.

The relay device needs to determine the transmission power used for transmitting the reference signal before transmitting the reference signal. One possible design is to configure the above-mentioned transmission power to the relay device by the network device. For example, the network device configures the relay device with the total power of the reference signal over the entire bandwidth, or the total power of the reference signal over each Resource Element (RE). Another possible design is that the relay device determines the transmit power based on the amplification capability. For example, the relay device may use the sum of the power of the signal received from the network device and the maximum amplification factor allowed by the relay device as the transmission power, where the transmission power may be for each resource element or subcarrier, or may be for the entire bandwidth.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: measurement capability information is sent to the network device, the measurement capability information being used to determine the manner in which the reference signal resources are configured.

The relay device can report its own measurement capability to the network device, so that the network device can select a suitable reference resource configuration mode based on the measurement capability of the relay device, which is beneficial to improving the rationality of reference signal resource configuration. For example, the measurement capability of the relay device is higher, the method of configuring the reference signal resource with more parameters may be selected, and the method of configuring the reference signal resource with fewer parameters may be selected if the measurement capability of the relay device is lower, in other words, the measurement capability of the relay device corresponds to the method of configuring the reference signal resource for the relay device by the network device one by one, and the network device may select a suitable method of configuring the reference signal resource based on the measurement capability reported by the relay device.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: receiving third configuration information from the network device, wherein the third configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal device, and the reference signal resources and/or beams are used for receiving reference signals by the terminal device; and sending the third configuration information to the terminal equipment.

The relay device may also receive third configuration information from the network device, and forward the third configuration information to the terminal device, so that the terminal device may obtain the reference signal resource and/or the beam, thereby facilitating the terminal device to receive the reference signal based on the third configuration information and measure the reference signal.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, after sending the reference signal to the terminal device, the method further includes: receiving a measurement result from a terminal device; and sending the measurement result to the network equipment.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: receiving first indication information from a network device, the first indication information including one or more of: the method comprises the steps of receiving one or more signals transmitted by a relay device, amplifying and transmitting multiple times of the one or more signals, using beams used by the relay device on each Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol or time slot, and precoding weights used by the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot, wherein the one or more signals transmitted by the relay device are used for indicating time required by the relay device to transmit the signals between a network device and a terminal device, and the one or more signals transmitted by the relay device correspond to the one or more signals.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a measurement method, where the measurement method may be performed by a network device, or may also be performed by a component (such as a chip, a system on a chip, etc.) configured in the network device, or may also be implemented by a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the network device, where the application is not limited in this regard.

Illustratively, the method includes: transmitting first configuration information to the relay device, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources, and the reference signal resources are used for transmitting reference signals; and receiving a measurement result from the relay equipment, wherein the measurement result is obtained by measuring a reference signal sent by the relay equipment by the terminal equipment.

In the above technical solution, the network device may send the first configuration information to the relay device, so as to configure reference signal resources for the relay device, so that the relay device generates and sends a reference signal based on the first configuration information, so that the terminal device performs measurement based on the reference signal, and obtains a measurement result. Therefore, the network equipment is not required to generate and send the reference signal, and the cost of the network equipment is saved.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, the first configuration information is further used to configure a sequence scrambling index, where the sequence scrambling index is related to an identity of the relay device.

The network device may also configure the relay device with a sequence scrambling index used in generating the sequence corresponding to the reference signal, the sequence scrambling index being associated with an identity of the relay device. For example, the sequence scrambling index may be the C-RNTI of the relay device. For another example, the sequence scrambling index is the TMSI of the relay device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: and transmitting second configuration information to the relay device, wherein the second configuration information is used for configuring a receiving beam of the reference signal.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, before sending the second configuration information to the relay device, the method further includes:

receiving beam capability information from a relay device, the beam capability information including one or more of: the second configuration information is determined based on the beam capability information, the one or more beam sets supported by the relay device, the number of beams in each beam set, the quasi co-location information for each beam set, and the quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set.

The network device may also receive the beam capability information from the relay device before sending the second configuration information to the relay device, so that the network device configures the receiving beam of the reference signal for the relay device based on the beam capability information, which is beneficial to reducing resource waste caused by the network device configuring the receiving beam for the relay device too much.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: measurement capability information is received from the relay device, the measurement capability information being used to determine a manner in which to configure the reference signal resources.

The network device can also acquire the measurement capability of the relay device, so that the network device can select a proper mode for configuring the reference resource based on the measurement capability of the relay device, and the method is beneficial to improving the rationality of configuring the reference signal resource. For example, if the measurement capability of the relay device is higher, the network device may select a manner of configuring the reference signal resource with more parameters, and if the measurement capability of the relay device is lower, the network device may select a manner of configuring the reference signal resource with less parameters, in other words, the measurement capability of the relay device corresponds to the manner of configuring the reference signal resource for the relay device by the network device one by one, and the network device may select a suitable manner of configuring the reference signal resource based on the measurement capability reported by the relay device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: and sending third configuration information to the relay device, wherein the third configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal device, and the reference signal resources and/or the beams are used for receiving the reference signals by the terminal device.

The network device may also send the reference signal resource and/or the beam of the terminal device to the relay device, so that the relay device forwards the reference signal resource and/or the beam to the terminal device, thereby facilitating the terminal device to receive the reference signal based on the reference signal resource and/or the beam configured by the network device and measure the reference signal.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: the measurement results from the relay device are received.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: transmitting first indication information to the relay device, the first indication information including one or more of: the method comprises the steps of repeating one or more signals, amplifying and repeating multiples of the signals by a relay device, using beams of the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot and pre-coding weights of the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot, wherein the time for repeating the signals is used for indicating time required by the relay device to repeat signals between a network device and a terminal device, and the time for repeating the signals corresponds to the signal or signals.

The network device may also send the first indication information to the relay device, so as to indicate subsequent communication of the relay device, thereby being beneficial to improving the receiving performance of the relay device. For example, if the first indication information includes a beam used by the relay device on each OFDM symbol or slot, the relay device may communicate with the terminal device through the beam. For another example, the first indication information includes a multiple of amplification and forwarding of the relay device, and the relay device may amplify and forward the received signal based on the multiple.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect and the first aspect, or implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect and the third aspect. The apparatus comprises corresponding means for performing the above-described method. The units comprised by the device may be implemented in software and/or hardware.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communications apparatus comprising a processor. The processor may be coupled to a memory and operable to execute a computer program or instructions in the memory to implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect and the first aspect, or to implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect and the third aspect.

Optionally, the communication apparatus in the fifth aspect and the sixth aspect is a relay device or a component (such as a chip, a chip system, or the like) configured in the relay device.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, capable of implementing the method described in any one of the possible implementation manners of the second aspect and the second aspect, or implementing the method described in any one of the possible implementation manners of the fourth aspect and the fourth aspect. The apparatus comprises corresponding means for performing the above-described method. The units comprised by the device may be implemented in software and/or hardware.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communications apparatus comprising a processor. The processor may be coupled to a memory and operable to execute a computer program in the memory to implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect and the second aspect or to implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect and the fourth aspect.

Optionally, the communication apparatus in the seventh aspect and the eighth aspect is a network device or a component (such as a chip, a chip system, etc.) configured in the network device.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed, implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect and the first aspect, or implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect and the second aspect, or implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect and the third aspect, or implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect and the fourth aspect.

In a tenth aspect, the application provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed, implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect and the first aspect, or implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect and the second aspect, or implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect and the third aspect, or implement the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect and the fourth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor and may further include a memory, where the method described in any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect and the first aspect is implemented, or the method described in any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect and the second aspect is implemented, or the method described in any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect and the third aspect is implemented, or the method described in any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect and the fourth aspect is implemented. The chip system may be formed of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes the communication device of the fifth aspect or the sixth aspect, and the communication device of the seventh aspect or the eighth aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic system architecture diagram of a communication system without relay according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a beam management process of a downlink reference signal provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a beam measurement process of an uplink reference signal provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture suitable for use in the measurement method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a measurement method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of beam scanning provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a time advance provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a further schematic flow chart of a measurement method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is yet another schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme of the application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical scheme provided by the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), side-chain (sidelink) communication system, universal mobile telecommunication system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication system, fifth generation (5th generation,5G) mobile communication system, or new radio access technology (new radio access technology, NR). The 5G mobile communication system may include a non-independent Networking (NSA) and/or an independent networking (SA), among others.

The technical scheme provided by the application can also be applied to future communication systems, such as a sixth generation (6th Generation,6G) mobile communication system and the like. The application is not limited in this regard.

The network elements involved in the embodiments of the present application are first described below: network equipment, terminal equipment and relay equipment.

In the embodiment of the application, the network device can be any device with wireless receiving and transmitting functions. Network devices include, but are not limited to: an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB, for example), a Base Band Unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity, wi-Fi) system, a radio relay Node, a radio backhaul Node, a transmission point (transmission point, TP), or a transmission reception point (transmission and reception point, TRP), etc., may also be a gNB or a transmission point (TRP or TP) in a 5G (such as NR) system, or one or a group (including a plurality of antenna panels) of base stations in a 5G system, or may also be a network Node constituting a gNB or a transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a Distributed Unit (DU), etc.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and DUs. Illustratively, a CU implements part of the functionality of the gNB, and a DU implements part of the functionality of the gNB, e.g., the CU is responsible for handling non-real time protocols and services, implementing radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), packet data convergence layer protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer functions; the DUs may include functions of a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, functions of a medium access control (media access control, MAC) layer, and partial functions of a Physical (PHY) layer.

Illustratively, the DU may include functionality of higher layers in the PHY layer. Among other things, the functions of the higher layers in the PHY layer may include cyclic redundancy check (cyclic redundancy check, CRC) functions, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping; alternatively, the functions of higher layers in the PHY layer may include cyclic redundancy check, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, and precoding. The functions of the lower layer in the PHY layer may be implemented by another network entity independent of the DUs, where the functions of the lower layer in the PHY layer may include precoding, resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency functions; alternatively, the functions of lower layers in the PHY layer may include resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency functions. The embodiment of the application does not limit the functional division of the upper layer and the bottom layer in the PHY layer. When the functions of the lower layers in the PHY layer can be implemented in another network entity independent of the DU, the DU transmits data or information to other communication devices (e.g., terminal equipment, core network equipment), it can be understood that: the DU performs functions of the RLC layer, the MAC layer, and part of functions of the PHY layer. For example, after the functions of the RLC layer and the MAC layer are completed, and cyclic redundancy check, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, the remaining functions of mapping and transmitting on physical resources are performed by the network entity independent of the DUs, which performs the functions of the lower layer in the PHY layer.

The network device provides services for the cell, and the terminal device communicates with the cell through transmission resources (e.g., frequency domain resources, or spectrum resources) allocated by the network device, where the cell may belong to a macro base station (e.g., macro eNB or macro gNB, etc.), or may belong to a base station corresponding to a small cell (small cell), where the small cell may include: urban cells (metro cells), micro cells (micro cells), pico cells (pico cells), femto cells (femto cells) and the like, and the small cells have the characteristics of small coverage area and low transmitting power and are suitable for providing high-rate data transmission services.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment.

The terminal device may be a device providing voice/data connectivity to a user, e.g., a handheld device with wireless connectivity, an in-vehicle device, etc. Currently, some examples of terminal devices may be: a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet (pad), a computer with wireless transceiver function (e.g., a notebook, a palm, etc.), a mobile internet device (mobile internet device, MID), a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) device, a wireless terminal in an industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in an unmanned (self-driving) device, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a wireless terminal in a remote medical (remote medium), a wireless terminal in a smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in a transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in a smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in a smart home (smart home), a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a wireless terminal in a vehicle-mounted device, a future evolution land-based terminal (PLMN) device, a mobile terminal in a mobile phone (35G) or a future-developed network (public land mobile network) device, etc.

The wearable device can also be called as a wearable intelligent device, and is a generic name for intelligently designing daily wearing and developing wearable devices by applying a wearable technology, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes and the like. The wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also can realize a powerful function through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable intelligent device includes full functionality, large size, and may not rely on the smart phone to implement complete or partial functionality, such as: smart watches or smart glasses, etc., and focus on only certain types of application functions, and need to be used in combination with other devices, such as smart phones, for example, various smart bracelets, smart jewelry, etc. for physical sign monitoring.

Furthermore, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) system. IoT is an important component of future information technology development, and its main technical feature is to connect an item with a network through a communication technology, so as to implement man-machine interconnection and an intelligent network for object interconnection. IoT technology may enable massive connectivity, deep coverage, and terminal power saving through, for example, narrowband (NB) technology.

In addition, the terminal device may further include sensors such as an intelligent printer, a train detector, and a gas station, and the main functions include collecting data (part of the terminal device), receiving control information and downlink data of the network device, and transmitting electromagnetic waves to transmit uplink data to the network device.

It should be understood that the present application is not limited to any particular form of network device or terminal device.

In the embodiment of the application, the relay device has a signal forwarding (or reflecting) function, can amplify signals, and can be called relay for short. In addition, the relay device may also shift the carrier frequency of the signal, or may also demodulate the signal and then re-modulate and then forward, or may also reduce the noise of the signal and then forward. The relay device may therefore be in any of the following forms: amplification forwarding, demodulation forwarding, frequency shift forwarding and noise reduction forwarding. In addition, the relay device has another form, called a reflector, or called a reflecting surface, or any one of the following possible designations: the system comprises an intelligent reflecting surface (intelligent reflecting surface), a reflecting array, an intelligent reflecting array (intelligent reflecting array), an intelligent reflector, a reflecting device (backscatter device), a passive device (passive device), a semi-active device (semi-passive device), and a scattered signal device (ambient signal device). The relay device may also be regarded as a special form of terminal device. If the control capability of the relay equipment at the network side is considered, the relay equipment can be classified into non-intelligent relay and intelligent relay; or may be classified as a non-network controlled relay device (uncontrolled repeater), a network controlled relay device (network controlled repeater, netConrepeat, or NCR). The network device may control the intelligent relay to perform functions of further enhancing performance, for example, at least one of relay transmit power control, relay amplification gain control, relay beam scanning control, relay precoding control, on-off control, and uplink/downlink forwarding control. For convenience of description, the relay apparatus will be simply referred to as a relay hereinafter.

A typical relay has two antenna panels, one for communication with a network device (referred to as the backhaul side) and the other for communication with a terminal device (referred to as the access side). Typically, only one antenna panel is used to receive signals, and the received signals are amplified and then forwarded (or transmitted) by another antenna panel.

Each panel of the relay may be composed of a plurality of antennas, and a beam may be formed on a single panel, thereby achieving better relay transmission performance. The beam capability of the access side is considered to be further classified into single beam forwarding and multi-beam forwarding. If the relay access side has the capability of multiple beams, the beams on the relay access side need to be aligned to the terminal equipment when the relay forwards the signal, so as to obtain better transmission performance.

For a better understanding of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application, the terms referred to in the present application will be briefly described below.

1. Reference signal and reference signal resources: the reference signal may be used for channel measurement, channel estimation, or beam quality monitoring, etc. The reference signal resources may be used to configure transmission properties of the reference signal, such as time-frequency resource locations, port mappings, power factors, scrambling codes, and the like. The transmitting end device may transmit reference signals based on the reference signal resources, and the receiving end device may receive reference signals based on the reference signal resources.

The channel measurement referred to in the present application includes beam measurement, i.e., obtaining beam quality information by measuring a reference signal, and parameters for measuring beam quality include, but are not limited to, received signal strength (received signal strength indicator, RSSI), reference signal received signal power (reference signal received power, RSRP), and the like. For example, the beam quality may also be measured by parameters such as reference signal received quality (reference signal receiving quality, RSRQ), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR, short for signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio), precoding matrix indicator (precoding matrix indicator, PMI), transmit precoding matrix indicator (transmitted precoding matrix indicator, TPMI), rank Indicator (RI), transmit rank indicator (transmitted rank indicator, TRI), layer Indicator (LI), timing Advance (TA), and the like.

Specifically, the reference signals involved in the embodiments of the present application may include, for example, a channel state information reference signal (channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS), a synchronization signal block (synchronization signal block, SSB), and SRS. In response thereto, the reference signal resources may include CSI-RS resources (CSI-RS resources), SSB resources, SRS resources (SRS resources).

The SSB may be referred to as a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, SS/PBCH block), and the corresponding SSB resource may be referred to as a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block resource (SS/PBCH block resource), which may be simply referred to as SSB resource. In some cases, SSB may also refer to SSB resources. In the embodiment of the present application, for convenience of distinction and explanation, SSB may be regarded as SS/PBCH block and SSB resource may be regarded as SS/PBCH block resource without particular explanation.

To distinguish between different reference signal resources, each reference signal resource may correspond to an index of one reference signal resource, e.g., CSI-RS resource index (CSI-RS resource index, CRI), SSB resource index (SSB resource index, SSBRI), SRS resource index (SRS resource index, SRI).

Wherein, the SSB resource index may also be referred to as SSB time index (SSB time index).

It should be understood that the reference signals listed above and the corresponding reference signal resources are merely exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the application in any way, and the application does not exclude the possibility of defining other reference signals in future protocols to achieve the same or similar functionality.

One possible design is that the network device may send CSI-RS resource configurations (CSI resource setting) to the terminal device through RRC messages, each CSI resource setting may include S (S being 1 or more and S being an integer) CSI-RS resource sets (CSI-RS resources), each CSI-RS resource set may include K (K being 1 or more and K being an integer) non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resources (NZP CSI-RS resources). The terminal device may receive CSI-RSs on K NZP CSI-RS resources indicated by the network device.

It should be understood that the specific method for indicating the reference signal resource to the terminal device by the network device listed above is only an example, and should not be construed as limiting the present application in any way, and the present application does not exclude the possibility of indicating the reference signal resource in other signaling or manners in future protocols.

2. Antenna port (antenna port): simply referred to as ports. A transmit antenna identified by the receiving end device, or a spatially distinguishable transmit antenna. One antenna port may be configured for each virtual antenna, each virtual antenna may be a weighted combination of multiple physical antennas, and each antenna port may correspond to one reference signal port.

3. Beam: it can be understood as a spatial filter (spatial filter) or a spatial parameter (spatial parameters). The beam used to transmit the signal may be referred to as a transmit beam (transmission beam, tx beam), may be a spatial transmit filter (spatial domain transmit filter) or spatial transmit parameters (spatial transmit parameters, spatial Tx parameters); the beam used to receive the signal may be referred to as a receive beam (Rx beam), and may be a spatial receive filter (spatial domain receive filter) or spatial receive parameters (spatial receive parameters, spatial Rx parameters).

The technique of forming the beam may be a beamforming technique or other technique. For example, the beamforming technique may specifically be a digital beamforming technique, an analog beamforming technique, or a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technique, etc. The transmit beam may refer to a distribution of signal strengths formed in spatially different directions after a signal is transmitted through an antenna, and the receive beam may refer to a signal strength distribution of a wireless signal received from the antenna in spatially different directions.

In the NR protocol, the beam may be, for example, a spatial filter (spatial filter). It should be understood that the application does not exclude the possibility of defining other terms in future protocols to represent the same or similar meanings.

4. Quasi co-location (QCL): the signal corresponding to the antenna port having the QCL relationship has the same parameter, or the parameter of one antenna port may be used to determine the parameter of the other antenna port having the QCL relationship with the antenna port, or the two antenna ports have the same parameter, or the parameter difference between the two antenna ports is less than a certain threshold. Wherein the parameters may include one or more of the following: delay spread (delay spread), doppler spread (doppler spread), doppler shift (doppler shift), average delay (average delay), average gain, spatial reception parameters. Wherein the spatial reception parameters may include one or more of: angle of arrival (AOA), average AOA, AOA spread, angle of departure (angle of departure, AOD), average angle of departure (AOD), AOD spread, receive antenna spatial correlation parameter, transmit beam, receive beam, and resource identification.

The angle may be a decomposition value of different dimensions, or a combination of decomposition values of different dimensions. The antenna ports are antenna ports with different antenna port numbers, and/or antenna ports with the same antenna port number for transmitting or receiving information in different time and/or frequency and/or code domain resources, and/or antenna ports with different antenna port numbers for transmitting or receiving information in different time and/or frequency and/or code domain resources. The resource identification may include: the CSI-RS resource identity, or SRS resource identity, or SSB resource identity, or resource identity of a preamble sequence transmitted on a physical random access channel (physical random access channel, PRACH), or resource identity of a demodulation reference signal (demodulation reference signal, DMRS) is used to indicate a beam on a resource.

In the NR protocol, the above-described relationship with QCL can be classified into the following four types based on different parameters:

type a (type a): doppler shift, doppler spread, average delay, delay spread;

type B (type B): doppler shift, doppler spread;

type C (type C): doppler shift, average delay;

type D (type D): the parameters are received spatially.

The QCL according to the embodiment of the present application is a QCL of type D. Hereinafter, QCL may be understood as QCL of type D, i.e., QCL defined based on spatial reception parameters, unless otherwise specified.

When the QCL relationship refers to the QCL relationship of type D: the QCL relationship between a port for a downstream signal and a port for a downstream signal, or between a port for an upstream signal and a port for an upstream signal, may be that both signals have the same AOA or AOD for indicating that they have the same receive or transmit beam. For example, for the QCL relationship between the ports of the downlink signal and the uplink signal or between the ports of the uplink signal and the downlink signal, the AOA and the AOD of the two signals may have a correspondence relationship, or the AOD and the AOA of the two signals may have a correspondence relationship, that is, the beam reciprocity may be utilized to determine the uplink transmission beam according to the downlink reception beam, or determine the downlink reception beam according to the uplink transmission beam.

The signals transmitted on the ports having the QCL relationship may also have corresponding beams including at least one of: the same reception beam, the same transmission beam, a transmission beam corresponding to the reception beam (corresponding to a scene with reciprocity), and a reception beam corresponding to the transmission beam (corresponding to a scene with reciprocity).

The signals transmitted on ports having QCL relations can also be understood as receiving or transmitting signals using the same spatial filter. The spatial filter may be at least one of: precoding, weight of antenna port, phase deflection of antenna port, amplitude gain of antenna port.

The signals transmitted on ports having a QCL relationship can also be understood as having corresponding Beam Pair Links (BPLs) including at least one of: the same downstream BPL, the same upstream BPL, the upstream BPL corresponding to the downstream BPL, and the downstream BPL corresponding to the upstream BPL.

Thus, the spatial reception parameter (i.e., QCL of type D) can be understood as a parameter for indicating direction information of the reception beam.

5. Transmission configuration indication (transmission configuration indicator, TCI): may be used to indicate the QCL relationship between the two reference signals. The network device may configure a TCI state (TCI state) list for the terminal device through higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC message), and may activate or indicate one or more of the TCI states through higher layer signaling (e.g., medium access control element (MAC CE)) or physical layer signaling (e.g., downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI)).

The configuration information for one TCI state may include an identification of one or both reference signal resources, and an associated QCL type. When the QCL relationship is configured as one of the types a, B, or C, the terminal device may demodulate the physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) or the physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH) according to the indication of the TCI state.

When the QCL relationship is configured as type D, the terminal device may know which transmit beam the network device uses to transmit signals, and may then determine which receive beam to use to receive signals based on the beam pairing relationship determined by the channel measurements.

6. Precoding and codebook: and the system capacity is increased by adopting a multiple-input multiple-output (multiple input multiple output, MIMO) technology, and the throughput rate is improved. The mathematical expression is y=hx+n, where y is the received signal, H is the MIMO channel, x is the transmitted signal, and n is noise. In a communication system with multiple antennas, signals of multiple transmitting antennas are superimposed on any one receiving antenna, so that the method of transmitting signals by a transmitting end affects the performance of the system, and when the transmitting signals are recovered by a receiving end, the method is often complex. In this context, precoding (precoding) is used to reduce overhead, maximize the system capacity of MIMO, and reduce complexity of implementation of the receiver to eliminate inter-channel effects, on the one hand. At this time, expressed mathematically as y=hpx+n, P is a precoding matrix (or vector) in which precoding weights are included.

7. Subcarrier (subcarrier): in the multi-carrier waveform, the transmitted signal is a bandwidth signal, and there are many signals with different frequencies in the bandwidth signal, and the intervals of the frequencies are the same. These different frequencies are referred to as subcarriers. Data of the network device and the terminal device are modulated onto the subcarriers, which are orthogonal for a period of time.

In the 5G very beginning version, the supported subcarrier spacing can be seen in table 1. As shown in table 1, table 1 shows the correspondence between the index μ corresponding to the subcarrier spacing, the subcarrier spacing Δf, and the Cyclic Prefix (CP). For example, indexes corresponding to subcarrier intervals are configured by layer three signaling subcarrier intervals (substarrierspace) of 0 to 4, respectively, and subcarrier intervals corresponding thereto are 15 kilohertz (kHz), 30kHz, 60kHz, 120kHz, and 240kHz, respectively. In the future, more subcarrier spacing candidates are not excluded, for example, the subcarrier spacing corresponds to index values of 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, and the corresponding subcarrier spacing values are 480kHz, 960kHz, 1920kHz, 3840kHz and 7680kHz, respectively.

TABLE 1

μ	Δf＝2 ^μ ·15(kHZ)	Cyclic prefix
			0	15	Conventional cyclic prefix
1	30	Conventional cyclic prefix
			2	60	Conventional cyclic prefix, extended cyclic prefix
3	120	Conventional cyclic prefix
			4	240	Conventional cyclic prefix

8. Layer (layer): the complex symbols (modulation symbols) obtained after scrambling (scrambling) and modulating (modulation) of 1 or 2 codewords are mapped to one or more transmission layers (transmission layer), also commonly referred to as layers. The transport layer is typically mapped to antenna ports and is therefore also referred to as antenna ports. Each layer corresponds to an active data stream. The number of transport layers, i.e. the number of layers, may be referred to as "transmission rank" or "transmission rank", or simply "rank". The transmission rank is dynamically changeable. The number of layers must be less than or equal to the minimum value of both the number of transmit antenna ports and the number of receive antenna ports, i.e. "number of layers +.min (number of transmit antenna ports, number of receive antenna ports)". In downlink communication of NR, the number of transmission layers is generally equal to the number of antenna ports. In the downlink control information, the number of layers and/or the number of antenna ports (or, further, the number of each antenna port) adopted in the transmission of the data and the DMRS are indicated. In NR, the antenna ports may also correspond to TCI, beams, etc. For example, one TCI corresponds to multiple antenna ports, or one beam corresponds to multiple antenna ports. In the embodiment of the present application, for convenience of description, TCI, a transmission layer, an antenna port, and a beam are generally referred to as a space domain. The transport layer is typically for a single user and the antenna ports are typically multiplexed for multiple users.

In the embodiment of the present application, the relay and the relay device may be used alternatively, and the meanings expressed by the two may be the same.

Fig. 1 is a schematic system architecture diagram of a communication system without relay according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system 100 includes a network device 110 and a terminal device 120, wherein the terminal device 120 may be mobile or fixed. The network device 110 may be a micro base station, or may be a TRP or other type of network device, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. Network device 110 may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and may communicate over a wireless link with terminal devices 120 located within that coverage area (cell). It can be seen that no relay is added to the communication system 100, and that wireless link communication can be directly performed between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120.

Alternatively, the communication system shown in the communication system 100 may include more network devices, and each network device may include other numbers of terminal devices within a coverage area of the network device, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

In order to facilitate understanding of the measurement method provided by the embodiments of the present application, a measurement method based on a network device or a terminal device, that is, in a communication system (such as the communication system 100 shown in fig. 1) in which a relay device is not added, measurement based on a downlink reference signal by the terminal device and measurement based on an uplink reference signal by the network device will be described first. It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the process that the terminal device obtains a beam with better quality based on the measurement of the downlink reference signal may also be referred to as beam management based on the downlink reference signal. Similarly, the process of the network device based on the measurement of the uplink reference signal to obtain a better quality beam may also be referred to as beam management based on the uplink reference signal. The beam measurement procedure based on the downlink reference signal and the beam measurement procedure based on the uplink reference signal will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 2 and 3, respectively.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a beam measurement process of a downlink reference signal provided in an embodiment of the present application. The beam management process shown in fig. 2 may include S210 to S240. S210 to S240 will be described in detail below.

S210, the network equipment sends configuration information to the terminal equipment.

The configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and reporting related information of measurement results. The reference signal resource may be used for the network device to send a reference signal, and the information related to reporting the measurement result may be used for the terminal device to report the measurement result to the network device. The configuration mode of the information related to the reporting of the reference signal resource and the measurement result is briefly described below.

The reference signal resources may be configured by a three-level structure such as resource configuration (resourceconfigu) -resource set (resourceSet) -resource (resource). The network device may configure the terminal device with one or more resource configurations, each resource configuration including one or more resource sets, each resource set may include one or more resources. Each resource configuration, resource set, or resource includes an own index. In addition, some other parameters are included, such as the period of the resource, the type of the reference signal corresponding to the resource, and the like.

The information related to reporting of the measurement results can be configured by reporting configuration (ReportConfig). The network device may configure one or more reporting configurations for the terminal device, where each reporting configuration includes information related to reporting, for example, a reporting index, a reporting time, a reporting period, a reporting format, and the like. In addition, the reporting configuration may further include an index of the resource configuration, which is used to indicate what resource configuration the reported measurement result is measured by.

It may be understood that the network device may configure the information related to reporting the reference signal resource and the measurement result through the same configuration information, or may configure the information related to reporting the reference signal resource and the measurement result through different configuration information, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

S220, the network equipment sends a reference signal to the terminal equipment. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the reference signal.

The reference signal may be a downlink reference signal such as SSB, CSI-RS, tracking reference signal (tracking reference signal, TRS), CSI-RS, etc. The network device sends a downlink reference signal to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can conveniently measure the reference signal to obtain a measurement result, and further the quality of each reference signal resource, namely the quality of the beam corresponding to the reference signal resource, can be determined.

The sequence r (m) corresponding to the downlink reference signal sent by the network device may be determined by the following formula:

where j is an imaginary unit and c (n) is a pseudo-random sequence defined by the following formula: c (n) = (x) ₁ (n+N _C )+x ₂ (n+N _C ))mod 2，x ₁ (n+31)＝(x ₁ (n+3)+x ₁ (n))mod 2，x ₂ (n+31)＝(x ₂ (n+3)+x ₂ (n+2)+x ₂ (n+1)+x ₁ (N)) mod 2, where N _C =1600, first sequence x ₁ An initial value of (n) is x ₁ (0)＝1，x ₁ (n) =0, n=1, 2,..30. For the configuration of sequence scrambling index n _ID (i.e., the value corresponding to "scramblingID") of the CSI-RS, the initial value of the second sequence isWherein (1)>For the number of OFDM symbols in a slot, +.>Represents a slot number in a radio frame, μ represents a subcarrier spacing index, and l represents an OFDM symbol index in one slot.

S230, the terminal equipment measures the reference signal.

And the terminal equipment measures the downlink reference signals to obtain a measurement result.

S240, the terminal equipment sends the measurement result to the network equipment.

The measurement results include channel state information (channel state information, CSI). The channel state information may include one or more of the following: index of one or more resources, channel quality indication (channel quality indicator, CQI), RSRP, PMI, RI, LI, etc. The channel state information may be carried in uplink control information (uplink control information, UCI), transmitted over a physical uplink control channel (physical uplink control channel, PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH).

Table 2 is the format of a part of fields in the measurement report information in the R15 protocol. The CRI field and the SSBRI field are used for indicating a resource index to be reported.And->Is the length of the CRI field and SSBRI field, wherein +.>Indicating the number of CSI-RS resources in the resource set S,/->Representing the number of SSB resources in the resource set S, +.>Representing an upward rounding. The reporting of RSRP uses differential reporting criteria, i.e. the RSRP of the best resource (e.g. RSRP field in table 2) uses 7-bit quantization reporting, while the other RSRP (e.g. differential) fields in table 2) uses 4-bit quantization reporting.

TABLE 2

It should be understood that the partial fields shown in table 2 are only examples, and for example, only CRI or SSBRI may be included in the measurement result reported by the terminal device.

Optionally, after obtaining the channel state information, the network device may determine scheduling information, where the scheduling information includes one or more of: modulation and coding strategy (modulation and coding scheme, MCS), resource Block (RB) resource allocation, transmit beam, receive beam, and determining scheduling information by measurement results of reference signals is beneficial to improving communication rate and efficiency.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a beam measurement process of an uplink reference signal according to an embodiment of the present application. The beam measurement process shown in fig. 3 may include S310 to S340. S310 to S340 will be described in detail below.

And S310, the network equipment sends configuration information to the terminal equipment.

The configuration information is used to configure reference signal resources and may also be referred to as reference signal configuration information. The reference signal may be an uplink reference signal, for example, SRS, TRS, etc. Taking SRS as an example, the SRS configuration information may include an SRS resource set index, an SRS resource set index list, an SRS resource type, SRS resource slot location information, SRS resource configuration information, an SRS resource index, an SRS resource port number, a transmission comb, and the like.

S320, the terminal equipment sends a reference signal to the network equipment. Accordingly, the network device receives the reference signal.

And the terminal equipment transmits the uplink reference signals on the resources configured in the configuration information, so that the network equipment determines the quality of each reference signal resource, namely the quality of the beam corresponding to the reference signal resource by measuring the uplink reference signals.

S330, the network equipment measures the reference signal.

Optionally, the method further includes S340, where the network device sends beam indication information to the terminal device. The beam indication information includes channel state information. The channel state information may include one or more of the following: index of one or more resources, TPMI, TRI, etc. The channel state information may be carried in DCI, transmitted through PDCCH, or carried in PDSCH.

The beam management procedure of a communication system without joining a relay is described in detail above, but in some scenarios, the distance between the network device and the terminal device is relatively long, and the corresponding path loss is relatively high, so that the terminal device may not be able to directly communicate with the network device. A simple way is to assist the communication between the network device and the terminal device by relaying. For example, the relay directly amplifies the received signal and forwards it.

The following describes in detail, with reference to the accompanying drawings, how to perform beam management after joining a relay, that is, how the measurement method provided by the embodiment of the present application can be applied to a communication system after joining a relay.

Before describing the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the following description is made.

First, in order to clearly describe the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish identical items or similar items having substantially identical functions and actions. For example, the first configuration information and the second configuration information are merely for distinguishing different indication information, and are not limited in order. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the words "first," "second," and the like do not limit the amount and order of execution, and that the words "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily differ.

Second, in the embodiments shown herein, terms and english abbreviations, such as channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), sounding Reference Signals (SRS), synchronization Signal Blocks (SSB), transmission Configuration Indication (TCI), etc., are given as exemplary examples for convenience of description, and should not be construed as limiting the present application in any way. The present application does not exclude the possibility of defining other terms in existing or future protocols that perform the same or similar functions.

Third, the "protocol" referred to in the embodiments of the present application may refer to a standard protocol in the field of communications, and may include, for example, an LTE protocol, an NR protocol, and related protocols applied in future communication systems, which is not limited in this aspect of the present application.

Fourth, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b, and c may represent: a, b, or c, or a and b, or a and c, or b and c, or a, b and c, wherein a, b and c can be single or multiple.

Fifth, the correspondence relationship shown in each table in the present application may be configured or predefined. The values of the information in each table are merely examples, and may be configured as other values, and the present application is not limited thereto. In the case of the correspondence between the configuration information and each parameter, it is not necessarily required to configure all the correspondence shown in each table. For example, in the table of the present application, the correspondence relation shown by some rows may not be configured. For another example, appropriate morphing adjustments, e.g., splitting, merging, etc., may be made based on the tables described above. The names of the parameters indicated in the tables may be other names which are understood by the communication device, and the values or expressions of the parameters may be other values or expressions which are understood by the communication device. When the tables are implemented, other data structures may be used, for example, an array, a queue, a container, a stack, a linear table, a pointer, a linked list, a tree, a graph, a structure, a class, a heap, a hash table, or a hash table.

Sixth, the embodiment of the present application relates to a plurality of configuration information, such as first configuration information, second configuration information, and third configuration information. Such configuration information is merely to facilitate distinguishing between different receiving devices and/or different configuration content. The difference between the first configuration information and the second configuration information is that the network device sends the configuration information to the relay, and in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, the first configuration information is used for configuring the beam, and the second configuration information is used for configuring the reference signal resource. The third configuration information is configuration information sent to the terminal device by the network device, and can be used for configuring the beam and/or the reference signal resource. It will be appreciated that the third configuration information sent by the network device to the terminal device may be forwarded to the terminal device via a relay.

In order to facilitate understanding of the measurement method provided by the embodiment of the present application, a system architecture of the measurement method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described below. It can be understood that the system architecture described in the embodiments of the present application is for more clearly describing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture suitable for the measurement method according to the embodiment of the present application. The communication system 400 is a communication system after joining a relay.

As shown in fig. 4, the communication system 400 includes a network device 410, a relay 420, and a terminal device 430. Wherein the terminal device 430 may be mobile or stationary. The network device 410 may be a micro base station, or may be a TRP or other type of network device, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. By the relay 420 assisting the communication between the network device 410 and the terminal device 430, the relay 420 may directly amplify and forward the received signal, for example, the relay 420 may receive the signal from the network device 410 and amplify it, and forward the amplified signal to the terminal device 430, so as to ensure that the network device 410 and the terminal device 430 can normally communicate. For another example, relay 420 may receive a signal from terminal device 430, amplify it, and forward the amplified signal to network device 410, thereby ensuring communication between network device 410 and terminal device 430.

Alternatively, the communication system shown in the communication system 400 may include more network devices, more relays, and other numbers of terminal devices within the coverage area of each network device, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

As can be seen from fig. 4, the relay access side has the capability of multiple beams, and when the relay works, the network device transmits signals, the relay amplifies signals received by the backhaul side antenna, and forwards the amplified signals to the terminal device through the access side antenna, where the number of beams that can be used by the relay access side is multiple. In addition, because the relay access side has the capability of multiple beams, when the amplified signal is relayed, the beams on the relay access side need to be aligned to the terminal device so as to obtain better transmission performance. It will be appreciated that the relay shown in fig. 4 has the capability of multiple beams, but should not be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application in any way. For example, in some embodiments, the relay access side has a single beam capability, and when the relay is in operation, the network device transmits signals, and the relay amplifies the signals received by the backhaul side antenna and forwards the amplified signals to the terminal device through the access side antenna, where the relay forwards the signals through the access side antenna using one of the beams that can be used.

Beam management is also required for a communication system like that of fig. 4 after joining a relay. At present, one technology is how many beams are on the relay access side, one of the network equipment or the terminal equipment needs to send the same number of reference signals, and the reference signals are forwarded through the relay equipment, so that the beams with better quality are obtained through the measurement of the other party. It is conceivable that as the number of beams on the access side of the relay device increases, the overhead incurred by the network device to receive or transmit reference signals to the relay device increases.

In order to solve the above problems, the present application provides a measurement method, in which a relay may receive first configuration information from a network device, receive a reference signal from a terminal device based on the first configuration information and measure the reference signal, or actively generate and send the reference signal based on the first configuration information, so that the terminal device can measure the reference signal.

Specifically, for uplink communication, the relay receives the reference signal from the terminal device based on the received first configuration information from the network device, and measures the reference signal to obtain a measurement result, so that the reference signal does not need to be forwarded to the network device for measurement, that is, the network device does not need to receive the reference signal and measure, which is beneficial to saving the cost of the network device. For downlink communication, the relay actively generates and transmits the reference signal based on the first configuration information, and the network equipment is not required to generate and transmit the reference signal, so that the cost of the network equipment is saved.

The measurement method provided by the present application will be described in detail below with respect to uplink communication and downlink communication, respectively. Fig. 5 is a measurement method for uplink communication, and fig. 8 is a measurement method for downlink communication.

It should be understood that the embodiments shown below describe the method from the point of view of terminal device, relay and network device interaction. The network device may be, for example, the network device 410 shown in fig. 4, the relay may be, for example, the relay 420 shown in fig. 4, and the terminal device may be, for example, the terminal device 430 shown in fig. 4.

It should also be understood that the embodiments shown below, while described by way of example with respect to terminal device, relay, and network device interactions, should not constitute any limitation as to the subject matter of execution of the method. The method provided by the embodiment of the present application can be executed as long as the program recorded with the code of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application can be executed. For example, the terminal device may be replaced with a component (e.g., a chip system, etc.) configured in the terminal device, or other functional modules capable of calling a program and executing the program, the network device may be replaced with a component (e.g., a chip system, etc.) configured in the network device, or other functional modules capable of calling a program and executing the program, and the relay may be replaced with a component (e.g., a chip system, etc.) configured in the relay, or other functional modules capable of calling a program and executing the program. The embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a measurement method 500 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method 500 shown in fig. 5 may include S510 to S540. The various steps in method 500 are described in detail below.

S510, the relay receives the first configuration information from the network device. Accordingly, the network device sends the first configuration information to the relay.

The first configuration information is used for configuring a receiving beam of the reference signal. In other words, the network device needs to configure the relay with the reception beam of the reference signal that can be used in order for the relay to obtain the reception beam of the available reference signal.

For example, the first configuration information may include one or more beam sets, each of which may include one or more beams therein to indicate a reception beam of a reference signal that may be used for relay. It can be appreciated that the number of receive beams configured by the network device to the relay may be less than or equal to the number of beams that the relay access side has, to reduce resource waste.

Thus, optionally, the relay may also send beam capability information to the network device before receiving the first configuration information from the network device, so that the network device determines the first configuration information based on the beam capability information.

In this way, the network device configures the receiving beams of the reference signal for the relay based on the beam capability information of the relay, so as to avoid that the number of the receiving beams configured for the relay by the network device exceeds the number of the beams on the relay access side, thereby reasonably configuring the receiving beams for the relay and reducing resource waste.

Wherein, the beam capability information may include one or more of the following: the relay supports one or more beam sets, a number of beams in each beam set, quasi co-location information for each beam set, and quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set.

It should be noted that, the beam capability information of the relay in the embodiment of the present application refers to beam capability information of the relay access side, and for brevity, the beam capability information of the relay will be described directly below.

For example, the beam capability information transmitted by the relay to the network device includes one or more beam sets, each beam set including one or more beams therein. Table 3 is an example of a correspondence between a set of beams and beams provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in table 3, the beam set includes A, B, C and …, wherein the beams a0, a1, a2 and … included in the beam set a, the beams B0, B1, B2 and … included in the beam set B, and the beams C0, C1, C2 and … included in the beam set C are not listed here.

TABLE 3 Table 3

Beam set (or beam set index)	Beams (beam index) included in a beam set
		A	{a0、a1、a2、…}
B	{b0、b1、b2、…}
		C	{c0、c1、c2、…}
…	…

It should be understood that the beam sets A, B, C shown in table 3, etc. identify different sets by different letters, which is only one possible implementation, and these letters may also be replaced by different beam set indexes, such as 0, 1, 2, …, i.e. one beam set index for each beam set, in other words, table 3 may also be replaced by the correspondence between the beam set index and the beam contained in the beam set index, such as the beam contained in the beam set index 0 comprising a0, a1, a2, ….

It should also be understood that the beams a0, a1, a2, b0, b1, b2, etc. shown in table 3 identify different beams by different letters, which is just one possible implementation, and these letters may also be replaced by different beam indices, one for each beam, in other words, the second column in table 3 may also be replaced by a set of beam indices, such as the set of beam indices corresponding to beam set a comprises 0, 1, 2, …. In summary, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific form of the correspondence between the beam sets and the beams, as long as it is shown which beams each beam set includes. In addition, the beam indexes and the beams are in one-to-one correspondence, and the beam combination indexes and the beam sets are in one-to-one correspondence.

As another example, the beam capability information transmitted by the relay to the network device may include the number of beams in each beam set. For example, { the number of beams in a0, a1, a2, … }, { the number of beams in b0, b1, b2, … }, and { the number of beams in c0, c1, c2, … }. It will be appreciated that a set of beams may comprise a number of beams of 1, in which case the set of beams comprises only one beam.

For another example, the beam capability information transmitted by the relay to the network device may include quasi co-location information for each beam set. Table 4 shows the correspondence between the beam set (or beam set index) and the quasi co-location information provided by the embodiment of the present application. As shown in table 4, the table includes a beam set and a corresponding TCI-state identifier (StateId), where the beam set includes A, B, C, …, TCI-StateId-a is used to indicate transmission configuration indication information of the beam set a, TCI-StateId-B is used to indicate transmission configuration indication information of the set B, and TCI-StateId-C is used to indicate transmission configuration indication information of the beam set C, which are not listed here.

TABLE 4 Table 4

Beam set (or beam set index)	Quasi co-location information
		A	TCI-StateId-A
B	TCI-StateId-B
		C	TCI-StateId-C
…	…

As another example, the beam capability information transmitted by the relay to the network device may include quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set. Table 5 shows the correspondence between beams (or beam indexes) and quasi co-location information provided by the embodiment of the present application. As shown in table 5, taking the beam set a as an example, the beams { a0, a1, a2, … } included in the beam set a, TCI-StateId-a0 is used to indicate transmission configuration indication information of the beam a0, TCI-StateId-a1 is used to indicate transmission configuration indication information of the beam a1, TCI-StateId-a2 is used to indicate transmission configuration indication information of the beam a2, and so on, which are not listed here.

TABLE 5

It should be understood that the beam capability information described above is merely an example and should not be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application in any way. For example, the beam capability information may include one or more beam sets and quasi co-location information for the beam sets. As another example, the beam capability information may include one or more beam sets, the number of beams in each beam set, and quasi co-location information for the beam sets. For brevity, this is not explicitly recited herein.

Further, the relay may also receive a signal sent by the terminal device and forwarded to the network device by the relay before receiving the first configuration information from the network device, so that the network device determines the first configuration information based on the terminal signal and/or the beam capability information. For example, the signals forwarded by the relay from the terminal device and the beam capability information reported by the relay are beneficial to the network device to determine the beam which can be used when the network device is suitable for relaying the signals received by the terminal device, so that the receiving performance of the relay is improved.

Optionally, the relay may receive, in addition to the first configuration information from the network device, second configuration information from the network device, the second configuration information being used to configure reference signal resources for transmitting the reference signal.

The second configuration information and the first configuration information may be carried in the same signaling, in other words, the network device may configure the receiving beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource for the relay device through sending the signaling once. The second configuration information and the first configuration information may also be carried in different signaling. In other words, the network device may configure the relay device with the received beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource, respectively, through different signaling. The embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

For convenience of description, the first configuration information and the second configuration information may be collectively referred to as configuration information, that is, the configuration information includes the first configuration information, or the configuration information includes the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

The relay receives the configuration information, so that the relay receives the reference signal from the terminal equipment based on the configuration information, and further, the relay can be beneficial to improving the receiving performance of the relay on the reference signal. The specific manner of configuring the reference signal resource may be referred to the description of the reference signal configuration information above, and will not be repeated here.

It should be noted that in some embodiments, the network device may only configure the relay with reference signal resources, in which case the relay may receive the reference signal from the terminal device on the corresponding reference signal resources. And, the relay may receive the reference signal through any one or more of the beams based on the beam itself, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In addition, when the network device configures only the reference signal resource for the relay, the reference signal resource may be configured for the terminal device, or the reference signal resource and the beam may be configured for the terminal device.

Optionally, before receiving the second configuration information from the network device, the method further includes: measurement capability information is sent to the network device, the measurement capability information being used to determine the manner in which the reference signal resources are configured. In other words, the network device may select an appropriate manner of configuring the reference signal resources based on the measurement capability of the relay report. The relay reports the measurement capability information of itself, for example, the measurement capability of itself may be indicated by the indication information.

Two ways of configuring reference signal resources (or, may be regarded as configurations of two different relay measurement capabilities) are exemplarily shown below with SRS as an example:

the first possible manner may be that the SRS configuration information may include an SRS resource set index, an SRS resource set index list, an SRS resource type, SRS resource slot location information, SRS resource configuration information, an SRS resource index, an SRS resource port number, a transmission comb, and the like. It can be seen that in the process of configuring the reference signal resource for the relay by the network device, more parameters are configured, so that the relay can perform more accurate measurement on the reference signal, such as measurement on TCI, TA, and the like. In this way, the measurement capability requirement of the relay is also higher.

A second possible way is that the network device may configure the relay with information about the time and frequency domains, e.g. subcarrier spacing, starting resource block, number of resource blocks, starting OFDM symbol position, number of OFDM symbols, etc. It can be seen that fewer parameters are configured in the process of configuring the reference signal resource for the relay by the network device, in this case, the relay may only measure RSSI, RSRP, etc. of the reference signal, that is, fewer parameters can be measured, and accordingly, the requirement on the measurement capability of the relay is lower.

The network device may select a suitable reference signal resource configuration mode from the above configuration modes based on the measurement capability information reported by the relay. One possible implementation manner is that the relay and the network device pre-define a correspondence between measurement capability and a manner of configuring reference signal resources, after the network device receives measurement capability information from the relay, determine a manner of configuring reference signal resources based on measurement capability indicated in the measurement capability information, and configure reference signal resources for the relay in this manner.

For example, the relay may indicate its own measurement capability based on the indication information of 1 bit, for example, a bit of 1 corresponds to a high measurement capability, and corresponds to the first configuration mode (and/or the second configuration mode, i.e. the capability is high and both configuration modes may be supported simultaneously). A bit of 0 corresponds to a low measurement capability and corresponds to a second configuration.

Optionally, before receiving the reference signal from the terminal device, the relay may further receive third configuration information from the network device, where the third configuration information is used to configure reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal device, where the reference signal resources and/or beams are used to send the reference signal by the terminal device; and sending the third configuration information to the terminal equipment.

In an example, the network device configures a reference signal resource for the terminal device, and the terminal device may send a reference signal to the relay based on the reference signal resource, where the terminal device may send the reference signal to the relay on the configured reference signal resource through one or more beams when the terminal device has multiple beam capabilities. It will be appreciated that in this case, the network device may configure the beam, or configure the beam and reference signal resources, for the relay, which the embodiments of the present application are not limited to.

In yet another example, the network device configures a beam over which the terminal device may transmit reference signals to the relay and reference signal resources to the terminal device. In addition, in this case, the network device may configure the beam, or configure the beam and the reference signal resource, for the relay, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

It will be appreciated that the network device may also configure the beam to the relay and the beam to the terminal device, in which case the network device may further configure the reference signal resources to the relay and the terminal device.

And after receiving the third configuration information from the network equipment, the relay forwards the third configuration information to the terminal equipment so that the terminal equipment can send the reference signal to the relay based on the third configuration information.

One possible implementation manner is that the relay backhaul side antenna receives the third configuration information, and forwards the third configuration information to the terminal device through the access side antenna. In this process, the backhaul beam adopted by the relay may be a beam used by the relay to send the beam capability information to the network device in the above process, or a beam used by the network device to send the first configuration information to the relay; the access side beam may then use the beam determined during the initial synchronization of the terminal device, which is not discussed in detail here.

It will be appreciated that the reference signal resources allocated by the network device to the relay are the same as the reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device. That is, it is required to ensure that the terminal device receives in the corresponding time, frequency, direction when transmitting the reference signal, thereby ensuring the communication between the subsequent relay and the terminal device.

S520, the relay receives the reference signal from the terminal device. Accordingly, the terminal device transmits the reference signal to the relay.

For example, the terminal device may transmit the reference signal based on the third configuration information. The relay may receive a reference signal from the terminal device based on the first configuration information.

It will be appreciated that the relay may not perform upstream signal amplification and forwarding during this measurement. That is, the relay receives only the reference signal and does not forward the reference signal to the network device. Accordingly, the network device does not perform the reception process either. In this way, the network device does not need to receive the reference signal, and can communicate with other terminal devices, so that the cost of the network device can be reduced. One possible design is that the network device may pre-configure the relay with a time for no signal forwarding so that the relay may make beam measurements at that time without forwarding the reference signal to the network device.

The relay receives a reference signal from the terminal device based on the first configuration information. One possible implementation is to relay the reference signal from the terminal device over one or more beams, which are part or all of the received beams of the reference signal.

The process of relaying reference signals received over one or more beams will be described in detail below.

For reference signals of one OFDM symbol, the relay may receive the reference signals through one or more beams. In the case of relaying a reference signal received over multiple beams, the number of multiple beams is related to the transmit comb of the reference signal. For example, taking SRS as an example, the number of the plurality of beams is less than or equal to the transmit comb configuration value of SRS. Taking the example that the configuration value of the sending comb is 4 as an example, the terminal device sends the reference signal, and the reference signal has a certain repeated characteristic in one OFDM symbol, as shown in fig. 6, s0, s1, s2 and s3 are the reference signals carried on different subcarriers in the same OFDM symbol, and there is a phase difference or the phase difference is the same between them. The relay may receive the reference signal through a plurality of beams, such as 4 beams { beam #0, beam #1, beam #2, beam #3}, that is, beam #0 receives s0, beam #1 receives s1, beam #2 receives s2, and beam #3 receives s3, that is, the relay may scan the 4 beams within one OFDM symbol. In this way, the relay can realize more access side beam scanning in one OFDM symbol, so as to reduce beam scanning overhead, and in addition, more accurate access side beams can be obtained, so that the beam gain is improved.

For reference signals of multiple OFDM symbols, the relay may combine the signals over one beam. By combining the reference signals of the received multiple OFDM symbols, the reception performance of the relay is advantageously improved.

And S530, the relay measures the reference signal to obtain a measurement result.

Or, after receiving the reference signal from the terminal device, the relay transmits a measurement result to the network device, where the measurement result is obtained by measuring the received reference signal by the relay. It will be appreciated that the relay receives the reference signal, i.e. the measurement result of the reference signal can be obtained. For example CQI, RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, PMI, RI, LI, TA, etc.

And S540, the relay transmits the measurement result to the network equipment. Accordingly, the network device receives the measurement results from the relay.

In one implementation, step S540 is not necessary. I.e. the relay device can determine the receiving beam itself, and subsequently determine the sending or receiving beam at the access side itself. This saves communication requirements between the relay and the network device.

In one implementation, the relay reports the measurement results to the network device after obtaining the measurement results. The measurement result comprises an identification of at least one reference signal and a measurement value corresponding to each reference signal in the at least one reference signal;

Wherein the identification of the reference signal includes one or more of: reference signal resource index (e.g., SRI or PRACH resource index), sequence index, and beam identity; the corresponding measurement value of each reference signal includes one or more of the following: TA, RI (or TRI), PMI (or TPMI), RSRP, LI, and RSSI. It will be appreciated that the sequence index corresponds one-to-one to the reference signal and the beam identity corresponds one-to-one to the reference signal.

It should be noted that, when the relay obtains measurement results corresponding to a plurality of reference signals (for example, one reference signal corresponds to one set of measurement results), that is, obtains a plurality of sets of measurement results, the number of sets of reported measurement results is related to the transmission comb of the reference signal. For example, a transmit comb configuration value of 4, a relay may report 1, 2, 3, or 4 sets of measurements.

The case of relay reporting of 1 or more sets of measurement results is described in detail below in conjunction with tables 6 to 8.

Table 6 is a case where the relay provided in the embodiment of the present application reports 1 group of measurement results. It will be appreciated that when the number of sets of measurement results reported by the relay is 1, there is no limitation on the configuration value of the transmit comb and the number of receive beams used in the symbol, that is, the number of receive beams used in the symbol may be one or more, and the configuration value of the transmit comb is also not limited. As shown in table 6, the SRS resource indexes are sri#0, sri#1, …, respectively, and the reported measured values are TCI, TA, RSRP, respectively. The measurement results corresponding to the SRI#0 are TCI#0, TA#0 and RSRP#0; the measurement results corresponding to sri#1 are tci#1, ta#1, rsrp#1, and will not be described in detail here.

TABLE 6

Table 7 is a case where the relay provided in the embodiment of the present application reports 2 sets of measurement results. It will be appreciated that when the number of sets of measurements reported by the relay is multiple, the number of sets is related to the configuration value of the transmit comb and/or the number of receive beams used within the symbol. For example, in the case where the configuration value of the transmission comb is 2, the number of sets of reported measurement results cannot be greater than 2. It will also be appreciated that when 2 sets of measurements are reported, the configuration value of the transmit comb needs to be greater than or equal to 2. As shown in table 7, the SRS resource indexes are sri#0, sri#1, …, respectively, and the reported measured values are TCI, TA, RSRP, respectively. For the reference signal a, the measurement result corresponding to sri#0 is tci#0A, TA #0A, RSRP #0a; the measurement result corresponding to sri#1 is tci# A, TA # A, RSRP #1a. For reference signal B, the measurement result corresponding to sri#0 is tci#0B, TA #0B, RSRP #0b; the measurement result corresponding to sri#1 is tci# B, TA # B, RSRP #1b. It will be appreciated that the relay report 2 sets of measurement results are shown in table 7, where the transmit comb configuration value is greater than or equal to 2 and the number of receive beams used in one OFDM symbol is greater than or equal to 2.

TABLE 7

In addition, for each reported parameter, the relay may report multiple measurements of the same parameter. For example, there are two RSRP values, one being absolute and the other being relative, where relative refers to the measurement on a certain radio frequency channel (or receiving antenna, or antenna port, or receiving beam) relative to the measurement on the other radio frequency channel (or receiving antenna, or antenna port, or receiving beam). As shown in Table 8, SRS resource indexes are SRI#0, SRI#1 and SRI …, and reported measurement values are TCI-A, tA-A and TCI-B, TA-B, RSRP respectively. The measurement results corresponding to the sri#0 are tci# A, TA # A, TCI # B, TA # B, RSRP #0, Δ0, where rsrp#0 is an absolute measurement value of the receiving beam tci#0a, and Δ0 is a RSRP relative measurement value of the receiving beam tci#0b and the beam tci#0a (i.e., rsrp=rsrp#0+Δ0 measured by the beam tci#0b); the measurement results corresponding to sri#1 are tci#1A, TA #1A, TCI #1B, TA #1B, RSRP #1, Δ1, where rsrp#1 may be an absolute measurement value of a receiving beam tci#1a, Δ1 may be an RSRP relative measurement value of a receiving beam tci#1b and a beam tci#1a (or rsrp#1 may be an RSRP relative measurement value of a receiving beam tci#1a and a tci#0a, Δ1 may be an RSRP relative measurement value of a receiving beam tci#1b and a beam tci#0a, or rsrp#1 may be an RSRP relative measurement value of a receiving beam tci#1a and a beam tci#0a, Δ1 may be an RSRP relative measurement value of a receiving beam tci#1a and a beam tci#0b, or Δ1 may be an RSRP relative measurement value of a receiving beam tci#1b and a beam tci#1b), which is not repeated here.

TABLE 8

It should be understood that in the above table, report TCI, TA, RSRP is illustrated as an example. In practice, other numbers of measurements may be included, and TPMI may also be reported, for example.

For example, the relay reports the TPMI (or TPMI set) that the terminal device is expected to take. For another example, the relay reports TPMI (or TPMI set) that the terminal is not expected to take. The relay reporting TPMI is intended to be taken, or not, and may be predefined in the protocol.

It should be appreciated that some TPMI may be detrimental to the amplify-and-forward operation of the relay or to the uplink transmission performance. For example, some TPMI may cause power imbalance between different receiving antennas of the relay, thereby affecting the amplifying capability of the relay, so the relay may report these TPMI, and prevent the configuration of the network device to the terminal device from affecting the uplink transmission performance.

One possible reporting manner is shown in table 9, it can be seen that SRS resource indexes are sri#0, sri#1, sri#2, TPMI sets corresponding to sri#0 are set 0-1, set 0-2, set 0-3, set 0-4, where set 0-1, set 0-2, set 0-3, set 0-4 are 1 data stream (abbreviated stream), 2 data streams, 3 data streams, TPMI sets corresponding to 4 data streams and desired (or undesired) to be used, and the concept of data streams can be referred to the explanation about layers in the above term explanation; the set of TPMI corresponding to SRI #1 is set 1-1, set 1-2, set 1-3, set 1-4, wherein set 1-1, set 1-2, set 1-3, set 1-4 are respectively 1 data stream, 2 data streams, 3 data streams, TPMI set hoped (or not hoped) to be used corresponding to 4 data streams, and the set of TPMI corresponding to SRI #2 is set 2-1, set 2-2, set 2-3, set 2-4, wherein set 2-1, set 2-2, set 2-3, set 2-4 are respectively 1 data stream, 2 data stream, 3 data streams, TPMI set hoped (or not hoped) to be used corresponding to 4 data streams.

TABLE 9

Optionally, after the relay reports the measurement result, the method may further include: receiving first indication information from a network device, the first indication information including one or more of: the method comprises the steps of repeating one or more signals, amplifying and repeating multiples of the signals by a relay device, using beams of the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot and pre-coding weights of the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot, wherein the time for repeating the signals is used for indicating time required by the relay device to repeat signals between a network device and a terminal device, and the time for repeating the signals corresponds to the signal or signals.

In one example, the first indication information includes a multiple of the relay amplification forwarding for the relay to subsequently amplify and forward the signal. For example, in the case of uplink communication, the relay may amplify and forward the received signal from the terminal device to the network device according to a multiple of amplification and forwarding configured by the network device.

In yet another example, the first indication information includes a beam used by the relay on each OFDM symbol or slot, and the relay may communicate with the terminal device based on the beam with better quality, which is beneficial to improving the receiving performance of the relay.

In yet another example, the first indication information includes one or more times of signal forwarding. The time for forwarding the one or more signals may be a specific time, or may be a start time and an end time of a specific time period, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

It will be appreciated that different signals may correspond to different times of signal forwarding, i.e. the start time and/or end time taken by the relay when performing OFDM symbol or slot timing is different. Thus, the first indication information may include one signal transfer time corresponding to one signal, and the first indication information may include a plurality of signal transfer times each corresponding to one signal. The signal is a signal of subsequent communication between the network equipment and the terminal equipment after relay measurement is completed.

Taking the frame time as an example, the frame timing when the relay amplifies and forwards the different downlink and uplink signals is as follows.

The frame time of the relay access side beam is t _DL,firstpath . Wherein t is _DL,firstpath And a frame start time determined according to the receiving time of the first path of the downlink synchronization is relayed. The downlink synchronization refers to that the relay synchronizes with a received signal from the network device, for example, the downlink synchronization may be based on downlink CSI-RS (or TRS) or SSB. That is, in the slot or OFDM symbol forwarded by the relay, if it is downlink, the relay is based on t _DL,firstpath And carrying out downlink forwarding timing. Optionally, the relay is based on t _DL,firstpath +Δ _offset Performing downlink forwarding timing, wherein delta _offset Errors introduced for the relay or group delay, i.e. timing errors when the relay performs downlink forwarding, or delay caused by the relay. Further, delta _offset May be related to the relay capability and/or subcarrier spacing of the downlink signal (e.g., a signal used to determine downlink timing).

When the relay amplifies and forwards the PRACH signal, the time for opening the beam at the relay access side is further advanced by T on the basis of the downlink frame time _TA ＝(N _TA1 +N _TA,offset )×T _C Wherein N is _TA1 For time advance between relay and network device, e.g. the N _TA1 Either 0 or the network device is configured for relaying. T (T) _C In time units, e.g. can beN _TA,offset Is configured or predefined constant, N _TA,offset May be any one of 0, 25600, 13792, 39936. Therefore, for the PRACH described above, the frame timing of the relay access side beam on time is t _DL,firstpath -T _TA . That is, in a slot or OFDM symbol in which relay forwards, if there is a PRACH (or possibly a PRACH), the relay is based on t _DL,firstpath -T _TA Uplink forwarding timing is performed, and T _TA ＝(N _TA1 +N _TA,offset )×T _C 。

When the relay amplifies and forwards other uplink signals, the time for opening the beam at the relay access side is further advanced by T based on the time of the downlink frame _TA ＝(N _TA2 +N _TA,offset )×T _C Wherein N is _TA2 Time advance for relay access network device, N _TA2 The network device may be configured for relaying. T (T) _C In time units, e.g. can beN _TA,offset Is configured or predefined constant, N _TA,offset May be any one of 0, 25600, 13792, 39936. Further, it can be understood that, in a slot or an OFDM symbol of relay forwarding, if the PRACH is not included, the relay adopts the present method to perform uplink forwarding timing.

Alternatively, T is as described above _TA And parameter delta _TA Related to the following. For example T _TA ＝(N _TA +N _TA,offset +Δ _TA )×T _C . Wherein N is _TA May be N above _TA1 Or N _TA2 。

Parameter delta _TA May be associated with one or more of the following: relay timing capability (or referred to as relay timing performance), time advance between the terminal device and the relay (i.e., time advance reported in the measurement result), parameters of the reference signal for relay timing (e.g., reference signal bandwidth, subcarrier spacing, or carrier frequency at which the reference signal is located, etc.), parameters of the relay forwarding signal (e.g., reference signal bandwidth, subcarrier spacing, or carrier frequency at which the reference signal is located, etc.), amplification capability of the relay (or signal delay caused by the relay), and the difference between the terminal device timing advance and the relay timing advance. For example, the smaller the relay timing capability, the parameter Δ _TA The larger the value is, the larger the relay timing capability is, and the parameter delta is _TA The smaller the value. Also for example, parameter delta _TA Is the difference between the terminal device timing advance and the relay timing advance.

Alternatively, the process may be carried out in a single-stage,a network device may be configured with a plurality of different N _TA,offset . For example, two different N are configured _TA,offset One for the terminal devices below the relay and the second for the other terminal devices; for another example, there are two relays under the network device, where a second relay is connected to the network device through a first relay, the network device may configure three different N _TA,offset One for the terminal devices under the first relay, the second for the terminal devices under the second relay, and the third other terminal device. Similarly, it can be generalized to more scenarios. It is further understood that the network device may distinguish between terminal devices that are directly accessed, terminal devices that are accessed through relay (single stage, or multi-stage cascade).

Optionally, the method further comprises: the network device sends the scheduling information of the terminal device to the relay, and the relay forwards the scheduling information to the terminal device for subsequent uplink or downlink communication.

For example, the network device may schedule uplink or downlink for the terminal device based on the measurement result reported by the relay. For example, as shown in fig. 7, the measurement result reported by the relay includes a time advance, which is indicated by "TA-SR", that is, the time advance between the relay and the terminal device is indicated by "TA-BS", and the network device determines the actual time advance TA of the terminal device according to the TA-SR and the TA-BS. Specifically, the network device determines that the actual ta=ta-sr+ta-BS of the terminal device.

Based on the technical scheme, the relay device receives the reference signal from the terminal device based on the received first configuration information from the network device, and measures the reference signal to obtain a measurement result. That is, the communication system added with the relay device can obtain the measurement result through the measurement of the relay device on the reference signals, and further, the quality of the received beams corresponding to the reference signals is better, and the reference signals do not need to be forwarded to the network device for measurement.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a measurement method 800 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method 800 shown in fig. 8 may include S810 to S840. The steps in method 800 are described in detail below.

And S810, the network equipment sends the first configuration information to the relay. Accordingly, the relay receives the first configuration information from the network device.

The first configuration information is used to configure reference signal resources used to transmit reference signals. The specific manner of configuring the reference signal resource may refer to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and will not be described herein.

It may be appreciated that before the relay receives the first configuration information, that is, before the network device configures the reference signal resource for the relay, the method further includes: the relay transmits measurement capability information to the network device, the measurement capability information being used to determine a manner in which to configure the reference signal resources.

In other words, the network device may determine, based on the measurement capability of the relay report itself, a manner of configuring the reference signal resource, so as to improve the rationality of configuring the resource. For example, if the measurement capability of the relay is higher, the network device may select a manner in which the configured parameters are more, and if the measurement capability of the relay is lower, the network device may select a manner in which the configured parameters are less. The specific manner of configuring the reference signal resource and its relation to the relay measurement capability can be referred to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and will not be repeated here.

The relay may receive, in addition to the first configuration information from the network device, second configuration information from the network device for configuring a receive beam of the reference signal. It should be noted that, the number of the receive beams configured by the network device to the relay may be less than or equal to the number of the beams on the relay access side, so as to be beneficial to avoiding resource waste caused by excessive number of the receive beams configured by the network device.

Thus, the method further comprises, prior to receiving the second configuration information from the network device, relaying: transmitting beam capability information to the network device, the beam capability information including one or more of: the relay supports one or more beam sets, a number of beams in each beam set, quasi co-location information for each beam set, and quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set. The network device can configure the received beam of the reference signal for the relay based on the beam capability information, which is beneficial to reducing resource waste. Specific information about the beam capabilities of relay reporting can be found in the relevant description of the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

In the above process, the second configuration information and the first configuration information may be carried in the same signaling, in other words, the network device may configure the receiving beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource for the relay device through one signaling transmission. The second configuration information and the first configuration information may also be carried in different signaling. In other words, the network device may configure the relay device with the received beam of the reference signal and the reference signal resource, respectively, through different signaling. The embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

Optionally, the relay may also receive third configuration information from the network device and forward the third configuration information to the terminal device, so that the terminal device receives the reference signal from the relay based on the third configuration information. The third configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal device.

S820, the relay generates a reference signal based on the first configuration information.

The relay generates a sequence corresponding to the reference signal based on the first configuration information, modulates the sequence, and further generates the reference signal.

Optionally, the first configuration information is further used to configure a sequence scrambling index, the sequence scrambling index being related to the identity of the relay device.

As can be seen from the related description of fig. 2, the sequence scrambling index is required to be used in the process of generating the reference signal, and the sequence scrambling index can be configured to the relay by the network device, so that the relay generates the sequence corresponding to the reference signal. In an embodiment of the present application, the sequence scrambling index is related to the identity of the relay. For example, the sequence scrambling index may be a relay C-RNTI or a relay TMSI, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

In further implementations, the sequence scrambling index may also be determined based on at least one of the following parameters: cell identification, time slot identification corresponding to a transmission signal, and target receiver identification corresponding to a relay transmission signal.

S830, the relay transmits a reference signal to the terminal device. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the reference signal from the relay.

After the relay generates the reference signal, the reference signal can be sent to the terminal device based on the reference signal resource and the beam configured by the network device, so that the terminal device can measure the reference signal. It will be appreciated that the process of relaying the transmitted reference signal is similar to the process of the network device transmitting the reference signal and will not be described in detail herein.

It should be noted that, the time when the network device is configured to relay to perform beam measurement and the time when the network device performs data forwarding need to be staggered, i.e. not conflict. That is, the relay does not perform the downstream signal amplification and transfer any more when transmitting the reference signal, in other words, the relay transmits only the reference signal and does not receive the downstream signal from the network device. Accordingly, the network device does not need to send downlink signals to the relay. In this way, the network device can communicate with other terminal devices, so that the network device does not need to schedule the beam to the terminal device for beam measurement, thereby being beneficial to reducing the cost of the network device.

Optionally, before sending the reference signal to the terminal device, the method further includes: the transmit power used to transmit the reference signal is determined, either configured by the network device or based on the amplification capability of the relay device.

One possible design is to configure the above-mentioned transmission power to the relay device by the network device. For example, the network device configures the relay device with the total power of the reference signal over the entire bandwidth, or the power of the reference signal over each RE. The relay transmits a reference signal to the terminal device based on the transmission power configured by the network device.

Another possible design is that the relay device determines the transmit power based on the amplification capability. For example, the relay device takes as the transmit power the sum (or the product of absolute values corresponding to decibels) of the power (for example, in decibel milli dBm) of the signal received from the network device and the maximum magnification (for example, in decibel dB) that the relay device can allow, where the transmit power may be for each resource element or subcarrier, or for the entire bandwidth. The relay transmits a reference signal to the terminal device based on its own determination of transmission power.

It should be understood that S820 and S830 may also be combined into one step, such as relaying transmitting the reference signal to the terminal device based on the first configuration information. That is, the relay may generate a sequence of reference signals corresponding to the reference signals based on the first configuration information, modulate the sequence into one or more symbols, and send the one or more symbols to the terminal device.

S840, the terminal equipment measures the reference signal.

The terminal equipment receives the reference signal, and further obtains a measurement result of the reference signal. For example CQI, RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, PMI, TPMI, RI, LI, etc.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment measures the reference signal, and after the measurement result is obtained, the method further comprises the following steps: the terminal device directly transmits the measurement result to the network device, or the terminal device transmits the measurement result to the relay so that the relay forwards the measurement result to the network device. It may be understood that after the network device receives the measurement result, the network device may further instruct the relay beam, so that in a subsequent communication process, the relay may use the relay beam to assist communication between the terminal device and the network device.

The manner of reporting the measurement results may be referred to in fig. 2 or fig. 5, and will not be described herein.

After the network device obtains the measurement result, the network device may further send first indication information to the relay, where the first indication information includes one or more of the following: one or more signal forwarding times for indicating a time required for forwarding a signal between a network device and a terminal device by a relay, a multiple of the relay amplification forwarding, a beam used by the relay on each OFDM symbol or slot, and a precoding weight used by the relay device on each OFDM symbol or slot.

Accordingly, the relay receives the first indication information from the network device. The related description about the first indication information may be referred to the related description of the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

Optionally, the relay may also receive the scheduling information configured to the terminal device from the network device, and forward the scheduling information to the terminal device, so as to facilitate subsequent uplink or downlink communications. The related description of the scheduling information may be referred to as the related description of fig. 5.

Based on the technical scheme, the relay device can actively generate the reference signal based on the first configuration information from the network device and send the reference signal to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can obtain a measurement result based on the measurement of the reference signal. The relay equipment actively generates the reference signal without generating and transmitting the reference signal by the network equipment, so that the network equipment does not need to generate and transmit the reference signal, and the cost of the network equipment is further saved.

Fig. 9 to 12 are schematic structural diagrams of a possible communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 900 provided by an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 9, the communication apparatus 900 includes a processing unit 910 and a transceiving unit 920. The transceiver unit 920 may be specifically divided into a transmitting unit and a receiving unit.

The apparatus 900 may be used to implement the relaying function in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, or the apparatus 900 may be used to implement the function of the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, or the apparatus 900 may be used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, or the apparatus 900 may be used to implement the function of the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8, or the apparatus 900 may be used to implement the relaying function in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8, or the apparatus 900 may be used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8.

When the apparatus 900 is used to implement the relaying function in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, the transceiver unit 920 (specifically may be a receiving unit) may be configured to receive first configuration information from a network device, where the first configuration information is used to configure a receiving beam of a reference signal; receiving a reference signal from a terminal device based on the first configuration information; the processing unit 910 may be configured to measure the reference signal to obtain a measurement result; the transceiver unit 920 (may in particular be a transmitting unit) may be configured to transmit the measurement result to the network device.

When the apparatus 900 is used to implement the function of the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, the transceiver unit 920 (specifically may be a transmitting unit) may be configured to send first configuration information to the relay device, where the first configuration information is used to configure a receiving beam of the reference signal; the transceiver unit 920 (may specifically be a receiving unit) may also be configured to receive a measurement result from the relay device, where the measurement result is obtained by the relay device based on the measurement of the reference signal.

When the apparatus 900 is used to implement the relaying function in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8, the transceiver unit 920 (specifically may be a receiving unit) may be configured to receive first configuration information from a network device, where the first configuration information is used to configure reference signal resources, and the reference signal resources are used to transmit the reference signal; the processing unit 910 may be configured to generate a reference signal based on the first configuration information; the transceiver unit 920 (may specifically be a transmitting unit) may also be configured to transmit the reference signal to a terminal device, where the reference signal is used for measurement by the terminal device.

When the apparatus 900 is configured to implement the function of the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8, the transceiver unit 920 (specifically may be a transmitting unit) may be configured to send first configuration information to the relay device, where the first configuration information is used to configure reference signal resources, where the reference signal resources are used to transmit the reference signal; the transceiver unit 920 (may specifically be a receiving unit) may also be configured to receive a measurement result from the relay device, where the measurement result is obtained by the terminal device based on a measurement of a reference signal sent by the relay device.

The more detailed description about the processing unit 910 and the transceiver unit 920 may be directly obtained by referring to the related description in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8, which is not repeated herein.

It should be understood that the division of the units in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, only one logic function is divided, and another division manner may be implemented in practice. In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processor, or may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

Fig. 10 is another schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1000 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 1000 may be a chip system, or may be an apparatus configured with a chip system for implementing the measurement function in the above-described method embodiment. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be formed by a chip, and can also comprise the chip and other discrete devices.

As shown in fig. 10, the apparatus 1000 may include a processor 1010 and a communication interface 1020. Wherein communication interface 1020 may be used to communicate with other devices via a transmission medium such that apparatus 1000 may communicate with other devices. The communication interface 1020 may be, for example, a transceiver, an interface, a bus, a circuit, or a device capable of implementing a transceiver function. The processor 1010 may input and output data using the communication interface 1020 and is used to implement the measurement methods described in the corresponding embodiments of fig. 5 or 8. In particular, the apparatus 1000 may be used to implement the functions of the network device or relay or terminal device of the method embodiment described above.

When the apparatus 1000 is used to implement the method shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8, the processor 1010 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 910, and the communication interface 1020 is used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 920.

Optionally, the apparatus 1000 further comprises at least one memory 1030 for storing program instructions and/or data. Memory 1030 is coupled to processor 1010. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units, or modules, which may be in electrical, mechanical, or other forms for information interaction between the devices, units, or modules. Processor 1010 may operate in conjunction with memory 1030. Processor 1010 may execute program instructions stored in memory 1030. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

The specific connection medium between the processor 1010, the communication interface 1020, and the memory 1030 is not limited in this embodiment. The embodiment of the present application is illustrated in fig. 10 as being coupled between processor 1010, communication interface 1020, and memory 1030 via bus 1040. The bus 1040 is shown in fig. 10 with a bold line, and the connection between the other components is merely schematically illustrated, and is not limited thereto. The buses may be classified as address buses, data buses, control buses, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in fig. 10, but not only one bus or one type of bus.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application, for example, may be a schematic structural diagram of a base station. The apparatus 1100 may perform the functions of the network device in the method embodiments described above. As shown in fig. 11, the apparatus 1100 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a remote radio frequency unit (remote radio unit, RRU) 1110 and one or more baseband units (BBU) (which may also be referred to as a Distributed Unit (DU)) 1120. The RRU 1110 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, and corresponds to the transceiver unit 920 in fig. 9. Alternatively, the RRU 1110 may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 1111 and a radio frequency unit 1112. Alternatively, the RRU 1110 may include a receiving unit, which may correspond to a receiver (or receiver, receiving circuit), and a transmitting unit, which may correspond to a transmitter (or transmitter, transmitting circuit). The RRU 1110 is mainly configured to receive and transmit radio frequency signals and convert radio frequency signals to baseband signals, for example, to send configuration information to a terminal device. The BBU 1120 part is mainly used for performing baseband processing, controlling a base station, and the like. The RRU 1110 and BBU 1120 may be physically located together or physically separate, i.e., distributed base stations.

The BBU 1120 is a control center of the base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and may correspond to the processing unit 910 in fig. 9, and is mainly configured to perform baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and so on. For example, the BBU (processing unit) may be configured to control the base station to perform the operation procedures described in the above method embodiments with respect to the network device.

In one example, the BBU 1120 may be configured by one or more single boards, where the multiple single boards may support radio access networks of a single access system (such as an LTE network), or may support radio access networks of different access systems (such as an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The BBU 1120 further comprises a memory 1121 and a processor 1122. The memory 1121 is used to store necessary instructions and data. The processor 1122 is used to control the base station to perform the necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation flow with respect to the network device in the above-described method embodiment. The memory 1121 and processor 1122 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and the processor may be separately provided on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

It should be appreciated that the apparatus 1100 shown in fig. 11 is capable of implementing various processes involving network devices in the method embodiments shown in fig. 5 or 8. The operations and/or functions of the various modules in the apparatus 1100 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the method embodiments described above. Reference is specifically made to the description in the above method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are omitted here as appropriate to avoid repetition.

It should also be understood that the apparatus 1100 is described above by taking as an example the function of the network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8, but the present application should not be limited in any way. For example, the apparatus 1100 shown in fig. 11 may also be used to implement the functions of the relay device in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8, or to implement the functions of the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8.

The communication apparatus 1200 may be, for example, a relay, a terminal device, or a network device, and the apparatus 1200 may be configured to implement the method described in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8. The apparatus 1200 logically comprises a plurality of parts, such as a signal transceiver unit 1210, a controller 1220, a signal amplifier 1230, a signal transceiver unit 1240, for enabling communication and signaling interaction with network devices and terminal devices, signal amplification, etc. The controller 1220 is also called a Mobile Terminal (MT), and other partial block diagrams may constitute a Radio Unit (RU) (also called a Distributed Unit (DU), a distributed radio unit (distributed radio unit, DRU), or the like). The signal transceiving unit 1210 includes a transmitter 1211, a receiver 1212, and an antenna 1213. The signal transceiver unit 1240 includes a transmitter 1241, a receiver 1242, and an antenna 1243.

Illustratively, the apparatus 1200 is a relay. One signal transceiving unit 1210 in the relay is used to receive a signal from the network device and the other signal transceiving unit 1240 is used to forward the amplified received signal to the terminal device when the downlink communication is performed. In addition, the controller 1220 may also communicate with a network device or a terminal device via a signal transceiving unit. For example, the controller 1220 communicates with the network device through the signal transceiving unit for establishing a communication link between the relay and the network device, beam alignment, and the like; the method can also be used for receiving configuration/indication information of the network equipment, so that the network equipment can conveniently control the working time, working state, working mode and the like of the relay; or is used for receiving the trigger signal of the terminal equipment so as to enable the relay to enter a corresponding working mode according to the requirement. For another example, the controller 1220 can also determine the operational status (e.g., amplification, phase) of the signal amplifier based on network device indication information or self-measurement information. It should be understood that each of the units may be one or more. For example, the signal amplifier 1230 may be multiple, each corresponding to a different polarization direction or relay radio frequency channel.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions) which, when executed, performs the method described in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 or 8.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program (which may also be referred to as code, or instructions). The method described in the embodiments shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8 may be implemented when the computer program is run.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication system which comprises terminal equipment, network equipment and a relay.

It should be appreciated that the processor in embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in software form. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components. The disclosed methods, steps, and logic blocks in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in the execution of a hardware decoding processor, or in the execution of a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoding processor. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and, in combination with its hardware, performs the steps of the above method.

It should also be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The terms "unit," "module," and the like as used in this specification may be used to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. The units and the modules in the embodiment of the application have the same meaning and can be used in a crossed way.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks (illustrative logical block) and steps (steps) described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application. In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus, device and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.

In the above-described embodiments, the functions of the respective functional units may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions (programs). When the computer program instructions (program) are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are fully or partially produced. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a digital versatile disk (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the technology or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, etc.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A measurement method, applied to a relay device, the method comprising:

receiving first configuration information from a network device, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring a receiving beam of a reference signal;

receiving a reference signal from a terminal device based on the first configuration information;

measuring the reference signal to obtain a measurement result;

and sending the measurement result to the network equipment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the reference signal from the terminal device based on the first configuration information comprises:

the method comprises the steps of receiving a reference signal from the terminal equipment through one or more beams, wherein the one or more beams are part or all of the received beams of the reference signal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the beam receiving the reference signal is a plurality of beams, the number of the plurality of beams being related to a transmit comb of the reference signal.

4. A method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein prior to said receiving the first configuration information from the network device, the method further comprises:

Transmitting beam capability information to the network device, the beam capability information including one or more of: one or more beam sets supported by the relay device, a number of beams in each beam set, quasi co-location information for each beam set, and quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set; the first configuration information is determined based on the beam capability information.

5. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein prior to said receiving a reference signal from a terminal device based on said first configuration information, the method further comprises:

and receiving second configuration information from the network equipment, wherein the second configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources, and the reference signal resources are used for transmitting the reference signals.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein prior to the receiving the second configuration information from the network device, the method further comprises:

and sending measurement capability information of the relay equipment to the network equipment, wherein the measurement capability information of the relay equipment is used for determining a mode for configuring the reference signal resource.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving third configuration information from the network equipment, wherein the third configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal equipment, and the reference signal resources and/or the beams are used for transmitting the reference signals by the terminal equipment;

and sending the third configuration information to the terminal equipment.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving first indication information from the network device, the first indication information including one or more of: one or more signal forwarding times, which are used to instruct the relay device to forward the signal between the network device and the terminal device, a multiple of the amplification forwarding of the relay device, a beam used by the relay device on each orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM symbol or time slot, and a precoding weight used by the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot, where the one or more signal forwarding times correspond to one or more signals.

9. A method of measurement, for use with a network device, the method comprising:

transmitting first configuration information to the relay device, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring a receiving beam of a reference signal;

and receiving a measurement result from the relay device, wherein the measurement result is obtained by the relay device based on the reference signal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein prior to the sending the first configuration information to the relay device, the method further comprises:

receiving beam capability information from the relay device, the beam capability information including one or more of: one or more beam sets supported by the relay device, a number of beams in each beam set, quasi co-location information for each beam set, and quasi co-location information for each beam in each beam set; the first configuration information is determined based on the beam capability information.

11. The method of claim 9 or 10, wherein the method further comprises:

and sending second configuration information to the relay equipment, wherein the second configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources, and the reference signal resources are used for transmitting the reference signals.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein prior to the sending the second configuration information to the relay device, the method further comprises:

measurement capability information is received from the relay device, the measurement capability information being used to determine a manner in which to configure the reference signal resources.

13. The method of any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein the method further comprises:

and sending third configuration information to the relay device for forwarding to the terminal device, wherein the third configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal device, and the reference signal resources and/or the beams are used for sending the reference signals by the terminal device.

14. The method of any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein the method further comprises:

transmitting first indication information to the relay device, wherein the first indication information comprises one or more of the following: one or more signal forwarding times, which are used to instruct the relay device to forward the signal between the network device and the terminal device, a multiple of the amplification forwarding of the relay device, a beam used by the relay device on each orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM symbol or time slot, and a precoding weight used by the relay device on each OFDM symbol or time slot, where the one or more signal forwarding times correspond to one or more signals.

15. The method according to any of claims 1 to 14, wherein the number of sets of measurements is related to the transmit comb of the reference signal.

16. A measurement method, applied to a relay device, the method comprising:

receiving first configuration information from a network device, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources, and the reference signal resources are used for transmitting reference signals;

and transmitting the reference signal to terminal equipment based on the first configuration information, wherein the reference signal is used for the terminal equipment to measure.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first configuration information is further used to configure a sequence scrambling index, the sequence scrambling index being related to an identity of the relay device.

18. The method of claim 16 or 17, wherein the method further comprises:

and receiving second configuration information from the network equipment, wherein the second configuration information is used for configuring a receiving beam of the reference signal.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein prior to the receiving the second configuration information from the network device, the method further comprises:

20. The method according to any of claims 16 to 19, wherein before the transmitting the reference signal to a terminal device based on the first configuration information, the method further comprises:

a transmit power used to transmit the reference signal is determined, the transmit power being configured by the network device or determined based on an amplification capability of the relay device.

21. The method of any one of claims 16 to 20, wherein the method further comprises:

and sending measurement capability information to the network equipment, wherein the measurement capability information is used for determining a mode for configuring the reference signal resource.

22. The method of any one of claims 16 to 21, wherein the method further comprises:

Receiving third configuration information from the network device, wherein the third configuration information is used for configuring reference signal resources and/or beams of the terminal device, and the reference signal resources and/or the beams are used for receiving the reference signals by the terminal device;

and sending the third configuration information to the terminal equipment.

23. The method according to any of claims 16 to 22, wherein after said transmitting the reference signal to a terminal device based on the first configuration information, the method further comprises:

receiving a measurement result from the terminal equipment;

and sending the measurement result to the network equipment.

24. The method of any one of claims 16 to 23, wherein the method further comprises:

25. A communication device comprising means for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 8, or comprising means for performing the method of any one of claims 9 to 15, or comprising means for performing the method of any one of claims 16 to 24.

26. A communications device comprising a processor and a memory, the processor being configured to execute a computer program or instructions in the memory to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 8, or to implement the method of any one of claims 9 to 15, or to implement the method of any one of claims 16 to 24.

27. A communication device comprising a processor for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 8, or the method of any one of claims 9 to 15, or the method of any one of claims 16 to 24.

28. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 8, or the method of any one of claims 9 to 15, or the method of any one of claims 16 to 24.