CN113424618B

CN113424618B - Communication method, device and computer readable storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN113424618B
Application number: CN201980091781.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 罗之虎; 金哲
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-05-27
Filing date: 2019-05-27
Publication date: 2023-06-02
Anticipated expiration: 2039-05-27
Also published as: WO2020237489A1; CN113424618A

Abstract

A communication method, apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium, the method comprising: the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment through a first carrier wave, and the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment on the first carrier wave; and the terminal equipment determines a second carrier according to the first indication information, the bandwidth of the second carrier is larger than that of the first carrier, and the maximum Control Channel Element (CCE) aggregation level supported by the second carrier is larger than that supported by the first carrier or the anchor carrier. By the method and the device, a large working bandwidth can be configured for the terminal equipment on the premise of a small working bandwidth so as to support the application of the medium-high speed Internet of things, and simultaneously, a larger CCE aggregation level is adopted on the large working bandwidth, so that more downlink control information can be carried on the large working bandwidth, the scheduling efficiency and the scheduling flexibility can be improved, and the resource utilization rate is improved.

Description

Communication method, device and computer readable storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communications method, an apparatus, and a computer readable storage medium.

Background

The internet of things (internet of things, ioT) is the internet with which things are connected, and extends the user end of the internet to any article to article, and exchange and communicate information, wherein such a communication mode is also called machine-to-machine communication (machine type communications, MTC), and a communication node is called an MTC terminal. Typical internet of things applications include smart grid, smart agriculture, smart transportation, smart home, environmental detection, and the like.

At present, the carrier bandwidth of the terminal of the Internet of things is smaller, and only the application of the low-speed Internet of things is supported. How to configure a larger carrier bandwidth for terminal equipment on the premise of smaller carrier bandwidth so as to support the application of the medium-high speed internet of things is a current research hotspot.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method, a communication device and a computer readable storage medium, and by adopting the communication method, the communication device and the computer readable storage medium, a large working bandwidth can be configured for terminal equipment on the premise of small working bandwidth.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, including: the terminal equipment receives first indication information from the network equipment on a first carrier; and the terminal equipment determines a second carrier according to the first indication information, wherein the bandwidth of the second carrier is larger than that of the first carrier, and the maximum Control Channel Element (CCE) aggregation level supported by the second carrier is larger than that supported by the first carrier or an anchor carrier.

In the embodiment of the invention, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information on the first carrier to determine the second carrier, wherein the bandwidth of the second carrier is larger than that of the first carrier. Meanwhile, a larger CCE aggregation level is adopted on a larger working bandwidth, so that more downlink control information can be borne on the larger working bandwidth, the scheduling efficiency and the scheduling flexibility can be improved, and the resource utilization rate is improved.

In one possible design, one CCE includes a first number of resource elements REs within the second carrier, and one CCE includes a second number of REs within the first carrier, the first number being the same as the second number.

In the embodiment of the invention, the quantity of REs contained in one CCE on the first carrier and the second carrier is the same, so that the terminal equipment can be prevented from receiving downlink control information according to different CCE assumptions, the implementation complexity of the terminal equipment is reduced, meanwhile, the quantity of REs contained in one CCE on the first carrier and the second carrier is the same, the second carrier can comprise the first carrier, and the quantity and/or structure of CCE time-frequency resources on the second carrier can be the same as that of the CCE time-frequency resources on the first carrier, so that the system compatibility is improved, the resource utilization rate is improved, and the terminal can be compatible with an inventory terminal, wherein the inventory terminal refers to a terminal which does not have the capability of receiving and transmitting data in a larger working bandwidth.

In one possible design, the second carrier includes the first carrier, or the second carrier does not include the first carrier.

In one possible design, the first indication information includes: frequency point information of the second carrier wave and bandwidth information of the second carrier wave; or, the first bias is determined according to the first carrier, or the first bias is determined according to an anchor carrier, or the first bias is determined according to a reference frequency point, and the bandwidth information of the second carrier.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment receives first Downlink Control Information (DCI) from the network equipment on the second carrier; the terminal equipment determines a first time-frequency domain resource according to the first DCI; and the terminal equipment performs data transmission with the network equipment according to the first time-frequency domain resource.

In one possible design, the first DCI includes a first resource allocation domain and a second resource allocation domain, and the terminal device determines a first time-frequency domain resource according to the first DCI, including: the terminal equipment determines a first frequency domain resource according to the first resource allocation domain; the terminal equipment determines a first time domain resource according to the second resource allocation domain and the first frequency domain resource; and the terminal equipment determines the first time-frequency domain resource according to the first frequency domain resource and the first time-frequency domain resource.

In one possible design, the format of the first DCI is one of the following formats: format N0, format N1, format 6-0A, format 6-0B, format 6-1A, or format 6-1B.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, including: the network equipment determines first indication information; the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device on a first carrier, wherein the first indication information is used for determining a second carrier, the bandwidth of the second carrier is larger than that of the first carrier, and the maximum Control Channel Element (CCE) aggregation level supported by the second carrier is larger than that supported by the first carrier or an anchor carrier.

In the embodiment of the invention, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device on the first carrier wave for the terminal device to determine the second carrier wave, wherein the bandwidth of the second carrier wave is larger than that of the first carrier wave. Meanwhile, a larger CCE aggregation level is adopted on a larger working bandwidth, so that more downlink control information can be borne on the larger working bandwidth, the scheduling efficiency and the scheduling flexibility can be improved, and the resource utilization rate is improved.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the network device sends first Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal device on the second carrier, wherein the first DCI is used for indicating first time-frequency domain resources; and the network equipment performs data transmission with the terminal equipment according to the first time-frequency domain resource.

In one possible design, the first time-frequency domain resource includes a first frequency domain resource and a first time-domain resource, and the first DCI includes a first resource allocation domain and a second resource allocation domain, where the first resource allocation domain is used to indicate the first frequency domain resource, and the second resource allocation domain and the first frequency domain resource jointly indicate the first time-domain resource.

In one possible design, the format of the first DCI may be one of the following formats: format N0, format N1, format 6-0A, format 6-0B, format 6-1A, or format 6-1B.

In one possible design, the network device sends the first indication information to a terminal device on a first carrier, including: the network equipment determines the coverage grade of the terminal equipment; and when the coverage grade meets a preset condition, the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment on the first carrier wave.

In the embodiment of the application, the network device determines whether to send the first indication information to the terminal device by using the coverage grade of the terminal device, so that the scheduling efficiency can be improved, and invalid configuration information or indication information can be prevented from being sent.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, including: the terminal equipment receives first indication information from the network equipment on a first carrier; the terminal equipment determines N target carriers according to the first indication information, wherein the bandwidth of each target carrier in the N target carriers is smaller than or equal to the bandwidth of the first carrier, and the sum of the bandwidths of the N target carriers is larger than the bandwidth of the first carrier, wherein N is a positive integer larger than 1.

In the embodiment of the invention, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information on the first carrier to determine N target carriers, wherein the bandwidth of each target carrier in the N target carriers is smaller than or equal to the bandwidth of the first carrier, and the sum of the bandwidths of the N target carriers is larger than the bandwidth of the first carrier. In addition, the scattered spectrum resources are fully utilized, for example, N smaller bandwidths are aggregated into a larger working bandwidth, so that the resource utilization rate and the spectrum efficiency can be improved, the network equipment is more flexible in resource configuration, the network deployment is more flexible, and N target carriers can be continuous carriers or discontinuous carriers.

In one possible design, the first indication information includes configuration information of each of the N target carriers.

In the embodiment of the invention, the N target carriers adopt different configuration information, so that the flexibility of network equipment configuration resources and network deployment can be improved.

In one possible design, the N target carriers include a second carrier, where configuration information of the second carrier includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the second carrier supports cross-carrier scheduling, or the second indication information is used to indicate that the second carrier does not support cross-carrier scheduling.

In this embodiment of the present application, by using the second indication information, the terminal device may determine which carrier supports cross-carrier scheduling, and the terminal device may determine a format (format) or a size (size) of the downlink control information, so as to avoid blind detection of downlink control information with different formats or different sizes, and reduce complexity of the terminal device.

In one possible design, the N target carriers include a third carrier, and the configuration information of the third carrier includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the third carrier carries control information, or the third indication information indicates that the third carrier does not carry control information.

In this embodiment of the present application, by using the third indication information, the terminal device may determine which carrier carries the control information, so as to monitor the carrier. Compared with the method that the terminal equipment monitors all carriers, the complexity of the terminal equipment can be reduced.

In one possible design, the second carrier and the third carrier are the same carrier, or the second carrier and the third carrier are different carriers.

In a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided, including: the network equipment determines first indication information; the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device on a first carrier, wherein the first indication information is used for determining N target carriers, the bandwidth of each target carrier in the N target carriers is smaller than or equal to the bandwidth of the first carrier, the sum of the bandwidths of the N target carriers is larger than the bandwidth of the first carrier, and N is a positive integer larger than 1.

In the embodiment of the invention, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device on the first carrier, and the first indication information is used for determining N target carriers by the terminal device, wherein the bandwidth of each target carrier in the N target carriers is smaller than or equal to the bandwidth of the first carrier, and the sum of the bandwidths of the N target carriers is larger than the bandwidth of the first carrier. In addition, the scattered spectrum resources are fully utilized, for example, N smaller bandwidths are aggregated into a larger working bandwidth, so that the resource utilization rate and the spectrum efficiency can be improved, the network equipment is more flexible in resource configuration, the network deployment is more flexible, and N target carriers can be continuous carriers or discontinuous carriers.

In one possible design, the N target carriers include a third carrier, and the configuration information of the third carrier includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the third carrier carries control information, or the third indication information is used to indicate that the third carrier does not carry control information.

In one possible design, the second carrier and the third carrier are the same carrier, or the second carrier and the third carrier are different carriers. In one possible design, the network device sends the first indication information to a terminal device on a first carrier, including: the network equipment determines the coverage grade of the terminal equipment; and when the coverage grade meets a preset condition, the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment on the first carrier wave.

In a fifth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, where the apparatus may be a terminal device, an apparatus in a terminal device, or an apparatus that can be used in a matching manner with a terminal device.

In one design, the apparatus may include modules corresponding to the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the first aspect, where the modules may be hardware circuits, software, or a combination of hardware circuits and software. By way of example, the communication device may include a transceiver module and a processing module. The receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving first indication information from the network equipment on a first carrier wave; and the processing module is used for determining a second carrier according to the first indication information. The functions of the transceiver module and the processing module may be specifically mentioned in the first aspect.

In one design, the apparatus may include modules corresponding to the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the third aspect, where the modules may be implemented by hardware circuits, software, or a combination of hardware circuits and software. By way of example, the communication device may include a transceiver module and a processing module. The receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving first indication information from the network equipment on a first carrier wave; and the processing module is used for determining N target carriers according to the first indication information. The functions of the transceiver module and the processing module may be specifically mentioned in the third aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a communications apparatus is provided, where the apparatus may be a network device, an apparatus in a network device, or an apparatus that can be used in cooperation with a network device.

In one design, the apparatus may include modules corresponding to the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the second aspect, where the modules may be implemented by hardware circuits, software, or a combination of hardware circuits and software. By way of example, the communication device may include a transceiver module and a processing module. The processing module is used for determining the first indication information. And a transceiver module, configured to send the first indication information to the terminal device on a first carrier, where the functions of the transceiver module and the processing module may be specifically referred to in the description of the second aspect.

In one design, the apparatus may include modules corresponding to the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the fourth aspect, where the modules may be implemented by hardware circuits, software, or a combination of hardware circuits and software. By way of example, the communication device may include a transceiver module and a processing module. The processing module is used for determining first indication information; and a transceiver module, configured to send the first indication information to the terminal device on a first carrier, where the functions of the transceiver module and the processing module may be specifically referred to in the description of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application also provide a computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect, any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, the second aspect, any one of the possible designs of the second aspect, the third aspect, any one of the possible designs of the third aspect, the fourth aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect.

In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and may further include a memory, where the processor is configured to implement the method of the first aspect, any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, the second aspect, any one of the possible designs of the second aspect, the third aspect, any one of the possible designs of the third aspect, the fourth aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect. The chip system may be formed of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect, any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, the second aspect, any one of the possible designs of the second aspect, the third aspect, any one of the possible designs of the third aspect, the fourth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a system comprising the apparatus of the fifth aspect and the apparatus of the sixth aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 and fig. 2 are schematic diagrams of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3a and fig. 3b are schematic views of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an anchor carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of NCCE provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7a and fig. 7b are schematic diagrams of a second carrier provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a second carrier provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to 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.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 1 illustrates one of the communication systems 100 to which embodiments of the present application may be applied. The communication system 100 may include at least one network device 110. The network device 110 may be a device that communicates with terminal devices, such as a base station or a base station controller, etc. Each network device 110 may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and may communicate with terminal devices located within that coverage area (cell). The network device 110 may be a base station (base transceiver station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communications, GSM) or code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA), a base station (nodeB, NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) system, an evolved nodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, a radio controller in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario, or a relay station, an access point, a vehicle device, a wearable device, and a network device in a future 5G network, for example, a base station (gnob or gNB) or a transceiver point (transmission receiving point/transmission reception point, TRP) in a new radio (new radio, NR), or the network device 110 may also be a network device in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc., which embodiments of the present application are not limited.

The communication system 100 also includes one or more terminal devices 120 located within the coverage area of the network device 110. The terminal device 120 may be mobile or stationary. The terminal device 120 may refer to an access terminal, user Equipment (UE), subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user equipment. An access terminal may be, but is not limited to, a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, 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 capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc.

The data transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 may be performed through an air interface resource, where the air interface resource may include at least one of a time domain resource, a frequency domain resource, and a code domain resource. Specifically, when the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 perform data transmission, the network device 110 may send control information to the terminal device 120 through a control channel, such as a physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH), so as to allocate resources of a data channel, such as a physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH), to the terminal device 120. For example, the control information may indicate a time unit and/or a Resource Block (RB) to which the data channel is mapped, and the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 perform data transmission on the allocated time-frequency resource through the data channel. The data transmission may include downlink data transmission and/or uplink data transmission, where downlink data transmission (such as data carried by PDSCH) may refer to the network device 110 sending data to the terminal device 120, and uplink data transmission (such as data carried by PUSCH) may refer to the terminal device 120 sending data to the network device 110. The data may be generalized data, such as traffic data, or may be signaling data, such as system information, broadcast information, or other information.

Fig. 1 illustrates one network device and six terminal devices by way of example, and alternatively, the communication system 100 may include a plurality of network devices and a coverage area of one network device may include other numbers of terminal devices, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present application. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the network device 110 may directly communicate with the terminal device 120, or may indirectly communicate with the terminal device 120. For example, in the example shown in fig. 1, the terminal device 120 may be a mobile phone, a smart cup, a smart printer, or the like. The network device 110 may communicate indirectly with smart cups, smart printers, etc. via a cell phone.

Fig. 2 illustrates one of the communication systems 200 to which embodiments of the present application may be applied. The communication system 200 may include a first device 201 and a second device 202. The first device 201 may be a network device having a relay function, or the first device 201 may be a terminal device having a relay function. The second device 202 may be a network device having a relay function, or the second device 202 may be a terminal device having a relay function. The first device 201 and the second device 202 may communicate via a Un interface or a Uu interface.

Optionally, the communication system 200 may further include a third device 203. The third device 203 may be a terminal device that does not have a relay function, or the third device 203 may be a remote terminal device. The second device 202 and the third device 203 may communicate via a Un interface or a PC5 interface.

For example, as shown in fig. 3a, in a scenario, the first device 201 may be a network device, the second device 202 may be a network device with a relay function, and the third device 203 may be a terminal device. The interface between the first device 201 and the second device 202 may be a Un interface, and the interface between the second device 202 and the third device 203 may be a Uu interface.

For example, as shown in fig. 3b, in a scenario, the first device 201 may be a network device, the second device 202 may be a terminal device with a relay function, and the third device 203 may be a terminal device. The interface between the first device 201 and the second device 202 may be a Uu interface, and the interface between the second device 202 and the third device 203 may be a PC5 interface.

In the communication system 200 shown in fig. 2, description of the network device, the terminal device, and the communication system is referred to in the example of fig. 1, and will not be described here.

Some communication terms or terminology used in the embodiments of the present application are explained below, and also form part of the inventive content of the present application.

1. Anchor point carrier wave

In a narrowband internet of things (narrow band intemet of things, NB-IoT) system, for frequency division duplexing (frequency division duplex, FDD): anchor carriers refer to carriers that the terminal device assumes to have narrowband primary synchronization signals (narrowband primary synchronization signal, NPSS), narrowband secondary synchronization signals (narrowband secondary synchronization signal, NSSS), narrowband physical broadcast channels (narrowband physical broadcast channel, NPBCH), narrowband system information blocks (system information block-NB, SIB-NB) transmissions; non-anchor carriers refer to carriers where the terminal device assumes no NPSS, NSSS, NPBCH and SIB-NB transmissions.

In NB-IoT systems, for time division duplexing (time division duplex, TDD): the anchor carrier refers to a carrier which is supposed to be transmitted by the terminal equipment by NPSS, NSSS and NPBCH; non-anchor carriers refer to carriers where the terminal device assumes no NPSS, NSSS, and NPBCH transmissions.

By way of example, as shown in fig. 4, the system bandwidth of the anchor carrier may be 180kHz, with NPSS, NSSS, NPBCH and SIB-NB transmissions on the anchor carrier. For example, still referring to fig. 4, 10 subframes may be included in frame m, with indexes of 0 to 9 in sequence. Subframe 0 may be used to transmit NPBCH, subframe 4 may be used to transmit SIB-NB, subframe 5 may be used to transmit NPSS, and subframe 9 may be used to transmit NSSS. Frame m+1 may include 10 subframes with indices of 0 through 9 in sequence. Subframe 0 may be used for transmitting NPBCH and subframe 5 may be used for transmitting NPSS.

2. Narrowband and wideband

In an enhanced machine type communication (enhanced machine type communication, eMTC) system, narrowband refers to 6 non-overlapping physical resource blocks in the frequency domain. Wideband refers to 4 non-overlapping narrow bands in the frequency domain. The physical resource block may occupy 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. The number and index of narrowband and wideband may be referred to in 3gpp TS 36.211 in sections 5.2.4 and 6.2.7, respectively, within a given system bandwidth, and are not described herein.

3. Anchor narrowband and non-anchor narrowband:

in the embodiment of the application, the anchor point narrowband refers to a narrowband in which the terminal equipment assumes that there is synchronous signal transmission; or the anchor narrow band refers to a narrow band occupied by the terminal device to execute an initial connection establishment process or initiate a connection reestablishment process, or a narrow band indicated as the anchor narrow band in a handover process.

In the embodiment of the present application, the non-anchor narrowband refers to a narrowband in which the terminal device assumes that no synchronization signal is transmitted; or non-anchor narrowband refers to a narrowband that may be configured when an RRC connection is established and may be used to provide additional radio resources.

4. Anchor broadband and non-anchor broadband:

In the embodiment of the application, the anchor broadband refers to a broadband in which the terminal equipment assumes that there is synchronous signal transmission; or the anchor broadband refers to the broadband occupied by the terminal device to perform the initial connection establishment procedure or initiate the connection reestablishment procedure, or the broadband indicated as the anchor width in the handover procedure.

In the embodiment of the application, the non-anchor broadband refers to a broadband in which the terminal equipment assumes that no synchronization signal is transmitted; or non-anchor broadband refers to broadband that can be configured when an RRC connection is established and can be used to provide additional radio resources.

5. Control channel element (control channel element, CCE)

For NB-IoT systems, CCEs may also be referred to as narrowband control channel elements (narrow control channel element, NCCEs), which may be composed of one or more Resource Elements (REs). Alternatively, it can also be described as: 1 NCCE, consisting of 6 consecutive subcarriers within one subframe. For example, a subframe includes 12 subcarriers with indexes of 0 to 11, respectively, and cce0 may occupy subcarriers 0 to 5, and cce1 may occupy subcarriers 6 to 11. Alternatively, it can be described as: since one Resource Block (RB) is composed of 12 subcarriers consecutive within one subframe, 2 NCCEs may constitute one RB.

As shown in fig. 5, the carrier is configured to be 3 RBs, the bandwidth of each RB is 180khz, and the 3 RBs occupy 3×180khz. On the above configuration carrier, 6 NCCEs may be divided, with indexes #0 to #5 in order. Every two NCEEs can constitute one RB. For example, NCCE#0 and NCCE#1 may constitute one RB, NCCE#2 and NCCE#3 may constitute another RB, NCCE#4 and NCCE#5 may constitute one RB, and so on.

6. Aggregation level (aggregation level, AL)

In NB-IoT systems, narrowband physical downlink control channels (narrow physical downlink control channel, NPDCCH) may support different aggregation levels (aggregation level, AL). Illustratively, as shown in Table 1, the aggregation level supported by the NPDCCH may include {0,1,2} or the like. When the aggregation level is 0, NPDCCH consists of 1 NCCE. When the aggregation level is 1, NPDCCH is combined by 2 NCCEs. When the aggregation level is 2, NPDCCH consists of 3 NCCEs. It should be understood that the descriptions in table 1 are merely illustrative, and are not intended to limit the present application. For example, when the aggregation level is 2, the NPDCCH may also consist of 4, 5, or 6 NCCEs.

For example, the network device may determine the aggregation level used by the current NPDCCH based on factors such as channel quality. For example, if the NPDCCH is transmitted to a terminal device with good downlink channel quality (e.g., a terminal device located at the center of a cell), the network device may transmit the NPDCCH using 1 NCCE; if the NPDCCH is transmitted to a terminal device having poor downlink channel quality (e.g., a terminal device located at the cell edge), the network device may transmit the NPDCCH using 6 NCCEs to achieve sufficient robustness.

TABLE 1 aggregation level supported by NPDCCH

7. Coverage class

The coverage level is also referred to as coverage enhancement level, enhanced coverage level, repetition level or number of repetitions, etc. Taking NB-IoT system as an example, the concept of coverage classes is introduced for narrowband physical random access channels (narrowband physical random access channel, NPRACH), each random access resource would be mapped to one NPRACH coverage class and up to three NPRACH coverage classes, coverage class 0, coverage class 1 and coverage class 2, respectively. Wherein, starting from coverage class 0, the mapping of random access resources and NPRACH coverage class increases with NPRACH repetition number. For example, the number of NPRACH repetitions in the random access resource associated with the coverage level 0 < the number of NPRACH repetitions in the random access resource associated with the coverage level 1 < the number of NPRACH repetitions in the random access resource associated with the coverage level 2, etc. The number of repetitions of NPRACH may be configured by the network device. For example, the network device may configure the terminal device with the number of repetitions of NPRACH through a random access repetition number (num Repetitions Per Preamble Attempt) parameter.

It should be noted that, the coverage class in the embodiment of the present application may refer to an NPRACH coverage class when the terminal device random access is successful. Or may refer to the NPRACH coverage class during which the terminal device starts random access. Or may refer to the NPRACH coverage class closest in time to the network device transmitting the first indication information and when the random access procedure is successful. For the first instruction information, see the description in the flow shown in fig. 6 or fig. 8 described below.

8. Resource Unit (RU)

In NB-IoT systems, one RU includes in the frequency domain

Sub-carriers comprising +.>

Time slots, each time slot comprising->

And a symbol. The number of subcarriers and the number of slots each RU includes is related to the format of the narrowband physical uplink data channel (narrow physical uplink shared channel, NPUSCH), and the subcarrier bandwidth. For example, as shown in table 2, when NPUSCH adopts format 1 and the subcarrier bandwidth is 3.75KHz, one RU includes 1 subcarrier in the frequency domain and 16 slots each including 7 symbols in the time domain. When NPUSCH adopts format 2 and the subcarrier bandwidth is 3.75KHz, one RU includes 1 subcarrier in the frequency domain and 4 slots in the time domain, eachEach slot includes 7 symbols, etc.

TABLE 2

It is noted that the term "transmission" referred to in the present application may comprise transmission and/or reception of traffic data and/or transmission and/or reception of signaling data. The words "first," "second," and the like are used merely for distinguishing between the descriptions and not be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or order.

As shown in fig. 6, the present application provides a flow of a communication method, where the network device in the flow may be the network device 110 in the flow shown in fig. 1, and the terminal device may be the terminal device 120 in the flow shown in fig. 1. Alternatively, the network device in the flow may be the first device 201 in the flow shown in fig. 2, and the terminal device may be the second device 202 in the flow shown in fig. 2. Alternatively, the network device in the flow may be the second device 202 in the flow shown in fig. 2, and the terminal device may be the third device 203 in the flow shown in fig. 2, and so on. The process may include:

s601, the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment on a first carrier.

S602, the terminal equipment can determine a second carrier according to the first indication information, the bandwidth of the second carrier can be larger than that of the first carrier, and the maximum CCE aggregation level supported by the second carrier can be larger than that supported by the first carrier.

Optionally, the flow shown in fig. 6 may further include: s600, the network equipment determines first indication information.

For example, the first indication information may include frequency point information of the second carrier and bandwidth information of the second carrier. The frequency point information of the second carrier may be an absolute radio frequency channel number (absolute radio frequency channel number, ARFCN) of the second carrier. Alternatively, the frequency point information of the second carrier may be a bias of the ARFCN of the second carrier with respect to an absolute radio frequency channel number (E-UTRA absolute radio frequency channel number, EARFCN). The bandwidth information of the second carrier may include the number of RBs occupied by the second carrier.

For example, the first indication information may include a first offset and bandwidth information of the second carrier. The bandwidth information on the second carrier can be found in the above description. See the description below for the first bias.

Wherein the first bias may be determined from a first carrier. For example, the first offset may be an offset of a carrier center of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the first carrier, or the first offset may be an offset of a low frequency boundary of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the first carrier, or the first offset may be an offset of a high frequency boundary of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the first carrier, or the second carrier includes one or more subcarriers, and the first offset may be an offset of a subcarrier center of a lowest frequency subcarrier of the second carriers with respect to a carrier center of the first carrier, or the first offset may be an offset of a subcarrier center of a highest frequency subcarrier of the second carriers with respect to a carrier center of the first subcarrier.

Alternatively, the first bias may be determined from an anchor carrier. For example, the first offset may be an offset of a carrier center of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the anchor carrier, or the first offset may be an offset of a low frequency boundary of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the anchor carrier, or the first offset may be an offset of a high frequency boundary of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the anchor carrier, or the second carrier includes one or more subcarriers, and the first offset may be an offset of a subcarrier center of a lowest frequency subcarrier of the second carriers with respect to a carrier center of the anchor carrier, or the first offset may be an offset of a subcarrier center of a highest frequency subcarrier of the second carriers with respect to a carrier center of the first subcarrier.

Alternatively, the first bias may be determined from a reference frequency point. For example, the first offset may be an offset of a carrier center of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the reference frequency point, or the first offset may be an offset of a low frequency boundary of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the reference frequency point, or the first offset may be an offset of a high frequency boundary of the second carrier with respect to a carrier center of the reference frequency point, or the second carrier includes one or more subcarriers, and the first offset may be an offset of a subcarrier center of a lowest frequency subcarrier of the second carriers with respect to a carrier center of the reference frequency point, or the first offset may be an offset of a subcarrier center of a highest frequency subcarrier of the second carriers with respect to a carrier center of the first subcarrier.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first carrier may be an anchor carrier or a non-anchor carrier, the first carrier may be a downlink carrier or an uplink carrier, and the first carrier may be an anchor narrowband or a non-anchor narrowband, or the first carrier may be an anchor wideband or a non-anchor wideband. The second carrier may be an anchor carrier or a non-anchor carrier, the second carrier may be an uplink carrier or a downlink carrier, the second carrier may be an anchor narrowband or a non-anchor narrowband, or the second carrier may be an anchor wideband or a non-anchor wideband. The subcarrier spacing of the first carrier and the subcarrier spacing of the second carrier may be the same or the subcarrier spacing of the first carrier and the subcarrier spacing of the second carrier may be different, for example, the subcarrier spacing of the first carrier is 15kHz and the subcarrier spacing of the second carrier is 30kHz.

Wherein the second carrier may not include the first carrier. For example, as shown in fig. 7a, taking an NB-IoT system as an example, the bandwidth of the first carrier is 180kHz, the bandwidth of the second carrier is 360kHz, and the second carrier does not include the first carrier. The network device may send first indication information on a first carrier, the first indication information being used to configure a second carrier. The network device may send downlink control information (down control information, DCI) on the second carrier, which may schedule the terminal device to receive the NPDSCH on the second carrier. Alternatively, the DCI may schedule the terminal device to receive the NPDSCH on a carrier other than the second carrier, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. Alternatively, the bandwidth of the NPDSCH may be 360kHz. Alternatively, the bandwidth of the NPDSCH may be less than 360kHz, etc. The embodiments of the present application are not limited. In the example shown in fig. 7a, the DCI schedules the terminal device to receive NPDSCH on the second carrier, and the bandwidth of NPDSCH is illustrated as 360kHz.

Alternatively, the second carrier may comprise the first carrier. For example, as shown in fig. 7b, taking an NB-IoT system as an example, the bandwidth of the first carrier is 180kHz and the bandwidth of the second carrier is 540kHz, the second carrier comprising the first carrier. The network device may send first indication information on a first carrier, the first indication information being used to configure a second carrier. The network device may transmit DCI on a second carrier, which may schedule the terminal device to receive the NPDSCH on the second carrier. Alternatively, the DCI may schedule the terminal device to receive the NPDSCH on a carrier other than the second carrier, which embodiments of the present application are not limited to. Alternatively, the bandwidth of the NPDSCH may be 540kHz, or the bandwidth of the NPDSCH may be less than 540kHz, or the like. The embodiments of the present application are not limited. In the example shown in fig. 7b, the DCI schedules the terminal device to receive the NPDSCH on the second carrier, and the bandwidth of the NPDSCH is illustrated as 540 kHz.

It should be noted that, in an implementation manner of the embodiment of the present application, the number of REs included in one CCE in the second carrier is the same as the number of REs included in one CCE in the first carrier. Alternatively, it may be described that one CCE may include a first number of REs within the second carrier, and one CCE may include a second number of REs within the first carrier, the first number being the same as the second number. Alternatively, it can be described as: the number of frequency units included in the frequency domain by one CCE in the second carrier is the same as the number of frequency domain units included in the frequency domain by one CCE in the first carrier, and the number of time units included in the time domain by one CCE in the second carrier is the same as the number of time units included in the time domain by one CCE in the first carrier. The frequency unit may include subcarriers, resource blocks RBs, and the like. The time units may include frames, subframes, slots, symbols, or the like.

In another implementation manner of this embodiment of the present application, the number of frequency units included in the frequency domain by one CCE in the second carrier is the same as the number of frequency units included in the frequency domain by one CCE in the first carrier, the number of time units included in the time domain by one CCE in the second carrier is different from the number of time units included in the time domain by one CCE in the first carrier, or the number of time units included in the time domain by one CCE in the second carrier is the same as the number of time units included in the time domain by one CCE in the first carrier, and the number of frequency units included in the frequency domain by one CCE in the second carrier is different from the number of frequency units included in the frequency domain by one CCE in the first carrier.

Optionally, in the process shown in fig. 6, the method may further include: the network device sends a first DCI on a second carrier to the terminal device, where the format of the first DCI may be format N0, format N1, format 6-0A, format 6-0B, format 6-1A, or format 6-1B. The first DCI is used for scheduling the terminal equipment to send uplink data, or the first DCI is used for scheduling the terminal equipment to receive downlink data. The terminal device may determine a first time-frequency domain resource according to the first DCI, and perform data transmission with the network device according to the first time-frequency domain resource. It may be appreciated that, when the first DCI is used to schedule the terminal device to transmit uplink data, the terminal device may transmit the uplink data to the network device according to the first time-frequency domain resource. When the first DCI is used to schedule the terminal device to receive downlink data, the terminal device may receive, according to the first time-frequency domain resource, the downlink data sent by the network device.

In an embodiment of the present application, the first DCI may include a first resource allocation domain and a second resource allocation domain. The first time-frequency domain resource may include a first frequency domain resource and a first time-frequency domain resource. The first resource allocation domain may indicate a first frequency domain resource, and the second resource allocation domain and the first frequency domain resource may jointly indicate a first time domain resource. The process of determining the first time-frequency domain resource by the terminal device according to the first DCI may be as follows:

And the terminal equipment determines the first frequency domain resource according to the first resource allocation domain. And determining a first time domain resource according to the second resource allocation domain and the first frequency domain resource. And finally, determining the first time-frequency domain resource according to the first frequency domain resource and the first time-frequency domain resource. For example, in the embodiment of the present application, the number of frequency domain resources indicated by the first resource allocation domain is a, and the number indicated by the second resource allocation domain is a×b, and then the terminal device may determine that the number of frequency domain resources used for transmitting downlink data or uplink data is a, that is, the number of the first frequency domain resources is a. The terminal device may determine that the number of time domain resources used for transmitting downlink data or uplink data is B, i.e. the number of the first time domain resources is B.

For example, the first DCI is DCI for downlink scheduling. As shown in table 3, the second resource allocation domain in the first DCI may carry I _SF . The terminal equipment is according to I _SF The number N indicated by the second resource allocation domain may be determined _SF (i.e., the number of a×b in the above example). For example, as shown in Table 3, when I _SF When the value is 5, it may be determined that the number indicated by the second resource allocation domain is 6, that is, the value of a×b is 6.

TABLE 3 Table 3

I _SF	N _SF
		0	1
1	2
		2	3
3	4
		4	5
5	6
		6	8
7	10

For example, the first DCI is DCI for uplink scheduling. As shown in table 4, the second resource allocation domain in the first DCI may carry I _RU . The terminal equipment is according to I _RU The number N indicated by the second resource allocation domain may be determined _RU (i.e., the number of a×b in the above example). For example, as shown in Table 4, when I _RU When the value of (a) is 6, it may be determined that the number indicated by the second resource allocation domain is 8, that is, the number of a×b is 8.

TABLE 4 Table 4

I _RU	N _RU
		0	1
1	2
		2	3
3	4
		4	5
5	6
		6	8
7	10

For example, for an NB-IoT system, a resource allocation domain and a frequency domain resource allocation domain may be included in the first DCI. The frequency domain resource allocation domain may correspond to the first resource allocation domain and the resource allocation domain may correspond to the second resource allocation domain. For how to determine the frequency domain resources and the time-frequency resources from the resource allocation domain and the frequency domain resource allocation domain, see the description above. It should be noted that, the first frequency domain resource may specifically refer to the number of RBs mapped by a Transport Block (TB). When the first DCI is used for downlink data transmission, the first time domain resource may specifically refer to a subframe number mapped to a transport block. When the first DCI is used for uplink data transmission, the first time domain resource may specifically refer to the number of resource units RU mapped to a transport block. For the resource unit RU, reference is made to the description of the eighth part of the resource unit part of the noun explanation.

Optionally, in the flow shown in fig. 6, before S601, the method may further include: the network device determines a coverage class of the terminal device. And when the coverage level of the terminal device meets the preset condition, the network device executes S601. Otherwise the network device does not perform S601.

For example, the terminal device may measure a first reference signal received power (reference signal received power, RSRP). The terminal device determines a coverage level according to the first RSRP and the second RSRP. The second RSRP may be a network device configured RSRP threshold. The network equipment determines the coverage grade of the terminal equipment, judges whether the coverage grade of the terminal equipment meets the preset condition, and if so, the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment, namely, configures a second carrier for the terminal equipment. Otherwise, the network device does not send the first indication information to the terminal device, i.e. does not configure the second carrier for the terminal device. The preset conditions may be: the coverage class of the terminal device may be considered to satisfy the condition if the coverage class of the terminal device is equal to coverage class 0 or equal to coverage class 1, otherwise the coverage class of the terminal device may be considered to not satisfy the condition.

By way of example, the network device may determine the coverage level of the terminal device in the following manner:

the first way is: the terminal equipment sends a first message to the network equipment, wherein the first message is used for representing the coverage grade of the terminal equipment, the network equipment receives the first message sent by the terminal equipment, and the coverage grade of the terminal equipment is determined according to the first message.

The second way is: the terminal equipment determines a first random access resource, and successfully executes a random access process on the first random access resource. Correspondingly, when the network device determines that the random access of the terminal device is successful, further, the network device can determine a first random access resource corresponding to the random access process. Since each random access resource corresponds to one coverage class, the network device may determine the coverage class of the terminal device according to the first random access resource.

The first indication information, the first message, and the like in the embodiments of the present application may be sent in the same or different messages, or sent separately, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, the first indication information, the first message, etc. may be sent by carrying a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) message, or a medium access control (media access control, MAC) Control Element (CE), or a system message, or physical layer signaling, or downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI), or paging (paging) message, etc.

As shown in fig. 8, another communication method is provided in the present application, where the network device in the flow may be the network device 110 in the flow shown in fig. 1, and the terminal device may be the terminal device 120 in the flow shown in fig. 1. Alternatively, the network device in the flow may be the first device 201 in the flow shown in fig. 2, and the terminal device may be the second device 202 in the flow shown in fig. 2. Alternatively, the network device in the flow may be the second device 202 in the flow shown in fig. 2, and the terminal device may be the third device 203 in the flow shown in fig. 2, and so on. The process may include:

s801, the network device sends first indication information to the terminal device on a first carrier, wherein the first carrier can be an anchor carrier or a non-anchor carrier.

S802, the terminal equipment determines N target carriers according to first indication information, the bandwidth of each target carrier in the N target carriers is smaller than or equal to the bandwidth of a first carrier, the sum of the bandwidths of the N target carriers is larger than the bandwidth of the first carrier, and N is a positive integer larger than 1.

Optionally, in the flow shown in fig. 8, the method may further include: s800, the network equipment determines first indication information.

For example, the first indication information may include configuration information of each of the N target carriers. For the ith target carrier, i is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and the configuration information of the ith target carrier may include frequency point information of the ith target carrier. The frequency point information of the ith target carrier may be ARFCN of the ith target carrier. Alternatively, the frequency point information for the ith target carrier may be the offset of the ARFCN for the ith target carrier relative to the EARFCN.

Optionally, the configuration information of the ith target carrier may further include one or more of bitmap indication information, downlink interval gap, or configuration information of an intra-bandwidth (narrowband) carrier. For example, for NB-IoT systems, the bitmap indication information may specifically indicate configuration information of NB-IoT downlink subframes (downlink subframe). The configuration information of the carrier within the bandwidth may include indication information of the same PCI, E-UTRA cell control area size, and power offset with respect to the anchor carrier NRS, etc. When the same PCI indication information indicates the same PCI, the E-UTRA cell control area size is used for indicating the offset from the middle of the E-UTRA system. When the same PCI indication information indicates a differential PCI, the E-UTRA cell control area size is used for indicating the number of antenna ports of E-UTRACRS. The unit of the E-UTRA cell control area size may be the number of OFDM symbols.

Optionally, the configuration information of the ith target carrier may further include second indication information, where the second indication information may indicate that the ith target carrier supports cross-carrier scheduling. Alternatively, the second indication information may indicate that the ith target carrier does not support cross-carrier scheduling. For example, when the second indication information is 1, it may indicate that the ith target carrier supports cross-carrier scheduling. When the second indication information is 0, it may indicate that the ith target carrier does not support cross-carrier scheduling.

Optionally, the configuration information of the ith target carrier may further include third indication information, where the third indication information may indicate that the ith target carrier carries control information, or the third indication information may indicate that the ith target carrier does not carry control information. For example, when the third indication information is 1, it may indicate that the i-th target carrier carries control information. When the third indication information is 0, it may indicate that the ith target carrier does not carry control information. It should be noted that, whether the ith target carrier carries control information may also be described as: whether there is a control resource set, a search space, or a control channel on the ith target carrier, etc. In this embodiment of the present application, by using the third indication information, the terminal device may determine which carrier carries the control information, and then monitor the carrier. Compared with the method that the terminal equipment monitors all carriers, the complexity of the terminal equipment can be reduced.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first carrier may be an anchor carrier or a non-anchor carrier, the first carrier may be a downlink carrier or an uplink carrier, and the first carrier may be an anchor narrowband or a non-anchor narrowband, or the first carrier may be an anchor wideband or a non-anchor wideband. The N target carriers may be anchor carriers or non-anchor carriers, and the N target carriers.

The N target carriers may be anchor narrowband or non-anchor narrowband, or the N target carriers may be anchor wideband or non-anchor wideband. The subcarrier spacing of the first carrier and the subcarrier spacing of the N target carriers may be the same, or the subcarrier spacing of the first carrier and the subcarrier spacing of the N target carriers may be different, for example, the subcarrier spacing of the first carrier is 15kHz and the subcarrier spacing of the N target carriers is 30kHz. Alternatively, as shown in fig. 9, in the embodiment of the present application, the N target carriers may include a second carrier and a third carrier. The bandwidth of the first carrier may be 180kHz, and the bandwidths of the second carrier and the third carrier may be the same as the bandwidth of the first carrier, both being 180kHz. Alternatively, the first carrier may be a narrowband or a wideband, the second carrier and the third carrier may be a narrowband or a wideband, and the bandwidths of the second carrier and the third carrier may be the same as the bandwidths of the first carrier, where the narrowband and the wideband may be referred to as the description of the narrowband and the wideband portions of the second portion by the above terms.

The network device may send first indication information to the terminal device on a first carrier. The first indication information is used for configuring a second carrier and a third carrier. The network device may transmit dci#1 and dci#2 on the second carrier, dci#1 scheduling the terminal device to receive npdsch#1 on the second carrier, dci#2 scheduling the terminal device to receive npdsch#2 on the third carrier.

Optionally, in the flow shown in fig. 8, the method may further include: the network equipment determines the coverage grade of the terminal equipment; when the coverage level satisfies a preset condition, the network device performs the step shown in S801, otherwise, the network device does not perform the step shown in S801. The manner in which the network device determines the coverage level of the terminal device and the preset conditions of the coverage level are described in the flow shown in fig. 6, and will not be described here.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first indication information, the second indication information, and/or the third indication information may be sent separately, or may be carried in the same or different messages for sending, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the first indication information, the second indication information, and/or the third indication information may be carried by a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) message, or a medium access control (media access control, MAC) Control Element (CE), or a system message, or physical layer signaling, or downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI), or a paging (paging) message, or the like.

Further, at least two of the first indication information, the second indication information and the third indication information in the embodiments of the present application may be carried by one same message. For example, the first indication information and the second indication information may be carried by one and the same message, or the first indication information and the third indication information may be carried by one and the same message, or the second indication information and the third indication information may be carried by one and the same message, or the first indication information, the second indication information and the third indication information may all be carried by one and the same message, etc.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application are described in terms of the network device, the terminal, the interaction between the network device and the terminal, and the interaction between the terminal and the terminal, respectively. In order to implement the functions in the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application, the network device and the terminal may include hardware structures and/or software modules, where the functions are implemented in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or a combination of hardware structures and software modules. Some of the functions described above are performed in a hardware configuration, a software module, or a combination of hardware and software modules, depending on the specific application of the solution and design constraints.

As with the concept described above, as shown in fig. 10, there is also provided an apparatus 1000 including a transceiver module 1001 and a processing module 1002.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is configured to implement a function of a terminal device in the foregoing method, where the apparatus may be a terminal device or an apparatus in a terminal device. Wherein the device may be a system-on-chip. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. A transceiver module 1001, configured to receive, on a first carrier, first indication information from a network device; a processing module 1002, configured to determine, according to the first indication information, a second carrier, where a bandwidth of the second carrier is greater than a bandwidth of the first carrier, and a maximum control channel element CCE aggregation level supported by the second carrier is greater than a maximum CCE aggregation level supported by the first carrier or an anchor carrier. For the specific execution of the processing module 1002 and the transceiver module 1001, reference may be made to the description on the terminal device side in the above embodiment of the method, which is not described here.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the above method, where the apparatus may be a network device, or may be an apparatus in a network device. Wherein the device may be a system-on-chip. A processing module 1002 is configured to determine first indication information. The transceiver module 1001 is configured to send, on a first carrier, first indication information to a terminal device, where the first indication information is used to determine a second carrier, the bandwidth of the second carrier is greater than that of the first carrier, and a maximum control channel element CCE aggregation level supported by the second carrier is greater than that supported by the first carrier or an anchor carrier. For the specific implementation of the processing module 1002 and the transceiver module 1001, reference may be made to the description on the network device side in the above method embodiment, which is not described here.

The division of the modules in the embodiments of the present application is schematically only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation, and in addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processor or module, or may exist alone physically, or two or more modules may be integrated in one module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules.

As with the concepts described above, the present embodiment also provides an apparatus 1100, as shown in fig. 11.

In an example, the apparatus 1100 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device in the above method, where the apparatus may be a terminal device or an apparatus in a terminal device. The apparatus 1100 comprises at least one processor 1101 for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the above method. For example, the processor 1101 may determine the second carrier based on the first indication information. The apparatus 1100 may also include at least one memory 1102 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 1102 is coupled to the processor 1101. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is a spaced coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms, for information interaction between devices, units or modules. The processor 1101 may operate in conjunction with the memory 1102. The processor 1101 may execute program instructions stored in the memory 1102. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor. The apparatus 1100 may also include a communication interface 1103 for communicating with other devices over a transmission medium, such that an apparatus for use in the apparatus 1100 may communicate with other devices. Illustratively, the communication interface 1103 may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, pin, or other type of communication interface, which may be a network device. The processor 1101 receives and transmits data using the communication interface 1103 and is used to implement the method in the above-described embodiment. In this example, for a specific operation of the processor 1101 and the communication interface 1103, reference may be made to the description on the terminal device side in the above-described method embodiment, and will not be described here.

In another example, the apparatus 1100 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the above method, where the apparatus may be a network device or an apparatus in a network device. The apparatus 1100 comprises at least one processor 1101 for implementing the functions of the network device in the above method. For example, the processor 1101 may determine the first indication information. The apparatus 1100 may also include a memory 1102 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 1102 is coupled to the processor 1101. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is a spaced coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, which may be in the form of telecommunications, mechanical or other, for information interaction between devices, units or modules. The processor 1101 may operate in conjunction with the memory 1102. The processor 1101 may execute program instructions stored in the memory 1102. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor. The apparatus 1100 may also include a communication interface 1103 for communicating with other devices over a transmission medium, such that an apparatus for use in the apparatus 1100 may communicate with other devices. Illustratively, the communication interface 1103 may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, pin, or other type of communication interface, which may be a terminal device. The processor 1101 receives and transmits data using the communication interface 1103 and is used to implement the method in the above-described embodiment. In this example, for a specific operation of the processor 1101 and the communication interface 1103, reference may be made to the description on the network device side in the above method embodiment, which is not described here.

The connection medium between the communication interface 1103, the processor 1101, and the memory 1102 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 1102, the processor 1101 and the communication interface 1103 are connected through a bus 1104 in fig. 11, where the bus is indicated by a thick line in fig. 11, and the connection manner between other components is only 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. 11, but not only one bus or one type of bus.

In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in a hardware processor for execution, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor for execution.

In the embodiment of the present application, the memory may be a nonvolatile memory, such as a hard disk (HDD) or a Solid State Drive (SSD), or may be a volatile memory (volatile memory), for example, a random-access memory (RAM). The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to such. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of implementing a memory function for storing program instructions and/or data.

The method provided in the embodiments of the present application 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. When loaded and executed on a computer, produces a flow or function in accordance with embodiments of the present invention, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable 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.) means. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, 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 video disc (digital video disc, abbreviated as DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., an SSD), etc.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims and the equivalents thereof, the present application is intended to cover such modifications and variations.

In the embodiments of the present application, where there is no logical conflict, embodiments may be referred to each other, for example, methods and/or terms between method embodiments may be referred to each other, for example, functions and/or terms between apparatus embodiments and method embodiments may be referred to each other.

In the embodiments of the present application, "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, or c may represent: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the terminal equipment receives first indication information from the network equipment on a first carrier;

the terminal equipment determines a second carrier according to the first indication information, wherein the bandwidth of the second carrier is larger than that of the first carrier, and the aggregation level of a maximum Control Channel Element (CCE) supported by the second carrier is larger than that of the maximum CCE supported by the first carrier;

the first indication information includes:

frequency point information of the second carrier wave and bandwidth information of the second carrier wave; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

a first offset and bandwidth information of the second carrier, where the first offset is determined according to the first carrier, or the first offset is determined according to a reference frequency point;

the terminal equipment receives first Downlink Control Information (DCI) from the network equipment on the second carrier;

the terminal equipment determines a first time-frequency domain resource according to the first DCI;

the terminal equipment performs data transmission with the network equipment according to the first time-frequency domain resource;

the first DCI includes a first resource allocation domain and a second resource allocation domain, and the terminal device determines a first time-frequency domain resource according to the first DCI, including:

The terminal equipment determines a first frequency domain resource according to the first resource allocation domain;

the terminal equipment determines a first time domain resource according to the second resource allocation domain and the first frequency domain resource;

and the terminal equipment determines the first time-frequency domain resource according to the first frequency domain resource and the first time-frequency domain resource.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one CCE includes a first number of resource elements REs within the second carrier, and wherein one CCE includes a second number of REs within the first carrier, the first number being the same as the second number.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the second carrier comprises the first carrier or wherein the first carrier is not included in the second carrier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the format of the first DCI is one of: format N0, format N1, format 6-0A, format 6-0B, format 6-1A, or format 6-1B.

5. A method of communication, comprising:

the network equipment determines first indication information;

the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device on a first carrier, wherein the first indication information is used for determining a second carrier, the bandwidth of the second carrier is larger than that of the first carrier, and the maximum Control Channel Element (CCE) aggregation level supported by the second carrier is larger than that supported by the first carrier;

The first indication information includes:

the network device sends first Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal device on the second carrier, wherein the first DCI is used for indicating first time-frequency domain resources;

the network equipment performs data transmission with the terminal equipment according to the first time-frequency domain resource;

the first time-frequency domain resource comprises a first frequency domain resource and a first time domain resource, the first DCI comprises a first resource allocation domain and a second resource allocation domain, the first resource allocation domain is used for indicating the first frequency domain resource, and the second resource allocation domain and the first frequency domain resource jointly indicate the first time domain resource.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein one CCE includes a first number of resource elements REs within the second carrier, and wherein one CCE includes a second number of REs within the first carrier, the first number being the same as the second number.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, wherein the second carrier comprises the first carrier or the second carrier does not comprise the first carrier.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the format of the first DCI may be one of: format N0, format N1, format 6-0A, format 6-0B, format 6-1A, or format 6-1B.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the network device transmitting the first indication information to a terminal device on a first carrier comprises:

the network equipment determines the coverage grade of the terminal equipment;

and when the coverage grade meets a preset condition, the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment on the first carrier wave.

10. A communication device, comprising:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving first indication information from the network equipment on a first carrier wave;

a processing module, configured to determine, according to the first indication information, a second carrier, where a bandwidth of the second carrier is greater than a bandwidth of the first carrier, and a maximum control channel element CCE aggregation level supported by the second carrier is greater than a maximum CCE aggregation level supported by the first carrier;

Wherein the first indication information includes:

the transceiver module is further configured to receive, on the second carrier, first downlink control information DCI from the network device;

the processing module is further configured to determine a first time-frequency domain resource according to the first DCI, and control the transceiver module to perform data transmission with the network device according to the first time-frequency domain resource;

the first DCI includes a first resource allocation domain and a second resource allocation domain, and the processing module is specifically configured to, when determining a first time-frequency domain resource according to the first DCI:

determining a first frequency domain resource according to the first resource allocation domain;

determining a first time domain resource according to the second resource allocation domain and the first frequency domain resource;

and determining the first time-frequency domain resource according to the first frequency domain resource and the first time-frequency domain resource.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein one CCE includes a first number of resource elements REs within the second carrier, and wherein one CCE includes a second number of REs within the first carrier, the first number being the same as the second number.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 or 11, wherein the second carrier comprises the first carrier or the second carrier does not comprise the first carrier.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the format of the first DCI is one of: format N0, format N1, format 6-0A, format 6-0B, format 6-1A, or format 6-1B.

14. A communication device, comprising:

the processing module is used for determining first indication information;

a transceiver module, configured to send, on a first carrier, the first indication information to a terminal device, where the first indication information is used to determine a second carrier, where a bandwidth of the second carrier is greater than a bandwidth of the first carrier, and a maximum control channel element CCE aggregation level supported by the second carrier is greater than a maximum CCE aggregation level supported by the first carrier;

The first indication information includes:

the transceiver module is further configured to send first downlink control information DCI to the terminal device on the second carrier, where the first DCI is used to indicate a first time-frequency domain resource;

the processing module is further configured to control, according to the first time-frequency domain resource, the transceiver module to perform data transmission with the terminal device;

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein one CCE includes a first number of resource elements REs within the second carrier, and wherein one CCE includes a second number of REs within the first carrier, the first number being the same as the second number.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 or 15, wherein the second carrier comprises the first carrier or the second carrier does not comprise the first carrier.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the format of the first DCI may be one of: format N0, format N1, format 6-0A, format 6-0B, format 6-1A, or format 6-1B.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processing module is further to:

determining a coverage level of the terminal equipment;

and when the coverage grade meets a preset condition, controlling the transceiver module to send the first indication information to the terminal equipment on the first carrier.

19. A communication device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory having instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processor cause the device to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 9.

20. A computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9.