CN111698778B - Method and device for indicating resources - Google Patents

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for indicating resources, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the second node obtains resource configuration information for indicating the configuration of fixed resources and dynamic resources of the second node; the second node receives first indication information sent by a first node and used for indicating the available state of one or more dynamic resources in a first indication area of the second node, wherein the first node is an upper node of the second node; the second node determines second indication information for indicating the available state of resources between the second node and the third node on a second indication area according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, wherein the second indication area comprises at least one dynamic resource which is not indicated by the first indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the state of the at least one dynamic resource which is not indicated by the first indication information is unavailable; the second node sends second indication information to a third node, and the third node is a subordinate node of the second node.

Description

Method and device for indicating resources

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of access backhaul integrated IAB, in particular to a method and a device for indicating resources in an IAB system.

Background

With the continuous development of mobile communication technology, spectrum resources are increasingly strained. Future base station deployments will be more dense in order to increase spectrum utilization. In addition, dense deployment can also avoid coverage holes. The wireless Relay Node (RN) establishes connection with the core network through a wireless backhaul link, so that the deployment cost of part of optical fibers can be saved. In a New Radio (NR), a relay node establishes a wireless backhaul link with one or more upper nodes and accesses a core network through the upper nodes. The establishment of an access link between the relay node and the UE may control the relay node through various signaling (e.g., data scheduling, timing modulation, power control, etc.). In addition, the relay node may serve one or more subordinate nodes. The upper node of the relay node may be a base station or another relay node. The lower node of the relay node may be UE or another relay node. The in-band relay scheme of NR is called integrated access backhaul (integrated access and backhaul, IAB), and the relay node is called IAB node (IAB node). The IAB node includes a terminal (mobile termination, MT) function and a Distributed Unit (DU) function. Wherein the MT is used for IAB node communication with an upper node, and the DU is used for IAB node communication with a lower node,

To dynamically coordinate the broadband between the access link and the backhaul link, the NR IAB will use two levels of resource indication. Specifically, the two-level resource indication means that the upper node configures resources for the DU of the IAB node in an explicit or implicit manner, and the resource types at least include soft and hard. Where hard resources represent resources that are always available to DUs of the IAB node, and availability of soft resources depends on the indication of the upper node. And the IAB node continuously indicates the resource to the lower node according to the resource indication of the upper node.

However, there are typically multiple levels of relay nodes in the IAB system, and the multiple levels of relay node systems may cause resource indication collision when the two levels of resource indication are adopted.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method for indicating resources, which can avoid the problem that multi-stage IAB nodes in an IAB system are likely to collide in resource indication.

In a first aspect, there is provided a method of indicating a resource, the method comprising: the second node acquires resource configuration information, wherein the resource configuration information is used for indicating the configuration of fixed resources and dynamic resources of the second node; the method comprises the steps that a second node receives first indication information sent by a first node, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the available state of one or more dynamic resources in a first indication area of the second node, and the first node is an upper node of the second node; the second node determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the available state of resources between the second node and the third node on a second indication area, the second indication area comprises at least one dynamic resource which is not indicated by the first indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the state of the at least one dynamic resource which is not indicated by the first indication information is unavailable; the second node sends second indication information to a third node, and the third node is a subordinate node of the second node.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the determining, by the second node, second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information includes: the second indication area includes fixed resources of Y second nodes, and the second indication information indicates that an available state of Z of the Y fixed resources is available or unavailable, wherein Y, Z is an integer greater than or equal to 0, and Z is less than or equal to Y.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first indication information is used to indicate an available state of a part of resources of the MT of the second node on the first indication area, and before the second node determines the second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, the method further includes: the second node determines the available state of the dynamic resources of the DU of the second node according to the available state of part of the resources of the MT; or, the first indication information is used for indicating the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU of the second node on the first indication area, and before the second node determines the second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, the method further includes: and the second node determines the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU of the second node according to the first indication information.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the configuration information of the first indication information includes one or more of the following information: a start time of the first indication area; an end time of the first indication area; the duration of the first indication area; an interval between a time domain position where the first indication information is located and a start position of the first indication area; the resource identification of the dynamic resource comprises at least one of a symbol number, a time slot number, a subframe number and a system frame number; and the resource identification of the MT resource to be indicated comprises at least one of a symbol number, a time slot number, a subframe number and a system frame number.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the first indication area includes a first dynamic resource, the one or more dynamic resources indicated by the first indication information include the first dynamic resource, and the method further includes: the second node receives third indication information from the first node, the third indication information indicates the available state of the first dynamic resource, the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information is different from the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the first indication information, and the third indication information is located behind the first indication information in a time domain; and the second node determines the available state of the first dynamic resource according to the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first indication area includes a second dynamic resource, the second node receives fourth indication information from the first node on an MT resource of a second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource, and the MT resource of the second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource is configured to be always available through a protocol, or the MT resource of the second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource is indicated by the first node to be always available through an indication information different from the fourth indication information.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method of indicating a resource, the method comprising: the second node acquires resource configuration information, wherein the resource configuration information is used for indicating the configuration of fixed resources and dynamic resources of the second node and the third node; the second node receives first indication information sent by the first node, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the available states of one or more dynamic resources on a first indication area of the second node, and the first node is an upper node of the second node; the second node determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource allocation information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a second indication area of the third node, the second indication area comprises a first area, the first area comprises K dynamic resources, the first area is positioned behind the end position of the first indication area, and K is a non-negative integer; the second node sends second indication information to a third node, and the third node is a subordinate node of the second node.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the second node determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, including: the second node determines the available states of K dynamic resources contained in the first area according to the resource configuration information, wherein the time domain resources of the second node corresponding to the K dynamic resources in the time domain belong to fixed resources indicated in the resource configuration information of the second node; the second node determines second indication information according to the available states of the K dynamic resources.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the second node determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, including: the second node determines N of K dynamic resources contained in the first area as unavailable according to the resource configuration information, the time domain resources of the second node corresponding to the N dynamic resources in the time domain belong to the dynamic resources indicated in the resource configuration information of the second node, N is less than or equal to K, and N is a non-negative integer; and the second node determines the second indication information according to the available states of the K dynamic resources.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first indication information is used to indicate an available state of a part of resources of the MT of the second node on the first indication area, and before the second node determines the second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, the method further includes: the second node determines the available state of the dynamic resources of the DU of the second node according to the available state of part of the resources of the MT; or, the first indication information is used for indicating the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU of the second node on the first indication area, and before the second node determines the second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, the method further includes: and the second node determines the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU of the second node according to the first indication information.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the configuration information of the first indication information includes one or more of the following information: a start time of the first indication area; an end time of the first indication area; the duration of the first indication area; an interval between a time domain position where the first indication information is located and a start position of the first indication area; the resource identification of the dynamic resource comprises at least one of a symbol number, a time slot number, a subframe number and a system frame number.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first indication area includes a first dynamic resource, the one or more dynamic resources indicated by the first indication information include the first dynamic resource, and the method further includes: the second node receives third indication information from the first node, the third indication information indicates the available state of the first dynamic resource, the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information is different from the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the first indication information, and the third indication information is located behind the first indication information in a time domain; and the second node determines the available state of the first dynamic resource according to the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first indication area includes a second dynamic resource, the second node receives fourth indication information from the first node on an MT resource of a second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource, and an MT resource passing protocol of the second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource is configured to be always available, or the MT resource of the second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource is indicated by the first node to be always available through an indication information different from the fourth indication information.

In a third aspect, there is provided an apparatus for indicating resources, the apparatus having functionality to implement the method of the first or second aspect and any possible implementation thereof. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a network device comprising a processor and a memory. The memory is for storing a computer program and the processor is for invoking and running the computer program stored in the memory to cause the network device to perform the method of the first aspect, the second aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, the second aspect.

Optionally, the network device further comprises a communication interface. The communication interface may be a transceiver or an input-output interface.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium having stored therein computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect, the second aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is configured to read and execute a computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of the first aspect, the second aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, the second aspect.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, the memory is connected with the processor through a circuit or a wire, and the memory is used for storing the computer program.

Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface.

In a seventh aspect, the present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the first aspect, the second aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect, the second aspect.

In an eighth aspect, the present application further provides a communication system comprising a first node, a second node and a third node, the second node performing the or any of the possible methods of the first aspect or the first aspect.

According to the technical scheme, the IAB node (namely the second node) acquires the resource configuration information of the IAB node and the resource configuration information of the lower node (namely the third node) of the IAB node, and receives first indication information indicating the available state of the dynamic resource of the IAB node on the first indication area from the upper node (namely the first node). When the IAB node determines that the resource required to be indicated to the lower node exceeds the indication of the upper node, the IAB node determines how to indicate the resource exceeding the indication of the upper node to the lower node according to the resource configuration information of the IAB node. Because the resource configuration of the IAB node is fixed, even if the resource required to be indicated by the IAB node to the lower node exceeds the indication of the upper node, the IAB node can avoid the resource which is required to be indicated by the upper node according to the resource configuration information, so that even if the indication is carried out to the lower node in advance, the subsequent indication can not conflict with the previous indication.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an IAB system suitable for use in the embodiments of the present application.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of one specific example of an IAB system.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an IAB node.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a specific example of allocation of downlink backhaul resources in a relay system of LTE.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of resource configuration of an IAB node.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of one example of an indication region indicating DCI.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram in which a plurality of indication DCIs indicate the same indication area.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of another example of resource configuration of an IAB node.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of another example of an indication region indicating DCI.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of still another example of an indication region indicating DCI.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic diagram of an example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic diagram of another example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system.

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the X-area resource configuration.

Fig. 14 is a schematic flow chart diagram of an example of a method of indicating a resource.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram showing another example of the X-area resource configuration.

Fig. 16 is a schematic flow chart diagram of another example of a method of indicating a resource.

Fig. 17 is a schematic diagram showing still another example of the X-area resource configuration.

Fig. 18 is a schematic diagram showing still another example of the X-area resource configuration.

Fig. 19 shows a schematic diagram of still another example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system.

Fig. 20 is a schematic diagram showing still another example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system.

Fig. 21 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for indicating resources provided herein.

Fig. 22 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided in the present application.

Detailed Description

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

The names of all nodes and messages in the present application are merely names set for convenience of description, and the names in the actual network may be different, and it should not be understood that the present application is limited to the names of various nodes and messages. On the contrary, any names having the same or similar functions as those of the nodes or messages used in the present application are regarded as methods or equivalent alternatives of the present application, and are within the scope of protection of the present application, and will not be described in detail.

Communication systems mentioned in embodiments of the present application include, but are not limited to: narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) systems, wireless local area network (wireless local access network, WLAN) systems, long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) systems, fifth generation mobile communication (5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems,5G) or 5G-later communication systems, such as New Radio (NR) systems, device-to-device (D2D) communication systems, etc.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is an architecture diagram of an integrated access backhaul (integrated access and backhaul, IAB) system suitable for use in the present application. As shown in fig. 1, an IAB system includes at least one base station 100, and one or more terminal devices (terminals) 101 served by the base station 100, one or more relay nodes (i.e., IAB nodes) 110, and one or more terminal devices 111 served by the IAB nodes 110. Typically, the base station 100 is referred to as a home base station (donor next generation node B, dgNB), and the IAB node 110 is connected to the base station 100 via a wireless backhaul link 113. The home base station is also referred to herein as a home node, i.e., a donor node.

Base station 100 includes, but is not limited to: an evolved node B (evolved node base, eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a 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 NodeB, or home node B, HNB), a baseband Unit (BBU), an evolved LTE (LTE) base station, an NR base station (next generation node B, gNB), and the like.

Terminal devices include, but are not limited to: a User Equipment (UE), a mobile station, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, a Station (ST) in a wireless local area network (wireless local access network, WLAN), 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 capability, a computing device, other processing devices connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a mobile station in a future 5G network, a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) network, and the like. The IAB node is a specific name of the relay node, and is not limited to the configuration of the scheme of the present application, and may be one of the base station or the terminal device having a forwarding function, or may be an independent device. For example, the IAB node of the present application may also be referred to as a Relay Node (RN), a transmission reception point (transmission and reception point), a relay transmission reception point (relay TRP), or the like.

The IAB system may also include a plurality of other IAB nodes, such as IAB node 120 and IAB node 130. The IAB node 120 is connected to the IAB node 110 by a wireless backhaul link 123 for access to the network. The IAB node 130 is connected to the IAB node 110 for access to the network via a wireless backhaul link 133. The IAB node 120 serves one or more terminal devices 121 and the IAB node 130 serves one or more terminal devices 131. In fig. 1, both the IAB node 110 and the IAB node 120 are connected to the network via wireless backhaul links. In this application, the wireless backhaul links are all from the perspective of the relay node, for example, the wireless backhaul link 113 is the backhaul link of the IAB node 110, and the wireless backhaul link 123 is the backhaul link of the IAB node 120. As shown in fig. 1, one IAB node, e.g., 120, may be connected to the network by connecting to another IAB node 110 via a wireless backhaul link, e.g., 123. Also, the relay node may be connected to the network through a multi-stage wireless relay node. It should be understood that the use of an IAB node in this application is for descriptive purposes only and does not represent a scenario in which the solution of this application is only used for NR, in this application an IAB node may refer broadly to any node or device with a relay function, and the use of an IAB node and a relay node in this application should be understood to have the same meaning.

In addition, the following basic terms or concepts are also referred to in this application.

Access link (access link): links between UEs and IAB nodes or IAB host nodes (IAB nodes). Alternatively, the access link includes a radio link used when a node communicates with its lower nodes. The access links include an uplink access link and a downlink access link. The uplink access link is also referred to as uplink transmission of the access link, and the downlink access link is also referred to as downlink transmission of the access link.

Backhaul link: links between an IAB node and an IAB child node (IAB child node) or an IAB parent node (IAB parent node). The backhaul links include links for downlink transmissions with the IAB child node or the IAB parent node and links for uplink transmissions with the IAB child node or the IAB parent node. The IAB node performs data transmission to the IAB parent node, or receives the uplink transmission of the IAB child node, referred to as uplink transmission of the backhaul link. The IAB node receives the data transmission of the IAB parent node or the data transmission to the IAB child node is referred to as a downlink transmission of the backhaul link. To distinguish between a UE and an IAB node, the backhaul link between the IAB node and the IAB parent node is also referred to as an upper backhaul link (parent BH), and the backhaul link between the IAB node and the IAB child node is referred to as a lower backhaul link (child BH).

In some cases, the lower backhaul link and the access link of the IAB node are collectively referred to as an access link, i.e., the lower node is regarded as one terminal device of the upper node. It should be appreciated that in the integrated access and backhaul system shown in fig. 1, one IAB node is connected to one upper node. However, in future relay systems, in order to improve the reliability of the wireless backhaul link, an IAB node, such as 120, may have multiple upper nodes to simultaneously serve an IAB node, such as the IAB node 130 in fig. 1, may also be connected to the IAB node 120 through the backhaul link 134, that is, both the IAB node 110 and the IAB node 120 are regarded as upper nodes of the IAB node 130. The names of the IAB nodes 110,120, 130 are not limiting to the scenario or network in which they are deployed, and may be any other names such as relay, RN, etc. The use of IAB nodes in this application is only a matter of convenience for description.

In fig. 1, the wireless link 102,112,122,132,113,123,133,134 may be a bi-directional link including uplink and downlink transmission links, and in particular, the wireless backhaul link 113,123,133,134 may be used by an upper node to provide services to a lower node, such as the upper node 100 providing wireless backhaul services to the lower node 110. It should be appreciated that the uplink and downlink of the backhaul link may be separate, i.e., the uplink and downlink are not transmitted through the same node. The downstream transmission refers to an upper node, such as node 100, transmitting information or data to a lower node, such as node 110, and the upstream transmission refers to a lower node, such as node 110, transmitting information or data to an upper node, such as node 100. The node is not limited to being a network node or a terminal device, e.g. in a D2D scenario a terminal device may serve as a relay node for other terminal devices. The wireless backhaul link may in some scenarios be an access link, e.g. backhaul link 123 may also be considered as an access link for node 110, and backhaul link 113 is also an access link for node 100. It should be understood that the above-mentioned upper node may be a base station, or may be a relay node, and the lower node may be a relay node, or may be a terminal device having a relay function, for example, in a D2D scenario, the lower node may also be a terminal device.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a specific example of an IAB system. In the IAB system shown in fig. 2, a host base station, IAB node 1, IAB node 2, UE1, and UE2 are included. The link between the home base station and the IAB node 1 and the link between the IAB node 1 and the IAB node 2 are backhaul links. The link between UE1 and the home base station and the link between UE2 and IAB node 1 are access links.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an IAB node. As shown in fig. 3, a mobile-termination (MT) function is defined as a component similar to a UE. In the IAB, the MT is referred to as a function (or module) residing on the IAB node. Since the MT functions like a normal UE, the IAB node can be considered to be accessed to a higher node or network through the MT.

A Distributed Unit (DU) function is defined as a component like a base station. In an IAB, a DU is referred to as a function (or module) residing on an IAB node. Since the DU is similar to a function or a part of a function of a general base station, it can be considered that the IAB node may allow access of a subordinate node, a terminal device, through the DU.

In-band relay generally has the limitation of half duplex, specifically, an IAB node cannot transmit a downlink signal to its child node when receiving a transmitted downlink signal of its parent node, and an IAB node cannot transmit an uplink signal to its parent node when receiving a transmitted uplink signal of its child node.

The following describes a method for configuring backhaul resources in a relay system of LTE with reference to fig. 4.

In the relay system of LTE, a donor node configures backhaul resources for the relay node semi-statically. Fig. 4 shows a specific example of allocation of downlink backhaul resources in a relay system of LTE. In LTE, a donor node allocates backhaul link resources to a relay node in units of subframes (1 ms), and the allocation period is one radio frame (10 ms). Specifically, the donor node designates a partial subframe as a backhaul link subframe through radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) signaling. The number and location of backhaul link subframes may be reconfigured, however, the time required for reconfiguration through RRC signaling is long.

For relay nodes in LTE, when a certain subframe is configured as a backhaul subframe, the relay node needs to monitor the relay physical downlink control channel (relay physical downlink control channel, R-PDCCH) and/or receive the physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink share channel, PDSCH) at this subframe, and therefore cannot transmit on the access link. As shown in fig. 4, subframes 2, 4, and 6 are configured as backhaul links, subframes 2, 4, and 6 are not available on the access link at the corresponding location. Thus, the relay of LTE is a semi-static time division multiplexing (time division multiplexing, TDM) resource allocation.

The resource allocation method of the IAB system in NR is described below.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of resource allocation of an IAB node in NR. The MT resources of the IAB node may be configured as downlink (D), uplink (U), and Flexible (F) three types. These three types are also supported by existing terminal devices and can therefore be indicated with existing signaling.

The DU resources of the IAB node may be configured into four types, downlink, uplink, flexible and unavailable (Null, N). Further, the downlink, uplink, and flexible three types of resources of the DU can be further divided into hard (hard, H) resources and soft (soft, S) resources. Wherein the hard resource of the DU represents the resource that is always available to the DU.

The soft resource of the DU indicates whether the DU is available or not, which requires an indication depending on the upper node (e.g., the donor node).

As can be seen from the above, resource allocation on the IAB node DU in NR depends on the instruction of the upper node, and the instruction of DU resources is performed by means of semi-static allocation and dynamic instruction. The resource allocation mode is quite different from the resource allocation method in the LTE system.

In connection with fig. 3 and 5, the MT of the IAB node is connected to the DU of the upper node, and the DU of the IAB node is connected to the MT of the lower node, and after semi-static (e.g., through RRC signaling) resource allocation, the IAB node may obtain the resource allocation of MT resources and DU resources, respectively. For example, it may include a transmission direction (D/U/F) of MT resources and DU resources, a type (soft/hard) of DU resources, a location of NULL resources of DU, and the like. It should be appreciated that the above-described relevant configuration may be obtained by explicit signaling or may be obtained implicitly. Specifically, a schematic diagram of the resource configuration of MT and DU in the case of time division multiplexing is shown in fig. 5.

As can be seen in conjunction with fig. 5 and table 1 below, for an IAB node, MT resources (e.g., MT resources corresponding to slots 1, 6, 7, 8) corresponding to hard resources (e.g., DU resources corresponding to slots 1, 6, 7, 8) of its DU are unavailable.

Specifically, in conjunction with the foregoing description, the MT of the IAB node shares three types of resources, and the DU of the IAB node shares 7 types of resources, after two-by-two combination, the MT of the IAB node and its corresponding possible behaviors are shown in the following two tables, where table 1 is a resource configuration case under the MT and various possible resource type combinations of the DU in the time division multiplexing scenario. Table 2 is the resource allocation case for MT and DU in the space division multiplexing (spatial division multiplexing, SDM) scenario, with various possible resource type combinations.

TABLE 1

TABLE 2

In tables 1 and 2 above, the meanings of the respective identifiers are as follows:

"MT: tx" means that MT should transmit after being scheduled;

"DU: tx" means that DU can be transmitted;

"MT: rx" means that the MT is capable of receiving (if there is a signal to be received);

"DU: rx" means that the DU can schedule uplink transmission of the lower node;

"MT: tx/Rx" means that MT should transmit or receive after being scheduled, but that transmission and reception do not occur simultaneously;

"DU: tx/Rx" means that the DU can be transmitted or received by a transmission of a lower node, but the transmission and the reception do not occur simultaneously;

"IA" means that the DU resource is explicitly or implicitly indicated as available;

"INA" means that DU resources are indicated as unavailable either explicitly or implicitly;

"MT: NULL" means that the MT is not transmitting and does not have to have reception capability;

"DU: NULL" means that the DU is not transmitted and that no transmissions by the subordinate node are received.

The present application mainly considers TDM scenarios, but the present application may also be extended to SDM, frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) or full duplex scenarios. For TDM scenarios, MT resources corresponding to hard resources of the DU are unavailable, specifically, on the unavailable resources of the MT (e.g., MT resources corresponding to 1 st, 6 th, 7 th, and 8 th slots in fig. 5):

(1) MT does not expect the upper node to schedule it on these resources;

(2) The MT does not receive or transmit reference signals on these resources;

(3) The MT does not perform physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) monitoring on these resources, i.e. if the search space coincides with these resources, the IAB node MT relinquishes the coincident search space monitoring.

It should be appreciated that in addition to the MT unavailable resources corresponding to the DU hard resources, the MT may have the remaining unavailable resources.

After the semi-static configuration is completed, the upper node may continue to dynamically indicate the availability of the soft type resource of the DU resource for the IAB node through dynamic signaling (for example, downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI)), for example, the upper node indicates the availability of the soft resource of the IAB node by using a dedicated DCI or a dedicated DCI field, and for convenience of description, the information included in the dynamic signaling is referred to as indication information, and the dedicated DCI or the dedicated DCI field may be collectively referred to as indication DCI.

The dynamic indication described above may be implemented in a number of ways.

In one implementation, this may be done by way of an explicit indication.

For example, the upper node directly indicates availability of soft type resources of the IAB node DU resources, and may also simultaneously indicate transmission directions of partial (e.g., F type) soft resources (e.g., DU resources corresponding to time slots 4 and 5 in fig. 5), and so on.

In another implementation, this may be done by way of implicit indication.

For example, the upper node indicates whether MT resources (for example, available resources of MT) of the IAB node are released (or otherwise available), and the IAB node determines availability of soft type resources of its DU resources according to the indication of the upper node on the MT resources.

Since the indication information of the upper node is directly received by the MT of the IAB node, the present application focuses on an implicit indication method. Specifically, the IAB node may determine the availability of the soft type resource of the corresponding DU resource according to the indication result of the upper node on the MT resource thereof by indicating to release or not release the MT resource of the IAB node (or indicating that the MT resource is available or unavailable). Like the UE, MT resources of the IAB node may be configured in three types, uplink, downlink and flexible. The upper node releasing one MT resource of the IAB node indicates that the upper node does not communicate with the IAB node at the resource, and the upper node not releasing one MT resource of the IAB node indicates that the upper node may communicate with the IAB node at the resource. In one possible implementation, the IAB node treats the released MT resources as unavailable MT resources.

Whether display indication or implicit indication is adopted, the dynamic indication signaling can achieve the following two purposes (1) the IAB node can determine the availability of DU soft resources; (2) The IAB node may determine whether its MT resources are released or determine the availability of MT resources.

For ease of presentation and understanding, the present application may describe the behavior of indication information (e.g., indication DCI) by describing release or non-release of MT resources. It should be noted that the technical solution provided in the present application may also be applied to explicit indication, i.e. in TDM scenarios, releasing MT resources may be equivalent to indicating that the soft type resources of their corresponding DU resources are available, and not releasing MT resources may be equivalent to indicating that the soft type resources of their corresponding DU resources are not available.

It should be noted that implicit indication can be applied to both TDM and SDM (or FDM) scenarios, i.e., for SDM (or FDM) scenarios, the IAB node can still determine the availability of the soft resources of its DUs from the upper node's indication of its MT resources. However, the correspondence between the explicit resource indication (indicating DU resource) and the implicit resource indication (indicating MT resource) may be different in different multiplexing scenarios. For example, for TDM scenarios, MT and DU cannot be transmitted simultaneously, so DU resources corresponding to available resources of MT must not be available, and vice versa; for the SDM scenario, the MT and the DU may receive or transmit simultaneously, so the DU resource corresponding to the available resource of the MT may not be available (when the transmission directions of the MT and the DU resource are downlink or uplink at the same time), and may be available (when the transmission directions of the MT and the DU resource are opposite).

Fig. 5 also shows a method of implicitly indicating availability of soft resources of a DU by indicating DCI.

In fig. 5, the IAB node receives the indication DCI of the upper node, and more specifically, the MT of the IAB node receives the indication DCI transmitted by the upper node. Wherein, since the DU resource type of the 0 th time slot is NULL, the MT resource of the corresponding 0 th time slot is available resource, and the MT of the IAB node may receive the indication DCI sent by the upper node through the time slot.

The indication DCI can indicate whether one or more MT resources are released, and after the IAB node receives the indication DCI, it can determine whether soft resources of its corresponding DU are available through whether the one or more MT resources are released.

For example, the indication DCI may indirectly indicate whether soft resources of the DUs of the 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 slots are available (corresponding to the arrow between the IAB node DU and the lower node MT in fig. 5, wherein the dashed line indicates that the corresponding MT resources are not released, and the dashed line indicates that the corresponding MT resources are released) by indicating whether MT resources of the 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 slots are released (corresponding to the arrow between the IAB node DU and the lower node MT in fig. 5, wherein the dashed line indicates that the corresponding MT resources are not available, and the solid line indicates that the corresponding MT resources are available).

Specifically, the indication DCI may indicate that MT resources of 2, 4, 9 slots (corresponding to dotted arrows in fig. 5) are not released, and then soft resources of its corresponding DU are unavailable, that is, the DU cannot be transmitted over the slots.

The indication DCI may indicate that MT resources of the 3 rd and 5 th slots are released, and then soft resources of the corresponding DUs are available, that is, the DUs may be transmitted in the slots.

According to whether MT resources are released or not, giving the signaling behavior of the IAB node MT:

(1) When the upper node indicates (by indicating DCI) that a certain MT resource is released, the MT of the IAB node considers that the upper node cannot schedule the PDSCH and physical uplink shared channel (physical uplink share channel, PUSCH) at that resource. That is, when the IAB node is scheduled PUSCH transmission or PDSCH transmission, the transmission is not located on the released MT resources;

(2) When the upper node indicates (by indicating DCI) that a certain MT resource is released, the MT of the IAB node does not perform PDCCH monitoring on the resource, signal state information reference signal (CSI-RS) reception, sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal, SRS) transmission, physical uplink control channel (physical uplink control channel, PUCCH) transmission, etc., that is, the IAB node does not perform higher layer configuration transmission on the released MT resource;

(3) When the upper node indicates that a certain MT resource is not released or is scheduled (including being scheduled as downlink transmission or uplink transmission), the MT of the IAB node may perform PDCCH monitoring, CSI reception, SRS transmission, PUCCH transmission, etc. on the resource, that is, the IAB node may perform transmission of higher layer configuration on the MT resource that is not released or is scheduled;

(4) When the upper node indicates that a certain MT resource is not released or scheduled, the MT of the IAB node considers that the upper node may perform PDSCH scheduling or PUSCH scheduling on the resource. It can be appreciated that in practical applications, the upper node may not schedule the IAB node MT on this resource;

(5) When PUCCH or PUSCH for hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (hybrid automatic repeat request-ACK, HARQ-ACK) feedback for an MT is configured or dynamically indicated on one MT resource, the IAB node does not expect this resource to be indicated DCI release.

It should be understood that the above-described various actions of MT are merely examples, which do not constitute limitations on the actions of MT of the present application.

Correspondingly, the act of signaling the IAB node DU includes:

(1) When MT resources corresponding to one DU resource are indicated to be released, the IAB node can perform dynamic scheduling such as PDSCH, PUSCH and the like on the resources;

(2) For TDM, when MT resource corresponding to one DU resource is indicated to be unreleased or not scheduled, IAB node does not perform dynamic scheduling such as PDSCH and PUSCH at the resource; for SDM, when MT resource corresponding to one DU resource is indicated to be unreleased or scheduled, IAB node does not perform dynamic scheduling such as PDSCH, PUSCH and the like which violate half-duplex constraint at the resource;

(3) When MT resource corresponding to one DU resource is indicated to be released, the IAB node can transmit and receive semi-static configuration signals such as reference signals and the like at the resource;

(4) For TDM, when MT resources corresponding to one DU resource are indicated as not released or not scheduled, the IAB node does not perform transmission and reception of semi-static configuration signals such as reference signals at the resources. For TDM, after the MT resource corresponding to one DU resource is indicated as not released or scheduled, the IAB node does not perform transceiving of semi-static configuration signals such as reference signals that violate the half-duplex constraint on the MT resource.

Here, half duplex constraint refers to: when the MT of the IAB node is in a transmitting state, the DU cannot be in a receiving state; while when the MT is in the reception state, the DU cannot be in the transmission state.

It should be appreciated that in addition to the dynamic indication signaling, the IAB node may also need the remaining configuration information to determine the availability of its DU resources, e.g., when one DU resource is semi-statically configured as unavailable, the IAB node cannot use this resource to communicate with the subordinate node even if the dynamic signaling releases its corresponding MT resource.

It should be understood that the various acts of the DU described above are by way of example only and are not limiting as to the acts of the DU of the present application.

Optionally, considering semi-static configuration signals such as reference signals facing the UE, if the UE is configured with a slot format indication (slot format indicator, SFI) to indicate reception of DCI (i.e., DCI format 2-0) and the signals are configured on flexible (F) resources of the UE, the corresponding IAB node DU resources may be soft resources; if the UE is configured with an SFI indicating reception of DCI (i.e., DCI format 2-0), but the signal is not configured on flexible (F) resources of the UE, the corresponding IAB node DU resources can only be hard resources; if the UE is not configured with an SFI indicating the reception of DCI (i.e., DCI format 2-0), the IAB node DU resource corresponding to the resource configured by the signal can only be a hard resource. Under the above constraint, the IAB node can always receive or transmit the signal, or even if the IAB node cannot receive or transmit the signal, the IAB node DU may instruct DCI to turn off the signal for the UE through the SFI.

Optionally, when configuring the indication DCI, the donor node or the upper node should ensure that the IAB node can use the DU resource corresponding to the released MT resource. For downlink transmission, the IAB node DU should have sufficient time to prepare and transmit the PDCCH and the PDSCH, and for uplink transmission, the IAB node DU should have sufficient time to prepare and transmit the PDCCH, and the lower node or UE of the IAB node should have sufficient time to prepare and transmit the PUSCH. Before the MT of the IAB node receives the indication DCI, it needs to first receive configuration information indicating the DCI. For example, the MT may be configured by a higher node through RRC signaling. As an example, the RRC configuration provided herein indicating DCI may include one or more of the following:

(1) Control channel resource set information (control resource set, core) and search space set information (search space set) indicating PDCCH of DCI are transmitted;

(2) Indicating the MT resource set or DU resource set indicated by DCI, including indicating the duration of the resource, indicating the starting position of the resource, indicating the ending position of the resource, indicating the identification of the resource, etc.;

(3) The transmission direction of part of DU resources, namely uplink/downlink/flexible configuration of DU;

(4) The transmission direction of partial MT resources, namely uplink/downlink/flexible configuration of MT;

(5) The TCI state of part of MT resources, i.e. beam information of PDCCH and/or PDSCH received by MT, or spatial co-located (QCL) information, etc.

Design details provided herein to indicate the configuration of DCI are described in detail below in connection with specific embodiments.

The indication DCI may indicate availability of one or more resources within a certain time domain range (or, in other words, a time domain region, a time domain resource), and the time domain range indicated by the indication DCI is referred to as an indication region in this application. The duration of the indication area may be defined by a protocol or configured by the network.

In one embodiment, the duration of the indication area may be directly configured by the superordinate node or the donor node.

For example, the upper node or the donor node may configure the duration of the indication area to be n times the time division duplex (time division duplexing, TDD) configuration period P, n being an integer of 1 or more. For another example, the length of the indication region may be equal to a period of indicating DCI transmission. Alternatively, the length of the indication area may be equal to a period indicating that the DCI corresponds to the search space.

Furthermore, it should be understood that the TDD configuration period may be composed of two concatenated periods (denoted as P1 and P2), and the length of the indication area may be n times the sum of the two periods, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

Fig. 6 shows one example of an indication region indicating DCI. Referring to fig. 6, the indication area may include a start time (or, a start time domain position) and an end time (or, an end time domain position), for example, the start time and the end time of the indication area may be directly represented by a resource identification, which may be any one or more of a symbol number, a slot number, a subframe number, a system frame number, and the like. It will be readily appreciated that the indication area typically contains its own start time and end time.

Alternatively, the start time of the indication region may be indirectly determined by indicating an interval between the time domain resource location where the DCI is located and the start time of the indication region, which interval may be referred to as an indication delay. It should be noted that the indication delay may also be described by the remaining means, e.g. the indication delay may also be indirectly determined by the interval between the time domain resource location where the indication DCI is located and the start time of the indication region. It should be appreciated that the indication delay may be configured by a superordinate node (e.g., a donor node) through semi-static signaling, may be dynamically indicated by a superordinate node through dynamic signaling, or may be protocol defined. The semi-static signaling may be, for example, RRC signaling. The dynamic signaling may be, for example, MAC control elements (MAC control element, MAC CEs) or DCI.

It should be appreciated that if the indication delay is protocol defined, the start time of the indication area is optional, which can be deduced from the time domain resource in which the indication DCI is located and the size of the indication delay.

As a possible implementation manner, the indication delay may be 0, that is, the interval between the time domain resource location where the indication DCI is located and the start time of the indication area is 0, or that is, the time domain resource location where the indication DCI is located and the start time of the indication area coincide. Similarly, the end time of the indication area may be determined by the start time of the indication area and the duration of the indication area.

Typically, the time domain resource where the indication DCI is located is one or more (e.g. three) symbols, and the time domain resource location where the indication DCI is located may be represented by a time domain location where the indication DCI occupies a symbol or a time domain location where a part of the symbols (e.g. the first symbol or the last symbol) occupied by the indication DCI.

Similarly, the indication area may also be determined by the start time and the end time of the indication area.

In fig. 6, the IAB node receives an indication DCI on available resources of the MT and determines availability of one or more resources within an indication region, which is a segment of contiguous time domain resources.

As an embodiment, the indication area for indicating the DCI may be discrete, for example, the indication area may be formed of multiple segments of disjoint time domain resources, which is not limited in this application.

Alternatively, to ensure that the IAB node receives robustness of the indication DCI, the same indication region may be indicated by multiple indication DCIs. Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram in which a plurality of indication DCIs indicate the same indication area. In fig. 7, the network side simultaneously indicates the same indication region through two or more identical indication DCIs (e.g., indication dci#1 and indication dci#2 in fig. 7), which may be received through different time domain resources. The plurality of indication DCIs refer to at least two indication DCIs, or more than or equal to two indication DCIs.

Alternatively, the multiple indicator DCIs may be transmitted using different beams, i.e. the PDCCHs transmitting the multiple indicator DCIs are located in different CORESETs, or the demodulation reference signals (demodulation reference signal, DMRS) transmitting the multiple indicator DCIs have different spatial QCL relationships.

It should be understood that each indication DCI has its corresponding indication delay, two indication DCIs received through different time domain resources indicate the same indication area, and the indication delay of each indication DCI may be different. For example, the indication delay is different between the indication dci#1 and the indication dci#2 in fig. 7.

Alternatively, the indication DCI may not indicate all resources within the indication region.

For example, the indication DCI may not indicate MT resources corresponding to hard resources of the DU. As a specific example, when no soft resource (e.g., symbol) is included in a continuous length of time domain resources (e.g., one slot) of the IAB node DU, the indication DCI may not indicate the corresponding MT resource.

Alternatively, the indication DCI may indicate MT resources corresponding to hard resources of the DU, but always indicate MT resources corresponding to hard resources of the release DU.

Optionally, when configuring the indication DCI, the upper node may configure an indication resource identifier of the indication DCI. The indication resource identifier of the indication DCI may be any one or more of a symbol number, a slot number, a subframe number, a system frame number, and the like. Wherein the indication resource represents MT or DU resources that would be indicated by the indication DCI.

In one possible implementation, the IAB node determines its hard/soft type of DU resources according to the configuration of the indicated resources, and the determination rules are shown in the above tables 1 and 2. Specifically, the IAB node regards MT resources other than the indication resources to which the indication DCI is configured as "Null" resources, and infers the type of DU resources (hard or soft) from the multiplexing type (TDM, SDM or FDM).

Optionally, when all symbols in a DU resource (e.g. a slot) of the IAB node are of hard type, the indication resource identifier of the indication DCI does not include the number of the DU resource or the MT resource corresponding to the DU resource.

Optionally, when all symbols in one MT resource (e.g., one slot) of the IAB node are unavailable symbols, the indication resource identification of the indication DCI does not include the number of the MT resource (e.g., does not include the slot number).

Alternatively, MT resources corresponding to soft resources of a partial DU in the indication area may not be indicated by the indication DCI. That is, the indication resource identification indicating DCI may not include the number of the MT resource corresponding to the soft resource of the portion of DU. At this point, the DU of the IAB node may use the soft resources of this part of the DU. In one possible implementation, the DU of the IAB node may only be dynamically transmitted using this portion of the resources, and may not be configured for transmission of periodic or semi-persistent signals.

Two important concepts of dynamic resources and fixed resources of the present application are described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 8.

Referring to the foregoing description, the resources of the DU of the IAB node include hard resources and soft resources. Wherein the upper node may indicate to the IAB node the availability status of some or all of the soft resources. On this basis, the set of soft resources (the availability status of the resources may change) for which the portion is indicated (e.g., by explicit indication or implicit indication) within the indication area may be referred to as dynamic resources. And the collection of hard resources within the indicated region and soft resources that are not indicated (the availability status of the resources does not change) may be referred to as fixed resources.

It can be seen that if the upper node indicates all soft resources of the IAB node, the fixed resources of the IAB node include only hard resources. If the upper node indicates only a part of the available status of soft resources of the IAB node, the fixed resources of the IAB node include all hard resources and soft resources which are not indicated by the upper node. It should be understood that, the indication of all soft resources of the IAB node by the upper node may be explicit indication or implicit indication, which is not restricted in the application, and the implicit indication is as described above and is not repeated.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of another example of resource configuration of an IAB node. In fig. 8, the MT of the IAB node receives the instruction DCI on the 0 th slot, and the start position of the instruction region of the instruction DCI is the 1 st slot and the end position is the 9 th slot, so the duration of the instruction region is 9 slots. In addition, since the interval between the end position and the start position of the time domain resource where the indication DCI is located is 0, the indication delay is also 0 slots.

Alternatively, the slot number in the figure may be a symbol number, a subframe number, a system frame number, or other indication resource identifier, which is not limited in this application.

In the indication area, the 2 nd, 3 rd, 4 th, 5 th and 9 th time slots are soft resources of DU, and the 1 st, 6 th, 7 th and 8 th time slots are hard resources of DU, that is, the indication area contains 5 soft resources and 4 hard resources.

For example, the indication DCI of the upper node may indicate availability of all soft resources (i.e. indicate all slots 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9), and then the dynamic resources of the IAB node include slots 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9, and the fixed resources of the IAB node include slots 1, 6, 7, and 8.

For another example, the indication DCI of the upper node may indicate only the availability of a part of soft resources (e.g. the 2 nd, 4 th and 5 th slots in fig. 8), and the dynamic resources of the IAB node include the 2 nd, 4 th and 5 th slots, and the fixed resources of the IAB node include the 1 st, 6 th, 7 th and 8 th slots and the 3 rd and 9 th slots that are not indicated by the upper node.

The following description will proceed with reference to the accompanying drawings, which indicate the relevant content of DCI configuration in this application.

Fig. 9 shows another example of an indication region indicating DCI.

In fig. 9, a case is considered in which the indication areas indicated by the plurality of indication DCIs overlap. Among these, three indication areas are indicated by indication area #0, indication area #1, and indication area #2, respectively, and indication area #0 is an indication area of indication DCI which is not shown in fig. 9 before indication area # 0. Indication field #1 and indication field #2 are indication fields indicating DCI #1 and indication DCI #2, respectively. There is an overlapping area between the indication area #1 and the indication area # 2.

For dynamic resources within the overlap region (e.g., resources indicated by both indicated dci#1 and indicated dci#2 in fig. 9), the communication protocol may be additionally restricted, e.g., the communication protocol may be defined in any one of the following ways:

(1) The protocol may specify that the results of multiple indication DCI indications should be the same.

For example, multiple indication DCIs may indicate that the dynamic resource is available at the same time, or that the dynamic resource is not available at the same time. As a more specific example, in fig. 9, the indication dci#1 and the indication dci#2 may indicate that the first dynamic resource in the overlap region is available at the same time or that the first dynamic resource is not available at the same time by an implicit means.

(2) For the case where the results of the multiple indication DCI indications are not the same, the protocol may specify that the subsequent (or later in the time domain) indication is able to override the result of the previous indication.

Specifically, when the plurality of indication DCIs indicate that a certain dynamic resource is available or unavailable has different results, the protocol may specify that the indication result of the indication DCI located later in the time domain covers the indication result of the indication DCI located earlier in the time domain. For example, in fig. 9, the indication dci#1 and the indication dci#2 may indicate the first dynamic resource in the overlapping region at the same time, and the indication dci#1 and the indication dci#2 may have different results for the indication of the first dynamic resource, and at this time, the IAB node may use the result of the indication dci#2 that is later in the time domain as a basis for determining the availability status of the first dynamic resource.

In addition, for the above method of coverage indication, the protocol may further define, for example, that the subsequent indication DCI may only indicate that the resource that was previously indicated as being unavailable to the DU is available, and cannot indicate that the resource that was previously indicated as being available to the DU is unavailable.

For example, if the indication dci#1 indicates that the first dynamic resource is unavailable, the subsequent indication dci#2 may indicate that the first dynamic resource is available.

For another example, if the indication dci#1 indicates that the first dynamic resource is available, the subsequent indication dci#2 should not indicate that the first dynamic resource is unavailable.

In other words, for implicit indication, the subsequent indication DCI may only release the resources that were previously indicated as being unreleased (the resources are actually MT resources that correspond to dynamic resources in the time domain), and the MT resources that were previously indicated as being released by the DCI cannot be indicated as not being released again.

In another possible implementation, the MT available resource set of the IAB node is a union of MT available resource sets indicated by the plurality of indication DCIs. For example, in one indication range, dci#1 indicates MT resources of a first slot to be not released (available), and dci#2 indicates MT resources of a second slot to be not released (available). The final set of available MT resources is the first and second time slots. The IAB node should infer its availability of DU soft resources from this union.

Fig. 10 shows another example of an indication region indicating DCI.

In fig. 10, the indication area of the indication dci#1 contains a second dynamic resource, and the IAB node receives the indication dci#2 from the upper node through the MT resource corresponding to the second dynamic resource (i.e., another indication DCI resource is contained in the indication area), and the communication protocol may specify that the MT resource corresponding to the second dynamic resource is always available, and for the TDM scenario, the second dynamic resource may be configured as an unavailable (Null) of the DU.

Alternatively, the MT resource corresponding to the second dynamic resource may be configured by a superordinate node or a donor node through semi-static signaling (e.g. RRC signaling), or may be dynamically indicated by a superordinate node through dynamic signaling (e.g. MAC CE or DCI) to be always available (i.e. configured or indicated that the second dynamic resource is always unavailable).

Alternatively, the protocol may specify that the resource (specifically, MT resource) where the indication DCI is located is not always indicated as unavailable (or released) by another indication DCI, that is, the dynamic resource corresponding to the MT resource where the indication DCI is located is not always indicated as available by another indication DCI.

Or, regardless of the result of indicating DCI, the MT of the IAB node always detects the search space corresponding to another indication DCI.

Alternatively, for the case where multiple indication DCIs indicate one common indication region (such as the embodiment shown in fig. 7), the protocol may specify that the resource (specifically, MT resource) where at least one of the multiple indication DCIs is located is not always indicated as unavailable (or released) by another indication DCI, that is, the dynamic resource corresponding to the MT resource where at least one indication DCI is located is not always indicated as available by another indication DCI.

In a possible embodiment, at least two of the location (e.g. determined by the configuration of the search space set) of the indication DCI and the information of its corresponding indication region (at least two of indication region start time information, duration time information, end time information, where part of the information may be implicitly derived) may be configured by different signaling (e.g. different RRC), at which time the IAB node needs to determine the association of the indication DCI and the indication region, i.e. determine the indication region indicated by each indication DCI, or determine which indication DCI indicates an indication region. At this time, it can be determined by:

the interval between the time domain resource where each indication DCI is located and the start time of its corresponding indication region (i.e. the indication delay) may be within a certain time domain range, for example, the indication delay may be between a first threshold and a second threshold, so that the indication region indicated by the indication DCI can be determined by the location of the indication DCI and the threshold information. Further, if there are a plurality of indication areas satisfying the condition, one of the plurality of indication areas closest to the location of the indication DCI (or, the start time is the first) may be determined as the indication area to be indicated.

In addition, the association relationship between the multiple indication DCIs and the multiple indication areas may be indicated by an additional signaling, and the IAB node may obtain the additional signaling from the upper node, and determine the indication area corresponding to each indication DCI according to the additional signaling.

The configuration of the indication DCI in the multi-hop IAB system is described below.

Fig. 11 shows an example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system.

In fig. 11, three nodes are included, where a first node may be a donor node, or an IAB node, a second node and a third node are IAB nodes, each node may include one or more lower nodes, and an upper node dynamically indicates resources for the lower nodes through indication information (e.g., indication DCI), and the lower nodes may dynamically indicate resources for the nodes of a lower level. In one possible implementation, the IAB node may have multiple superordinate nodes.

Specifically, taking the second node as an example, the (MT of the) second node receives the indication DCI (the bar frame C in fig. 11 indicates the time domain resource where the indication DCI is located) sent by the (DU of the) first node, the MT of the second node detects the indication DCI at a specific time domain position according to the configuration of the search space set, after receiving the indication DCI, the second node generates new indication DCI according to the received content of the indication DCI, and sends the new indication DCI to the third node. It should be understood that the second node may include a plurality of subordinate nodes, and thus the second node may transmit a plurality of the new indication DCI, and the contents of the plurality of new indication DCI may be the same or different.

For convenience of description and understanding, in this application, the indication DCI received by (MT of) each node from an upper node is referred to as first indication DCI, and the indication DCI transmitted to a lower node is referred to as second indication DCI.

The region indicated by the first indication DCI is referred to as a first indication region, and the region indicated by the second indication DCI is referred to as a second indication region.

When the third node is a lower node of the second node, (MT of) the third node receives the first indication DCI which is the second indication DCI transmitted by the second node.

In one possible implementation, when the third node is configured with monitoring of the first indication DCI and this DCI is transmitted by the second node, a semi-static signal between the second node and the third node may be configured on a dynamic resource of the second node, where the semi-static signal includes a reference signal such as CSI-RS, SRS, etc., a physical channel such as semi-static PDSCH, PUSCH, i.e. PUCCH, etc. In this case, when the dynamic resource of the second node configured with the semi-static signal is indicated as unavailable by the upper node, the second node may close communication with the third node on this dynamic resource through the second indication DCI.

As an embodiment, when a portion of the resources to be indicated in one second indication area overlaps with a portion of the resources to be indicated in one or more first indication areas in the time domain, the corresponding one or more second indication DCIs are said to depend on the corresponding one or more first indication DCIs, or the one or more first indication DCIs is said to have an association relationship with the one or more second indication DCIs.

In one possible implementation, the first indicator DCI and the second indicator DCI having an association relationship are defined in the following manner.

While meeting the requirement that the first indication DCI and the second indication DCI overlap in the time domain, the first indication region and the second indication region should also meet the following requirements:

(1) The starting position of the second indication area is not advanced to the first indication area;

(2) The second indication area is a first second indication area meeting the condition (1).

When the first indication area and the second indication area satisfy the above two conditions, the two are referred to as indication areas having an association relationship.

Note that in this application, when discussing the relationship between the first indicator DCI and the second indicator DCI, it is generally discussed that the first indicator DCI and the second indicator DCI have an association relationship.

Similarly, in the present application, when a relationship between a first indication area and a second indication area is discussed, the first indication area and the second indication area having an association relationship are generally discussed.

It should be appreciated that when one second indication DCI has an association relationship with one first indication DCI, the indication of the partial resource by the second indication DCI may need to be determined according to the first indication DCI.

It can be understood that the IAB node needs a certain processing delay from receiving the first indication DCI to transmitting the second indication DCI, where the processing delay includes a delay of detecting and decoding the first indication DCI by the MT, a delay of interaction and processing between the MT and the DU, a preparation time of transmitting the second indication DCI by the DU, and the like. In this application, the processing delay required for the IAB node to receive the first indicator DCI from the upper node to transmit the second indicator DCI to the lower node is referred to as a first delay.

Specifically, the first delay may be defined by a communication protocol, or may be reported by the IAB node.

As an embodiment, the first delay may be expressed in terms of the number of slots and/or the number of symbols at a certain subcarrier spacing. For example. The first delay is a maximum of 28 symbols at a subcarrier spacing of 120 KHz.

Optionally, when configuring the indication DCI, an interval between the first indication DCI and the second indication DCI, which have an association relationship, should be greater than or equal to the first delay. For example, as shown in fig. 11, the interval between the first indication DCI and the second indication DCI may be equal to the first delay, that is, the interval may be a processing delay.

In addition, when the plurality of pieces of instruction DCI correspond to the same instruction region, a plurality of pieces of first instruction DCI and a plurality of pieces of second instruction DCI having an association relationship can be obtained. At this time, the interval between the last first indicator DCI and the first second indicator DCI may be configured to be equal to or greater than the first delay. Alternatively, the interval between the at least one first indicator DCI and the one second indicator DCI may be configured to be equal to or greater than the first delay.

It should be understood that the foregoing settings are merely for convenience of description and understanding, and are not limiting of the technical solutions of the present application, and those skilled in the art should understand that the above related information can also appear in other forms.

Since the second indication DCI of each node is determined according to the first indication DCI, the end time of the second indication region indicated by the second indication DCI and the end time of the first indication region indicated by the first indication DCI may be completely overlapped in time domain, alternatively, the start times of the second indication region and the first indication region may be overlapped in time domain.

In order to satisfy the above condition, the indication range for the lowest node should be determined first. Specifically, in fig. 11, the indication range of the first indication DCI of the third node (i.e., the second indication DCI of the second node) should be determined first, and then the indication range of the first indication DCI of the second node (i.e., the second indication DCI of the first node) should be determined. In fig. 11, since the first node is the uppermost node or the donor node, there is no first instruction DCI, and the third node is the lowermost node, there is no second instruction DCI.

In addition, in order to save the overhead of indicating DCI, the indication range of indicating DCI is equal to the period of indicating DCI in fig. 11.

However, in the above-described determination of the indication range, a problem of delay delivery will occur. Specifically, in fig. 11, the indication delay corresponding to the first indication DCI is the indication delay #1, the indication delay corresponding to the second indication DCI is the indication delay #2, and the length of the indication delay #1 is equal to the length of the indication delay #2 plus the time domain resource and the processing delay where the second indication DCI is located under the condition that the foregoing "the end time of the first indication region and the end time of the second indication region completely overlap in the time domain" is satisfied.

Still further, only three IAB nodes are shown in fig. 11, in fact, there may be more levels of IAB nodes (e.g., a fourth node, a fifth node, etc.) in the multi-hop IAB system, where the first indication DCI of the upstream node may have a larger indication delay due to delay accumulation, thereby making the dynamic indication of the upstream node (e.g., the second node) not timely enough, so that the effect of the dynamic indication is not ideal.

In addition, there is another problem in that, when a new lower node is added, all nodes may need to reconfigure an indication range and/or an indication delay of the indication DCI.

In order to solve the above problem, the embodiment of the present application provides another example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system, where the problems of delay delivery and the like do not occur.

Fig. 12 shows another example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system.

In fig. 12, the second node may periodically receive the first indication DCI transmitted by the first node, and periodically transmit the second indication DCI to the third node, and the period in which the second node receives the first indication DCI and transmits the second indication DCI may be the same.

In fig. 12, the indication delay #1 and the indication delay #2 corresponding to the first indication DCI and the second indication DCI are equal, and the duration of the first indication region and the second indication region are also the same.

It should be noted that the indication delay #1 and the indication delay #2 may be configured or acquired independently, and the indication delay #1 and the indication delay #2 may have different values. In addition, the first indication area and the second indication area may be configured or acquired independently, and may have different values.

As one possible implementation manner, the duration of the indication delay #1 and the indication delay #2 corresponding to the first indication DCI and the second indication DCI are both greater than or equal to the first delay. In fig. 12, in order to save the overhead of the indication DCI, the indication range of the indication DCI is equal to the period of the indication DCI. Specifically, the start time of the first indication region of the first indication DCI coincides with the start time of the time domain resource where the second indication DCI is located, and extends until the start time of the indication region of the first indication DCI in the next period, or extends until the start time of the time domain resource where the second indication DCI in the next period is located. It should be noted that the present application does not limit the relationship between the indication range of the indication DCI and the period of the indication DCI.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 12, since the indication delays of the first indication DCI and the second indication DCI are configured independently, that is, the indication delay #1 is independent of the indication delay #2, the problem of delay transfer does not occur. However, the first indication area and the second indication area in fig. 12 do not completely overlap in the time domain.

Specifically, as can be seen from fig. 12, the end time of the second indication area is after the end time of the first indication area. At this time, the second indication area may be divided into two parts, which are an S area and an X area, respectively, as shown in fig. 12. The starting time of the S area, that is, the starting time of the second indication area, and the ending time of the S area coincides with the ending time of the first indication area in the time domain. The start time of the X-region coincides with the end time of the S-region (or the start time of the X-region coincides with the end time of the first indication region in the time domain), and the end time of the X-region, i.e. the end time of the second indication region.

When the second node performs resource indication to the lower node, since the end time of the second indication area is located after the end time of the first indication area, this also means that the first node has not performed resource indication to the second node, and the second node needs to perform resource indication to the third node in a time domain area (i.e., X area) located after the end time of the first indication area.

The second node can only determine the available state of the dynamic resource on the S area of the second indication area according to the first indication DCI received from the first node, but cannot know the available state of the dynamic resource on the X area. If the second node decides on the resource configuration of its DU before acquiring the MT resource configuration of the X-zone from the first node and indicates the resource to the third node, a problem may occur that the second node subsequently collides with the resource indication of the X-zone by the first node.

The resource allocation of the X area and the cause of the resource indication conflict are further described below.

Specifically, considering the case of implicit indication, MT resources that may include K third nodes on the X region need to be indicated by the second indication DCI of the second node, where K is a non-negative integer.

The K MT resources correspond to K DU resources of the third node, and the corresponding DU resources may include dynamic resources, fixed resources and unavailable resources. Wherein, the availability of the dynamic resource of the third node needs to be determined by the second indication DCI sent by the second node.

It should be appreciated that the K MT resources also correspond to K DU resources of the second node, which may include dynamic resources, fixed resources, and unavailable resources. Wherein the availability of the dynamic resource of the second node needs to be determined by the first indication DCI received by the second node.

It should be understood that the K value may be 0, i.e. there are no MT resources indicated at the third node in the X-zone.

Fig. 13 shows a schematic diagram of an X-zone resource configuration. Fig. 13 assumes a TDM scenario.

In fig. 13, the DU of the third node includes 4 soft resources in total, where the available status of soft resources corresponding to the 1 st, 2 nd and 5 th timeslots is indicated by the second node, that is, in the X region, three dynamic resources are included in total (i.e., K value is 3), that is, the availability of MT resources including three third nodes in total in the X region needs to be indicated by the second indication DCI sent by the second node. In addition, the X region further includes three fixed resources, namely hard resources corresponding to the 0 th time slot and the 4 th time slot, and soft resources not indicated by the 3 rd time slot.

Since the second node performs the resource indication on the third node in the X region, the first node does not know the indication content of the second node, so that the problem of collision with the subsequent resource indication on the X region by the first node may occur. For example, the second node indicates that the MT resource corresponding to the 2 nd time slot of the third node is not released, the DU of the third node will not communicate with the lower node in the 2 nd time slot, and the MT of the third node may send a signal to the second node DU or receive a signal sent by the second node DU in the 2 nd time slot, then if the first node indicates that the MT resource corresponding to the 2 nd time slot of the second node is also not released, under the TDM assumption, the DU of the second node cannot communicate with the third node in the 2 nd time slot, that is, a resource indication conflict occurs. The resource indication collision may lead to the following consequences: (1) Failure of communication between the third node MT and the second node DU; (2) The signal transmitted by the third node MT may cause unnecessary interference; (3) DU resources of the third node are wasted.

For this reason, the present application provides a method 200 for indicating resources, which can avoid the occurrence of the resource indication conflict.

Specifically, FIG. 14 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method 200 of indicating resources. The method 200 includes steps 210-240. The method 200 will be described below in connection with fig. 12-15.

In the method 200, the first node is an upper node of the second node, and the third node is a lower node of the second node, which will not be described in detail below.

In step 210, the second node obtains resource configuration information, where the resource configuration information is used to indicate the configuration of fixed resources and dynamic resources of the second node.

Specifically, referring to the foregoing description, the fixed resources of the second node include hard resources and soft resources that are not indicated as available by the upper node (i.e., the first node), while the dynamic resources of the second node include soft resources that are indicated as available by the upper node.

In one possible implementation, the configuration of the fixed resources and the dynamic resources of the second node is inferred from the resource configuration of the MT of the second node, i.e. the fixed resources and the dynamic resources of the second node are implicitly configured.

That is, the second node can determine which soft resources of the second node are indicated by the upper node according to the resource configuration information.

As one possible implementation, the second node may obtain resource configuration information from the first node.

In addition, the resource configuration information may further include other information, which is not limited in this application. For example, the method may also be used to indicate the transmission directions (D/U/F) of MT resources and DU resources of the second node, the third node, the type of DU resources (soft/hard), the location of NULL resources of the DU, etc., indicate the length of the area, etc.

Alternatively, the resource configuration information may be generated by the donor node and sent to the first node, and then sent by the first node to the second node, or generated by the donor node and sent to the second node.

It should be understood that the indicated content of the resource configuration information acquired by the second node should be considered fixed without reconfiguration. Here, the indication content of the resource configuration information is fixed, that is, the number of the soft resource indicated by the upper node is fixed, and it should not be understood that the available state of the dynamic resource indicated each time is unchanged. For example, the first indication area indicated by the first indication information sent periodically by the first node includes 6 slots, where slot 0, slot 2 and slot 4 correspond to the soft resources of the DU. The second node can know the time slot number of the dynamic resource corresponding to the time slot 0, the time slot 2 and the time slot 4, which needs to be indicated by the first node, according to the resource configuration information of the second node obtained from the first node. For example, the first node indicates the available states of the dynamic resources corresponding to the time slot 2 and the time slot 4 in each period, and the indication result of the available states of the dynamic resources corresponding to the time slot 2 and the time slot 4 in each period may be different.

In step 220, the second node receives first indication information sent by the first node, where the first indication information is used to indicate an available state of one or more dynamic resources on a first indication area of the second node.

Herein, the available state of the dynamic resource includes both available and unavailable states.

Here, the first indication information may specifically be the indication DCI described above. For descriptive convenience, the first indication information will hereinafter also be referred to as first indication DCI.

Specifically, the second node receives first indication information (i.e., first indication DCI) sent by an upper node (i.e., a first node) of the second node, where the first indication information can indicate whether one or more dynamic resources on the first indication area are available. Alternatively, the first indication information may explicitly indicate whether one or more dynamic resources on the first indication area are available, or may implicitly indicate that the application is not limited to this.

Here, the explicit indication means that the first indication information directly indicates an available state of dynamic resources of the DU of the second node. The implicit indication means that the first indication information indicates an available state of a part of resources of the MT of the second node. The second node determines the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU according to the available state of the partial resource of the MT indicated by the first indication information.

For example, in the implicit indication manner, the first indication information can be used to indicate the availability status of a part of resources of the MT of the second node on the first indication area, where all or a part of the resources of the MT corresponds to the dynamic resources of the DU of the second node in the time domain, and the first indication information can indirectly indicate the availability of the dynamic resources of the DU (or the dynamic resources of the second node) by indicating whether to release the MT resources.

In one possible implementation, in an implicit indication manner, the first indication information can be used to indicate an available state of a part of resources of the MT of the second node on the first indication area, where a part of the part of resources of the MT corresponds to unavailable resources of a DU of the second node in a time domain, where the corresponding DU is still unavailable regardless of whether the first indication information releases the MT resources.

In another possible implementation, in an implicit indication manner, the first indication information can be used to indicate the available status of part of the resources of the MT of the second node on the first indication area, where a part of the resources of the MT corresponds to the hard resources of the DU of the second node in the time domain, where there may be two cases: (1) Whether the first indication information releases the MT resource or not, the corresponding DUhard resource is always available; (2) The indication of the first indication information on the MT resource does not affect the availability of the DUhard resource of the second node all the time, and for the TDM scene or the SDM scene with consistent uplink and downlink configuration (downlink or uplink) of the MT and the DU, the first indication information always releases the MT resource.

For another example, in the manner of explicit indication, the first indication information may also be used to indicate the available state of dynamic resources of the DU of the second node on the first indication area. The second node can determine the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU of the second node according to the first indication information.

It should be understood that the second node first needs to receive the configuration information of the first indication information before receiving the first indication information.

In one embodiment, the configuration information of the first indication information may include at least one of the following information:

the start time of the first indication area, the end time of the first indication area, the duration of the first indication area, and the interval (i.e. indication delay) between the end time of the time domain resource where the first indication information is located and the start time of the first indication area.

In addition, the configuration information of the first indication information may further include: a resource identification of one or more resources to be indicated. Here, the resources to be indicated represent MT resources or DU resources to be indicated; the resource identifier may be at least one of a symbol number, a slot number, a subframe number, and a system frame number.

The description of the explicit indication, the implicit indication, and the configuration information of the first indication information has been described in detail in the foregoing, and will not be repeated herein.

Optionally, the first indication information may further include a configuration type indication for indicating whether the resource in the configuration information is incrementally configured or reconfigured. In the case of incremental configuration, the first indication information contains only a small amount of increased or decreased dynamic resources, thereby reducing signaling overhead. In the reconfiguration, all the dynamic resources configured by the first indication information are ignored, and the dynamic resources in the configuration information are fully adopted. It should be understood that the two types of configuration type indications may be used interchangeably and that the present application does not constrain the use of conditions for incremental configuration or reconfiguration.

In step 230, the second node determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information. The second indication information is used for indicating the available state of resources between the second node and the third node on the second indication area, the second indication area comprises at least one dynamic resource which is not indicated by the first indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the state of the at least one dynamic resource which is not indicated by the first indication information is unavailable.

In particular, the resource between the second node and the third node may be understood as a resource used for communication between the second node and the third node, for example, may be an MT resource of the third node or a DU resource of the second node.

Alternatively, the second indication information is used to indicate the available state of the resources between the second node and the third node on the second indication area may be understood as the second indication information is used to indicate the available state of the MT resources of the third node on the second indication area.

Optionally, the second indication information is used to indicate the available state of the resource between the second node and the third node on the second indication area may also be understood as the second indication information is used to indicate the available state of the DU resource of the second node on the second indication area.

In one possible implementation, the at least one dynamic resource not indicated by the first indication information is a dynamic resource of the second node in the aforementioned X-zone.

Referring to fig. 12, first indication information received by the second node from the first node is used to indicate the first indication area, and second indication information is used to indicate the second indication area to the third node. The area of the second indication area located after the end position of the first indication area is referred to as an X area herein. In other words, the second indication area may include two parts, an S area and an X area as shown in fig. 12, respectively. The S area is an overlapping portion of the second indication area and the first indication area, the X area is a portion of the second indication area that is located after an end time of the first indication area in a time domain, and the first indication information cannot indicate resources in the X area.

It should be understood that the second indication information is used to indicate the available status of some or all of the dynamic resources on the second indication area, that is, the second indication information is used to indicate the available status of the dynamic resources on the S area of the second indication area, and also indicates the available status of the dynamic resources on the X area of the second indication area.

The available state of the dynamic resources on the S area is determined according to the available state of the dynamic resources of the first indication area indicated by the first indication information. It can be understood that, because the S area is an overlapping portion of the first indication area and the second indication area, the second node determines, according to the first indication information, an available state of the dynamic resource of the third node on the S area, and further indicates to the third node that the available state of the dynamic resource of the first indication area of the second node indicated by the first indication information does not conflict with the available state of the dynamic resource of the second node indicated by the first indication information.

Since the X region is located after the end time of the first indication region, the first indication information sent by the first node to the second node indicates only the end time of the first indication region, and the first indication information is not indicated in the time domain resources located after the end time of the first indication region. But the second node, when indicating the available state of the dynamic resource of the third node, needs to indicate the available state of the dynamic resource on the X area located after the end time of the first indication area. In other words, when the first node has not indicated the available state of the dynamic resource on the X area to the second node yet, the second node needs to indicate the available state of the dynamic resource on the X area to the lower node in advance. If the second node blindly indicates the availability status of the dynamic resources of the X-area to the third node without considering the indication of the dynamic resources of the X-area by the first node, then the second node may collide with the subsequent indication of the dynamic resources on the X-area by the first node.

In this embodiment, the second indication information indicates that the state of the at least one dynamic resource not indicated by the first indication information is unavailable, and thus the problem of resource indication conflict does not occur. Further description is provided below in connection with fig. 15.

Fig. 15 shows an example of an X-area resource allocation. In fig. 15, the second node in the X region includes three soft resources corresponding to the 0 th, 2 th and 4 th time slots, wherein the second node can know that two soft resources corresponding to the 2 nd and 4 th time slots are indicated by the first node according to the resource configuration information, that is, in the X region, the second node includes two dynamic resources corresponding to the 2 nd and 4 th time slots.

The second indication information may indicate that the states of the two dynamic resources are unavailable, and in particular, the second indication information may indicate that MT resources of the 2 nd and 4 th slots of the third node are unavailable. At this time, no matter what the indication result (indicated as available or unavailable) of the first node to the two dynamic resources is in the future, the problem of resource indication conflict does not occur.

In another possible implementation, the second indication information does not indicate to the third node the available state of the dynamic resource that is not indicated by the first indication information. That is, the indicated resources of the second indication information do not contain dynamic resources that are not indicated by the first indication information; in other words, the indication resource of the second indication information includes only the fixed resource of the second node in the X region.

Optionally, the second indication area further includes Y fixed resources, and the second indication information indicates that an available state of Z of the Y fixed resources is available or unavailable, where Y, Z is an integer greater than or equal to 0, and Z is less than or equal to Y.

Alternatively, the Y fixed resources not indicated by the first indication information may be fixed resources of the second node in the X area. In fig. 15, the second node includes four fixed resources (i.e., Y value is 4) in total of time slots 0, 1, 3, and 5, where time slot 0 corresponds to soft resource that the second node will not be indicated by the first node, and time slots 1, 3, and 5 are hard resources.

The second indication information may indicate an available state of 0, 1 or more of the four fixed resources, for example, indicate as available or unavailable. As shown in fig. 15, the second indication information may indicate fixed resources corresponding to the 0 th and 1 st slots (i.e., Z value is 2). Specifically, the second indication information may indicate that MT resources of the 0 th and 1 st slots of the third node are available or unavailable.

Optionally, the DU resource of the third node corresponding to the Z fixed resources may be a dynamic resource of the third node.

In step 240, the second node sends second indication information to the third node.

It should be understood that the behavior of the third node after receiving the second indication information sent by the second node (i.e. the first indication information corresponding to the third node) may be identical to the behavior of the second node after receiving the first indication information, which is not described herein.

The resource indication method provided by the application is mainly described from the perspective of the second node, and the processing procedures of the first node and the third node have corresponding relations with the processing procedures of the second node, for example, the second node receives the first indication information from the first node, which means that the first node sends the first indication information to the second node; the second node sends the second indication information to the third node, meaning that the third node receives the second indication information from the second node. Therefore, even if the processes of the first node and the third node are not explicitly described in the individual places above, the processes of the first node and the third node can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art based on the processes of the second node.

The second node acquires own resource configuration information and receives first indication information indicating the available state of the dynamic resource of the second node on the first indication area from the upper node. When the second node needs to indicate the resource to the lower node beyond the indication of the upper node, the second node determines how to indicate the resource beyond the indication of the upper node to the lower node according to the resource configuration information of the second node. Since the resource configuration of the second node is fixed, even if the indication is given to the lower node in advance, the subsequently received indication will not collide with the previous indication.

Fig. 16 illustrates a resource indication method 300 provided in the present application, which can also avoid the occurrence of resource indication conflict. The method 300 includes steps 310-340. The method 300 will be described below in connection with fig. 16-18.

Similarly, in the method 300, the first node is an upper node of the second node, and the third node is a lower node of the second node, which will not be described in detail below.

In step 310, the second node obtains resource configuration information indicating the configuration of fixed and dynamic resources of the second and third nodes.

The fixed resources of the second node include hard resources and soft resources that are not indicated by the first node as available, and the dynamic resources of the second node include soft resources that are indicated by the first node as available.

The fixed resources of the third node include hard resources and soft resources that are not indicated by the second node as available, and the dynamic resources of the third node include soft resources that are indicated by the second node as available.

In one possible implementation, the configuration of the fixed resources and the dynamic resources of the second node and the third node is inferred from the resource configuration of the MT of the second node and the third node, i.e. the fixed resources and the dynamic resources of the second node and the third node are implicitly configured.

That is, the second node can determine which soft resources of the second node are indicated by the upper node according to the resource configuration information. Meanwhile, the second node can determine which third nodes' soft resources need to be indicated according to the resource configuration information. Or the second node can determine which MT resources of the third node need to be indicated according to the resource configuration information.

In one possible implementation, the second node does not have the full fixed resource and dynamic resource configuration of the third node. For example, the DU resource of the third node corresponding to a part of MT resources of the third node indicated by the second node may not be a dynamic resource, for example, may be an unavailable resource or a hard resource of the DU.

Typically, the second node and the third node resource configuration information are sent by the first node to the second node through different signaling.

In step 320, the second node receives first indication information sent by the first node, where the first indication information is used to indicate an available state of one or more dynamic resources on a first indication area of the second node.

Step 320 may be understood with reference to step 220 in method 200, and is not described in detail herein.

In step 330, the second node determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, where the second indication information is used to indicate an available state of one or more dynamic resources on a second indication area of the third node, the second indication area includes a first area, the first area includes K dynamic resources, and K is a non-negative integer after the first area is located at an end position of the first indication area.

Alternatively, the first region may be the aforementioned X region.

The resource configuration information in the foregoing method 200 is used to indicate the configuration of the fixed resource and the dynamic resource of the second node, and in this embodiment, the resource configuration information may indicate the configuration of the fixed resource and the dynamic resource of the second node and the third node, so, compared to the foregoing method 200, the determination of the second indication information in this embodiment comprehensively considers possible influences of the configuration of the fixed resource and the dynamic resource of the third node.

For the implicit indication manner in the TDM scenario, the second indication information is used to indicate the available state of one or more dynamic resources on the second indication area of the third node, which can be understood as that the second indication information indicates the available state of the MT resource corresponding to the third node, and the method for determining the second indication information will be discussed from the perspective of the MT resource of the third node.

In one possible implementation, the MT resource of the third node indicated by the second indication information sent by the second node to the third node is orthogonal to the dynamic resource of the second node that would be indicated by the first node. Alternatively, the dynamic resources of the DU of the third node indicated by the second indication information sent by the second node to the third node are orthogonal to the dynamic resources of the second node that would be indicated by the first node.

According to the resource configuration information of the second node, the first node indicates the available state of part or all of the dynamic resources in the duration of the first indication area. According to the above description of the resource configuration information of the second node, the second node can know which soft resources need to be indicated by the first node according to the resource configuration information of the second node. Therefore, when the second node indicates the availability state of the MT resource in the X area to the third node in advance, the MT resource corresponding to the DU resource possibly indicated by the first node after the first indication area is always released (or indicated as unavailable), so that the occurrence of collision can be avoided.

Specifically, the second node may determine, according to the resource configuration information, an availability status (whether to be released) of MT resources of K third nodes included in the X area, where a time domain resource of the second node DU corresponding to the K MT resources in a time domain belongs to a fixed resource included in the resource configuration information of the second node, and the second node may determine, according to the determined availability status of the K MT resources, second indication information, or the second node may generate and send, to the third node, second indication information according to the determined availability status of the K MT resources.

Fig. 17 shows an example of the X-area resource allocation. In fig. 17, the second node determines, according to the resource configuration information, the available states of K MT resources included in the X area of the third node, for example, one or more of the K MT resources may be determined to be available, and the rest may be unavailable.

In the X region, the dynamic resource of the second node (i.e., the soft resource of the DU of the second node corresponding to the 0 th, 2 th and 4 th timeslots) may be configured to be orthogonal to the MT resource to be indicated of the third node (i.e., the MT resource of the third node corresponding to the 1 st, 3 rd and 5 th timeslots, where the K value is 3) in the time domain, so that when the first indication information of the next period (i.e., the second first indication DCI of the second node in fig. 12) and the second indication information (i.e., the first second indication DCI of the second node in fig. 12) indicate respective dynamic resources, no collision occurs, and the second indication information may indicate that the availability status of the K MT resources is determined, for example, one or more of the K resources may be indicated to be available, and the rest may be unavailable.

The dynamic resource of the second node and the MT resource to be indicated of the third node are orthogonal in the time domain, which can be understood as that the dynamic resource of the second node and the MT resource to be indicated of the third node are staggered in the time domain and do not overlap (or otherwise, do not correspond).

Alternatively, the MT resources (indicated by the first node to the second node) and DU resources (indicated by the second node to the third node) of the second node satisfy time division multiplexing or do not violate half duplex constraints. The dynamic resources of the third node correspond to the fixed resources of the second node in the time domain, or the MT resources that the third node would be instructed to correspond to the fixed resources of the second node DU in the time domain.

In other words, the MT resource of the third node corresponding to the dynamic resource indicated by the second node is not indicated.

Accordingly, the MT resources of (each of) the K third nodes may be configured that the time domain resources of the corresponding second node in the time domain belong to the fixed resources (contained in the resource configuration information) of the second node. The fixed resource of the second node is not indicated by the first indication information, or the fixed resource of the second node is always available, so the second indication information can indicate the time domain resource of the third node corresponding to the second indication information in the time domain.

The second node may determine the availability status of MT resources of K third nodes included on the X area according to the resource configuration information, and determine the second indication information according to the availability status of K resources.

It can be appreciated that by means of orthogonal indication, the second node can naturally avoid collision with the subsequent indication of the first node even if the second node indicates the availability status of MT resources of the X region to the third node in advance.

In another possible implementation manner, MT resources of the third node indicated by the second indication information sent by the second node to the third node and dynamic resources that would be indicated by the first node are not orthogonal. However, the occurrence of collisions may be avoided by making some restrictions on the indicated content of the second node.

Specifically, the second node may instruct N of the MT resources of the K third nodes included in the X area to be unavailable according to the resource configuration information, or the second node releases the MT resources of the N third nodes, where the time domain resources of the second node DU corresponding to the N MT resources in the time domain belong to dynamic resources included in the resource configuration information of the second node, N is a non-negative integer less than or equal to K, and the second node determines second instruction information according to the available states of the K MT resources. Or the second node generates and sends second indication information to the third node according to the available states of the K MT resources.

Specifically, fig. 18 shows another example of the X-area resource configuration. In fig. 18, the second node determines the available states of K MT resources contained on the X area of the third node according to the resource configuration information.

Specifically, in the foregoing embodiment shown in fig. 17, the K MT resources of the third node are orthogonal to the dynamic resources in the second node in the time domain, and this embodiment will discuss a case where the K MT resources of the third node are not orthogonal to the dynamic resources in the second node in the time domain. At this time, a part (i.e., N) of the K MT resources of the third node in the time domain corresponds to the time domain resource of the second node (included in the resource configuration information) that belongs to the dynamic resource of the second node, or all of the K MT resources of the third node in the time domain corresponds to the time domain resource of the second node that belongs to the dynamic resource of the second node.

As shown in fig. 18, in the X region, the dynamic resource of the second node may be configured as soft resource of the DU of the second node corresponding to the 0 th, 2 th, and 4 th timeslots, and the MT resource to be indicated of the third node may be configured as MT resource of the third node corresponding to the 0 th to 5 th timeslots, that is, the 6 th timeslots of the third node are all resources to be indicated of the MT of the third node.

The time domain resource of the second node corresponding to the 1 st, 3 rd and 5 th time slots of the third node in the time domain belongs to the fixed resource of the second node DU, so the second indication information may arbitrarily determine the availability status of the 3 (i.e. the difference between K and N) MT resources, for example, may determine that one or more of the 3 resources are available, and the rest are unavailable.

Wherein, the time domain resource of the second node corresponding to the 0 th, 2 th and 4 th time slots of the third node in time domain belongs to the dynamic resource of the second node DU, and the indication (i.e. the content of the second indication information) of the 0 th, 2 th and 4 th time slots of the third node should be constrained.

Specifically, the protocol may specify that MT resources of the above-mentioned N third nodes (i.e., the 0 th, 2 nd, 4 th and 3 th slots) of the third node are indicated as unavailable (released), or dynamic resources of their corresponding N third nodes DU are indicated as available.

That is, the MT resource of the third node corresponding to the soft resource indicated by the second node may also be indicated, and at this time, the MT resource of the third node may be indicated as unavailable.

Thus, the second node may determine the second indication information according to the availability (available or unavailable) of K-N (i.e., the difference between K and N) MT resources, and the availability (unavailable) of the N MT resources.

As another possible embodiment, the indication of the N dynamic resources (i.e., the content of the first indication information) of the second node may also be defined.

In particular, the protocol may provide for the above-mentioned N dynamic resources (explicit or implicit) of the second node to be indicated as available.

That is, the MT resource of the third node corresponding to the soft resource to which the second node is indicated may also be indicated. The protocol may specify that the N dynamic resources indicated by the second node are unavailable at this time, and on this premise, the second indication information may optionally indicate the available states of the N dynamic resources, for example, may determine that one or more of the N resources are available, and the rest are unavailable.

That is, the second indication information may indicate the available states of the K dynamic resources at this time, for example, may indicate that one or more of the K resources are available and the rest are unavailable. The second node may determine the second indication information according to the available states of the K dynamic resources.

Considering the indication of the second indication information on MT resources or DU dynamic resources of the third node S-zone and the X-zone in combination, the following criteria can be obtained:

1) When one MT resource of the third node corresponds to a fixed resource of the second node DU, the second node may indicate availability (available or unavailable) of the MT resource through second indication information or remaining dynamic signaling;

2) When one MT resource of the third node corresponds to an unavailable resource of the second node DU, the second node may indicate that the availability of the MT resource is unavailable through the second indication information or the remaining dynamic signaling, or the second node does not indicate the availability of the MT resource;

3) When one MT resource of the third node corresponds to a dynamic resource of the second node DU, and the second node knows that the dynamic resource is (explicitly or implicitly) indicated as unavailable through the first indication information or the rest of dynamic signaling, the second node can indicate that the availability of the MT resource is unavailable through the second indication information or the rest of dynamic signaling, or the second node does not indicate the availability of the MT resource;

4) When one MT resource of the third node corresponds to a dynamic resource of the second node DU, and the second node knows that this dynamic resource is indicated (explicitly or implicitly) as available through the first indication information or the rest of the dynamic signaling, the second node can indicate the availability (available or unavailable) of the MT resource through the second indication information.

5) When one MT resource of the third node corresponds to a dynamic resource of the second node DU, but the second node has not acquired the first indication information or the indication of the dynamic resource by the remaining dynamic signaling, the second node may indicate that the availability of the MT resource is unavailable through the second indication information, or the second node does not indicate the availability of the MT resource.

In 5), the second node does not acquire the indication of the dynamic resource by the first indication information, which indicates that the second node does not receive the corresponding first indication information yet, or the time that the second node receives the corresponding first indication information does not exceed a threshold, where the threshold includes decoding delay, protocol definition delay, and the like. In one possible implementation, the first node does not have the content of the second indication information sent by the second node to the third node. At this time, the second node may transmit some or all of the second instruction information to the first node. For example, the part or all of the information may include: related information of the second indication area (e.g., start time, end time, duration, information indicating time delay, etc.), a resource identification of a dynamic resource of the third node, an identification of a dynamic resource of the X area, etc.

In one possible implementation, the dynamic resources of the second node or the third node (e.g., the dynamic resources of the X region) may be locked by lock signaling, and for the locked dynamic resources of the second node, the second node considers that the dynamic resources are always indicated as available or always indicated as unavailable.

Alternatively, for the dynamic resource of the third node that is locked, the second node may always consider that the subordinate node may or may not use this resource.

The lock signaling may be transmitted through various signaling, such as MAC CE.

Alternatively, the lock resource may be an MT resource. For example, the first node sends signaling to the second node indicating that several MT resources of the second node are locked. The second node considers that these resources will always be released or will not always be released.

In step 240, the second node sends second indication information to the third node.

Specifically, the DU of the second node sends the second indication information to the MT of the third node, as a possible implementation manner, in order to ensure that the second node sends the second indication message to the third node smoothly, the protocol may specify that the time domain resource where the second indication message is located (specifically, the DU resource of the second node) is not indicated as being unavailable by the first indication message all the time.

The second node acquires resource configuration information, wherein the resource configuration information can indicate the resource configuration of the second node and the third node, and receives first indication information indicating the available state of the dynamic resource of the second node on the first indication area from the upper node. When the second node needs to indicate the resource to the lower node beyond the indication of the upper node, the second node determines how to indicate the resource beyond the indication of the upper node to the lower node according to the resource configuration information. Since the resource allocation of the second node and the third node is fixed, even if the indication is given to the lower node in advance, the subsequent received indication does not conflict with the previous indication.

Fig. 19 shows another example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system.

In comparison with the embodiment shown in fig. 12, there are a plurality of (e.g., two) indication DCIs that collectively indicate one indication region, so that the robustness of the indication DCIs can be increased. The multiple indication DCIs have different indication delays at this time.

The starting position of the first indication area of the first indication DCI coincides with the starting position of the resource where the first second indication DCI is located, and the starting position of the resource where the first second indication DCI is located in the next period is continued until the starting position of the indication area of the first indication DCI in the next period or the starting position of the indication area of the first indication DCI in the next period is continued.

It should be appreciated that the method 200 or 300 described above is equally applicable to the multi-hop IAB system shown in fig. 19 for indicating dynamic resources.

Fig. 20 shows another example of DCI configuration in a multi-hop IAB system.

The end time of the second indication area in this embodiment is also after the end time of the first indication area, so this embodiment also has the X area, but this embodiment does not have the problem of collision of the resource indications.

Specifically, the present embodiment is different from the indication areas of the foregoing embodiments. In fig. 18, the starting position of the first indication area of the first indication DCI is not earlier than the sending position of the resource where the second indication DCI is located, and the ending time of the first indication area of the first indication DCI does not exceed the resource position where the second node receives the first indication DCI in the next period.

At this time, in the X region, the first indication DCI does not indicate the dynamic resource of the second node in the X region, so that even if the second indication DCI indicates the MT resource of the third node in the X region in advance, the problem of resource indication conflict does not occur, and at this time, the second node can arbitrarily determine the availability status of the dynamic resource of the third node in the X region.

However, the present embodiment has a problem of a reduced indication range.

Specifically, since there is an indication delay, and the time length of the indication delay is greater than or equal to the processing delay, the indication DCI does not indicate the dynamic resource in the period (the range of this area may be larger), so that the proportion occupied by the dynamic indication range is reduced, and the performance of dynamic indication is affected.

Similarly, as a possible implementation manner, a plurality of indication DCIs may indicate a common indication area, where the following may be defined:

1. the starting position of the first indication area of the first indication DCI is not earlier than any one of a plurality of resources of the second node transmitting the second indication DCI, for example, the resource position of the first or last second indication DCI;

2. the end position of the first indication region of the first indication DCI does not exceed any one of a plurality of resources of the second node receiving the next period of the plurality of first indication DCI, for example, the resource position of the first or last first indication DCI.

The various embodiments discussed above discuss various methods of avoiding dynamic resource allocation conflicts, and the following discussion is when the IAB node is not configured to indicate DCI, or the behavior of indicating DCI is configured but not detected within the search space.

Taking the second node in the foregoing as an example, when the second node does not detect the first indication DCI, the MT of the second node may perform PDCCH monitoring on a search space of all optional resources, where the optional resources are MT resources that do not conflict with fixed resources of a DU of the second node;

or, receiving PDSCH according to the scheduling of the first node;

or, the PUSCH transmission and/or the PUCCH transmission is performed according to the schedule of the first node.

Optionally, the second node may receive a reference signal of a higher layer configuration, e.g. CSI-RS;

optionally, the second node does not transmit a higher-level configured reference signal, e.g. SRS.

The following discusses the sending behavior of the second indication DCI after the second node does not detect the first indication DCI.

As a possible implementation manner, when the IAB node does not detect the first indication DCI, it gives up to send the second indication DCI.

As a possible implementation manner, after the IAB node does not detect the first indication DCI, the second indication DCI adopts an orthogonal indication, that is, the second indication DCI sent by the second node releases MT resources of the third node corresponding to all DU soft resources.

The method for indicating the resource provided by the application is described in detail above, and the device for indicating the resource provided by the application is described below.

Referring to fig. 21, fig. 21 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 500 for indicating resources provided herein. As shown in fig. 21, the apparatus 500 includes a processing unit 510 and a transceiving unit 520.

A transceiver unit 510, configured to obtain resource configuration information, where the resource configuration information is used to indicate configuration of fixed resources and dynamic resources of the device and the third node;

the transceiver unit 510 is further configured to receive first indication information sent by a first node, where the first indication information is used to indicate an available state of one or more dynamic resources in a first indication area of the device, and the first node is an upper node of the device;

a processing unit 520, configured to determine second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, where the second indication information is used to indicate an available state of resources between the device 500 and the third node in a second indication area, the second indication area includes at least one dynamic resource that is not indicated by the first indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the state of the at least one dynamic resource that is not indicated by the first indication information is unavailable;

the transceiver unit 510 is further configured to send the second indication information to a third node, where the third node is a lower node of the device.

In one embodiment, the processing unit 520 is specifically configured to: the second indication area further includes Y fixed resources that are not indicated by the first indication information, the second indication information indicating that an available state of Z of the Y fixed resources is available or unavailable, wherein Y, Z is an integer greater than or equal to 0, and Z is less than or equal to Y.

In yet another embodiment, the dynamic resources included on the first indication area include a first dynamic resource, the one or more dynamic resources indicated by the first indication information include the first dynamic resource, and the transceiver unit 510 is further configured to:

receiving third indication information from the first node, wherein the third indication information indicates the available state of the first dynamic resource, the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information is different from the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the first indication information, and the third indication information is positioned behind the first indication information in a time domain; and determining the available state of the first dynamic resource according to the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information.

Alternatively, the apparatus 500 may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

The chip described in the embodiments of the present application may be a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated chip (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a central processing unit (central processor unit, CPU), a network processor (Network Processor, NP), a digital signal processing circuit (digital signal processor, DSP), or a microcontroller (micro controller unit, MCU, programmable controller (programmable logic device, PLD) or other integrated chip.

In the alternative, processing unit 510 may be a processor. The transceiving unit 510 may be composed of a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The transceiver unit 520 may be a transceiver, which may include a transmitter and a receiver, and may have both receiving and transmitting functions. Alternatively, the transceiver unit 510 may be an input-output interface, or an input-output circuit.

In another possible way, the transceiver unit 520 may be a communication interface. Such as input-output interfaces, input-interface circuits, output-interface circuits, etc.

It should be understood that the apparatus 500 may correspond to the second node in the method embodiment provided herein for indicating resources. The apparatus 500 includes means for implementing the respective operations and/or flows performed by the second node in the method embodiment.

For example, the transceiver unit 510 is further configured to obtain resource configuration information, and first indication information. The processing unit 520 is configured to determine the second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information. For another example, the transceiver unit 510 is further configured to send the second indication information to the third node.

The present application also provides a network device 1000, described below in conjunction with fig. 22.

Referring to fig. 22, fig. 22 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device 1000 provided in the present application. The network device 1000 is configured to implement the functionality of the second node in the method embodiment. As shown in fig. 22, the network device 1000 includes an antenna 1101, a radio frequency device 1102, and a baseband device 1103. The antenna 1101 is connected to a radio frequency device 1102. In the downlink direction, the radio frequency device 1102 receives signals sent by other network devices through the antenna 1101, and sends the received signals to the baseband device 1103 for processing. In the uplink direction, the baseband apparatus 1103 processes a signal to be sent to other network devices, and sends the signal to the radio frequency apparatus 1102, where the radio frequency apparatus 1102 processes the signal and sends the signal to the other network devices through the antenna 1101.

The baseband device 1103 may include one or more processing units 11031. Further, the baseband device 1103 may further include a storage unit 11032 and a communication interface 11033. The storage unit 11032 is used for storing programs and data. The communication interface 11033 is configured to interact with the rf device 1102. The communication interface 11033 may be an input-output interface or an input-output circuit.

The network device 1000 in the above-described apparatus embodiment may correspond completely to the second node in the method embodiment, and the corresponding unit included in the network device 1000 is configured to perform the corresponding step performed by the second node in the method embodiment.

For example, the radio frequency device 1102 obtains the resource configuration information and the first indication information from the first node, and sends the resource configuration information and the first indication information to the baseband device 1103. The baseband device 1103 determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, and sends the second indication information to the radio frequency device 1102. The radio 1102 sends second indication information to the third node.

For another example, the radio frequency device 1102 receives the third indication information from the first node and transmits the third indication information to the baseband device 1103. The baseband device 1103 determines the available state of the first dynamic resource according to the third indication information.

Furthermore, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium having stored therein computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the corresponding operations and/or flows performed by the second node in any of the method embodiments.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the respective operations and/or flows performed by the second node in the method embodiments provided herein for indicating resources.

The present application also provides a communication system including at least a first node for performing the operations and/or processes performed by the first node in fig. 14 or fig. 16, a second node for performing the operations and/or processes performed by the second node in fig. 14 or fig. 16, and a third node for performing the operations and/or processes performed by the third node in fig. 14 or fig. 16.

The application also provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is configured to invoke and execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the corresponding operations and/or flows performed by the second node in the method embodiments of indicating resources provided herein.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, and the memory is connected with the processor. The processor is used to read and execute the computer program in the memory.

Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is connected with the communication interface. The communication interface is used for receiving signals and/or data to be processed, and the processor acquires the signals and/or data from the communication interface and processes the signals and/or data.

Alternatively, the communication interface may be an input-output interface, and specifically may include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication interface may be an input-output circuit, and may specifically include an input circuit and an output circuit.

The memories referred to in the above embodiments may be physically separate units or may be integrated with the processor.

The device 500 described in the above device embodiments may be a chip on the baseband device 1103, which includes at least one processing unit and interface circuitry. Wherein the processing element is configured to perform the steps of any of the methods performed by the above network device (i.e., the second IAB node), and the interface circuit is configured to communicate with other devices.

In one implementation, the elements of the network device implementing the steps in the above method may be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler. For example, the processing unit 11031 calls the program stored in the storage unit 11032 to execute the method executed by the first IAB node in the above method embodiment. The memory unit 11032 may be the processing unit 11031 on the same chip, i.e., an on-chip memory unit, or may be a memory element on a different chip from the processing unit 11031, i.e., an off-chip memory unit.

In the above embodiments, the processor may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program in the present application. For example, the processor may be a digital signal processor device, a microprocessor device, an analog to digital converter, a digital to analog converter, or the like. The processor may allocate the functions of control and signal processing of the terminal device or the network device among the devices according to the respective functions of the devices. Further, the processor may have the function of operating one or more software programs, which may be stored in the memory. The functions of the processor may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

The memory may be read-only memory (ROM), other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (compact disc read-only memory) or other optical disk storage, optical disk storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media, or any other magnetic storage device 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, etc.

In this embodiment, "and/or" describes an association relationship of an association object, which means that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may mean that there is a alone, a and B together, and B alone. Wherein A, B may be singular or plural.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, or as a combination 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. The skilled person may use different methods for each specific application to achieve the described functionality.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be other manners of division in actual implementation, for example, 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 each embodiment 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.

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 prior art 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 methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think about changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and the changes and substitutions are intended to be covered by 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 (15)

1. A method of indicating a resource, comprising:

the second node acquires resource configuration information, wherein the resource configuration information is used for indicating the configuration of fixed resources and dynamic resources of the second node;

the second node receives first indication information sent by a first node, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the available states of one or more dynamic resources in a first indication area of the second node, and the first node is an upper node of the second node;

the second node determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the available state of resources between the second node and a third node on a second indication area, the second indication area comprises at least one dynamic resource which is not indicated by the first indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the state of the at least one dynamic resource which is not indicated by the first indication information is unavailable;

And the second node sends the second indication information to the third node, wherein the third node is a lower node of the second node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second node determining second indication information from the first indication information and the resource configuration information comprises:

the second indication area further includes Y fixed resources, and the second indication information indicates that an available state of Z of the Y fixed resources is available or unavailable, wherein Y, Z is an integer greater than or equal to 0, and Z is less than or equal to Y.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate an available state of a part of resources of the MT of the second node on the first indication area, and before the second node determines second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, the method further comprises:

the second node determines the available state of the dynamic resources of the DU of the second node according to the available state of part of the resources of the MT;

or, the first indication information is used for indicating the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU of the second node in the first indication area, and before the second node determines the second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, the method further includes:

And the second node determines the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU of the second node according to the first indication information.

4. A method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the configuration information of the first indication information comprises at least one of the following: the method comprises the steps of starting time of a first indication area, ending time of the first indication area, duration of the first indication area, interval between a time domain resource position where first indication information is located and the starting time of the first indication area, and resource identification of dynamic resources, wherein the resource identification comprises at least one of a symbol number, a time slot number, a subframe number and a system frame number.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, further comprising:

the second node receives third indication information from the first node, wherein the third indication information indicates the available state of one or more first dynamic resources on the first indication area, the available state of the first dynamic resources indicated by the third indication information is different from the available state of the first dynamic resources indicated by the first indication information, and the third indication information is located after the first indication information in a time domain;

And the second node determines the available state of the first dynamic resource according to the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the first indication area includes a second dynamic resource thereon, the second node receives fourth indication information from the first node on MT resources of the second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource, the MT resources of the second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource being configured to be always available through a protocol, or the MT resources of the second node corresponding to the second dynamic resource being indicated by the first node as always available through an indication information different from the fourth indication information.

7. An apparatus for indicating a resource, comprising:

the receiving and transmitting unit is used for acquiring resource configuration information, wherein the resource configuration information is used for indicating the configuration of fixed resources and dynamic resources of the device;

the receiving and transmitting unit is further configured to receive first indication information sent by a first node, where the first indication information is used to indicate an available state of one or more dynamic resources in a first indication area of the device, and the first node is an upper node of the device;

A processing unit, configured to determine second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a resource available state between the device and a third node in a second indication area, where the second indication area includes at least one dynamic resource that is not indicated by the first indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the state of the at least one dynamic resource that is not indicated by the first indication information is unavailable;

the transceiver unit is further configured to send the second indication information to the third node, where the third node is a lower node of the device.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

the second indication area further includes Y fixed resources, and the second indication information indicates that an available state of Z of the Y fixed resources is available or unavailable, wherein Y, Z is an integer greater than or equal to 0, and Z is less than or equal to Y.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate an available state of a part of resources of the MT of the apparatus on the first indication area, and the processing unit is further configured to, before determining the second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information:

The processing unit determines the available state of the dynamic resources of the DU of the device according to the available state of part of the resources of the MT;

or, the first indication information is used for indicating the available state of dynamic resources of the DU of the device on the first indication area, and before the processing unit determines the second indication information according to the first indication information and the resource configuration information, the processing unit is further used for:

the processing unit determines the available state of the dynamic resource of the DU of the device according to the first indication information.

10. The apparatus according to any of claims 7-9, wherein the configuration information of the first indication information comprises at least one of: the method comprises the steps of starting time of a first indication area, ending time of the first indication area, duration of the first indication area, interval between a time domain resource position where first indication information is located and the starting time of the first indication area, and resource identification of dynamic resources, wherein the resource identification comprises at least one of a symbol number, a time slot number, a subframe number and a system frame number.

11. The apparatus of any one of claims 7-10, wherein the first indication area includes one or more first dynamic resources thereon,

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive third indication information from the first node, where the third indication information indicates an available state of the first dynamic resource, the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information is different from the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the first indication information, and the third indication information is located after the first indication information in a time domain;

the transceiver unit is further configured to determine, according to the available state of the first dynamic resource indicated by the third indication information, the available state of the first dynamic resource.

12. The apparatus according to any of claims 7-11, wherein the first indication area includes a second dynamic resource thereon, the apparatus receives a fourth indication information from the first node on an MT resource of the apparatus corresponding to the second dynamic resource, and wherein an MT resource pass-through protocol of the apparatus corresponding to the second dynamic resource is configured to be always available, or wherein an MT resource of the apparatus corresponding to the second dynamic resource is indicated by the first node as always available via an indication information different from the fourth indication information.

13. A computer readable storage medium storing computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-6.

14. A chip comprising a memory for storing a computer program and a processor for reading and executing the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of any of claims 1-6.

15. A communication system comprising a first node, a second node, and a third node, comprising:

the second node performs the method of indicating resources of any of claims 1-6.

Images