EP-4742812-A1 - COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus are provided, and relate to the field of communication technologies, to improve performance of communication between a terminal device and a first network device via a second network device. The method includes: A second network device receives a first sequence from a first network device, sends a second sequence to the first network device, and receives a timing indication sequence from the first network device. The first sequence is associated with identification information of the second network device, and the first sequence is used for downlink synchronization. The second sequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device. The timing indication sequence indicates a timing advance, and the timing advance is determined by the first network device based on the second sequence.

Inventors

• WU, Yuandong
• GAO, XINYU
• LIU, KUNPENG

Assignees

• Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20240718

Claims (20)

1. A communication method, comprising: receiving a first sequence from a first network device, wherein the first sequence is associated with identification information of a second network device, and the first sequence is used for downlink synchronization; sending a second sequence to the first network device, wherein the second sequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device; and receiving a timing indication sequence from the first network device, wherein the timing indication sequence indicates a timing advance, and the timing advance is determined by the first network device based on the second sequence.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein receiving the first sequence from the first network device comprises: receiving the first sequence from the first network device on a first time-frequency resource, wherein the first time-frequency resource is a predefined time-frequency resource.
3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein before sending the second sequence to the first network device, the method further comprises: receiving a third sequence from the first network device, wherein the third sequence indicates a second time-frequency resource, the third sequence comprises a device identifier subsequence and one or more first resource indication subsequences, the device identifier subsequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device, and the first resource indication subsequence is associated with at least one of a predefined time domain resource and a predefined frequency domain resource; and sending the second sequence to the first network device on the second time-frequency resource.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein receiving the third sequence from the first network device comprises: receiving the third sequence from the first network device on a third time-frequency resource, wherein the third time-frequency resource is a predefined time-frequency resource.
5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the timing indication sequence further indicates a timing feedback resource, and the method further comprises: sending a timing feedback sequence to the first network device on the timing feedback resource, wherein the timing feedback sequence indicates that the second network device receives the timing indication sequence.
6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the method further comprises: receiving a weight indication sequence and a fourth sequence that are from the first network device, wherein the weight indication sequence indicates phase distribution of the second network device, the weight indication sequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device, and the fourth sequence indicates a fourth time-frequency resource on which the second network device adjusts phase distribution associated with the weight indication sequence, wherein the weight indication sequence comprises the device identifier subsequence and one or more weight indication subsequences, the fourth sequence comprises the device identifier subsequence and one or more second resource indication subsequences, the device identifier subsequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device, the weight indication subsequence is associated with weight information, and the second resource indication subsequence is associated with at least one of a predefined time domain resource and a predefined frequency domain resource; and adjusting, on the fourth time-frequency resource, the phase distribution associated with the weight indication sequence.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the weight indication sequence and the fourth sequence are located in a same sequence, and the fourth sequence comprises the device identifier subsequence, the weight indication subsequence, and the second resource indication subsequence.
8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the method further comprises: any sequence between the first network device and the second network device is associated with the identification information of the second network device.
9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the method further comprises: receiving a fifth sequence from the first network device, wherein the fifth sequence indicates first identification information allocated by the first network device to the second network device.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein one or more of the following are associated with the first identification information: the third sequence, the fourth sequence, the weight indication sequence, or the device identifier subsequence.
11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the method further comprises: a correlation between any two sequences of each sequence type is less than a first preset threshold; or each sequence type comprises a plurality of subsequences, and between any two sequences of a same type, a correlation between at least one pair of subsequences with a same start position and a same length is less than a second preset threshold.
12. A communication method, comprising: sending a first sequence to a second network device, wherein the first sequence is associated with identification information of the second network device, and the first sequence is used for downlink synchronization; receiving a second sequence from the second network device, wherein the second sequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device; and sending a timing indication sequence to the second network device, wherein the timing indication sequence indicates a timing advance, and the timing advance is determined by a first network device based on the second sequence.
13. The method according to claim 12, wherein sending the first sequence to the second network device comprises: sending the first sequence to the second network device on a first time-frequency resource, wherein the first time-frequency resource is a predefined time-frequency resource.
14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein receiving the second sequence from the second network device comprises: sending a third sequence to the second network device, wherein the third sequence indicates a second time-frequency resource, the third sequence comprises a device identifier subsequence and one or more first resource indication subsequences, the device identifier subsequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device, and the first resource indication subsequence is associated with at least one of a predefined time domain resource and a predefined frequency domain resource; and receiving the second sequence from the second network device on the second time-frequency resource.
15. The method according to claim 14, wherein sending the third sequence to the second network device comprises: sending the third sequence to the second network device on a third time-frequency resource, wherein the third time-frequency resource is a predefined time-frequency resource.
16. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 15, wherein the timing indication sequence further indicates a timing feedback resource, and the method further comprises: receiving a timing feedback sequence from the second network device on the timing feedback resource, wherein the timing feedback resource is a predefined time-frequency resource, and the timing feedback sequence indicates that the second network device receives the timing indication sequence.
17. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 16, wherein the method further comprises: sending the weight indication sequence and the fourth sequence to the second network device, wherein the weight indication sequence indicates phase distribution of the second network device, the weight indication sequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device, and the fourth sequence indicates a fourth time-frequency resource on which the second network device adjusts phase distribution associated with the weight indication sequence, wherein the weight indication sequence comprises the device identifier subsequence and one or more weight indication subsequences, the fourth sequence comprises the device identifier subsequence and one or more second resource indication subsequences, the device identifier subsequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device, the weight indication subsequence is associated with weight information, and the second resource indication subsequence is associated with at least one of a predefined time domain resource and a predefined frequency domain resource.
18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the weight indication sequence and the fourth sequence are located in a same sequence, and the fourth sequence comprises the device identifier subsequence, the weight indication subsequence, and the second resource indication subsequence.
19. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 18, wherein the method further comprises: any sequence between the first network device and the second network device is associated with the identification information of the second network device.
20. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 19, wherein the method further comprises: sending a fifth sequence to the second network device, wherein the fifth sequence indicates first identification information allocated by the first network device to the second network device.

Description

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202310954541.7, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on July 28, 2023 and entitled "COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS", which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus. BACKGROUND In a communication system, a terminal device may establish a connection to a network device based on a random access procedure, to communicate with the network device. Because the terminal device may continuously move in a communication process, when the terminal device moves to a weak coverage area of the network device, or there is no line of sight (line of sight, LOS) path (for example, there is a building or another obstacle) between the terminal device and the network device, quality of a signal received by the terminal device from the network device may be poor, or even the terminal device may fail to receive a signal sent by the network device, affecting communication performance. Therefore, how to improve performance of communication between the terminal device and the network device becomes a technical problem to be urgently resolved. SUMMARY This application provides a communication method and apparatus, to improve performance of communication between a terminal device and a first network device via a second network device. According to a first aspect, a communication method is provided. The method may be performed by a second network device, may be performed by a component of the second network device, for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system of the second network device, or may be implemented by a logical module or software that can implement all or some functions of the second network device. The method includes: receiving a first sequence from a first network device; sending a second sequence to the first network device; and receiving a timing indication sequence from the first network device. The first sequence is associated with identification information of the second network device, and the first sequence is used for downlink synchronization. The second sequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device. The timing indication sequence indicates a timing advance, and the timing advance is determined by the first network device based on the second sequence. Based on the first aspect, the second network device may implement identity differentiation on the first network device based on the first sequence sent by the first network device, that is, determine the first network device that may be accessed, to implement downlink synchronization. The second network device sends the second sequence to the first network device, so that the first network device can implement identity differentiation on the second network device based on the second sequence, and further determine the timing advance based on the second sequence, and the second network device can implement uplink synchronization based on the timing advance. In this way, the second network device can receive a signal from the first network device, and reflect the signal to a terminal device, or receive a signal from the terminal device, and reflect the signal to the first network device, to improve reliability of communication between the terminal device and the first network device, and improve performance of transmission between the terminal device and the first network device. In a possible implementation, the first sequence from the first network device is received on a first time-frequency resource, where the first time-frequency resource is a predefined time-frequency resource. Based on the possible implementation, the second network device receives the first sequence on the predefined first time-frequency resource, so that conflicts generated by occupying a time-frequency resource by the first sequence and another downlink signal in a transmission process can be effectively reduced, and transmission performance can be improved. In addition, the second network device can determine a time-frequency resource for receiving the first sequence, to avoid energy consumption of a full-band detection sequence. In a possible implementation, a third sequence from the first network device is received, and the second sequence is sent to the first network device on the second time-frequency resource. The third sequence indicates a second time-frequency resource, the third sequence includes a device identifier subsequence and one or more first resource indication subsequences, the device identifier subsequence is associated with the identification information of the second network device, and the first resource indication subsequence is associated with at least one of a predefined time domain resource and a predefined frequency domain resource. Based on the possible implementat