CN113396622B

CN113396622B - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN113396622B
Application number: CN201980091418.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 毕文平; 余政; 程型清
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-02-15
Filing date: 2019-02-15
Publication date: 2023-04-28
Anticipated expiration: 2039-02-15
Also published as: CN113396622A; WO2020164127A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the first device receives downlink control information sent by the second device, the first device determines a first repetition number and a first resource block number in a first narrowband according to the downlink control information, wherein the first resource block number is one element in a first resource block number set, the first resource block number set is one set in a plurality of resource block number sets, each resource block number set in the plurality of resource block number sets is associated with one repetition number set, the repetition number sets associated with different resource block number sets are different, and the first device receives downlink data channels sent by the second device according to the first resource block number and the first repetition number, and associates the resource block number set with the repetition number set, so that the cost of DCI is reduced, and the system performance is improved.

Description

Communication method and communication device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a communication method and a communication apparatus in the field of communications.

Background

In a wireless communication system, the role of control information is very important. The two communication devices can realize information interaction through control information, and one communication device can control the other communication device. Taking the base station and the user equipment as examples, in the downlink communication process, the base station sends downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI) to the terminal equipment, where the downlink control information is used to schedule a data channel or Transport Block (TB), in order to reduce the cost of the DCI and save transmission resources, one DCI may be used to schedule multiple transport blocks, and when the number of transport blocks scheduled by the DCI is greater, more bits are needed in the DCI to indicate different transport blocks or the transmission states of different transport blocks, which may result in greater cost of the DCI and poor transmission performance of the system.

Disclosure of Invention

The communication method and the communication device can reduce the cost of DCI and are beneficial to improving the transmission performance of a system.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, including: the first equipment receives downlink control information sent by the second equipment; the first equipment determines first repetition times and first resource block quantity according to downlink control information, wherein the first resource block quantity is an element in a first resource block quantity set, the first resource block quantity set comprises one or more resource block quantity, the first resource block quantity set is one set in a plurality of resource block quantity sets, each resource block quantity set in the plurality of resource block quantity sets is associated with one repetition times set, the repetition times sets associated with different resource block quantity sets are different, and the first repetition times are elements in the first repetition times set associated with the first resource block quantity set;

the first device receives downlink information sent by the second device according to the first resource block number and the first repetition number, wherein the downlink information comprises data and/or control information and/or reference signals and/or a data channel, the data channel comprises a downlink data channel, and the data comprises downlink data.

Therefore, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can associate the resource block number set with the repetition number set, so that the cost of DCI is reduced, and the performance of a system is improved.

Note that there is no intersection between different sets of resource block numbers. The number of elements included in the different sets of resource block numbers is different, or the number of elements included in the different sets of resource block numbers is the same but the value of none of the elements in the different sets of resource block numbers is the same.

Alternatively, the first number of resource blocks may be a number of resource blocks within a first narrowband.

It should be noted that different sets of repetition times may or may not have an intersection. The different repetition number sets may include elements having different numbers of elements and different repetition number sets may have partially identical elements, or the different repetition number sets may include elements having different numbers of elements and different repetition number sets may not have identical elements, or the values of at least one element in the different resource block sets may be different, the number of elements included in the different repetition number sets being identical.

The number of resource blocks may be referred to as the number of resource blocks, and the number of resource blocks may include the length of the resource blocks, i.e. determining which resource blocks to use for transmitting the downlink data channel, which resource blocks may be determined by the starting position of the resource blocks and the length of the resource blocks to use for transmitting the downlink data channel; the number of resource blocks may also indicate the resource block index used to transmit the downlink data channel so that the downlink data channel may be transmitted on the resource blocks indicated by these resource block indices.

Optionally, the downlink control information may also schedule one or more transport blocks.

Alternatively, the first device may be a terminal device and the second device may be a network device; or the first device may be a terminal device and the second device may also be a terminal device. Alternatively, the first device may be a device having a function of receiving information, and the second device may be a device having a function of transmitting information.

Optionally, the plurality of length sets are predefined by the first device and the second device or configured by the second device.

For example, the second device configuring the plurality of length sets may be: the second device may be configured through system information configuration or higher layer signaling such as radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) signaling or medium access control element (media access control control element, MAC CE) signaling, or the second device may also be configured through physical layer signaling to configure multiple length sets, for example, the physical layer signaling may be downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI).

Optionally, the plurality of sets of repetition times are predefined by the first device and the second device or configured by the second device.

For example, the second device configuring the plurality of sets of repetition times may be: the second device may be configured through system information, RRC signaling, or higher layer signaling such as media access control signaling MAC CE, or the second device may also be configured through physical layer signaling to configure multiple length sets, for example, the physical layer signaling may be DCI.

In one possible implementation, the first repetition number is a repetition number of downlink control information transmissions and/or a repetition number of downlink control information scheduled data channel transmissions, where the data channel includes a downlink data channel.

In one possible implementation, the downlink control information is further used for a starting position of the resource block of the first device in the first narrowband, for example, the starting position of the resource block includes an index of the starting resource block, and the method further includes: the first device determines a starting position of a resource block in the first narrow band according to the downlink control information.

In one possible implementation manner, the downlink control information includes first information and second information, the first information is used for indicating a resource block starting position and/or a first resource block number, and the second information is used for determining a first repetition number in a first repetition number set by the first device; the first device determining a starting position of a resource block and/or a first resource block number in a first narrowband according to downlink control information, including:

the first device determines the starting position of the resource block and/or the first resource block number according to the first information;

the first device determines a first repetition number according to the downlink control information, including:

The first device determines a first number of repetitions based on the second information and the first set of repetitions.

Optionally, the first device determines the first repetition number set according to a first resource block number set where the first resource block number is located.

Optionally, the first device determines the first set of repetition times according to the first number of resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, the first device determining the first repetition number according to the second information and the first repetition number set may be replaced by: the first device determines the first repetition number in the first repetition number set according to the second information

Optionally, the first bit field or the first field of the downlink control information is used to carry the first information, and the second bit field or the second field of the downlink control information is used to carry the second information.

In one possible implementation manner, for a terminal device with a better coverage level, for example, the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or is a coverage enhancement level 1, or is a terminal device in a coverage enhancement mode a, the number of bits contained in the first information and the second information together is 4 or 5, that is, the starting position of the resource block and/or the first number of resource blocks and the first repetition number can be indicated by using only 4 bits or 5 bits, so that the cost of DCI can be saved.

In one possible implementation, for a terminal device with a poor coverage level, for example, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, the number of bits that the first information and the second information together contain is 1 or 2 or 3. I.e. the resource block start position and/or the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions may be indicated with only 1 bit or 3 bits, so that the overhead of the DCI may be saved.

In one possible implementation, the second information is used to indicate an order or an index of the first repetition number in the first repetition number set, and the first device determines the first repetition number in the first repetition number set according to the second information, including: the first device determines a first number of repetitions in the first set of repetitions according to an order or index indicated by the second information.

Alternatively, the elements in the first set of repetitions may be arranged in an order, for example, from small to large or from large to small.

In one possible implementation manner, the determining, by the first device, the first repetition number according to the downlink control information includes: the first equipment determines a first repetition number set according to a first resource block number set where the first resource block number is located; the first device determines a first number of repetitions in the first set of repetitions according to an order or index indicated by the second information.

In one possible implementation manner, the determining, by the first device, the first repetition number according to the downlink control information includes:

the first device determines a first resource block quantity set where the first resource block quantity is located according to the first resource block quantity indicated by the first information;

the first device determines a first repetition number set associated with the first resource block number set according to the first resource block number set;

the first device determines a first number of repetitions in the first set of repetitions according to an order or index indicated by the second information.

In one possible implementation, the downlink control information includes third information, where the third information is used to indicate the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions, or the third information is used to indicate the resource block start position, the first number of resource blocks, and the first number of repetitions.

The first device may determine the first number of repetitions and the first number of resource blocks within the first narrowband according to the third information, or determine the first number of repetitions and the first number of resource blocks and a starting position of resource blocks within the first narrowband according to the third information.

In one possible implementation manner, for a terminal device with a better coverage level, for example, the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a terminal device in a coverage enhancement mode a, the third information includes 4 or 5 bits, that is, the starting position of the resource block and/or the first number of resource blocks and the first repetition number can be indicated by using only 4 bits or 5 bits, so that the cost of DCI can be saved.

In one possible implementation, for a terminal device with a poor coverage level, for example, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, the third information contains a total number of bits of 1 or 2 or 3. I.e. the resource block start position and/or the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions may be indicated with only 1 bit or 3 bits, so that the overhead of the DCI may be saved.

Optionally, the first narrowband includes a narrowband, one narrowband contains 6 resource units, and a resource unit may be a Resource Block (RB) or a physical resource block (physical resource block, PRB) or a subcarrier or a Resource Element (RE) or a resource element group (resource element group, REG) or a subcarrier group or a sub-physical resource block (sub-PRB), and so on.

Optionally, the first narrowband is indicated by the second device, for example, the first device may indicate the first narrowband index according to downlink control information sent by the second device, so that the first device may determine the first narrowband according to the first narrowband index.

In one possible implementation, the plurality of resource block number sets includes at least a second resource block number set and a third resource block number set, and any element value included in the second resource block number set is smaller than any element value included in the third resource block number set;

The second repetition number set associated with the second resource block number set includes P elements, and the third repetition number set associated with the third resource block number set includes Q elements, where P is less than or equal to Q, and P and Q are positive integers greater than 0. For example, the second set of resource block numbers is {4,6}, {4,6} associated set of repetition times comprises 4 elements, and the third set of resource block numbers is {2}, {2} associated set of repetition times comprises 2 elements. For downlink transmission, the power is not limited, the more the number of resource blocks is, the worse the channel quality is likely, or the more the number of resource blocks is likely to be in order to improve the robustness, when the number of resource blocks is larger, the more elements included in the repetition number set are, the larger the repetition number can be selected, conversely, the smaller the number of resource blocks is, the better the current channel quality is, the fewer elements included in the repetition number set are, the smaller the repetition number can be selected, and by this way, the cost of DCI can be saved.

In one possible implementation, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, the third set of resource block numbers is { b, c }, the set of { a } associated repetition times comprises 2 elements, the set of { b, c } associated repetition times comprises 4 elements, where a is less than b, and a is less than c, all of a, b, and c being positive integers. For example, a is 2, b is 4, and c is 6.

In one possible implementation, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, the third set of resource block numbers is { b, c }, the set of { a } associated repetition times comprises 3 elements, the set of { b, c } associated repetition times comprises 4 elements, where a is less than b, and a is less than c, all of a, b, and c being positive integers. For example, a is 2, b is 4, and c is 6.

In one possible implementation, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, the third set of resource block numbers is { b }, the set of repetition numbers associated with { a } includes 2 elements, the set of repetition numbers associated with { b } includes 4 elements, where a is less than b, and a and c are both positive integers. For example, a is 4 and b is 6.

In one possible implementation, the second set of resource block numbers is { a, b }, the third set of resource block numbers is { c, d }, { a, b } the set of associated repetition times comprises 2 elements, { c, d } the set of associated repetition times comprises 4 elements, where a and b are both less than c, and a and b are both less than d, a, b, c and d are both positive integers. For example, a is 1, b is 2, c is 4, and d is 6.

In one possible implementation, the plurality of sets of resource block numbers further includes a fourth set of resource block numbers, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, the third set of resource block numbers is { b }, and the fourth set of resource block numbers is { c, d }. The set of { a } associated repetitions comprises 1 element, the set of { b } associated repetitions comprises 2 elements, and the set of { c, d } associated repetitions comprises 4 elements. Wherein a is less than b, b is less than c, b is less than d, and a, b, c and d are positive integers. For example, a is 2, b is 4, c is 5,d is 6.

In one possible implementation, the first device may receive fourth information sent by the second device through higher layer signaling (such as RRC or MAC CE) or physical layer signaling (such as DCI), where the fourth information indicates an offset of a start position of a resource block, for example, if the start position of the resource block is 2, the fourth information may indicate that the start position of the resource block is offset by 1, the start position of the resource block may be changed from 2 to 3, and if the fourth information indicates that the start position of the resource block is offset by 2, the start position of the resource block may be changed from 2 to 4. The start position determined by the physical layer signaling may be changed by the offset of the indicated start position of the fourth information.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, including: the second device determines downlink control information, the downlink control information is further used for determining a first repetition number and a first resource block number in a first narrowband by the first device, the first resource block number is one element in a first resource block number set, the first resource block number set comprises one or more resource block numbers, the first resource block number set is one set in a plurality of resource block number sets, each resource block number set in the resource block number set is associated with one repetition number set, the repetition number sets associated with different resource block number sets are different, and the first repetition number is an element in the first repetition number set associated with the first resource block number set. And the second equipment sends downlink control information to the first equipment, the second equipment sends the downlink information to the first equipment according to the downlink control information, the downlink information comprises data and/or control information and/or reference signals and/or data channels, the data channels comprise downlink data channels, and the data comprise downlink data.

Optionally, the downlink control information is used to schedule the plurality of transport blocks.

Optionally, the second device is a network device, and the first device is a terminal device.

In one possible implementation, the downlink control information includes first information and second information, the first information is used to indicate a resource block start position and/or a first number of resource blocks, and the second information is used to determine a first number of repetitions in the first set of repetitions.

In one possible implementation, the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a terminal device in coverage enhancement mode a, and the number of bits that the first information and the second information together contain is 4 or 5.

In one possible implementation, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or is a terminal device in coverage enhancement mode B, and the number of bits that the first information and the second information together contain is 1 or 2 or 3.

In one possible implementation manner, the plurality of resource block number sets at least includes a second resource block number set and a third resource block number set, and the element values included in the second resource block number set are smaller than the element values included in the third resource block number set;

the second repetition number set associated with the second resource block number set includes P elements, and the third repetition number set associated with the third resource block number set includes Q elements, where P is less than or equal to Q, and P and Q are positive integers greater than 0.

In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, the apparatus comprising means for performing the steps of the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising means for performing the steps of the method of the second aspect or any of the possible implementations of the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a transceiver, a memory, and a processor. Wherein the transceiver, the memory and the processor are in communication with each other via an internal connection path, the memory is configured to store instructions, the processor is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory to control the receiver to receive signals and control the transmitter to transmit signals, and when the processor executes the instructions stored by the memory, the execution causes the processor to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a transceiver, a memory, and a processor. Wherein the transceiver, the memory and the processor are in communication with each other via an internal connection path, the memory is configured to store instructions, the processor is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory to control the receiver to receive signals and control the transmitter to transmit signals, and when the processor executes the instructions stored by the memory, the execution causes the processor to perform the method of the second aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising the apparatus provided in the third aspect and the apparatus provided in the fourth aspect; or alternatively

The system comprises the device provided in the fifth aspect and the device provided in the sixth aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising a computer program for performing the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect when being executed by a processor.

In a ninth aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising a computer program for performing the method of the second aspect or any of the possible implementations of the second aspect when being executed by a processor.

In a tenth aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program is stored which, when executed, is adapted to carry out the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program is stored which, when executed, is adapted to carry out the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic application scenario of an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic block diagram of yet another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

The technical solution of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communications, GSM), code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication system, future fifth generation (5th generation,5G) system, or New Radio (NR), etc.

Turning first to the application scenario of the present application, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system suitable for use in the present application.

The communication system comprises a network device 110, a terminal device 120, a terminal device 130, a terminal device 140. Terminal device 150, terminal device 160, and terminal device 170, which communicate with network device 110 via electromagnetic waves.

In fig. 1, the network device 110 may send control information and/or transport blocks to one or more of the 6 terminal devices. The terminal device 150, the terminal device 160 and the terminal device 170 may also constitute a communication system in which the terminal device 160 may send control information and/or transport blocks to one or both of the terminal device 150 and the terminal device 170, that is to say, the embodiments of the present application may be applied not only to communication between a terminal device and a network device, but also to communication between a terminal device and a terminal device.

It should be noted that, the plurality of terminal devices shown in the embodiments of the present application are for better and more comprehensive description of the embodiments of the present application, but should not be any limitation on the embodiments of the present application, and in practical application, only one or more than one terminal device may exist.

In the present application, the plurality of terminal devices may refer to user equipment, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user apparatus. The terminal device may also be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc., as the embodiments of the application are not limited in this respect.

The network device 110 may be a base station defined by 3GPP, e.g., a base station (gNB) in a 5G communication system. The network device 110 may also be an access network device, such as an Access Gateway (AGW), of a non-3GPP (non-3 GPP). Network device 110 may also be a relay station, an access point, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, and other types of devices.

The communication system 100 is merely illustrative, and a communication system to which the present application is applied is not limited thereto, and for example, the number of network devices and terminal devices included in the communication system 100 may be other numbers.

In the following, the terminal device is taken as a first device, and the network device 110 is taken as a second device, where the terminal device may be any one of the terminal devices, but the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto, and the second device may also be a terminal device.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, only downlink data is sent for illustration, but the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto, and the present application may also be used for sending uplink data. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application will be described by taking downlink control information as an example, but the embodiment of the present application may also be control information sent between terminal devices,

it should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the second device sends the downlink data channel to the first device according to the downlink control information, but the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto, and the second device may send data and/or control information and/or reference signals to the first device according to the downlink control information, and so on.

The following describes a communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 2 shows a communication method 200 provided in an embodiment of the present application, including:

s210, the first device receives the DCI transmitted by the second device. Optionally, the DCI may also schedule one or more transport blocks.

Alternatively, the first device may be a terminal device and the second device may be a network device; or the first device may be a terminal device and the second device may also be a terminal device.

S220, the first device determines, according to the DCI, a first repetition number and a first number of resource blocks in a first narrowband, where the first number of resource blocks is an element in a first set of resource blocks, the first set of resource blocks includes one or more resource block numbers, the first set of resource blocks is a set of multiple sets of resource blocks, each set of resource blocks in the multiple sets of resource blocks is associated with a set of repetition numbers, and the sets of repetition numbers associated with different sets of resource blocks are different, and the first repetition number is an element in the first set of repetition numbers associated with the first set of resource blocks.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first number of resource blocks is described as the number of resource blocks in the first narrowband, but the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto, and the first number of resource blocks may not be the number of resource blocks in the narrowband.

It should be noted that different sets of repetition times may or may not have an intersection. The different repetition number sets may include elements having different numbers of elements and different repetition number sets may have partially identical elements, or the different repetition number sets may include elements having different numbers of elements and different repetition number sets may not have identical elements, or the values of at least one element in the different resource block sets may be different, the number of elements included in the different repetition number sets being identical. Alternatively, the elements in the set of repetition times may be arranged in a certain order, for example, from small to large or from large to small.

Specifically, the second device configuring the plurality of length sets may be: the second device may be configured through system information, RRC signaling, or higher layer signaling such as MAC CE signaling, or the second device may also be configured through physical layer signaling to configure multiple length sets, for example, the physical layer signaling may be DCI.

Specifically, the second device configuring the plurality of sets of repetition times may be: the second device may be configured through system information, RRC signaling, or higher layer signaling such as media access control signaling MAC CE, or the second device may also be configured through physical layer signaling to configure multiple length sets, for example, the physical layer signaling may be DCI.

The number of the resource blocks may be referred to as the number of the resource blocks, and the number of the resource blocks may include the length of the resource blocks, that is, determining which resource blocks are used to transmit the downlink data channel, and determining which resource blocks are used to transmit the downlink data channel by the starting position of the resource blocks and the length of the resource blocks; the number of resource blocks may also indicate the resource block index used to transmit the downlink data channel so that the downlink data channel may be transmitted on the resource blocks indicated by these resource block indices.

In some possible implementations, the first number of repetitions is a number of repetitions of downlink control information transmissions and/or a number of repetitions of downlink control information scheduled data channel transmissions, wherein the data channel includes a downlink data channel.

The number of resource blocks may include the length of the resource blocks, i.e. determining which resource blocks to use for transmitting the downlink data channel, which resource blocks may be determined by the starting position of the resource blocks and the length of the resource blocks to use for transmitting the downlink data channel; the number of resource blocks may also indicate the resource blocks used for transmitting the downlink data channel so that the downlink data channel may be transmitted on these resource blocks.

Wherein S220 includes at least two implementations:

in a first implementation manner, the first device determines the number of first resource blocks in the first narrowband according to the DCI, or determines the number of the first resource blocks in the first narrowband and the starting position of the resource blocks according to the DCI; and then the first equipment determines a first repetition number according to the first resource block number and the downlink control information.

Specifically, the downlink control information includes first information and second information, the first information is used for indicating a starting position of a resource block, or the first information is used for indicating a first number of resource blocks, or the first information is used for indicating the starting position of the resource block and first resource block data, and the second information is used for determining a first repetition number in a first repetition number set; if the first information indicates the starting position of the resource block, the first device may determine the starting position of the resource block according to the first information, if the first information indicates the number of the resource blocks, the first device may determine the number of the first resource blocks according to the first information, and if the first information indicates the starting position of the resource block and the number of the first resource blocks, the first device determines the number of the first resource blocks and the starting position of the resource block according to the first information.

After the first device determines the first number of resource blocks, the first device may determine a first set of number of resource blocks in which the first number of resource blocks is located according to the first number of resource blocks, and since the first number of resource blocks corresponds to the first set of repetition times, the first device may determine the first set of repetition times according to the first set of number of resource blocks, and the second information is for the first device to determine the first number of repetition times in the first set of repetition times, for example, the second information may indicate an order of the first number of repetition times in the first set of repetition times, so that the first device may determine the first number of repetition times.

In a first implementation manner, for a terminal device with a better coverage level, for example, the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or is a coverage enhancement level 1, or is a terminal device in a coverage enhancement mode a, the number of bits contained in the first information and the second information together is 4 or 5, that is, the starting position of the resource block and/or the first number of resource blocks and the first repetition number can be indicated by using only 4 bits or 5 bits, so that the cost of DCI can be saved. For a terminal device with a poor coverage level, for example, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, the number of bits contained in the first information and the second information is 1 or 2 or 3. I.e. the resource block start position and/or the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions may be indicated with only 1 bit or 3 bits, so that the overhead of the DCI may be saved.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the number of resource blocks is set to have a corresponding number of repetition sets, and the cost of DCI may be reduced by using the association relationship between the number of resource blocks and the number of repetition sets, for example, 1 bit in DCI indicates the number of first resource blocks, after determining the number of first resource blocks, the first device may determine the number of first repetition sets according to the number of first resource blocks, and then 1 bit in DCI indicates the order of the first repetition times in the number of first repetition times sets, so that the first device may determine the first repetition times in the number of first repetition times sets, thereby effectively reducing the cost of DCI.

That is, in the first implementation manner, the first information may be used to indicate the first number of resource blocks, and the second information may be used to determine the first repetition number in the first repetition number set, so that the DCI overhead can be effectively reduced.

In a second implementation manner, the downlink control information includes third information, where the third information is used to indicate the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions, or the third information is used to indicate a resource block start position, the first number of resource blocks, and the first number of repetitions. The first device determines the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions, or the first device determines the first number of resource blocks, a starting position of the resource blocks, and the first number of repetitions, according to the third information.

In one possible implementation, the plurality of resource block number sets includes at least a second resource block number set and a third resource block number set (where the second resource block number set or the third resource block number set may be the first resource block number set described above), and any element value included in the second resource block number set is smaller than any element value included in the third resource block number set; the second repetition number set associated with the second resource block number set includes P elements, and the third repetition number set associated with the third resource block number set includes Q elements, where P is less than or equal to Q, and P and Q are positive integers greater than 0. For example, the second set of resource block numbers is {4,6}, {4,6} associated set of repetition times comprises 4 elements, and the third set of resource block numbers is {2}, {2} associated set of repetition times comprises 2 elements. For downlink transmission, the power is not limited, the more the number of resource blocks is, the worse the channel quality is likely, or the more the number of resource blocks is likely to be in order to improve the robustness, when the number of resource blocks is larger, the more elements included in the repetition number set are, the larger the repetition number can be selected, conversely, the smaller the number of resource blocks is, the better the current channel quality is, the fewer elements included in the repetition number set are, the smaller the repetition number can be selected, and by this way, the cost of DCI can be saved.

In the first implementation manner, for a terminal device with a better coverage level, for example, the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or is a coverage enhancement level 1, or is a terminal device in a coverage enhancement mode a, the third information includes a total number of bits of 4 or 5, that is, only 4 bits or 5 bits are used to indicate the starting position of the resource block and/or the first number of resource blocks and the first repetition number, so that the cost of DCI can be saved. For a terminal device with a poor coverage level, for example, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, the third information contains a total number of bits of 1 or 2 or 3. I.e. the resource block start position and/or the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions may be indicated with only 1 bit or 3 bits, so that the overhead of the DCI may be saved.

In the above two implementations, the first device is coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or is a terminal device in coverage enhancement mode a, and the first number of resource blocks determined according to the downlink control information is an element in the true subset {1,2,3,4,5,6}, for example, the first number of resource blocks is one element in {1,2,4,6}, etc. For example, the first number of repetitions is a number of repetitions of the data channel. The first number of repetitions may be an element of { n1, n2, n3, n4}, n1, n2, n3, n4 being a positive integer.

The first device is coverage enhancement level 2, coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, and the first number of resource blocks determined according to the downlink control information is an element in {4,6 }. For example, the first number of repetitions is a number of repetitions of the data channel. The first repetition number may be an element of { n1, n2, n3, n4, n5, n6, n7, n8}, where n1, n2, n3, n4, n5, n6, n7, n8 is a positive integer

The first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement level B, or coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or coverage enhancement mode a, and the first repetition number is a repetition number of downlink control information, where r1 > r2 > r3 > r4, r1, r2, r3, r4 are positive integers.

The relationship between the plurality of resource block number sets and the plurality of repetition number sets is described below by way of example.

In a first example, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, the third set of resource block numbers is { b, c }, the set of { a } associated repetition times comprises 2 elements, the set of { b, c } associated repetition times comprises 4 elements, e.g., as shown in table 1, where a is less than b and a is less than c, a, b and c are all positive integers.

For example, a is 2, b is 4, c is 6, as described in Table 2. I.e. the third set of resource block numbers {4,6} consisting of resource block numbers 4 and 6 corresponds to the third set of repetition times, which comprises 4 elements, which may be {1,4, 16, 32}, for example. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are assumed to be 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. The starting position of the resource block may be 0 or 2, and if the starting position is 0, the four RBs of 0,1,2,3, and if the starting position is 2, the four RBs of 2,3,4,5. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band. The second set of resource block numbers {2} consisting of the number of resource blocks 2 corresponds to a second set of repetition times, which includes 2 elements, which may be {16, 32}, for example. When the number of resource blocks is 2, the starting position of the resource blocks can be a value in {2,4} or {0,4} or {1,4} or {0,2}, and if the starting position is 2, two RBs of 2 and 3; assuming that the initial position is 4, two RBs of 4 and 5 are used; the initial position is 1, and two RBs 1 and 2 are assumed, and the initial position is 0, and two RBs 0 and 1 are assumed.

Optionally, when the number of resource blocks is 2, the second repetition number set includes 2 elements, where the 2 elements may be { n2, n4} or { n1, n3} or { n1, n2}, n1 < n2 < n3 < n4, n1, n2, n3, n4 are positive integers. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the four elements included in the second repetition number set may be { n1, n2, n3, n4}. When the number of resource blocks is 6, four elements included in the second repetition number set may be { n1, n2, n3, n4}.

When the number of the resource blocks is 4, the starting position of the resource blocks can be designed to be 0 or 2, when the number of the resource blocks is 2, the starting position of the resource blocks can be designed to be 4 or 0, and when the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be designed to be 0. In the design process, if the RB is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0, so that four RBs of 0,1,2, and 3 may be allocated to one device, if the RB is 2, the starting position of the resource block may be set to be 4, so that two RBs of 4 and 5 may be allocated to another device, so that two devices may transmit in a narrowband, and the utilization rate of the resource may be improved. In the design process, if the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 2, so that four RBs of 2,3,4, and 5 may be allocated to one device, and if the RB is 2, the starting position of the resource block may be set to be 0, so that two RBs of 0 and 1 may be allocated to another device, so that two devices may transmit in one narrowband, and the resource utilization may be improved.

Thus, in table 2, when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0 or 2, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 8 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set can include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 2, the starting position of the resource block may be 0 or 4, and the repetition number set may include 2 elements, so that there are 4 combinations of 8+4+4=16 combinations in total, and 4 bits are required to indicate. Of course, table 2 is merely illustrative, and when the RB number is 2, the starting position of the resource block may also be one element of {2,4}, or the starting position of the resource block may be one element of {1,4}, or the starting position of the resource block may be one element of {0,2}

In table 2, when RB is 4 or 6, the same repetition number set corresponds to the same repetition number set, and in practical application, different RB numbers may also correspond to different repetition numbers, that is, different resource block number sets correspond to different repetition number sets, and different elements in the same resource block number set may correspond to the same repetition number set or different repetition number sets.

Alternatively, table 2 may be applicable to coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or coverage enhancement mode a terminal device.

TABLE 1

TABLE 2

In a second example, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, the third set of resource block numbers is { b, c }, the set of { a } associated repetition times comprises 3 elements, the set of { b, c } associated repetition times comprises 4 elements, e.g., as shown in table 3, where a is less than b and a is less than c, a, b and c are all positive integers.

For example, a is 2, b is 4, c is 6, as described in Table 4. I.e. the third set of resource block numbers {4,6} consisting of resource block numbers 4 and 6 corresponds to the third set of repetition times, which comprises 4 elements, which may be {1,4, 16, 32}, for example. Assume that the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the starting position of the resource blocks may be 0,1,2, and if the starting position is 0, the four RBs of 0,1,2,3, and if the starting position is 1, the four RBs of 1,2,3, and 4, and if the starting position is 2, the four RBs of 2,3,4, and 5. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band. The second set of resource block numbers {2} consisting of the number of resource blocks 2 corresponds to a second set of repetition times, which includes 3 elements, which may be {2, 16, 32}, for example. When the number of the resource blocks is 2, the initial position of the resource blocks can be a value in {0,1,2,3,4}, and if the initial position is 0,1 two RBs; assuming that the initial position is 1, two RBs of 1 and 2 are used; assuming that the initial position is 2, two RBs of 2 and 3 are used; assuming that the initial position is 3, two RBs of 3 and 4 are used; assuming a starting position of 4, two RBs of 4 and 5 are used.

In table 4, when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0 or 1 or 2, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 12 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set can include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 2, the starting position of the resource block may be designed as one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4}, and the repetition number set may include 3 elements, so that there are 15 combinations, and there are 12+4+15=31 combinations in total, and 5 bits are required to indicate.

In table 4, when RB is 4 or 6, the same repetition number set corresponds to the same repetition number set, and in practical application, different numbers of RBs may also correspond to different repetition numbers, that is, different sets of resource block numbers may correspond to different repetition number sets, and different elements in the same set of resource block numbers may correspond to the same repetition number set or different repetition number sets.

Alternatively, table 4 may be applicable to coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or coverage enhancement mode a terminal device.

TABLE 3 Table 3

TABLE 4 Table 4

In a third example, the second set of resource blocks is { a }, the third set of resource blocks is { b }, the set of repetition numbers associated with { a } includes 2 elements, and the set of repetition numbers associated with { b } includes 4 elements, as shown in table 5, where a is less than b, and a and b are both positive integers. For example, a is 4 and b is 6.

For example, a is 4 and b is 6 as described in Table 5. I.e. the third set of resource block numbers {6} consisting of the number of resource blocks 6 corresponds to the third set of repetition times, which comprises 2 elements, which may be {16, 32}, for example. The second resource block number set {4} composed of the resource block numbers of 4 corresponds to a second repetition number set, which includes 4 elements. Assume that the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the starting position of the resource blocks may be 0 or 1, if the starting position is 0, the four RBs of 0,1,2, and 3, and if the starting position is 1, the four RBs of 1,2,3, and 4. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band.

Alternatively, table 6 may be applicable to coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B terminal device.

In table 6, when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0 or 1, and the repetition number set may include 2 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations. Thus there are 4 combinations for a total of 4+4=8 combinations, requiring 3 bits to indicate.

TABLE 5

TABLE 6

In a fourth example, the second set of resource block numbers is { a, b }, the third set of resource block numbers is { c, d }, { a, b } the set of associated repetition times comprises 2 elements, { c, d } the set of associated repetition times comprises 4 elements, as shown in Table 7, wherein a and b are both less than c, and a and b are both less than d, a, b, c and d are both positive integers.

For example, a is 1, b is 2, c is 4, and d is 6. Take table 8 as an example for description. I.e. the third set of resource block numbers {4,6} consisting of resource block numbers 4 and 6 corresponds to the third set of repetition times, which comprises 4 elements, which may be {1,4, 16, 32}, for example. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are assumed to be 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. The starting position of the resource block may be 0, and if the starting position is 0, the four RBs of 0,1,2, and 3. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band. The second set of resource block numbers {1,2} consisting of the resource block numbers 2 and 1 corresponds to a second set of repetition times, which includes 2 elements, which may be {16, 32}, for example. When the number of resource blocks is 2, the starting position of the resource blocks can be {2, 4} or {0, 4} or {1, 4} or {0, 2} values, and if the starting position is 2, and two RBs of 2 and 3 are used; assuming that the initial position is 4, two RBs of 4 and 5 are used; the initial position is 1, and two RBs 1 and 2 are assumed, and the initial position is 0, and two RBs 0 and 1 are assumed. When the number of the resource blocks is 1, the starting position of the resource blocks can be 0 or 4, and if the starting position is 0, the two RBs are 0 and 1; assuming a starting position of 4, two RBs of 4 and 5 are used.

The design of the starting position of the resource block needs to consider some factors, for example, if the number of RBs is 4, the starting position of the resource block is as much as possible from 0, so that four RBs of 0,1,2 and 3 can be allocated to one device, and if the number of RBs is 2, the starting position of the resource block is as much as possible 4, so that two RBs of 4 and 5 can be allocated to the other device, so that two devices can transmit in one narrowband, and the utilization rate of resources can be improved.

Thus, in table 8, when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set can include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 2, the starting position of the resource block may be designed as one of {2,4} {0,4} {1,4} {0,2}, and the repetition number set may include 2 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 1, the starting position of the resource block is 0 or 4, and the repetition number set may include 2 elements, so that there are 4 combinations, and there are a total of 4+4+4=16 combinations, and 4 bits are required to indicate. When the number of the resource blocks is 4, the starting position of the resource blocks can be designed to be 0, when the number of the resource blocks is 1, the starting position of the resource blocks can be designed to be 4, and when the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be designed to be 0. In the design process, if RB is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0, so that four RBs of 0,1,2, and 3 may be allocated to one device, if RB is 1, the starting position of the resource block may be set to be 4, so that 4 RBs may be allocated to another device, so that two devices may transmit in a narrowband, and the utilization rate of resources may be improved. In the design process, if the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 2, so that four RBs of 2,3,4, and 5 may be allocated to one device, if the RB is 1, the starting position of the resource block may be set to be 0, so that an RB of 0 may be allocated to another device, so that two devices may transmit in a narrowband, and the resource utilization may be improved.

In table 8, RB is 4 or 6 and corresponds to the same repetition number set, RB is 1 or 2 and corresponds to the same repetition number set, and in practical application, different numbers of RBs may also correspond to different repetition numbers, that is, different sets of number of resource blocks may correspond to different repetition number sets, and different elements in the same set of number of resource blocks may correspond to the same repetition number set or different repetition number sets.

Alternatively, table 8 may be applicable to coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or coverage enhancement mode a terminal device.

TABLE 7

TABLE 8

In a fifth example, the plurality of sets of resource block numbers further includes a fourth set of resource block numbers, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, the third set of resource block numbers is { b }, and the fourth set of resource block numbers is { c, d }. The set of { a } associated repetitions comprises 1 element, the set of { b } associated repetitions comprises 2 elements, and the set of { c, d } associated repetitions comprises 4 elements. As shown in table 9, wherein a is less than b, b is less than c, b is less than d, a, b, c and d are positive integers.

For example, a is 2, b is 4, c is 5,d is 6, as described in Table 10. I.e. the fourth set of resource block numbers {5,6} consisting of resource block numbers 5 and 6 corresponds to the fourth set of repetition times, which fourth set of repetition times comprises 4 elements, which may be {1,4, 16, 32}, for example. The third set of resource block numbers {4} consisting of the number of resource blocks 4 corresponds to a third set of repetition times, which includes 2 elements, which may be {16, 32}, for example. The second resource block number set {2} composed of the resource block number of 2 corresponds to a second repetition number set, which includes 1 element. Assume that the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the starting position of the resource blocks may be 0 or 1, if the starting position is 0, the four RBs of 0,1,2, and 3, and if the starting position is 1, the four RBs of 1,2,3, and 4. When the number of the resource blocks is 5, the starting position of the resource blocks is 0. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band. When the number of the resource blocks is 2, the initial positions of the resource blocks can be 0,1,2 and 4, and if the initial positions are 0, the initial positions are 0 and 1 two RBs; if the initial position is 1, the two RBs are 1 and 2; if the initial position is 2, the two RBs are 2 and 3; if the initial position is 4, it is 4 and 5 RBs.

Alternatively, table 10 may be adapted for coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or coverage enhancement mode a terminal device.

In table 10, when the RB number is 2, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0 or 1 or 2 or 4, and the repetition number set may include 1 element, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0 or 1, and the repetition number set may include 2 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set can include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 5, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements. Thus there are 4 combinations of 4+4+4+4=16 combinations in total, requiring 4 bits to indicate.

TABLE 9

Table 10

In a sixth example, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, and the third set of resource block numbers is { b }. The second set of repetition times associated with { a } comprises 4 elements and the third set of repetition times associated with { b } comprises 4 elements. As shown in table 11, where a is less than b, both a and b are positive integers.

For example, a is 4 and b is 6 as described in Table 12. I.e. the second set of number of resource blocks {4} consisting of the number of resource blocks 4 corresponds to the second set of repetition times, which second set of repetition times comprises 4 elements, which may be {1,4, 16, 32}, for example. The third set of resource block numbers {6} consisting of the number of resource blocks 6 corresponds to a third set of repetition times, which includes 4 elements, which may be {4, 16, 32, 48}, for example. Assume that the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the starting position of the resource blocks may be 0 or 1 or 2, if the starting position is 0, the four RBs of 0,1,2,3, and if the starting position is 1, the four RBs of 1,2,3, 4. If the initial position is 2, the RBs are 2,3,4 and 5. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band.

Alternatively, table 12 may be adapted for coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or coverage enhancement mode a terminal device.

In table 12, when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0 or 1 or 2, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 12 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations. Thus there are 4 combinations of 12+4=16 combinations in total, requiring 4 bits to indicate.

The second repetition number set and the third repetition number set in tables 11 and 12 include the same number of elements, but the second repetition number set and the third repetition number set are different in at least one element, that is, the two repetition number sets belong to different repetition number sets.

TABLE 11

Table 12

In a seventh example, the second set of repetition times associated with the number of resource blocks a includes 4 elements, and the second set of repetition times associated with the number of resource blocks b also includes 4 elements. As shown in table 13, where a is less than b, both a and b are positive integers.

Alternatively, for coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or coverage enhancement mode a, terminal devices, a and b are elements in the true subset of {1,2,3,4,5,6 }. Optionally, elements in the repetition number set corresponding to a and b are less than or equal to 4. For example a is 4 and b is 6

Alternatively, for coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, a and B are a proper subset or elements of a subset of {4,6 }. Optionally, the number of repetition times corresponding to a and b is less than or equal to 8.

For example, a is 4 and b is 6 as described in Table 13. I.e. the second set of repetition times corresponding to the number of resource blocks 4, comprises 4 elements, which may be e.g. 1,4, 16, 32. The number of resource blocks 6 may also correspond to the second set of repetition times, e.g., {1,4, 16, 32}. Assume that the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the starting position of the resource blocks may be 0 or 1 or 2, if the starting position is 0, the four RBs of 0,1,2,3, and if the starting position is 1, the four RBs of 1,2,3, 4. If the initial position is 2, the RBs are 2,3,4 and 5. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band.

Alternatively, table 13 may be adapted for coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or coverage enhancement mode a terminal device.

In table 13, when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0 or 1 or 2, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 12 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations. Thus there are 4 combinations of 12+4=16 combinations in total, requiring 4 bits to indicate. For example, the control information includes a third field including 4 bits, and the 4 bits of the third field may indicate which of the 16 combinations the first number of resource blocks, the resource block start position, and the first number of repetitions are.

The number of resource blocks 4 or 6 in table 13 corresponds to the same second set of repetition times. For example, when the number of resource blocks is 4 or 6, the four elements included in the second repetition number set may be { n1, n2, n3, n4} n1, n2, n3, n4 being positive integers.

Optionally, the control information includes a first field and a second field, the first field includes 2 bits, the first field is used for indicating the first number of resource blocks and the starting position of the resource blocks, the second field includes 2 bits, and the second field is used for indicating the first repetition number. Taking table 13 as an example, the first field is 2 bits, and the first field is used to indicate 3 possible resource block starting positions corresponding to the number of resource blocks 4, and 1 resource block starting position corresponding to the number of resource blocks 6, so that there are 4 combinations of the number of resource blocks and the resource block starting position, that is, 2 bits can indicate which combination of the 4 combinations is allocated to the resource. The second field is 2 bits and the second set of repetitions includes 4 elements, then 2 bits are required to indicate which of the four elements the first repetition number is.

TABLE 13

In the embodiment of the present application, since the downlink power is not limited, for example, only the number of resource blocks in the subset of {1,2,3,4,5,6} may not be supported for the terminal device with limited coverage, for example, in the 7 th example, since the downlink power is not limited, for the terminal device with limited coverage, the number of resource blocks may not be supported for the terminal device with limited coverage is small, for example, only the number of resource blocks may be supported for the terminal device with first coverage is 4 and 6, so that in the process of resource allocation, the cost of DCI may be saved. In addition, only the common repetition number can be supported for the terminal equipment with limited coverage, so that the cost of DCI can be saved.

In an eighth example, the second set of repetition times associated with the second set of number of resource blocks { a } consisting of the number of resource blocks a comprises 2 elements. As shown in table 14, where a is a positive integer.

Alternatively, for coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, a may be an element in {4,6}, e.g., a is 6.

For example, a is 6 and is described by way of example in Table 15. The repetition number set corresponding to the number of resource blocks 6 includes two elements. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band.

In table 15, when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set can include 2 elements, so that there are 2 combinations, 1 bit is required to indicate.

TABLE 14

TABLE 15

In a ninth example, the second set of number of resource blocks { a } associated second set of repetition times, consisting of the number of resource blocks a, comprises 4 elements. As shown in table 16, where a is a positive integer.

For example, a is 6 and is described by way of example in Table 17. The repetition number set corresponding to the number of resource blocks 6 includes four elements. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band.

In table 17, when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set can include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations, and 2 bits are required to indicate.

Table 16

TABLE 17

In a tenth example, the second set of repetition times associated with the second set of resource block numbers { a } consisting of the number of resource blocks a includes 8 elements. As shown in table 18, where a is a positive integer.

For example, a is 6 and is described by way of example in Table 19. The repetition number set corresponding to the number of resource blocks 6 includes four elements. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band.

In table 19, when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set can include 8 elements, so that there are 8 combinations, and 3 bits are required to indicate.

TABLE 18

TABLE 19

In an eleventh example, the second set of resource blocks is { a } and the third set of resource blocks is { b }, the set of repetition numbers associated with { a } includes 2 elements, and the set of repetition numbers associated with { b } includes 2 elements, as shown in table 20, where a is less than b, and a and b are both positive integers. For example, a is 4 and b is 6.

For example, a is 4 and b is 6 as described in Table 21. That is, the third resource block number set {6} consisting of the resource block number 6 corresponds to the third repetition number set, which includes 2 elements. The second resource block number set {4} composed of the resource block numbers of 4 corresponds to a second repetition number set including 2 elements. Assume that the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. When the number of resource blocks is 4, the starting position of the resource blocks may be 0, and if the starting position is 0, the four RBs of 0,1,2, and 3 are used. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band.

Alternatively, table 21 may be adapted for coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B terminal device.

In table 21, when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0, and the repetition number set may include 2 elements, so that there are 2 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set can include 2 elements, so that there are 2 combinations. So that a total of 2+2 = 4 combinations, 2 bits are needed to indicate.

Table 20

Table 21

In a twelfth example, the second set of resource block numbers is { a }, the third set of resource block numbers is { b }, the set of repetition numbers associated with { a } includes 2 elements, and the set of repetition numbers associated with { b } includes 4 elements, as shown in table 22, where a is less than b, and a and b are both positive integers. For example, a is 4 and b is 6.

For example, a is 4 and b is 6 as described in Table 23. That is, the third resource block number set {6} consisting of the resource block number 6 corresponds to the third repetition number set, which includes 4 elements. The second resource block number set {4} composed of the resource block numbers of 4 corresponds to a second repetition number set including 2 elements. Assume that the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively. When the number of the resource blocks is 4, the initial position of the resource blocks can be 0 or 1, and if the initial position is 0, the four RBs are 0,1,2 and 3; if the initial position is 1, the RBs are 1,2,3 and 4. When the number of the resource blocks is 6, the starting position of the resource blocks can only be 0, and the resource blocks are RBs on the whole narrow band.

Alternatively, table 23 may be adapted for coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B terminal device.

In table 23, when the RB number is 4, the starting position of the resource block may be designed to be 0 or 1, and the repetition number set may include 2 elements, so that there are 4 combinations; when the RB number is 6, the starting position of the resource block can be only 0, and the repetition number set may include 4 elements, so that there are 4 combinations. So that a total of 4+4 = 8 combinations, 3 bits are needed to indicate.

Table 22

Table 23

Note that the starting position in the foregoing table is { a, b }, and the second device may indicate which value of { a, b } the starting position is by DCI.

And S230, the first device receives the downlink channel sent by the second device according to the first repetition number and the first resource block number in the first narrow band. The downlink information comprises data and/or control information and/or reference signals and/or data channels, wherein the data channels comprise downlink data channels and the data comprises downlink data. In this way, the second device may determine, according to the DCI, a resource block for transmitting the downlink data channel, and the first device may determine, according to the starting position of the resource block and the first number of resource blocks, which resource blocks are used to receive the downlink data channel, by the first device. Thereby ensuring normal reception and transmission of the downlink data channel.

Note that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first narrowband may include 6 Resource Blocks (RBs), and if the number of the first resource blocks is 6, the DCI does not need to indicate the starting position of the resource blocks. If the first number of resource blocks is smaller than 6, e.g. 4, it is necessary to indicate the starting position of the resource blocks, e.g. in particular from which resource block 4 resource blocks are starting. Assume that the numbers of 6 RBs in the first narrowband are 0,1,2,3,4,5, respectively.

Alternatively, the first number of resource blocks is 1, and the initial RB number of 1 RB in the narrowband is a value in {0,3} or {0,1} or {0,2} or {4,5} or {0,4 }.

Optionally, the first number of resource blocks is 2, and the starting RB number of 2 RBs within the narrowband is a value in {0,2,4}, or {1,3,5 }.

Optionally, the first number of resource blocks is 4, and the starting RB number of the 4 RBs in the narrowband is 0.

Optionally, if the first number of resource blocks is 6, the starting RB number of the 6 RBs in the narrowband is 0.

In one possible implementation, the first device may receive fourth information sent by the second device through higher layer signaling, where the fourth information indicates an offset of a start position of the resource block, for example, if the start position of the resource block is 2, the fourth information may indicate that the start position of the resource block is offset by 1, the start position of the resource block may be changed from 2 to 3, and if the fourth information indicates that the start position of the resource block is offset by 2, the start position of the resource block may be changed from 2 to 4. The start position determined by the physical layer signaling may be changed by the offset of the indicated start position of the fourth information.

Fig. 3 shows a communication method 300 provided in an embodiment of the present application, including:

s310, the second device determines DCI, where the DCI is used for the first device to determine a first repetition number and a first number of resource blocks in a first narrowband, where the first number of resource blocks is an element in a first set of resource block numbers, the first set of resource block numbers includes one or more resource block numbers, the first set of resource block numbers is a set of multiple sets of resource block numbers, each set of multiple sets of resource block numbers is associated with a set of repetition numbers, and the sets of repetition numbers associated with different sets of resource block numbers are different, and the first number of repetitions is an element in the first set of repetition numbers associated with the first set of resource block numbers.

As an alternative embodiment, the first repetition number is a repetition number of downlink control information transmissions and/or a repetition number of downlink control information scheduled, data channel transmissions, wherein the data channel comprises a downlink data channel.

As an optional embodiment, the downlink control information includes first information and second information, the first information is used for indicating a resource block start position and/or a first number of resource blocks, and the second information is used for determining a first repetition number in the first repetition number set.

As an optional embodiment, the downlink control information includes third information, where the third information is used to indicate the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions, or the third information is used to indicate the starting position of the resource blocks, the first number of resource blocks, and the first number of repetitions.

The plurality of resource block quantity sets at least comprise a second resource block quantity set and a third resource block quantity set, and element values contained in the second resource block quantity set are smaller than element values contained in the third resource block quantity set;

As an alternative embodiment, the first device is coverage enhancement level 0, or coverage enhancement level 1, or is a terminal device of coverage enhancement mode a, and the number of bits contained in the first information and the second information is 4 or 5; alternatively, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, and the number of bits that the first information and the second information together contain is 1 or 2 or 3.

As an alternative embodiment, the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a terminal device in coverage enhancement mode a, and the third information includes a number of bits of 4 or 5; alternatively, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, and the third information includes a total number of bits of 1 or 2 or 3

S320, the second device transmits DCI to the first device.

And S330, the second equipment sends downlink information to the first equipment according to the DCI. The downlink information comprises data and/or control information and/or reference signals and/or data channels, wherein the data channels comprise downlink data channels and the data comprises downlink data.

For a detailed description of the method 300, reference is made to the method 200, which is not described in detail herein for the sake of brevity.

The communication method provided by the application is mainly described from the perspective of the first device, and the processing procedure of the second device has a corresponding relation with the processing procedure of the first device, for example, the first device receives information from the second device, which means that the second device sends the information; the first device sends information to the second device, meaning that the second device receives the information from the first device. Thus, even if the processing procedure of the second device is not explicitly written in the individual places above, the person skilled in the art can clearly understand the processing procedure of the second device based on the processing procedure of the first device.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 1 to 3, and the communication device provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below with reference to fig. 4 to 6.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 400 provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus 400 may correspond to a first device described in the foregoing method, or may correspond to a chip or a component of the first device, and each module or unit in the apparatus 400 may be used to perform each action or process performed by the first device in the foregoing method, respectively, and as shown in fig. 4, the apparatus 400 for transmitting data may include a transceiver unit 410 and a processing unit 420.

A transceiver unit 410, configured to receive downlink control information sent by the second device;

a processing unit 420, configured to determine a first repetition number and a first number of resource blocks in a first narrowband according to downlink control information, where the first number of resource blocks is an element in a first set of resource blocks, the first set of resource blocks includes one or more resource block numbers, the first set of resource blocks is a set of resource block numbers, each set of resource block numbers in the plurality of sets of resource blocks is associated with a set of repetition numbers, and the sets of repetition numbers associated with different sets of resource blocks are different, and the first repetition number is an element in the first set of repetition numbers associated with the first set of resource blocks;

The transceiver unit 410 is further configured to receive a downlink data channel sent by the second device according to the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions.

As an alternative embodiment, the first repetition number is a repetition number of downlink control information transmission and/or a repetition number of downlink data channel transmission scheduled by the downlink control information.

As an alternative embodiment, the processing unit 420 is further configured to: and determining the starting position of the resource block in the first narrow band according to the downlink control information.

As an optional embodiment, the downlink control information includes first information and second information, the first information is used for indicating a resource block starting position and/or a first resource block number, and the second information is used for determining a first repetition number in the first repetition number set; the processing unit 420 specifically is configured to: determining the starting position of the resource blocks and/or the number of the first resource blocks according to the first information; the processing unit 420 specifically is configured to: the first device determines a first number of repetitions based on the second information and the first set of repetitions.

As an optional embodiment, the plurality of resource block number sets at least includes a second resource block number set and a third resource block number set, and the element values included in the second resource block number set are smaller than the element values included in the third resource block number set; the second repetition number set associated with the second resource block number set includes P elements, and the third repetition number set associated with the third resource block number set includes Q elements, where P is less than or equal to Q, and P and Q are positive integers greater than 0.

As an alternative embodiment, the apparatus 400 is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a terminal device in the coverage enhancement mode a, where the number of bits contained in the first information and the second information is 4 or 5; alternatively, the apparatus 400 is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, and the number of bits that the first information and the second information together contain is 1 or 2 or 3.

As an alternative embodiment, the apparatus 400 is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a coverage enhancement mode a terminal device, where the third information includes a total number of bits of 4 or 5; alternatively, the apparatus 400 is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, and the third information includes a total number of bits of 1 or 2 or 3.

It should be understood that, for the sake of brevity, the specific process of executing the corresponding steps by each unit in the apparatus 400 is referred to in the foregoing description in connection with the first device in the method embodiment, and is not repeated herein.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 500 provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus 500 may correspond to the second device described in the foregoing method, or may correspond to a chip or a component of the second device, and each module or unit in the apparatus 500 may be used to perform each action or process performed by the second device in the foregoing method, respectively, and as shown in fig. 5, the apparatus 500 for transmitting data may include a processing unit 510 and a transceiver unit 520.

A processing unit 510, configured to determine downlink control information, where the downlink control information is used by a first device to determine a first repetition number and a first number of resource blocks in a first narrowband, where the first number of resource blocks is an element in a first set of resource block numbers, the first set of resource block numbers includes one or more resource block numbers, the first set of resource block numbers is a set of multiple sets of resource block numbers, each set of multiple sets of resource block numbers is associated with a set of repetition numbers, and the sets of repetition numbers associated with different sets of resource block numbers are different, and the first number of repetitions is an element in the first set of repetition numbers associated with the first set of resource block numbers;

The receiving and transmitting unit is used for transmitting downlink control information to the first equipment;

the transceiver unit is further configured to send a downlink data channel to the first device according to the downlink control information.

As an optional embodiment, the plurality of resource block number sets at least includes a second resource block number set and a third resource block number set, and element values included in the second resource block number set are smaller than element values included in the third resource block number set;

As an alternative embodiment, the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a terminal device in coverage enhancement mode a, and the third information includes a number of bits of 4 or 5; alternatively, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, or coverage enhancement level 3, or coverage enhancement mode B, and the third information includes a total number of bits of 1, 2, or 3.

It should be understood that, for brevity, the specific process of each unit in the apparatus 500 to perform the above corresponding steps is referred to in the foregoing description of the second device in the method embodiment, and is not repeated herein.

The apparatus 400 of each of the above aspects has a function of implementing the corresponding step performed by the first device in the above method, and the apparatus 50 of each of the above aspects has a function of implementing the corresponding step performed by the second device in the above method; the functions may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions; for example, the transmitting unit may be replaced by a transmitter, the receiving unit may be replaced by a receiver, and other units, such as a determining unit, etc. may be replaced by a processor, performing the transceiving operations and the associated processing operations in the respective method embodiments, respectively.

In particular implementations, a processor may be used to perform, for example and without limitation, baseband related processing and a transceiver may be used to perform, for example and without limitation, radio frequency transceiving. The above devices may be provided on separate chips, or may be provided at least partially or entirely on the same chip. For example, the processor may be further divided into an analog baseband processor, which may be integrated on the same chip as the transceiver, and a digital baseband processor, which may be provided on a separate chip. With the continued development of integrated circuit technology, more and more devices may be integrated on the same chip, for example, a digital baseband processor may be integrated on the same chip with a variety of application processors (e.g., without limitation, graphics processors, multimedia processors, etc.). Such a chip may be referred to as a System On Chip (SOC). Whether the individual devices are independently disposed on different chips or integrally disposed on one or more chips is often dependent on the specific needs of the product design. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific implementation form of the device.

It will be appreciated that for the processor referred to in the foregoing embodiments, the program instructions may be executed by a hardware platform having a processor and a communication interface to implement the functions respectively referred to in any of the designs of the foregoing embodiments of the application, based on which, as shown in fig. 6, an embodiment of the application provides a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600, where the device 600 includes: a processor 610, a transceiver 620, and a memory 630. Wherein the processor 610, the transceiver 620 and the memory 630 communicate with each other through an internal connection path, the memory 630 is used for storing instructions, and the processor 610 is used for executing the instructions stored in the memory 630 to control the transceiver 620 to transmit signals and/or receive signals.

In one possible implementation manner, if the apparatus 600 is a first device, the transceiver 620 is configured to receive downlink control information sent by a second device; the processor 610 is configured to determine a first repetition number and a first number of resource blocks in a first narrowband according to the downlink control information, where the first number of resource blocks is an element in a first set of resource blocks, the first set of resource blocks includes one or more resource block numbers, the first set of resource blocks is a set of resource block numbers, each set of resource block numbers in the plurality of sets of resource blocks is associated with a set of repetition numbers, and the sets of repetition numbers associated with different sets of resource blocks are different, and the first number of repetitions is an element in the first set of repetition numbers associated with the first set of resource blocks; the transceiver 620 is further configured to receive a downlink data channel sent by the second device according to the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions.

In one possible implementation manner, if the apparatus 600 is a second device, the processor 610 is configured to determine downlink control information, where the downlink control information is used by a first device to determine a first repetition number and a first number of resource blocks in a first narrowband, where the first number of resource blocks is an element in a first set of resource block numbers, the first set of resource block numbers includes one or more resource block numbers, the first set of resource block numbers is one of a plurality of sets of resource block numbers, each set of resource block numbers in the plurality of sets of resource block numbers is associated with one set of repetition numbers, and the sets of repetition numbers associated with different sets of resource block numbers are different, and the first number of repetition is an element in the first set of repetition numbers associated with the first set of resource block numbers; the transceiver 620 is configured to send the downlink control information to the first device; transceiver 620 is also configured to transmit a downlink data channel to the first device according to the downlink control information

It should be understood that the apparatus in fig. 4 or the apparatus in fig. 5 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by the apparatus 600 in fig. 6, and may be used to perform the respective steps and/or flows corresponding to the first device and the second device in the embodiments of the method described above.

It should be understood that the methods, flows, operations, or steps related to various designs described in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in a one-to-one correspondence by computer software, electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are implemented in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the solution, for example, the implementation of the program instruction may be implemented in a manner of implementing software and hardware decoupling in consideration of good versatility and low cost, and for example, the implementation may be implemented using a dedicated circuit in consideration of system performance and reliability. One of ordinary skill in the art may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, and is not limited in this regard.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the application further provides a computer program product, which comprises: computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method in the above-described embodiments. The various embodiments in this application may also be combined with each other.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the application further provides a computer readable medium storing a program code, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method in the embodiment.

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

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. There are many different types of RAM, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

The terms "first," "second," and the like in this application are used merely to distinguish between different objects, and the terms "first," "second," and the like do not per se limit the actual order or function of the modified objects. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary," "example," "for example," "optionally," or "in some implementations" should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of these words is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete fashion.

Various objects such as messages, information, devices, network elements, systems, devices, operations and the like, which may appear in the present application, are named, and it is to be understood that these specific names do not limit the related objects, and that the named names may be changed according to the scene, the context, the usage habit and other factors, and that the understanding of the technical meaning of the technical terms in the present application should be mainly determined from the functions and technical effects that are reflected/executed in the technical scheme.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product may include one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, produces a flow or function in accordance with embodiments of the present application, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital Subscriber (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means from one website, computer, server, or data center. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic disk), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

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, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

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

In addition, each functional unit in 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

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the first equipment receives downlink control information sent by the second equipment;

the first device determines a first repetition number and a first resource block number in a first narrowband according to the downlink control information, wherein the first resource block number is one element in a first resource block number set, the first resource block number set comprises one or more resource block numbers, the first resource block number set is one set in a plurality of resource block number sets, each resource block number set in the plurality of resource block number sets is associated with one repetition number set, the repetition number sets associated with different resource block number sets are different, and the first repetition number is an element in the first repetition number set associated with the first resource block number set;

And the first equipment receives the downlink data channel sent by the second equipment according to the first resource block number and the first repetition number.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first number of repetitions is a number of repetitions of the downlink control information transmission and/or a number of repetitions of the downlink data channel transmission scheduled by the downlink control information.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method further comprises:

and the first equipment determines the starting position of the resource block in the first narrow band according to the downlink control information.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the downlink control information comprises first information for indicating a resource block start position and/or the first number of resource blocks and second information for determining the first number of repetitions in the first set of repetitions;

the first device determining a starting position of a resource block in the first narrowband and/or the first resource block number according to the downlink control information, including:

The first device determining the first repetition number according to the downlink control information, including:

the first device determines the first number of repetitions according to the second information and the first set of repetitions.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the downlink control information comprises third information, the third information being used to indicate the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions, or the third information being used to indicate the resource block start position, the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions.

6. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that,

the second repetition time set associated with the second resource block number set includes P elements, and the third repetition time set associated with the third resource block number set includes Q elements, where P is less than or equal to Q, and P and Q are positive integers greater than 0.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a coverage enhancement mode a terminal device, and wherein the first information and the second information together comprise a number of bits of 4 or 5; or, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, coverage enhancement level 3 or coverage enhancement mode B terminal device, and the number of bits contained in the first information and the second information is 1, 2 or 3.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a coverage enhancement mode a terminal device, and the third information includes a total number of bits of 4 or 5; or, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, coverage enhancement level 3 or coverage enhancement mode B terminal device, and the number of bits contained in the third information is 1, 2 or 3.

9. A method of communication, comprising:

the second device determines downlink control information, wherein the downlink control information is used for determining a first repetition number and a first resource block number in a first narrow band by the first device, the first resource block number is one element in a first resource block number set, the first resource block number set comprises one or more resource block numbers, the first resource block number set is one set in a plurality of resource block number sets, each resource block number set in the plurality of resource block number sets is associated with one repetition number set, the repetition number sets associated with different resource block number sets are different, and the first repetition number is an element in the first repetition number set associated with the first resource block number set;

The second device sends the downlink control information to the first device;

and the second equipment sends a downlink data channel to the first equipment according to the downlink control information.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first number of repetitions is a number of repetitions of the downlink control information transmission and/or a number of repetitions of the downlink data channel transmission scheduled by the downlink control information.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the downlink control information comprises first information for indicating a resource block start position and/or the first number of resource blocks and second information for determining the first number of repetitions in the first set of repetitions.

12. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the downlink control information comprises third information, the third information being used to indicate the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions, or the third information being used to indicate the resource block start position, the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of determining the position of the substrate comprises,

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a coverage enhancement mode a terminal device, and wherein the first information and the second information together comprise a number of bits of 4 or 5; or, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, coverage enhancement level 3 or coverage enhancement mode B terminal device, and the number of bits contained in the first information and the second information is 1, 2 or 3.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the first device is a coverage enhancement level 0, or a coverage enhancement level 1, or a coverage enhancement mode a terminal device, and the third information comprises a number of bits of 4 or 5; or, the first device is coverage enhancement level 2, coverage enhancement level 3 or coverage enhancement mode B terminal device, and the number of bits contained in the third information is 1, 2 or 3.

16. A communication device, comprising:

the receiving and transmitting unit is used for receiving downlink control information sent by the second equipment;

a processing unit, configured to determine a first repetition number and a first number of resource blocks in a first narrowband according to the downlink control information, where the first number of resource blocks is an element in a first set of resource blocks, the first set of resource blocks includes one or more resource blocks, the first set of resource blocks is a set of multiple sets of resource blocks, each set of resource blocks in the multiple sets of resource blocks is associated with a set of repetition numbers, and the sets of repetition numbers associated with different sets of resource blocks are different, and the first number of repetitions is an element in the first set of repetition numbers associated with the first set of resource blocks;

the transceiver unit is further configured to receive a downlink data channel sent by the second device according to the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first number of repetitions is a number of repetitions of the downlink control information transmission and/or a number of repetitions of the downlink data channel transmission scheduled by the downlink control information.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 or 17, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

and determining the starting position of the resource block in the first narrow band according to the downlink control information.

19. The apparatus according to any one of claims 16 or 17, wherein the downlink control information comprises first information for indicating a resource block start position and/or the first number of resource blocks and second information for determining the first number of repetitions in the first set of repetitions;

the processing unit is used for determining the starting position of the resource block and/or the first resource block number according to the first information;

and determining the first number of repetitions based on the second information and the first set of repetitions.

20. The apparatus according to claim 16 or 17, wherein the downlink control information comprises third information, the third information being used to indicate the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions, or the third information being used to indicate the resource block start position, the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions.

21. The apparatus according to claim 16 or 17, wherein the plurality of resource block number sets includes at least a second resource block number set and a third resource block number set, and wherein the second resource block number set includes element values that are less than element values included in the third resource block number set;

22. A communication device, comprising:

a processing unit, configured to determine downlink control information, where the downlink control information is used for determining, by a first device, a first repetition number and a first number of resource blocks in a first narrowband, where the first number of resource blocks is an element in a first set of resource blocks, the first set of resource blocks includes one or more resource block numbers, the first set of resource blocks is a set of multiple sets of resource block numbers, each set of resource block numbers in the multiple sets of resource block numbers is associated with a set of repetition numbers, and the sets of repetition numbers associated with different sets of resource block numbers are different, and the first repetition number is an element in the first set of repetition numbers associated with the first set of resource blocks;

The receiving and transmitting unit is used for transmitting the downlink control information to the first equipment;

the receiving and transmitting unit is further configured to send a downlink data channel to the first device according to the downlink control information.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the first number of repetitions is a number of repetitions of the downlink control information transmission and/or a number of repetitions of the downlink data channel transmission scheduled by the downlink control information.

24. The apparatus according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the downlink control information comprises first information for indicating a resource block start position and/or the first number of resource blocks and second information for determining the first number of repetitions in the first set of repetitions.

25. The apparatus according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the downlink control information comprises third information, the third information being used to indicate the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions, or the third information being used to indicate the resource block start position, the first number of resource blocks and the first number of repetitions.

26. The apparatus of claim 22 or 23, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,