CN107809770B

Movatterモバイル変換

Info

Publication number: CN107809770B
Application number: CN201610819407.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张健; 李元杰
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-09-09
Filing date: 2016-09-09
Publication date: 2021-06-15
Anticipated expiration: 2036-09-09
Also published as: CN107809770A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for transmitting data, a base station and user equipment, wherein the UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of a first base station and a second cell of a second base station, and the method comprises the following steps: the second base station acquires a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station to the UE, wherein the first downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE; and the second base station determines the resource allocation information of the second cell according to the first downlink control channel. In the embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition of the downlink control channel by the SeNB is not limited to the time delay of the backhaul link. Therefore, when the backhaul link delay between the network elements is not ideal, the cooperation gain of the MeNB and the SeNB can be improved.

Description

Data transmission method, base station and user equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method, a base station, and a user equipment for transmitting data in the field of communications.

Background

In the third Generation partnership Project (3 GPP) Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-a), a Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology utilizes cooperation among a plurality of geographically separated network elements to communicate with User Equipment (UE), including Multi-Point cooperative transmission and/or Multi-Point cooperative reception, so as to reduce interference of the cell edge UE and improve cell edge throughput (cell edge throughput) and reliability. The network element may be, for example, a cell (cell), a node (e.g., a base station eNB, a relay node) corresponding to the cell, a Remote Radio Head (RRH), a Radio Remote Unit (RRU), an antenna port (antenna port), and the like, which may be collectively referred to as a Transmission Point (TP). CoMP can be applied to downlink communication and/or uplink communication, and for uplink CoMP, the network element may also be referred to as a Receiving Point (RP).

The existing CoMP technology is mainly suitable for a scenario where a backhaul link (backhaul) between cooperating network elements has ideal time delay and can transmit cooperation information in time. For example, the transmission of the cooperation information can be completed within 1 Transmission Time Interval (TTI). In the case that the backhaul link delay between the cooperating network elements is not ideal, although the prior art is improved to some extent, for example, which Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) are interacted in advance between the cooperating network elements and the CoMP gain may be obtained, or the scheduling is performed in advance, generally, various cooperating manners of the prior CoMP technology are difficult to achieve a better gain.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a data transmission method, a base station and User Equipment (UE), which can improve the cooperation gain of a cooperation network element.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting data, where a UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of a first base station and a second cell of a second base station simultaneously, and the method includes:

the second base station acquires a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station to the UE, where the first downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell includes radio resources required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel (e.g., a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH) to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell includes radio resources required by the second base station to send the downlink shared channel to the UE;

and the second base station determines the resource allocation information of the second cell according to the first downlink control channel.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first base station may be a master base station MeNB, the second base station may be an auxiliary base station SeNB, the SeNB obtains a downlink control channel sent by the MeNB to the UE, the downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of a cell under the jurisdiction of the first base station and/or resource allocation information of a cell under the jurisdiction of the second base station, which is allocated by the first base station to the UE, and the SeNB may determine the resource allocation information of the cell under the jurisdiction of the second base station according to the first downlink control channel. In the embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition of the downlink control channel by the SeNB is not limited to the time delay of the backhaul link. Therefore, when the backhaul link delay between the network elements is not ideal, the cooperation gain of the MeNB and the SeNB can be improved.

When the first downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of the first cell allocated to the UE, the second base station may assist itself to allocate radio resources to the UE according to the first downlink control channel, so as to avoid generating collision or interference with the radio resources of the first cell allocated to the UE by the first base station. When the first downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of the second cell allocated to the UE, the second base station may determine, according to the first downlink control channel, to send the control information of the PDSCH to the UE itself. When the first downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of the first cell and resource allocation information of the second cell allocated to the UE, the first downlink control channel includes all scheduling information of the first base station and the second base station for the UE.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the frequency of the first cell is a first frequency, the frequency of the second cell is a second frequency, and when the MeNB sends a downlink control channel to the UE through the second frequency, the SeNB monitors the downlink control channel sent by the MeNB to the UE on the second frequency to obtain radio resource information allocated by the MeNB to the UE and a CoMP operation mode of at least one SeNB. At this time, the SeNB needs to have full duplex capability, that is, to be able to simultaneously receive the downlink control channel from the MeNB and transmit the downlink control channel to the UE in the cell under its own jurisdiction on the second frequency.

When the MeNB sends the downlink control channel to the UE through the first frequency, the downlink control channel sent by the MeNB to the UE is received by the SeNB to be at the first frequency, and the downlink control channel sent by the SeNB to other UEs in a cell under the control of the SeNB is sent to be at the second frequency.

Optionally, the first frequency and the second frequency are the same frequency. At this time, the SeNB also needs to have full duplex capability, that is, the SeNB can simultaneously receive the downlink control channel from the MeNB at one frequency point and send the downlink control channel to the UE in the cell under its own jurisdiction.

Optionally, before the second base station acquires the first downlink control channel sent by the first base station to the UE, the method further includes: and the second base station receives first indication information sent by the first base station, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the second base station to acquire the first downlink control channel. Specifically, the first base station may send the first indication information to the second base station through an X2 interface.

Optionally, the method further includes: and the second base station sends the PDSCH to the UE according to the first downlink control channel.

It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the second base station may determine, according to the acquired first downlink control channel, control information of the PDSCH sent to the UE by the second base station, and further send the downlink shared channel to the UE according to the control information. The downlink shared channel may carry service data of a user or control information of each protocol layer, for example, the protocol layer may be a protocol data unit carrying control information of a physical layer, a media access control layer, a radio link control layer, a packet data convergence protocol layer, and the like.

Optionally, the first downlink control channel is sent by the first base station to the UE through a first transmission time interval TTI, and the first downlink control channel includes resource allocation information on a second TTI allocated to the UE, where the second TTI is a next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same TTI as the first TTI,

wherein, the sending, by the second base station, the downlink shared channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel includes:

and the second base station sends a downlink shared channel to the UE on the second TTI according to the first downlink control channel.

It should be understood that, after the SeNB acquires the downlink control channel transmitted by the MeNB to the UE in the first TTI, considering that the SeNB may have processing delay and may not be able to immediately generate the data information transmitted on the PDSCH in the first TTI, the downlink control channel transmitted by the MeNB in the first TTI may be scheduling information of the PDSCH in the second TTI.

When the second TTI is the same as the first TTI, the SeNB may transmit the PDSCH to the UE using the second slot (slot) of the first TTI without performing cross-subframe scheduling by the MeNB. Or, the SeNB may use ePDCCH scheduling in the first TTI, so that the PDCCH sent by the MeNB in the first TTI allocates information for the radio resource of the first TTI, and the ePDCCH sent by the SeNB in the first TTI allocates information for the radio resource of the first TTI.

Optionally, the sending, by the second base station, the downlink shared channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel includes:

the second base station sends a second downlink control channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel;

and the second base station sends a downlink shared channel to the UE according to the second downlink control channel.

In this way, the UE can acquire the resource allocation information according to the downlink control channel from the MeNB and the downlink control channel from the SeNB at the same time. The downlink control channels of the MeNB and the SeNB may schedule resource allocation information of different transport blocks, so that the UE can simultaneously receive different data information of PDSCHs from different base stations in the second TTI. Or the downlink control channels of the MeNB and the SeNB may schedule the resource allocation information of the same transport block, so that the UE receives the data information of the same transport block on the PDSCH from different base stations at the same time in the second TTI, thereby improving the reliability of data transmission.

Optionally, before the first base station is a master base station, the second base station is an auxiliary base station, and the second base station sends a second downlink control channel to the UE through the second frequency according to the first downlink control channel, the method further includes:

the second base station receives a measurement report of a cell under the jurisdiction of the secondary base station in the coverage range of the first base station, which is sent by the UE;

the second base station sends a second downlink control channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel, including:

and the second base station sends the second downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement report and the first downlink control channel.

In this way, the UE can dynamically switch the downlink control channel among the senbs, and receive the downlink control channel using the configuration information of the cell with the best radio condition, thereby avoiding changing the cell for sending the downlink control channel to the UE in the layer 3 switching manner in the prior art, and reducing the communication interruption delay.

Optionally, the second base station may configure, for the UE, a first uplink power control parameter based on the first base station and a second uplink power control parameter based on the second base station; the second base station receives a PHR sent by the UE, wherein the PHR is determined by the UE according to the first uplink power control parameter and the second uplink power control parameter; and the second base station determines an uplink power control parameter to be used when the UE sends the CSI according to the PHR, and determines whether to forward the CSI sent by the UE to the first base station.

Specifically, when the difference value of the downlink path loss references of the two cells acquired by the second base station according to the PHR is smaller than a first threshold, the second base station determines that the first base station can receive the CSI at the same time, and when the difference value is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the second base station determines that the first base station cannot receive the CSI, and then the second base station forwards the CSI to the first base station. In this way, the UE can always transmit the uplink CSI information at a lower power, and the power consumption of the UE can be reduced.

Optionally, the second base station may further receive HARQ ACK/NACK sent by the UE.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting data, where a UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of a first base station and a second cell of a second base station simultaneously, and the method includes:

the first base station sends a downlink control channel to the UE, where the downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell includes radio resources required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell includes radio resources required by the second base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE.

Optionally, before the first base station sends the downlink control channel to the UE, the method further includes: and the first base station sends first indication information to the second base station, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the second base station to acquire the downlink control channel. Specifically, the first base station may send the first indication information to the second base station through an X2 interface.

Optionally, the method further includes: and the first base station sends a physical downlink shared channel to the UE according to the downlink control channel.

Optionally, the sending, by the first base station, a downlink control channel to the UE includes:

the first base station transmits a downlink control channel to the UE in a first TTI, wherein the downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information on a second TTI allocated to the UE, the second TTI is a next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same TTI as the first TTI,

wherein, the first base station sends the PDSCH to the UE according to the downlink control channel, including:

and the first base station sends the PDSCH to the UE on the second TTI according to the downlink control channel.

Optionally, the first base station is a master base station, the second base station is an auxiliary base station, and the first base station sends a downlink control channel to the UE, including:

the first base station receives measurement reports of cells covered by the first base station and the auxiliary base station in the coverage range of the first base station, wherein the measurement reports are sent by the UE;

and the first base station sends the downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement report.

In this way, the first base station may allocate, to the UE, resource allocation information of the first cell and resource allocation information of the second cell based on the measurement report sent by the UE.

Optionally, the first base station may further receive HARQ ACK/NACK sent by the UE.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting data, where a UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of a first base station and a second cell of a second base station simultaneously, and the method includes:

the UE receives a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station, wherein the first downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell comprises wireless resources required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell comprises wireless resources required by the second base station to send the downlink shared channel to the UE;

and the UE receives a downlink shared channel sent by the first base station and/or the second base station according to the first downlink control channel.

In the embodiment of the invention, the SeNB acquires a downlink control channel sent by the MeNB to the UE, the downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information of a cell under the jurisdiction of the first base station and/or resource allocation information of a cell under the jurisdiction of the second base station, which are allocated by the first base station to the UE, and the MeNB and the SeNB respectively send the PDSCH to the UE according to the downlink control channel. In the embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition of the downlink control channel by the SeNB is not limited to the time delay of the backhaul link. Therefore, when the backhaul link delay between the network elements is not ideal, the cooperation gain of the MeNB and the SeNB can be improved.

Optionally, the first frequency and the second frequency are the same frequency.

Optionally, the receiving, by the UE, a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station includes:

the UE receives a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station in a first TTI, wherein the first downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information in a second TTI allocated to the UE, the second TTI is the next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same TTI as the first TTI,

the UE receives a downlink shared channel sent by the first base station and/or the second base station according to the first downlink control channel, including:

and the UE receives the downlink shared channel sent by the first base station and/or the second base station on the second TTI according to the first downlink control channel.

Optionally, before the UE receives the downlink shared channel sent by the first base station and/or the second base station according to the first downlink control channel, the method further includes:

and the UE receives a second downlink control channel sent by the second base station, wherein the second downlink control channel is determined by the second base station according to the first downlink control channel.

Optionally, before the first base station is a master base station, the second base station is an auxiliary base station, and the UE receives a second downlink control channel sent by the second base station, the method further includes:

and the UE sends a measurement report of a cell under the jurisdiction of the secondary base station within the coverage range of the first base station to the second base station, so that the second base station sends the second downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement report.

Optionally, before the UE receives the first physical downlink control channel sent by the first base station through the first frequency or the second frequency, the method further includes:

and the UE sends measurement reports of the cell under the jurisdiction of the first base station and the cell under the jurisdiction of the secondary base station within the coverage range of the first base station to the first base station, so that the first base station sends the downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement reports.

Optionally, the UE may receive a first uplink power control parameter based on the first base station and a second uplink power control parameter based on the second base station, where the first uplink power control parameter is configured by the first base station or the second base station; the UE reports PHRs to the first base station and the second base station respectively, wherein the PHRs are determined by the UE according to the first uplink power control parameter and the second uplink power control parameter; and the UE determines an uplink power control parameter to be used when the CSI is sent according to the PHR and sends the CSI to the first base station or the second base station. In this way, the UE can always transmit the uplink CSI information at a lower power, and the power consumption of the UE can be reduced.

Optionally, the UE may also send HARQ ACK/NACK to the first base station and/or the second base station.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a base station, configured to perform the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and specifically, the base station includes a module configured to perform the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a base station, configured to execute the method in any possible implementation manner of the second aspect or the second aspect, and specifically, the base station includes a module configured to execute the method in any possible implementation manner of the second aspect or the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a user equipment, configured to execute the method in any possible implementation manner of the third aspect or the third aspect, where specifically, the user equipment includes a module configured to execute the method in any possible implementation manner of the third aspect or the third aspect.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a base station, where the base station includes: memory, processor, transceiver and bus system. Wherein the memory and the processor are connected by the bus system, the memory is configured to store instructions, the processor is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory, and when the processor executes the instructions stored by the memory, the execution causes the processor to execute the first aspect or the method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a base station, where the base station includes: memory, processor, transceiver and bus system. Wherein the memory and the processor are connected by the bus system, the memory is configured to store instructions, the processor is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory, and when the processor executes the instructions stored by the memory, the execution causes the processor to execute the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a user equipment, where the user equipment includes: memory, processor, transceiver and bus system. Wherein the memory and the processor are connected by the bus system, the memory is configured to store instructions, the processor is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory, and when the processor executes the instructions stored by the memory, the execution causes the processor to execute the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect.

In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable medium for storing a computer program including instructions for executing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a computer-readable medium for storing a computer program including instructions for executing the second aspect or the method in any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable medium for storing a computer program, where the computer program includes instructions for executing the third aspect or the method in any possible implementation manner of the third aspect.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

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

Fig. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of a protocol stack architecture in a multi-connection scenario.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of another protocol stack architecture in a multi-connection scenario.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic interaction flow diagram of a method of transmitting data in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic interaction flow diagram of another method of transferring data in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a TTI for transmitting data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic block diagram of a base station of an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic block diagram of another base station of an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic block diagram of another base station of an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic block diagram of another base station of an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic block diagram of a user equipment UE according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic block diagram of another user equipment UE of an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be obtained by a person skilled in the art without any inventive step based on the embodiments of the present invention, shall fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

It should be understood that the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention can be applied to various communication systems, for example: a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) System, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) System, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) System, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), a Long Term Evolution (LTE) System, a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) System, a Time Division Duplex (TDD) System, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WLAN) System, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) or a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) System, abbreviated as "5G"), and the like. The embodiment of the present invention is described by taking an LTE communication system as an example.

It should also be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, a User Equipment (User Equipment, abbreviated as UE) may be referred to as a Terminal (Terminal), a Mobile Station (Mobile Station, abbreviated as MS), a Mobile Terminal (Mobile Terminal), or the like, and the User Equipment may communicate with one or more core networks via a Radio Access Network (RAN), for example, the User Equipment may be a Mobile phone (or referred to as a "cellular" phone) or a computer with a Mobile Terminal, for example, the User Equipment may also be a portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in, or vehicle-mounted Mobile device, and they exchange voice and/or data with the RAN.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the Base Station may be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in GSM or CDMA, a Base Station (NodeB) in WCDMA, or an evolved Node B (eNB or e-NodeB) in LTE, which is not limited in the present invention but is described as an example, and the following embodiment will be described with the eNB as an example.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the system architecture shown in fig. 1, a Master base station 10(Master eNB, MeNB), a secondary base station 20(Second eNB, SeNB), and aUE 30 are included. In the embodiment of the present invention, the MeNB may be referred to as a first base station, the SeNB may be referred to as a second base station, a cell governed by the MeNB may be referred to as a first cell, and a cell governed by the SeNB may be referred to as a second cell. TheUE 30 may establish a radio connection with theMeNB 10 and the SENB20 at the same time, that is, the UE has a radio connection relationship with both the first cell and the second cell. A Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection of the UE is established in a Primary cell (PCell) provided by the MeNB, which may also provide other Secondary cells (scells). The SeNB provides a Primary Secondary cell (PScell), and may also provide other Secondary cells, and the SeNB is only used for transmitting user plane data of the UE.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example in whichUE 30 performs dual connectivity withMeNB 10 andSeNB 20. It should be understood that the number ofsenbs 20 in this application scenario may be at least one, andUE 30 may have simultaneous connectivity with cells governed byMeNB 10 and at least one SeNB. In this application scenario,UE 30 may also access only a cell governed by SeNB20, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the frequency of the first cell is a first frequency, and the frequency of the second cell is a second frequency. And when the first frequency and the second frequency are the same, the UE establishes the co-frequency dual-connection with the MeNB and the SeNB.

And when the first frequency is different from the second frequency, the UE establishes the pilot frequency dual connection with the MeNB and the SeNB. When multiple senbs exist in the coverage of the MeNB, second cells of the multiple senbs may all be the second frequency, and at this time, the UE may have the same-frequency multiple-connection with the cells served by the multiple senbs.

TheMeNB 10 and the SeNB20 described in fig. 1 may communicate with the UE using a CoMP technique, or at least two senbs in fig. 1 may communicate with the UE using a CoMP technique. A plurality of cooperating network elements using CoMP technology may cooperate through Joint Processing (JP) and Coordinated scheduling/beamforming (CS/CB) manners, where the JP manner includes Joint Transmission (JT) and Dynamic Transmission point selection (DPS). JT refers to a plurality of transmission points simultaneously transmitting data to a UE to improve signal reception quality or throughput, DPS refers to only one transmission point transmitting data to the UE on a certain time-frequency domain resource, and the next subframe may change another transmission point transmitting data to the UE. CS/CB refers to transmitting data from only one transmission point to a UE for a time-frequency domain resource, but scheduling/beam decisions are made by multiple transmission points in cooperation.

For downlink CoMP, the MeNB and the SeNB may select one or more downlink TPs based on a measurement report of the UE or a measurement of the base station, so that the UE achieves a better receiving effect. For uplink CoMP, the MeNB and the SeNB may select the RP based on SRS measurement or downlink path loss information of the base station, so that the RP achieves a better receiving effect.

Different from the existing CoMP technology, the UE in the embodiment of the present invention may have a connection relationship with multiple base stations at the same time, for example, the UE may have a connection relationship with the MeNB and the SeNB at the same time, that is, the UE may have a connection relationship with a cell governed by the MeNB and a cell governed by the SeNB at the same time. That is, the UE may have at least two serving cells at the same time. The cell under the control of the MeNB and the cell under the control of the SeNB can respectively or simultaneously send the PDCCH to the UE according to actual needs. Whereas in the prior art the UE is connected to only one serving cell from which the PDCCH can only be transmitted.

As shown in fig. 2, the UE may use a set of protocol stacks for dual linking with the MeNB and SeNB. The protocol stack of the UE may include: physical layer (PHY), Media Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), the Protocol stack of the MeNB includes: PHY, MAC, RLC and PDCP, the protocol stack of SeNB comprising: PHY, MAC, and RLC. A protocol stack of the UE corresponds to a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) entity, HARQ buffers (buffers) of the MeNB and the SeNB are different, and a HARQ process (process) may be respectively located in buffers distinguished by different addresses for transport blocks sent by the MeNB and the SeNB, so as to solve the problem of co-channel interference, where the MeNB and the SeNB send information to the UE in a manner of space diversity, space multiplexing, or beam cooperation. Alternatively, the transport blocks transmitted by the HARQ processes for the MeNB and the SeNB may be located in the same buffer, and soft-combined by the UE, for example, by the MeNB and the SeNB respectively transmitting different redundancy versions of the same transport block TB to the UE.

As shown in fig. 3, the UE may also use two sets of protocol stacks to perform dual link with the MeNB and the SeNB, where the first set of protocol stacks specifically includes: PHY, MAC, RLC and PDCP, the second set of protocol stack specifically includes: PHY, MAC, and RLU. Each set of protocol stack corresponds to a respective HARQ entity, so that the HARQ process and the HARQ buffer are independent.

In the embodiment of the invention, the UE uses the same set of protocol stack or a method using two sets of protocol stacks to carry out double connection with the MENB and the SeNB, and receives data of the same frequency carrier wave from different base stations in a space division or multi-stream mode.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the MeNB or the SeNB may also configure the antenna port allocation information in advance. For example, the MeNB may transmit data to the UE using port 1 and port 2, and the SeNB may transmit data to the UE using port 3 and port 4. The antenna port allocation information can be dynamically configured in the MeNB or the SeNB and informed to another base station. It should be noted that, because there is a delay in the backhaul link (backhaul) between the base stations, the frequency of change of the antenna port information should be less than the backhaul link delay, so as to ensure that the MeNB and the SeNB transmit data to the UE according to the same antenna port information. It should also be noted that the antenna port allocation information should also be pre-configured to the UE, or dynamically notified to the UE, so that the UE can receive data transmitted by the MeNB and/or SeNB using the correct antenna port information.

When the UE performs dual connectivity with the MeNB and the SeNB, the UE may respectively use different radio frequency chains to perform data transmission with the MeNB and the SeNB, or the UE uses the same radio frequency chain to perform data transmission with the MeNB and the SeNB.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic flow chart of a method of transmitting data applying one embodiment of the scenario shown in fig. 1 of the present invention. The method comprises the following steps:

s202, theMeNB 10 negotiates with the SeNB20 about a base station transmitting a downlink control channel in the first TTI.

For example, the downlink control channel may be transmitted to the UE by theMeNB 10 or the SeNB20 in the first TTI, respectively, and the downlink control channel may also be transmitted to the UE by theMeNB 10 and the SeNB20 in the first TTI at the same time. TheMeNB 10 and SeNB20 may negotiate time division or time division information of downlink control channels transmitted to theUE 30 over subsequent TTIs at a time. Here, the Downlink Control Channel may include a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or an enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH). In the embodiment of the present invention, the TTI may also be a period of transmission time, specifically, a subframe or a timeslot.

TheMeNB 10 or the SeNB20 may negotiate, according to the measurement report of the UE for the cell governed by the MeNB and the cell governed by the SeNB, a base station that sends a downlink control channel to the UE in the first TTI. The measurement report may include at least one of Channel State Information (CSI), Channel Quality Indication (CQI), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), downlink loss (path), and cell load (load). In the embodiment of the present invention, the measurement report may be referred to as measurement information.

Before S202, the UE may report a measurement report to at least one base station in the MeNB and the SeNB, where the measurement report includes first measurement information obtained by the UE performing measurement on a cell served by the MeNB and also includes second measurement information obtained by the cell served by the SeNB performing measurement. And, the UE transmits the measurement report to at least one of the MeNB and the SeNB. It can be appreciated that when the UE reports a measurement report to the MeNB, the MeNB may determine which base station sent the downlink control channel to the UE in the first TTI, and inform the UE of the result. When the UE reports a measurement report to the SeNB, the SeNB may determine which base station transmits a downlink control channel to the UE in the first TTI, and notify the UE of the result.

In the embodiment of the invention, the UE can send the measurement report at lower power. Specifically, the MeNB or the SeNB may configure, for the UE, a first uplink power control parameter based on the MeNB and a second uplink power control parameter based on the SeNB, respectively. And the UE respectively takes the cell managed by the MeNB and the cell managed by the SeNB as Downlink loss references (Downlink loss references) to measure Downlink RSRP. At this time, the UE may select a power Control parameter corresponding to a cell with the minimum downlink path loss from a cell managed by the MeNB and a cell managed by the SeNB to send a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH), and scramble the Uplink DMRS using a Virtual Cell Identity (VCID). For example, when the downlink path loss of the cell governed by the MeNB is smaller than the downlink path loss of the cell governed by the SeNB, the UE selects the first uplink power control parameter to send the uplink PUCCH. And when the downlink path loss of the cell managed by the SeNB is smaller than the downlink path loss of the cell managed by the SeNB, the UE selects a second uplink power control parameter to send the uplink PUCCH.

Then, the UE reports Power Headroom Reports (PHR) to the MeNB and the SeNB, respectively. The PHR reported by the UE includes Power Headroom (PH) information of two co-frequency cells under the MeNB and the SeNB. The MeNB and the SeNB respectively determine which cell uplink power control parameter the UE uses to send measurement information according to the PHR reported by the UE, and the measurement information is CSI, for example.

Here, when the SeNB receives the measurement information of the UE, the SeNB may determine whether to forward the measurement information to the MeNB according to a difference between downlink path losses of two cells obtained in the PHR reported by the UE. Specifically, when the difference of the downlink path loss is smaller than a certain threshold, the SeNB determines that the MeNB can receive the measurement information sent by the UE at the same time, and does not need to forward the measurement information to the MeNB. When the difference of the downlink path loss is greater than a certain threshold, the SeNB determines that the MeNB cannot receive the measurement information sent by the UE, and then the SeNB needs to forward the measurement information to the MeNB.

Alternatively, the MeNB may send a second negotiation message to the SeNB, the second negotiation message indicating that the MeNB and the SeNB may simultaneously send the downlink control channel to the UE in the first TTI. For example, the MeNB may be represented by a special code, for example, the MeNB may indicate that the MeNB and the SeNB may simultaneously transmit the downlink control channel to the UE in the first TTI according to the pre-agreed pattern information of all 1 s or all 0 s.

Alternatively, the MeNB and the SeNB may agree in advance, and when the MeNB and the SeNB determine that the downlink control channel may be sent to the UE independently, the base station that sends the downlink control channel in the first TTI may not need to negotiate, for example, when the MeNB and the SeNB do not exchange pattern information, the MeNB and the SeNB may schedule the UE independently.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the pattern information of the Subframe may be determined in a manner similar to an Almost Blank Subframe (ABS), and only the cell reference signal is sent in the Almost Blank Subframe MeNB, but the downlink control channel and the downlink shared channel are not sent. For example, the MeNB determines the configuration of the subframe pattern according to the cell loads of the MeNB and the SeNB and the UE distribution. In the prior art, in a non-ABS subframe, an MeNB can only schedule UEs in a cell served by the MeNB, and in an ABS subframe, an SeNB can only schedule UEs in a cell served by the SeNB, that is, a specific UE can only be scheduled by one of the base stations before a cell is switched, and can only be scheduled by the other base station after the cell is switched. In the embodiment of the invention, the UE has the wireless connection relation with the MeNB and the SeNB simultaneously, so that the MeNB can schedule in a non-ABS subframe and the SeNB can schedule in an ABS subframe, and the throughput of the UE at the edge of a cell can be improved.

In the embodiment of the invention, when the frequency of the cell governed by the MeNB is the same as that of the cell governed by the SeNB, that is, when the MeNB and the SeNB use the same carrier frequency to send downlink control channels to the UE, in order to avoid interference caused by the same frequency used by the MeNB and the SeNB, the MeNB may send a PDCCH to the UE, the SeNB may send an ePDCCH to the UE, or the MeNB may send an ePDCCH to the UE, the SeNB sends a PDCCH to the UE, or both the MeNB and the SeNB send an ePDCCH to the UE. Or, the MeNB and the SeNB may transmit the same PDCCH to the UE in the first TTI at the same time, which can enhance the reliability of receiving the PDCCH by the UE.

S204, theMeNB 10 sends, to the UE, indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate the UE to receive, on the first TTI, the downlink control channel sent by the MeNB and/or the SeNB.

S206, the SeNB10 transmits the instruction information in S204 to the UE.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the MeNB or the SeNB may configure the negotiation result to the UE through the indication information, so that the UE obtains information of which subframe the base station will send the downlink control channel to the UE, and thus the UE receives the downlink control channel in the corresponding subframe according to the configuration information of the corresponding cell. It should be noted that, in the above S204 and S206, only one of the steps may be performed, that is, in the embodiment of the present invention, one of the MeNB and the SeNB may configure the negotiation result to the UE.

S208, theMeNB 10 transmits the downlink control channel to theUE 30 in the first TTI.

S210, the SeNB20 transmits a downlink control channel to theUE 30 in the first TTI.

In the embodiment of the present invention, both steps S208 and S210 may be executed, or only one of the steps may be executed. That is, according to the negotiation result, the downlink control channel may be transmitted to the UE only by the MeNB in the first TTI, or the downlink control channel may be transmitted to the UE only by the SeNB in the first TTI, or both the MeNB and the SeNB may simultaneously transmit the downlink control channel to the UE in the first TTI.

The UE may receive the downlink control channel sent by the MeNB and/or the SeNB according to the indication information.

S212, theMeNB 10 sends a Downlink Shared Channel to theUE 30, where the Downlink Shared Channel is used for transmitting Downlink data, and may be, for example, a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in the LTE communication system, and the Downlink Shared Channel may also be referred to as a Downlink data Channel.

S214, SeNB20 transmits the downlink shared channel toUE 30.

When the downlink control channel is transmitted only from the MeNB, the step of S212 may be performed to transmit a Transport Block (TB) through a PDSCH of the Pcell of the MeNB and scramble a Demodulation Reference signal (DMRS) using a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI) of the Pcell. When Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology is used, two TBs can be transmitted simultaneously, and when MIMO technology is not used, only one transport block can be transmitted.

When the downlink control channel is transmitted only from the SeNB, the step S214 may be performed to transmit the TB through the PScell of the SeNB or the PDSCH of the Scell, and scramble the DMRS using the PCI of the PScell or the Scell. When the MIMO technique is used, two TBs can be simultaneously transmitted, and when the MIMO technique is not used, only one TB can be transmitted.

When the downlink control channels are simultaneously and respectively transmitted from the MeNB and the SeNB, the steps of S212 and S214 may be performed, that is, when the MeNB and the SeNB can independently schedule the UE, the MeNB and the SeNB allocate resource blocks of the cell according to the allocated port information, respectively transmit a TB to the UE through the PDSCH respectively transmitted to the UE, and scramble the DMRS with the VCID respectively.

In the embodiment of the invention, the UE can simultaneously establish a wireless connection relationship with the MeNB and the SeNB, and at least one base station in the main base station and the auxiliary base station is determined to send the downlink control channel to the UE according to the first measurement information obtained by measuring the cell in the main base station by the UE and the second measurement information obtained by measuring the cell in the auxiliary base station by the UE, and the downlink control channel can be dynamically sent by using the cell with better wireless condition in the cell of the main base station or the cell of the auxiliary base station, and is not limited by the time delay of a backhaul link. Therefore, when the time delay of the backhaul link between the network elements is not ideal, the cooperative gain of the main base station and the secondary base station can be improved.

In addition, the embodiment of the invention dynamically uses the cell with better wireless condition in the cell managed by the MeNB or the cell managed by the SeNB to send the downlink control channel, when the UE moves between the cell managed by the MeNB and the cell managed by the SeNB, the switching process is not needed, and the switching failure and the transmission interruption time delay are avoided, so that the embodiment of the invention can improve the reliability of the downlink control channel, thereby improving the throughput of the dual-connection UE and reducing the interference.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic flow chart of a method of transmitting data applying one embodiment of the scenario shown in fig. 1 of the present invention. It should be understood that the steps or operations of the method of transmitting data are shown in fig. 5, but these steps or operations are merely examples, and other operations or variations of the operations in fig. 5 may also be performed by embodiments of the present invention. Moreover, the various steps in FIG. 5 may be performed in a different order presented in FIG. 5, and it is possible that not all of the operations in FIG. 5 may be performed. The same reference numerals in fig. 5 as in fig. 1 denote the same or similar meanings, and are not described herein again for the sake of brevity.

S402, theMeNB 10 determines a first downlink control channel transmitted to theUE 30 over the first TTI. Here, the downlink control channel may include PDCCH or ePDCCH.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the MeNB may serve as a centralized scheduler, and the SeNB may serve as a cooperative scheduler. At this time, the first downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of a cell of an MeNB allocated to the UE and/or resource allocation information of a cell of an SeNB, the resource allocation information of the cell governed by the MeNB includes radio resources required for the first base station to send the PDSCH to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the cell governed by the SeNB includes radio resources required for the second base station to send the PDSCH to the UE. That is, the first downlink control channel includes scheduling information required for the MeNB to transmit the PDSCH and/or the SeNB to transmit the PDSCH.

The MeNB may determine, according to the measurement report reported by the UE, a first downlink control channel to be sent to the UE in the first TTI. Specifically, the reporting period of the measurement report may be 20ms to 50ms, and the MeNB may determine, according to the current measurement report, a downlink control channel to be sent to the UE in multiple TTIs. The measurement report comprises first measurement information obtained by measuring the cell governed by the MeNB by the UE, and also comprises second measurement information obtained by measuring the cell governed by the SeNB.

Before S402, the UE may report, to the MeNB, measurement reports of the UE in the cell under the MeNB and the cell under the SeNB through an air interface between the MeNB and the UE. Specifically, the UE may report the measurement report of the UE in the cell governed by the MeNB to the MeNB through the first frequency, and report the measurement report of the UE in the cell governed by the SeNB to the MeNB through the first frequency.

In the embodiment of the invention, the UE can directly report the measurement report of the UE in the cell managed by the SeNB to the MeNB, but in the prior art, the UE reports the measurement report to the SeNB, and then the SeNB forwards the measurement report to the MeNB through an X2 interface. Therefore, the embodiment of the invention can reduce the time delay of the UE reporting the measurement report.

Specifically, the measurement report may refer to the description of S202 in fig. 4, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

S404, theMeNB 10 sends first indication information to the SeNB20, where the first indication information is used to indicate the UE that the SeNB needs to monitor in several TTIs, and the SeNB monitoring the UE in several TTIs may be understood as that the SeNB acquires a first downlink control channel sent by the MeNB to the UE in the several TTIs.

When the first downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of a cell of the MeNB allocated for the UE and/or resource allocation information of a cell of the SeNB, the SeNB may acquire the first downlink control channel according to the first indication information. The SeNB may obtain scheduling information allocated by the MeNB by monitoring the first downlink control channel, and determine scheduling information of itself to the UE according to the scheduling information.

Specifically, the SeNB may determine, according to the first downlink control channel, control information of a PDSCH subsequently sent to the UE, or the SeNB may assist its scheduling decision according to the acquired first downlink control channel, so as to allocate radio resources to the UE or other UEs in the cell under the jurisdiction. For example, the SeNB may determine, according to the CoMP mode information carried in the first downlink control channel, that the CoMP operation mode of the cell under its own jurisdiction for the UE is JT, DPS, CS/CB, or the like.

S406, theMeNB 10 sends second indication information to theUE 30, where the second indication information is used to indicate the UE to receive the PDSCH sent by the MeNB and/or the SeNB in the second TTI. The UE is thus able to receive PDCCH from the MeNB in a first subframe and PDSCH from the MeNB and/or SeNB in a second subframe.

It should be understood that, after the SeNB acquires the downlink control channel transmitted by the MeNB to the UE in the first subframe, considering that the SeNB may have processing delay and may not be ready to generate the data information transmitted on the PDSCH in the first subframe, the downlink control channel transmitted by the MeNB in the first subframe may be scheduling information of the PDSCH in the second subframe.

As an example, the second TTI may be a next TTI after the first TTI, that is, the processing delay problem of the SeNB may be solved through MeNB cross-subframe scheduling in the embodiment of the present invention.

Specifically, fig. 6 shows schematic diagrams of subframes of the MeNB, the SeNB, and the UE, where the respective subframe diagrams of the MeNB, the SeNB, and the UE are a first TTI, a second TTI, and a third TTI from left to right. Wherein the shaded portion of each TTI includes a PDCCH and the blank portion of each TTI includes a PDSCH. As shown by the arrows in fig. 6, the downlink control channel transmitted by the MeNB to the UE in the first TTI is used to schedule the PDSCH transmitted by the MeNB to the UE in the second TTI. After acquiring the downlink control channel transmitted by the MeNB to the UE in the first TTI, the SeNB generates data information transmitted on the PDSCH, and transmits the PDSCH in the second TTI. The SeNB may also transmit, to the UE, scheduling information of the PDSCH it transmitted in the second TTI, i.e., a PDCCH transmitting scheduling information of the PDSCH it transmitted in the second TTI, on the subframe of the shaded portion of the second TTI. In this way, the UE may receive the downlink control channel from the MeNB in the first TTI, and receive the PDSCH transmitted by the MeNB, the PDCCH transmitted by the SeNB, and/or the PDSCH transmitted by the SeNB in the second TTI.

As another example, the second TTI may be the same TTI as the first TTI, and in this case, the MeNB is not required to perform cross-subframe scheduling. For example, the SeNB may transmit the PDSCH to the UE using a second slot (slot) of the first TTI.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the SeNB may use ePDCCH for scheduling in the first TTI, so that the PDCCH sent by the MeNB in the first TTI is the radio resource allocation information of the first TTI, and the ePDCCH sent by the SeNB in the first TTI is the radio resource allocation information of the first TTI. In this case, when the MeNB is not required to perform the cross-subframe scheduling, the MeNB may not be required to transmit the second indication information to the UE.

S408, theMeNB 10 transmits the first downlink control channel to theUE 30.

Specifically, the MeNB may send the first downlink control channel to the UE through an air interface between a cell served by the MeNB and the UE, that is, the MeNB sends the first downlink control channel to the UE through the first frequency. Or the MeNB may also send the first downlink control channel to the UE through a second frequency, where the second frequency is a frequency of a cell under the SeNB.

At this time, the SeNB listens to the first downlink control channel. The SeNB may determine scheduling information of the SeNB for the UE according to the acquired first downlink control channel. For example, when the first downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell, the SeNB may determine, according to the monitored downlink control channel, control information of a PDSCH subsequently sent by the SeNB to the UE, or determine that the SeNB allocates radio resources to the UE or other UEs, so as to avoid generating collision or interference with radio resources already allocated by the MeNB.

Here, the SeNB needs to support an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDMA) reception function.

It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the SeNB may determine whether it needs to transmit the PDSCH according to the obtained PDCCH transmitted by the MeNB. Specifically, the MeNB transmits a PDCCH to the UE, and both the MeNB and the SeNB transmit a PDSCH to the UE according to the PDCCH. Or, the MeNB transmits a PDCCH to the UE, and only the SeNB transmits the PDSCH according to the PDCCH. Or, the MeNB may send the PDCCH to the UE, only the MeNB sends the PDSCH according to the PDCCH, and the SeNB may determine its scheduling decision according to the PDCCH, so as to allocate radio resources to the UE or other UEs, and send the PDCCH and the PDSCH to the UE or other UEs.

Specifically, the SeNB may determine, according to CoMP mode information in the scheduling information in the first downlink control channel, a CoMP operation mode of the cell under the SeNB for the UE, for example, JT, DPS, or CS/CB. For example, according to a scheduling mode of Dynamic Point Blank (DPB) or Dynamic Point Switching (DPS), the SeNB learns whether it needs to allocate radio resources to the UE and send a PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) according to information on a first downlink control channel sent by the MeNB; for another example, according to the scheduling mode of joint transmission, the SeNB knows which radio resources it sends the PDSCH to the UE according to the information on the physical downlink control channel sent by the MeNB.

S410, the SeNB20 transmits a second downlink control channel to theUE 30.

Specifically, the SeNB may send, according to the obtained first downlink control channel, a second downlink control channel to the UE through an air interface between the cell under the jurisdiction of the SeNB and the UE, that is, send the second downlink control channel to the UE through a second frequency, where the second downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of the cell under the jurisdiction of the SeNB allocated by the SeNB for the UE. For example, the second downlink control channel may specifically include scheduling information of the SeNB for the UE.

S412, theMeNB 10 transmits the first PDSCH to theUE 30.

Specifically, the MeNB may send the first PDSCH to the UE through an air interface between a cell governed by the MeNB and the UE according to the first downlink control channel, that is, send the first PDSCH to the UE through the first frequency. When step S406 is performed, the MeNB may transmit the first PDSCH to the UE on the second TTI according to the first downlink control channel and the second indication information.

S414, SeNB10 transmits the second PDSCH toUE 30.

Specifically, the SeNB sends the second PDSCH to the UE through an air interface between a cell served by the SeNB and the UE. The SeNB may send the second PDSCH to the UE according to the acquired first downlink control channel. Alternatively, when S410 is performed, the SeNB may transmit the second PDSCH to the UE according to the second downlink control channel in S410.

When steps S406 and S410 are performed, the MeNB needs to perform cross-subframe scheduling on the UE, the second downlink control channel sent by the SeNB10 to the UE may indicate scheduling information of the second TTI, and the downlink control channel sent by the MeNB in advance is also used as scheduling information of the second TTI, so that the UE may obtain resource allocation information according to the downlink control channel from the MeNB and the downlink control channel from the SeNB at the same time.

The downlink control channels of the MeNB and the SeNB may schedule resource allocation information of different transport blocks, so that the UE can simultaneously receive different data information of PDSCHs from different base stations in the second TTI. Or the downlink control channels of the MeNB and the SeNB may schedule the resource allocation information of the same transport block, so that the UE receives the data information of the same transport block on the PDSCH from different base stations at the same time in the second TTI, thereby improving the reliability of data transmission.

In the embodiment of the invention, when the MeNB sends the downlink control channel to the UE through the first frequency, the SeNB receives that the downlink control channel sent by the MeNB to the UE is at the first frequency, and the SeNB sends the downlink control channel to other UEs in the cell under the control of the SeNB is at the second frequency.

When the MeNB may send the downlink control channel to the UE through the second frequency, the SeNB monitors the downlink control channel sent by the MeNB to the UE on the second frequency to obtain the radio resource information allocated by the MeNB to the UE and the CoMP operation mode of at least one SeNB. At this time, the SeNB needs to have full duplex capability, that is, to be able to simultaneously receive the downlink control channel from the MeNB and transmit the downlink control channel to the UE in the cell under its own jurisdiction on the second frequency.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first base station may be a master base station MeNB, the second base station may be an auxiliary base station SeNB, the SeNB obtains a downlink control channel sent by the MeNB to the UE, the downlink control channel includes resource allocation information of a cell under the jurisdiction of the first base station and/or resource allocation information of a cell under the jurisdiction of the second base station, which is allocated by the first base station to the UE, and the SeNB may determine the resource allocation information of the cell under the jurisdiction of the second base station according to the first downlink control channel. Further, the MeNB and/or the SeNB may transmit the PDSCH to the UE according to the downlink control channel. In the embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition of the downlink control channel by the SeNB is not limited to the time delay of the backhaul link. Therefore, when the backhaul link delay between the network elements is not ideal, the cooperation gain of the MeNB and the SeNB can be improved.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, the UE may perform dynamic switching of the downlink control channel between multiple senbs. Specifically, the UE may determine whether to perform cell handover of a downlink Control channel based on Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurement filtered by a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer in the prior art, or determine whether to perform cell handover of a downlink Control channel according to a difference between CQI measurement report results of at least two cells, where the at least two cells belong to the same SeNB or different senbs.

When the UE determines that downlink control channel cell handover is required, the UE sends RRM measurement reports or CQI measurement reports of the at least two cells to the at least two senbs, and the RRM measurement reports or the CQI reports of the at least two cells can be received by at least one SeNB at the same time. The SeNB receiving the measurement report may determine whether to transmit the downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement report. Here, the downlink control channel transmitted by the SeNB to the UE may be the second downlink control channel.

Accordingly, the UE can determine the cell to which the downlink control channel is transmitted according to the measurement report, and can receive the downlink control channel transmitted by the cell according to the configuration information of the cell.

It should be understood that the UE and at least two senbs may have predefined rules for switching the downlink control channel, for example, a cell with the best radio conditions is determined in a plurality of cells governed by the senbs, and then the SeNB with the best radio conditions sends the downlink control channel to the UE. The UE can receive the downlink control channel by using the configuration information of the cell with the best wireless condition, thereby avoiding the change of the cell for sending the downlink control channel to the UE in a layer 3 switching mode in the prior art and reducing the communication interruption time delay.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the downlink control channel sent by the MeNB and/or the SeNB, the UE may further send HARQ acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) to the MeNB and/or the SeNB.

Specifically, the UE may send HARQ ACK/NACK at a lower power, which may be referred to the above method for the UE to send measurement information at a lower power, and details are not repeated here to avoid repetition.

In addition, the UE needs to decide to send HARQ ACK/NACK to the MeNB and/or the SeNB according to the downlink control channel from the MeNB or the SeNB or from both the MeNB and the SeNB. Specifically, when the downlink control channel received by the UE is from the MeNB, the UE sends HARQ ACK/NACK to the MeNB. And when the downlink control channel received by the UE is from the SeNB, the UE sends HARQ ACK/NACK to the SeNB. And when the downlink control channel received by the UE is from the MeNB and the SeNB at the same time, the UE sends HARQ ACK/NACK to the MeNB and the SeNB at the same time, and scrambles the DMRS of the PUCCH by using the VCID.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station 500 shown in fig. 7 may be the second base station described above. The UE has a radio connection relationship with a first cell of a first base station and a second cell of the base station, and the base station 500 includes:

an obtainingunit 510, configured to obtain, by the base station, a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station to the UE, where the first downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell includes radio resources required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell includes radio resources required by the base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE;

a determiningunit 520, configured to determine, by the base station, resource allocation information of the second cell according to the first downlink control channel.

Optionally, the frequency of the first cell is the same as the frequency of the second cell.

Optionally, the base station further includes a first receiving unit, where the first receiving unit is configured to receive first indication information sent by the first base station, and the first indication information is used to indicate the base station to acquire the first downlink control channel.

Optionally, the base station further includes a sending unit, configured to send, by the base station, a downlink shared channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel.

Optionally, the first downlink control channel is sent by the first base station to the UE through a first TTI, and the first downlink control channel includes resource allocation information on a second TTI allocated to the UE, where the second TTI is a next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same as the first TTI,

wherein the sending unit is specifically configured to:

and sending a downlink shared channel to the UE on the second TTI according to the first downlink control channel.

Optionally, the sending unit is specifically configured to:

sending a second downlink control channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel;

and sending a downlink shared channel to the UE according to the second downlink control channel.

Optionally, the first base station is a master base station, the base station is a secondary base station, and the base station further includes a second receiving unit, configured to receive a measurement report of a cell covered by the secondary base station within a coverage area of the first base station, where the measurement report is sent by the UE;

the sending unit is specifically configured to: and the second base station sends the second downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement report and the first downlink control channel.

It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present invention, the obtainingunit 510 may be implemented by a transceiver, and the determiningunit 520 may be implemented by a processor. As shown in fig. 8, the base station 600 may include a processor 610, a memory 620, a transceiver 630, and abus system 640. Memory 620 may be used, among other things, to store code executed by processor 610.

The various components in the base station 600 are coupled together by abus system 640, wherein thebus system 640 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are designated in the figure asbus system 640.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 610. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 620, and the processor 610 reads the information in the memory 620 and performs the steps of the above method in combination with the hardware thereof. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

The base station 500 shown in fig. 7 or the base station 600 shown in fig. 8 can implement the respective processes corresponding to the method embodiments shown in fig. 4 to fig. 6, specifically, the base station 500 or the base station 600 may refer to the descriptions in fig. 4 to fig. 6, and is not described again here to avoid repetition.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of another base station according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the base station 700 in fig. 9 may be the first base station. The UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of the base station 700 and a second cell of a second base station, the base station 700 includes:

agenerating unit 710, configured to generate a downlink control channel, where the downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell that is allocated by the base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell includes a radio resource that is required by the base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell includes a radio resource that is required by the second base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE;

a sendingunit 720, configured to send the downlink control channel to the UE by the base station.

Optionally, the sendingunit 720 is further configured to send first indication information to the second base station, where the first indication information is used to indicate the second base station to acquire the downlink control channel.

Optionally, the sendingunit 720 is further configured to send, to the UE, a physical downlink shared channel according to the downlink control channel.

Optionally, the sendingunit 720 is specifically configured to:

the base station sends a downlink control channel to the UE in a first TTI, wherein the downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information on a second TTI allocated to the UE, the second TTI is a next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same TTI as the first TTI,

the sending unit is further specifically configured to: and sending a downlink shared channel to the UE on the second TTI according to the downlink control channel.

Optionally, the base station is a master base station, the second base station is a secondary base station, and the base station further includes a receiving unit, configured to receive measurement reports of cells within the coverage area of the first base station and the secondary base station sent by the UE;

the sending unit is further configured to send the downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement report.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the sendingunit 720 may be implemented by a transceiver, and thegenerating unit 710 may be implemented by a processor. As shown in fig. 10, the base station 800 may include a processor 810, amemory 820, a transceiver 830, and abus system 840.Memory 820 may be used to store, among other things, code executed by processor 810.

The various components in the base station 800 are coupled together by abus system 840, wherein thebus system 840 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, the various buses are designated as thebus system 840 in the figure.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 810. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in thememory 820, and the processor 810 reads the information in thememory 820 and combines the hardware to complete the steps of the above method. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

The base station 700 shown in fig. 9 or the base station 800 shown in fig. 10 can implement the respective processes corresponding to the method embodiments shown in fig. 4 to fig. 6, specifically, the base station 700 or the base station 800 may refer to the descriptions in fig. 4 to fig. 6, and is not described again here to avoid repetition.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a user equipment UE according to an embodiment of the present invention. The UE900 has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of a first base station and a second cell of a second base station, the UE900 includes:

a first receiving unit 910, configured to receive, by the UE, a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station, where the first downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell includes radio resources required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell includes radio resources required by the second base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE;

a second receiving unit 920, configured to receive, by the UE, a downlink shared channel sent by the first base station and/or the second base station according to the first downlink control channel.

Optionally, the first receiving unit 910 is specifically configured to:

the second receiving unit 920 is specifically configured to:

Optionally, the UE first receiving unit 910 is further configured to:

and receiving a second downlink control channel sent by the second base station, wherein the second downlink control channel is determined by the second base station according to the first downlink control channel.

Optionally, the first base station is a master base station, the second base station is an auxiliary base station, and the UE900 further includes:

a first sending unit, configured to send, by the UE, a measurement report of a cell covered by a secondary base station in a coverage area of the first base station to the second base station, so that the second base station sends, according to the measurement report, the second downlink control channel to the UE.

a second sending unit, configured to send, by the UE, a measurement report of a cell under the jurisdiction of the first base station and a cell under the jurisdiction of a secondary base station within a coverage of the first base station to the first base station, so that the first base station sends the downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement report.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the first receiving unit 910 and the second receiving unit 920 may be implemented by transceivers. As shown in fig. 12, the UE1000 may include a processor 1010, a memory 1020, a transceiver 1030, and abus system 1040. Memory 1020 may be used, among other things, to store code executed by processor 1010.

The various components in thebase station 1000 are coupled together by abus system 1040, wherein thebus system 1040 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled in the figure as thebus system 1040.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 1010. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 1020, and the processor 1010 reads the information in the memory 1020 and performs the steps of the above method in combination with the hardware thereof. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

The UE900 shown in fig. 11 or the UE1000 shown in fig. 12 can implement the respective processes corresponding to the method embodiments shown in fig. 4 to fig. 6, specifically, the UE900 or the UE1000 may refer to the descriptions in fig. 4 to fig. 6, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" herein is merely one type of association relationship that describes an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present invention, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention.

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 implementation. 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 invention.

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

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed 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 can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into 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 invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting data, the method comprising:

a second base station acquires a first downlink control channel sent by a first base station to User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of the first base station and a second cell of the second base station, the frequency of the first cell is the same as that of the second cell, the first downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell comprises wireless resources required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell comprises wireless resources required by the second base station to send the downlink shared channel to the UE;

the second base station determines the resource allocation information of the second cell according to the first downlink control channel;

the second base station sends a downlink shared channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel;

the first downlink control channel is transmitted by the first base station to the UE through a first Transmission Time Interval (TTI), and the first downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information on a second TTI allocated to the UE, wherein the second TTI is a next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same TTI as the first TTI,

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before the second base station acquires the first downlink control channel transmitted by the first base station to the UE, the method further comprises:

and the second base station receives first indication information sent by the first base station, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the second base station to acquire the first downlink control channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second base station sends the downlink shared channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel, and wherein the sending comprises:

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first base station is a master base station, the second base station is a secondary base station, and the second base station further comprises, before sending a second downlink control channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel:

5. A method of transmitting data, the method comprising:

a first base station sends a downlink control channel to User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of the first base station and a second cell of a second base station, the frequency of the first cell is the same as that of the second cell, the downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated to the UE by the first base station, the resource allocation information of the first cell comprises wireless resources required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell comprises wireless resources required by the second base station to send the downlink shared channel to the UE;

the first base station sends a downlink shared channel to the UE according to the downlink control channel;

the first base station sends a downlink control channel to the UE, and the downlink control channel comprises:

the first base station transmits a downlink control channel to the UE on a first Transmission Time Interval (TTI), wherein the downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information on a second TTI allocated to the UE, the second TTI is a next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same TTI as the first TTI,

wherein, the first base station sends a downlink shared channel to the UE according to the downlink control channel, including:

and the first base station sends a downlink shared channel to the UE on the second TTI according to the downlink control channel.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein before the first base station sends the downlink control channel to the UE, the method further comprises:

and the first base station sends first indication information to the second base station, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the second base station to acquire the downlink control channel.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first base station is a master base station, the second base station is a secondary base station, and the first base station sends a downlink control channel to the UE, comprising:

the first base station receives measurement reports of the first base station and auxiliary base stations within the coverage range of the first base station, which are sent by the UE;

8. A method of transmitting data, the method comprising:

user Equipment (UE) receives a first downlink control channel sent by a first base station, wherein the UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of the first base station and a second cell of a second base station, the frequency of the first cell is the same as that of the second cell, the first downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell comprises wireless resources required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell comprises wireless resources required by the second base station to send the downlink shared channel to the UE;

the UE receives a downlink shared channel sent by the first base station and/or the second base station according to the first downlink control channel;

the UE receiving a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station, including:

the UE receives a first downlink control channel sent by the first base station on a first Transmission Time Interval (TTI), wherein the first downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information on a second TTI allocated to the UE, the second TTI is the next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same TTI as the first TTI,

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein before the UE receives the downlink shared channel transmitted by the first base station and/or the second base station according to the first downlink control channel, the method further includes:

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first base station is a master base station, the second base station is a secondary base station, and before the UE receives a second downlink control channel sent by the second base station, the method further comprises:

and the UE sends a measurement report of a cell under the jurisdiction of the secondary base station in the coverage range of the first base station to the second base station, wherein the measurement report is used for the second base station to send the second downlink control channel to the UE.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first base station is a master base station, the second base station is a secondary base station, and before the UE receives the first physical downlink control channel sent by the first base station, the method further comprises:

and the UE sends measurement reports of the cell under the jurisdiction of the first base station and the cell under the jurisdiction of the secondary base station in the coverage range of the first base station to the first base station, wherein the measurement reports are used for being used by the first base station to send the downlink control channel to the UE.

12. A base station for transmitting data, the base station comprising:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a first downlink control channel sent by a first base station to a User Equipment (UE), where the UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of the first base station and a second cell of the base station, a frequency of the first cell is the same as a frequency of the second cell, the first downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell allocated by the first base station to the UE, the resource allocation information of the first cell includes a wireless resource required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell includes a wireless resource required by the base station to send the downlink shared channel to the UE;

a determining unit, configured to determine resource allocation information of the second cell according to the first downlink control channel;

a sending unit, configured to send a downlink shared channel to the UE according to the first downlink control channel;

wherein, the sending unit is specifically configured to:

13. The base station of claim 12, wherein the base station further comprises:

a first receiving unit, configured to receive first indication information sent by the first base station, where the first indication information is used to indicate a second base station to acquire the first downlink control channel.

14. The base station of claim 12, wherein the sending unit is specifically configured to:

15. The base station of claim 14, wherein the first base station is a master base station, wherein the base station is a secondary base station, and wherein the base station further comprises:

a second receiving unit, configured to receive a measurement report of a cell covered by a secondary base station within a coverage area of the first base station, where the measurement report is sent by the UE;

the sending unit is specifically configured to:

and sending the second downlink control channel to the UE according to the measurement report and the first downlink control channel.

16. A base station for transmitting data, the base station comprising:

a generating unit, configured to generate a downlink control channel, where a user equipment UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of the base station and a second cell of a second base station, a frequency of the first cell is the same as a frequency of the second cell, the downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell, which is allocated to the UE by the first base station, the resource allocation information of the first cell includes a radio resource required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell includes a radio resource required by the second base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE;

a sending unit, configured to send the downlink control channel to the UE;

the sending unit is further configured to:

sending a downlink shared channel to the UE according to the downlink control channel;

the sending unit is specifically configured to:

transmitting a downlink control channel to the UE over a first transmission time interval, TTI, wherein the downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information over a second TTI allocated for the UE, the second TTI being a next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI being the same TTI as the first TTI,

wherein the sending unit is further specifically configured to:

and sending a downlink shared channel to the UE on the second TTI according to the downlink control channel.

17. The base station of claim 16, wherein the sending unit is further configured to:

and sending first indication information to the second base station, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the second base station to acquire the downlink control channel.

18. The base station of claim 16, wherein the base station is a primary base station, wherein the second base station is a secondary base station, and wherein the base station further comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive measurement reports of cells covered by the first base station and the secondary base station within the coverage area of the first base station, where the measurement reports are sent by the UE;

19. A user equipment, UE, for transmitting data, the UE comprising:

a first receiving unit, configured to receive a first downlink control channel sent by a first base station, where the UE has a wireless connection relationship with a first cell of the first base station and a second cell of a second base station, a frequency of the first cell is the same as a frequency of the second cell, the first downlink control channel carries resource allocation information of the first cell and/or resource allocation information of the second cell, where the resource allocation information of the first cell includes a radio resource required by the first base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE, and the resource allocation information of the second cell includes a radio resource required by the second base station to send a downlink shared channel to the UE;

a second receiving unit, configured to receive, according to the first downlink control channel, a downlink shared channel sent by the first base station and/or the second base station;

the first receiving unit is specifically configured to:

receiving a first downlink control channel transmitted by the first base station on a first Transmission Time Interval (TTI), wherein the first downlink control channel comprises resource allocation information on a second TTI allocated to the UE, the second TTI is a next TTI after the first TTI, or the second TTI is the same TTI as the first TTI,

the second receiving unit is specifically configured to:

and receiving a downlink shared channel sent by the first base station and/or the second base station on the second TTI according to the first downlink control channel.

20. The UE of claim 19, wherein the first receiving unit is further configured to:

21. The UE of claim 20, wherein the first base station is a primary base station and the second base station is a secondary base station, the UE further comprising:

a first sending unit, configured to send, to the second base station, a measurement report of a cell covered by a secondary base station in a coverage area of the first base station, where the measurement report is used by the second base station to send the second downlink control channel to the UE.

22. The UE of claim 21, wherein the first base station is a primary base station and the second base station is a secondary base station, the UE further comprising:

a second sending unit, configured to send, to the first base station, a measurement report of a cell served by the first base station and a cell served by a secondary base station within a coverage area of the first base station, where the measurement report is used by the first base station to send the downlink control channel to the UE.