CN114451017A

CN114451017A - Method and device for activating and releasing non-dynamic scheduling transmission

Info

Publication number: CN114451017A
Application number: CN201980100704.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐修强; 陈雁; 吕永霞
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-10-14
Filing date: 2019-10-14
Publication date: 2022-05-06
Anticipated expiration: 2039-10-14
Also published as: WO2021072610A1; CN114451017B

Abstract

A method and apparatus for activating and releasing non-dynamically scheduled data transmissions (e.g., unlicensed uplink data transmissions). The method comprises the following steps: receiving downlink control information DCI for activating non-dynamic scheduling data transmission; determining X bits in the DCI as an activation indication field indicating activated transmission configurations, wherein X is determined according to a maximum state value in an activation state set, each state value in the activation state set being applied to one or more transmission configurations of a plurality of transmission configurations, each transmission configuration comprising configuration information for a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduled data transmission; and determining the activated transmission configuration according to the activation indication field.

Description

Method and device for activating and releasing non-dynamic scheduling transmission

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for activating and releasing non-dynamically scheduled data transmission.

Background

In a cellular mobile communication system, the uplink data transmission modes include data transmission based on dynamic Grant (GB) or dynamic scheduling, and non-dynamic scheduling data transmission. The non-dynamically scheduled data transmission includes semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) data transmission or grant-free (GF) data transmission. Wherein, the process of data transmission based on dynamic Grant (GB) or dynamic scheduling includes: when a terminal has an uplink data transmission requirement, it usually sends a Scheduling Request (SR) to a base station or reports a non-empty Buffer Status Report (BSR), and the base station sends Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal after receiving the SR or the BSR, where the DCI carries an uplink grant (UL grant) for authorizing the terminal to use a specified transmission parameter, such as a specified modulation and Coding scheme (mcs), on a specified time-frequency resource, to send uplink data. Since the dynamic scheduling can efficiently utilize the real-time channel information between the terminal and the base station, the position and the size of a proper time-frequency resource, a proper transmission parameter and the like are specified for each transmission of the terminal, and the uplink transmission of the dynamic scheduling generally has higher reliability.

And the process of non-dynamically scheduled data transmission includes: the base station configures time-frequency resources, transmission parameters and the like used by uplink data transmission for the terminal in a semi-static (semi-static) mode through high-level signaling and/or physical layer signaling, when the terminal has uplink data transmission requirements, the terminal does not need to send SR or BSR to the base station and wait for an uplink authorization process, but directly uses the semi-static configured time-frequency resources and transmission parameters to send data to the base station, so that the purpose of reducing transmission delay, signaling overhead and terminal power consumption is achieved.

To support multiple services with different requirements for delay and reliability, the industry considers supporting multiple sets of configuration parameters (e.g., 12 sets) allowing non-dynamically scheduled transmission on the same Bandwidth Part (Bandwidth Part) in 5G communication. In this case, the base station may establish an index (index) or an Identifier (ID) for each set of configuration parameters, and issue the index or identifier information and the corresponding configuration parameters to the terminal. The base station may activate or release the corresponding configuration parameters based on the index or identifier corresponding to each set of configuration parameters. How to save the signaling overhead for activating or releasing non-dynamically scheduled transmissions is becoming a concern in the industry.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a device for activating and releasing non-dynamic scheduling data transmission, which can save signaling overhead for activating or releasing non-dynamic scheduling transmission.

In a first aspect, a data transmission method is provided, which may be implemented by: receiving downlink control information DCI for activating non-dynamic scheduling data transmission; determining X bits in the DCI as an activation indication field indicating activated transmission configurations, wherein X is determined according to a maximum state value in an activation state set, each state value pair in the activation state set being applied to one or more transmission configurations of a plurality of transmission configurations, each transmission configuration comprising configuration information for a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduled data transmission; and determining the activated transmission configuration according to the activation indication field.

The non-dynamically scheduled data transmission may include grant-free (GF) uplink data transmission, SPS downlink data transmission, schedule-free uplink data transmission, dynamically scheduled uplink data transmission-free, dynamically granted uplink data transmission-free, grant-configured uplink transmission (uplink transmission with configured grant), or higher-layer configured uplink data transmission.

In one possible design, the X is determined according to a maximum state value in the active state set and a number of transmission configurations on bandwidth portion BWP.

In one possible design, the number of transmission configurations over the bandwidth portion is specifically the maximum of the number of transmission configurations over a plurality of BWPs.

In one possible design, the maximum state value in the active state set is specifically a maximum state value in a plurality of active state sets, and the plurality of active state sets correspond to a plurality of BWPs one to one.

In one possible design, the active state set is specifically an active state set corresponding to the BWP.

In one possible design, the active state set is specifically a state set corresponding to an active BWP.

In one possible design, determining the activated transmission configuration according to the activation indication field includes:

under the condition that the value of the activation indication field is the same as one state value in an activation state set, determining that all transmission configurations corresponding to the state value are activated; and/or

Under the condition that the value of the activation indication field is only the same as the index value of one transmission configuration, determining that the transmission configuration corresponding to the index value is the activated transmission configuration; and/or

And when the value of the activation indication field is the same as the index value of one state value and one transmission configuration in the activation state set, determining that all transmission configurations corresponding to the state value are activated.

In a second aspect, a method for releasing non-dynamically scheduled data transmission is provided, which can be implemented by: receiving downlink control information DCI for releasing non-dynamic scheduling data transmission; determining X bits in the DCI as a release indication field indicating a released transmission configuration, wherein X is determined according to a maximum state value in a release state set, each state value pair in the release state set being applied to one or more transmission configurations of a plurality of transmission configurations, each transmission configuration comprising configuration information for a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduled data transmission; and determining the released transmission configuration according to the release indication field.

In one possible design, the X is determined according to a maximum state value in the released-state set and a number of transmission configurations on bandwidth portion BWP.

In one possible design, the maximum state value in the release state set is specifically a maximum state value in a plurality of release state sets, and the plurality of release state sets correspond to a plurality of BWPs one to one.

In one possible design, the release state set is specifically a release state set corresponding to the BWP.

In one possible design, the release state set is specifically a state set corresponding to an active BWP.

determining the released transmission configuration according to the release indication field comprises:

under the condition that the value of the release indication field is the same as one state value in a release state set, determining all transmission configurations corresponding to the state value as released transmission configurations; and/or

Under the condition that the value of the release indication field is only the same as the index value of one transmission configuration, determining that the transmission configuration corresponding to the index value is the released transmission configuration; and/or

And when the value of the release indication field is the same as the index value of one state value and one transmission configuration in the release state set, determining all transmission configurations corresponding to the state value as the released transmission configurations.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus, which includes a communication interface and a processor, where the communication interface is used for the apparatus to communicate with other devices, for example, to receive and transmit data or signals. Illustratively, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface, and the other device may be a network device. The processor is arranged to invoke a set of programs, instructions or data to perform the method described in the first aspect above. The apparatus may also include a memory for storing programs, instructions or data called by the processor. The memory is coupled to the processor, and the processor, when executing instructions or data stored in the memory, may implement the method described in the first aspect or any of the possible designs of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus, which includes a communication interface and a processor, where the communication interface is used for the apparatus to communicate with other devices, for example, to receive and transmit data or signals. Illustratively, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface, and the other device may be a network device. The processor is arranged to call a set of programs, instructions or data to perform the method described in the second aspect above. The apparatus may also include a memory for storing programs, instructions or data called by the processor. The memory is coupled to the processor, and the processor, when executing instructions or data stored in the memory, may implement the method described in any of the second aspects or possible designs of the second aspects.

In a fifth aspect, this embodiment further provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that, when executed on a communication device, cause the communication device to perform the method as set forth in the first aspect, the second aspect, any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, this embodiment also provides a computer program product comprising instructions that, when run on a communication device, cause the communication device to perform the method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or to perform the method as described in the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and may further include a memory, and is configured to implement the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a data transmission process of dynamic scheduling in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a data transmission process with non-dynamic scheduling in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for activating non-dynamically scheduled data transmission according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method for releasing non-dynamically scheduled data transmission according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of another apparatus in the embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The embodiment of the application provides a data transmission method and device, which are used for reducing terminal power consumption and ensuring transmission reliability in uplink data transmission. The method and the device are based on the same technical conception, and because the principles of solving the problems of the method and the device are similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be mutually referred, and repeated parts are not repeated. In the description of the embodiment of the present application, "and/or" describes an association relationship of associated objects, which means that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" between the kanji generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. At least one of the embodiments referred to in this application means one or more; plural means two or more. In addition, it is to be understood that the terms first, second, etc. in the description of the present application are used for distinguishing between the descriptions and not necessarily for describing a sequential or chronological order.

The data transmission method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) communication system, or various future communication systems, for example, a sixth generation (6th generation, 6G) communication system. Among them, 5G may also be referred to as New Radio (NR).

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

Fig. 1 shows an architecture of a possible communication system to which the data transmission method provided in the embodiment of the present application is applicable, and the communication system 100 may include a network device 110 and terminal devices 101 to 106. It should be understood that more or fewer network devices or terminal devices may be included in the communication system 100. The network device or the terminal device may be hardware, or may be functionally divided software, or a combination of the two. In addition, the terminal devices 104 to 106 may also form a communication system, for example, the terminal device 105 may send downlink data to the terminal device 104 or the terminal device 106. The network device and the terminal device can communicate through other devices or network elements. The network device 110 may perform data transmission with the terminal devices 101 to 106, for example: the network device 110 may send downlink data to the terminal devices 101 to 106, or may receive uplink data sent by the terminal devices 101 to 106; and/or terminal devices 101 to 106 may also transmit uplink data to network device 110, and may also receive downlink data transmitted by network device 110.

The network device 110 is a node in a Radio Access Network (RAN), which may also be referred to as a base station and may also be referred to as a RAN node (or device). The network device may also be referred to as a network-side device. Currently, some examples of network devices 101 are: a gbb/NR-NB, a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a wireless fidelity (Wifi) access point (access point, AP), or a network side device in a 5G communication system or a future possible communication system, etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the network device may be a network device; or may be a device, such as a system-on-chip, capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, and the device may be installed in the network device. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a network device is taken as an example of a network device or a base station, so as to describe the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application.

Terminal equipment 101 to terminal equipment 106 may also be referred to as terminals. The terminal may be a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), or the like, and is a device that provides voice or data connectivity to a user, and may also be an internet of things device. For example, the terminal apparatuses 101 to 106 include a handheld apparatus, an in-vehicle apparatus, and the like having a wireless connection function. Currently, the terminal devices 101 to 106 may be devices with wireless transceiving functions, which may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); and may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.). The terminal device may be a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE includes a handheld device, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, or a computing device having wireless communication functionality. Illustratively, the UE may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, or a computer with wireless transceiving function. The terminal device may also be a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and so on. In the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the terminal may be a terminal; it may also be a device, such as a system-on-chip, capable of supporting the terminal to implement the function, which may be installed in the terminal. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a terminal is a terminal or a UE as an example, so as to describe the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application.

In the embodiments of the present application, the term "data transmission" may also be described as "communication", "information transmission", or "transmission". The technical solution can be used for performing wireless communication between the scheduling entity and the subordinate entity, and those skilled in the art can use the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application for performing wireless communication between other scheduling entities and subordinate entities, for example, wireless communication between a macro base station and a micro base station, for example, wireless communication between a first terminal and a second terminal.

In the embodiment of the application, the uplink data transmission of the base station can adopt data transmission of dynamic scheduling and non-dynamic scheduling. Dynamic scheduling may also be referred to as GB.

As shown in fig. 2, the dynamically scheduled uplink data transmission may include the following processes:

s201, when the terminal has an uplink data transmission requirement, it usually sends a Scheduling Request (SR) to the base station through a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), or the terminal reports a non-empty BSR to the base station through a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). And the base station receives the SR/BSR sent by the terminal.

The BSR is usually sent through Medium Access Control (MAC) layer signaling, and is carried in a MAC control element (MAC CE) of a packet header

S202, after receiving the SR or the non-empty BSR transmitted by the terminal, the base station transmits DCI to the terminal through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

The DCI carries an uplink grant (UL grant) for granting the terminal to transmit uplink data using a specified transmission parameter on a specified time-frequency resource. For example, uplink data is transmitted using a specified Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS).

And S203, the terminal uses the appointed transmission parameters on the appointed time frequency resources according to the DCI and transmits the uplink data through the PUSCH.

Since the dynamic scheduling can efficiently utilize the real-time channel information between the terminal and the base station, the position and the size of a proper time-frequency resource, a proper transmission parameter and the like are specified for each transmission of the terminal, and the uplink transmission of the dynamic scheduling generally has higher reliability.

In the uplink data transmission process based on dynamic authorization, before sending data, a terminal needs to send an SR or BSR to a base station, and then the base station performs authorization through DCI, which introduces time delay and PDCCH signaling overhead. Meanwhile, since the receiving of the PDCCH usually requires the terminal to perform blind detection on different time-frequency resources according to different control Channel element (cce) Aggregation levels (Aggregation levels), and/or different DCI formats (formats), and/or different DCI lengths, and/or different Radio Network Temporary identities (Radio Network Temporary identities), a large amount of power consumption needs to be consumed. The data transmission adopting the non-dynamic scheduling can reduce time delay, signaling overhead and terminal power consumption.

Taking a New Radio (NR) technology of 5G communication as an example, NR supports two types of non-dynamic scheduling data transmission, namely, non-dynamic downlink data transmission and non-dynamic uplink data transmission. The non-dynamic downlink data transmission comprises SPS downlink data transmission, and the GF data transmission is for uplink transmission. The non-dynamically scheduled uplink data transmission may also be referred to as grant-free uplink data transmission, schedule-free uplink data transmission, dynamically non-scheduled uplink data transmission (uplink data transmission with dynamic scheduling), configured-grant uplink data transmission (uplink data transmission with configured-grant) or higher-layer configured uplink data transmission (uplink data transmission with high-layer). The uplink data transmission includes a PUSCH transmission.

The GF uplink data transmission includes PUSCH transmission (Type 1 PUSCH transmission with a configured grant, or Type 1 configured grant PUSCH transmission) based on the first Type configuration grant and PUSCH transmission (Type 2 PUSCH transmission with a configured grant, or Type2configured grant PUSCH transmission) based on the second Type configuration grant.

In the PUSCH transmission with the first type of configuration grant, the base station issues, to the terminal through RRC signaling, a configuration (also referred to as a configured grant configuration) for configuring all transmission resources and transmission parameters including a period of a time domain resource, an open loop power control related parameter, a waveform, a redundancy version sequence, a repetition number, a frequency hopping pattern, a resource allocation type, a number of HARQ processes, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) related parameter, a modulation and coding scheme table, a Resource Block Group (RBG) group size, and a time domain resource, a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), and the like. After receiving the configured grant configuration, the terminal may immediately use the configured transmission parameters to perform PUSCH transmission on the configured time-frequency resources.

In the PUSCH transmission based on the second type of configuration authorization, a two-step resource configuration mode is adopted: firstly, configuring transmission resources and transmission parameters including a time domain resource period, open loop power control related parameters, a waveform, a redundancy version sequence, repetition times, a frequency hopping mode, a resource allocation type, a HARQ process number, demodulation reference signal related parameters, an MCS table, a resource block RBG group size and the like by using configuredGrantConfig; a second type of PUSCH transmission based on a configuration grant is then activated by DCI scrambled using a CS-cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI), and other transmission parameters including time domain resources, frequency domain resources, DMRS, MCS, etc. are configured by the DCI at the same time. When receiving the higher layer parameter configuredGrantConfig, the terminal cannot immediately use the resource and transmission parameter configured by the configuredGrantConfig to perform PUSCH transmission, and must wait until receiving the corresponding activated DCI and configuring other resources and transmission parameters to perform PUSCH transmission.

Because the time-frequency resources for non-dynamically scheduling data transmission are configured by the base station in a semi-static manner, which is equivalent to pre-configuration or reservation for the terminal, even if the terminal has no uplink data transmission requirement, the resources exist. As shown in fig. 3, taking non-dynamic scheduling data transmission as GF uplink data transmission as an example, uplink GF resources configured by the base station in a semi-static manner repeatedly appear in a periodic manner in a time domain, and the GF resources in each period are used for transmitting one uplink data packet. When the terminal arrives at the periodic GF resources, if the uplink data transmission requirement exists, the terminal sends an uplink data packet on the arriving GF resources. If the uplink data transmission request is generated after the last available GF resource in a certain period (e.g., period 1 in fig. 3), the GF resource has to wait until the next period (e.g., period 2 in fig. 3). In this case, a delay time of data transmission is caused to be long.

To support multiple services with different requirements for latency and reliability, the industry considers supporting multiple sets of configuration parameters (e.g., 12 sets) allowing non-dynamically scheduled data transmission on the same Bandwidth Part (Bandwidth Part) in 5G communications. In this case, the base station may establish an index (index) or an Identifier (ID) for each set of configuration parameters, and issue the index or identifier information and the corresponding configuration parameters to the terminal. In an embodiment of the present application, a set of configuration parameters may refer to parameters required for completing a PUSCH transmission or a PDSCH transmission, for example, for a PUSCH transmission with a first type of configuration grant, a set of configuration parameters refers to all parameters in one configuredGrantConfig, and for a PUSCH transmission with a second type of configuration grant, a set of configuration parameters refers to all parameters in one configuredGrantConfig, and parameters configured by an activation DCI corresponding to the parameters. It should be noted that the parameters included in the configuredGrantConfig for PUSCH transmission with the first type of configuration grant and the parameters included in the configuredGrantConfig for PUSCH transmission with the second type of configuration grant are not identical, and specifically, reference may be made to the relevant description in standard 3GPP TS 38.331.

In the present application, configuring data transmission (uplink data transmission and downlink data transmission) refers to configuring transmission parameters for data transmission; activating data transmission means activating transmission parameters of data transmission so that the transmission parameters can be used for subsequent data transmission; releasing a data transfer refers to releasing (deactivating) the transfer parameters of the data transfer so that they are in a deactivated state and not available for subsequent data transfers.

Taking the example that the non-dynamic scheduling data transmission is the PUSCH transmission based on the second type configuration authorization, when the base station configures multiple sets of transmission parameters of the PUSCH transmission based on the second type configuration authorization for the terminal, the base station needs to activate each set of transmission parameters. In an activation method (referred to as individual activation), a base station issues one set of activation DCI each time, the DCI carries an index (or identifier) of a set of transmission parameters, the set of transmission parameters indicated by the index is activated, if multiple sets of transmission parameters need to be activated, multiple sets of activation DCI need to be issued, and each activation DCI needs to carry an index corresponding to the set of activated transmission parameters. In a release method (referred to as individual release), if transmission parameters of PUSCH transmission authorized based on the second type of configuration need to be released, the base station issues one release DCI each time, the release DCI carries an index (or identifier) of a set of transmission parameters, the set of transmission parameters indicated by the index is released, if multiple sets of transmission parameters need to be released, multiple release DCIs need to be issued, and each activation DCI needs to carry an index corresponding to the set of released transmission parameters.

In the above method, if a plurality of sets of parameters need to be activated or released, the base station needs to transmit a plurality of DCIs, and thus the signaling overhead of the above method is large. Thus, a combined activation/release method is proposed. In the joint activation method, the base station may configure an activation state set (each state set has, for example, 16 state values at most), where the activation state set includes one or more state values, each state value corresponds to (or is associated with) one or more indexes (or identifiers), each index corresponds to a set of transmission parameters for PUSCH transmission based on the second type of configuration authorization, the base station issues an activation DCI carrying the state values, and the transmission parameters corresponding to the indexes associated with the state values are activated transmission parameters. In the joint release method, the base station may configure a release state set (each state set has, for example, 16 state values at most), where the active state set includes one or more state values, each state value corresponds to (or is associated with) one or more indexes (or identifiers), each index corresponds to a set of transmission parameters for PUSCH transmission based on the second type of configuration authorization, the base station issues a release DCI carrying the state values, and the transmission parameters corresponding to the indexes associated with the state values are the released transmission parameters. In the above method, one DCI may activate or release multiple sets of transmission parameters, so that signaling overhead may be saved. In the embodiment of the present application, the activation state set may be referred to as an index set of the activation group or an index set of the configuration group, and each state value may also be referred to as an index (or identification) of the activation group or an index (or identification) of the configuration group.

The above-described method of individual activation/release has a high flexibility although the signaling overhead is large. The above-described joint activation/release method has an advantage of saving signaling overhead, but its flexibility is not high compared to the method of individual activation/release.

Furthermore, the embodiment of the present application provides a method for activating/releasing non-dynamic scheduling data transmission, which can save signaling overhead and also has relatively high flexibility.

The network device configures a plurality of transmission configurations for non-dynamically scheduled data transmission for the terminal device through higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling), each transmission configuration including configuration information for a set of transmission parameters for the non-dynamically scheduled data transmission. The different transmission configurations may be different configurations of parameter values for the same set of transmission parameters. In two transmission configurations, if only one parameter has a different parameter value, the two transmission configurations can be considered as different transmission configurations. For example, in transmission configuration 1, the time domain resource period is 5 slots, in transmission configuration 2, the time domain resource period is 10 slots, and the parameter values of other parameters in transmission configuration 1 and transmission configuration 2 are the same except for different configurations for the time domain resource period, in which case, transmission configuration 1 and transmission configuration 2 can be regarded as different transmission configurations.

The network equipment configures an activation state set and/or a release state set for the terminal through signaling. The set of activation states contains at least one state value, each state value being associated with (or corresponding to) one or more transmission configurations. The set of release states contains at least one state value, each state value being associated with (or corresponding to) one or more transmission configurations. The set of activation states and the set of release states may be the same or different. If the active state set and the release state set are the same, the network device may only need to configure one state set. The state values in the active state set and the release state set may be different or the same. The transmission configurations associated with the same state values in the active state set and the release state set may be the same or different. The status value is associated with the transmission configuration, and may be associated with an index (identification or sequence number) of the transmission configuration.

For convenience of understanding, taking 12 transmission configurations (with indexes of 0 to 11 as examples) configured by a network device as a terminal and a transmission state set containing 4 state values (with state values of 0, 1, 2, and 3 as examples), an example of a corresponding relationship between a state value in an active state set and an index of a transmission configuration is given in the present application, as shown in table one.

Table one, correspondence of state values in the active state set and the index of the transmission configuration

It should be noted that the above table is only for the convenience of understanding the scheme provided in the present application, and should not be construed as limiting the application.

The network device may configure the active state set for the terminal device through RRC signaling. Taking the example of non-dynamically scheduled data transmission as PUSCH transmission based on the second type configuration grant, and configuration information of parameters included in a transmission configuration including a configuredGrantConfig of the PUSCH transmission of the second type configuration grant, the present application provides an information structure for configuring the state set in RRC signaling, as described below:

wherein, the Type2Configuredgrantconfig-ActivateStateList represents an active state set of the network device configuration, and contains 16 states at most. The Type2 configurdgrantconfig-ActivateState represents a certain state in the active state set, stateValue is a value of the state, the value range is 0 to 15, the Type2-CGConfig includes one or more index values configindex, which represent index values associated with the state, and each index value corresponds to one transmission configuration. It is understood that there may be other information structures besides the above information structure that can also implement the configuration of the activation state machine, and the application is not limited thereto.

The method for configuring the release state set is the same as the method for configuring the activation state set, and only the "activation state (or ActivateState)" needs to be replaced by the "release state (or ReleaseState)", which is not described herein again.

It is to be understood that the terminal device may obtain the release state set and the release state set in other manners besides the manner in which the network device may configure the release state set and the release state set for the terminal device through signaling. For example, the terminal device determines the transmission configuration corresponding to each state value according to a preset rule, in this case, the network device also determines the transmission configuration corresponding to each state value according to the same preset rule, where the preset rule may be specified by a standard protocol or obtained by mutual negotiation between the network device and the terminal device.

As shown in fig. 4, a flow of a method for activating non-dynamically scheduled data transmission according to an embodiment of the present application is as follows. The main execution body of the method is taken as a terminal and a network device as an example, and the non-dynamic scheduling data transmission in the method is taken as a PUSCH transmission based on the second type configuration authorization as an example.

S401, the terminal receives DCI which is sent by the network equipment and used for activating the transmission of the non-dynamic scheduling data.

And if the DCI received by the terminal equipment meets the preset condition, the DCI is used for activating PUSCH transmission based on the second type of configuration authorization. The preset condition is specified by a standard and is used for judging whether the DCI is the DCI for realizing the activation function.

In an embodiment, the above conditions specifically include:

1. DCI is scrambled by CS-RNTI;

2. the new data indication field in the DCI is set to 0;

3. a Redundancy Version (RV) field in the DCI is set to 0.

When the received DCI satisfies the above three conditions, the DCI is the DCI for activating the PUSCH transmission based on the second type configuration grant. The terminal parses each field (field) in the DCI as an activation function according to the structure of the DCI.

For PUSCH transmission based on configuration grant, DCI formats that may be used to activate PUSCH transmission based on configuration grant may be DCI formats 0_0 and 0_1, and may also be other newly designed formats.

For SPS downlink data transmission, the DCI formats that may be used to activate SPS downlink data transmission may be DCI formats 1_0 and 1_1, and may also be other newly designed formats.

In an example, the specific structure of the DCI format 0_0, 0_1, 1_0, 1_1 may refer to the related description in the standard 3GPP TS 38.212.

S402, determining X bits in the DCI as an activation indication field, wherein the activation indication field indicates activated transmission configurations, X is determined according to a maximum state value in an activation state set, each state value in the activation state set corresponds to one or more transmission configurations in a plurality of transmission configurations, and each transmission configuration comprises configuration information of a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduling data transmission.

In this embodiment, the activation indication field may directly indicate an index of the activated transmission configuration, or may indicate a state value in the activation state set, and indirectly indicate the transmission configuration corresponding to the state value by indicating the state value, where the transmission configuration corresponding to the state value is the activated transmission configuration.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the substrate is,

q is the maximum state value in the active state set. In one embodiment of the present invention, the substrate is,

q is the maximum state value in the active state set.

In a further embodiment of the method according to the invention,

where P is the number of transmission configurations on a BWP. In a further embodiment of the method according to the invention,

if X is 0, it indicates that there is no activation indication field in the DCI, which means that the network device configures only one transmission configuration for the terminal device, or the network device activates all transmission configurations for the terminal device.

In one embodiment, Q is specifically the maximum state value in the active state set corresponding to active BWP. In another embodiment, Q is specifically the maximum state value in the active state set corresponding to multiple BWPs of the terminal. For example, Q ═ max { Q ═₁,…Q _MIn which Q_iAnd (i-1, … M) is the maximum state value in the state set corresponding to the ith BWP, and M is the total number of BWPs configured with the active state set in the terminal.

At one endIn an embodiment, P is specifically the number of transmission configurations corresponding to active BWP. In another embodiment, P is embodied as the maximum number of the number of transmission configurations over a plurality of BWPs of the terminal. For example, P ═ max { P₁,…P _NIn which P is_jAnd (j ═ 1, … N) is the number of transmission configurations on the jth BWP, and N is the total number of BWPs with transmission configurations at the terminal.

In one embodiment, P and Q are the number of transmission configurations and the maximum state value in the active state set, respectively, on the same BWP.

The terminal device may determine an activation indication field as X bits from a preset bit. The preset bits may be determined according to a format of the DCI.

The activation indication activation domain can be one domain or a combination of a plurality of domains; the fields may be already existing fields in the DCI format, such as a HARQ Process Number (HPN) field, a redundancy version RV field, a Transmit Power Control (TPC) field, and the like, or may be newly introduced fields different from any fields already existing in the DCI. For example, if the number of bits of the HPN field is greater than or equal to X, the first X bits of the HPN field are used as the activation indication field, and if the number of bits of the HPN field is less than X, all bits of the HPN field may be used as a part of bits of the activation indication activation field, and then bits of other fields are used as the rest of bits of the activation indication activation field.

S403, determining the activated transmission configuration according to the activation indication domain.

In one embodiment, step S403 includes: and under the condition that the value of the activation indication field is the same as one state value in the activation state set, determining that all transmission configurations corresponding to the state value are activated. In this embodiment, as long as the value of the activation indication field is the same as any one of the state values in the activation state set, the terminal considers that the value of the activation indication field is one of the state values in the activation state set. The value of the activation indication field is only the same as the index of the transmission configuration, but is different from the state value in the activation state set, and the terminal considers that the value of the activation indication field indicates the index of the transmission configuration. The terminal does not expect the value indicated by the activation indication field to be different from the indexed value of any one transmission configuration and from any state value in the activation state set, or considers this to be an error case (error case) when a situation occurs in which the value indicated by the activation indication field is different from the indexed value of any one transmission configuration and from any state value in the activation state set, and the DCI does not activate any transmission configuration. Taking the corresponding relationship between the state value in the active state set and the index of the transmission configuration shown in table one as an example, if the value of the active indication field is one of 0 to 3, the indication field of this embodiment indicates the state value in the active state indication set; if the value of the activation indication field is one of 4-11, the indication field of this embodiment indicates an index of the transmission configuration. In this embodiment, the transmission configurations corresponding to the same index as the state values in the active state set cannot be activated individually, and the transmission configurations corresponding to indices different from the state values in the active state set can be activated individually.

In one embodiment, step S403 includes: and under the condition that the value of the activation indication field is the same as the index of one transmission configuration, determining that the transmission configuration corresponding to the index is the activated transmission configuration. In this embodiment, as long as the value of the activation indication field is the same as the index of any one transmission configuration, the terminal considers that the value of the activation indication field is the index of one transmission configuration. The terminal considers that the value of the activation indication domain indicates a state value in the activation state set only when the value of the activation indication domain is the same as the state value in the activation state set but not the same as the index of any transmission configuration. The terminal does not expect the value indicated by the activation indication field to be different from the indexed value of any one transmission configuration and from any state value in the activation state set, or considers this to be an error case (error case) when a situation occurs in which the value indicated by the activation indication field is different from the indexed value of any one transmission configuration and from any state value in the activation state set, and the DCI does not activate any transmission configuration. Taking the corresponding relationship between the state value in the active state set and the index of the transmission configuration shown in table one as an example, if the value of the active indication field is one of 0 to 11, the indication field of this embodiment indicates an index of the transmission configuration; in the present embodiment, even when the value of the activation indication field is one of 0 to 3, the indication field of the present embodiment is not considered as a state value indicating the activation state set, which corresponds to the joint activation being disabled. If only part of the state values in the activation state set are the same as the index of the transmission configuration, only the joint activation corresponding to the part of the state values is disabled, and other state values can be indicated, so that the joint activation is realized. The size of the activation indication field of the DCI in the embodiment of the present application is not fixed and is related to the maximum state value in the activation state set, so that the method provided in the embodiment of the present application may save signaling overhead for indicating the activated transmission configuration.

As shown in fig. 5, a flow of a method for releasing non-dynamically scheduled data transmission according to an embodiment of the present application is as follows. The execution body of the method takes a terminal and a network device as examples, and the non-dynamic scheduling data transmission in the method takes PUSCH transmission based on the second type configuration authorization as examples.

S501, the terminal receives DCI which is sent by the network equipment and used for releasing the transmission of the non-dynamic scheduling data.

And if the DCI received by the terminal equipment meets the preset condition, the DCI is used for releasing PUSCH transmission based on the second type configuration authorization. The preset condition is specified by a standard and is used for judging whether the DCI is the DCI for realizing the release function.

In an embodiment, the above conditions specifically include:

1. DCI is scrambled by CS-RNTI;

2. the new data indication field in the DCI is set to 0;

3. a Redundancy Version (RV) field in the DCI is set to 0;

4. the MCS Domain and Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) is set to all 1 s.

When the received DCI satisfies the above four conditions, the DCI is the DCI for releasing the PUSCH transmission authorized based on the second type of configuration. The terminal analyzes each field (field) in the DCI according to the structure of the DCI as a release function.

For the PUSCH transmission based on the configuration grant, the DCI format that may be used to release the PUSCH transmission based on the configuration grant may be DCI format 0_0 and 0_1, and may also be other newly designed formats.

For SPS downlink data transmission, the DCI formats that may be used to release SPS downlink data transmission may be DCI formats 1_0 and 1_1, and may also be other newly designed formats.

S502, determining X bits in the DCI as a release indication field, where the release indication field indicates a released transmission configuration, where X is determined according to a maximum state value in a release state set, and each state value in the release state set is applied to one or more transmission configurations in a plurality of transmission configurations, and each transmission configuration includes configuration information of a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduling data transmission.

In this embodiment, the release indication field may directly indicate an index of the released transmission configuration, or may indicate a state value in the release state set, and indirectly indicate the transmission configuration corresponding to the state value by indicating the state value, where the transmission configuration corresponding to the state value is the released transmission configuration.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the substrate is,

q is the maximum state value in the set of released states. In a further embodiment of the method according to the invention,

q is the maximum state value in the active state set.

In a further embodiment of the method according to the invention,

where P is the number of transmission configurations on a BWP. In another embodiment of the present invention, the substrate,

if X is 0, it indicates that the DCI does not include the release indication field, which means that the network device configures only one transmission configuration for the terminal device, or the network device releases all transmission configurations for the terminal device.

In one embodiment, Q is specifically the maximum state value in the released state set corresponding to active BWP. In another embodiment, Q is specifically the maximum state value in the released state set corresponding to multiple BWPs of the terminal. For example, Q ═ max { Q ═₁,…Q _MIn which Q_iAnd (i-1, … M) is the maximum state value in the state set corresponding to the ith BWP, and M is the total number of BWPs configured with the release state set in the terminal.

In one embodiment, P is specifically the number of transmission configurations corresponding to active BWP. In another embodiment, P is embodied as the maximum number of the number of transmission configurations over a plurality of BWPs of the terminal. For example, P ═ max { P₁,…P _NIn which P is_jAnd (j ═ 1, … N) is the number of transmission configurations on the jth BWP, and N is the total number of BWPs with transmission configurations at the terminal.

In one embodiment, P and Q are the number of transmission configurations and the maximum state value in the released state set, respectively, on the same BWP.

The terminal device may determine X bits from a preset bit as the release indication field. The preset bits may be determined according to a format of the DCI.

The release indication release domain can be one domain or a combination of a plurality of domains; the fields may be already existing fields in the DCI format, such as a HARQ Process Number (HPN) field, a Redundancy Version (RV) field, a Transmit Power Control (TPC) field, and the like, or may be newly introduced fields different from any fields already existing in the DCI. For example, if the number of bits of the HPN field is greater than or equal to X, the first X bits or the last X bits of the HPN field are used as the release indication field, and if the number of bits of the HPN field is less than X, all bits of the HPN field may be used as a part of bits of the release indication release field, and then bits of other fields are used as the rest of bits of the release indication release field.

S503, determining the released transmission configuration according to the release indication domain.

In one embodiment, step S403 includes: and under the condition that the value of the release indication field is the same as one state value in a release state set, determining all transmission configurations corresponding to the state value as released transmission configurations. In this embodiment, as long as the value of the release indication field is the same as any one of the state values in the release state set, the terminal considers that the value of the release indication field is one of the state values in the release state set. The value of the release indication field is only the same as the index of the transmission configuration, but is different from the state value in the release state set, and the terminal considers that the value of the release indication field indicates the index of the transmission configuration. The terminal does not expect the value indicated by the release indication field to be different from the index of any one transmission configuration and from any state value in the release state set, or considers this to be an error case (error case) when a situation occurs in which the value indicated by the indication field is different from the index of any one transmission configuration and from any state value in the release state set, and the DCI does not release any transmission configuration. Taking the corresponding relationship between the state value in the release state set and the index of the transmission configuration shown in table one as an example, if the value of the release indication field is one of 0 to 3, the indication field of this embodiment indicates the state value in the release state indication set; if the value of the release indication field is one of 4-11, the indication field of this embodiment indicates an index of the transmission configuration. In this embodiment, the transmission configurations corresponding to the same index as the state values in the released state set cannot be released individually, and the transmission configurations corresponding to the different indices from the state values in the released state set can be released individually.

In one embodiment, step S503 includes: and under the condition that the value of the release indication field is the same as the index of one transmission configuration, determining the transmission configuration corresponding to the index as the released transmission configuration. In this embodiment, as long as the value of the release indication field is the same as the index of any one transmission configuration, the terminal considers that the value of the release indication field is the index of one transmission configuration. The terminal considers that the value of the release indication domain indicates a state value in the release state set only when the value of the release indication domain is the same as the state value in the release state set but not the same as the index of any transmission configuration. The terminal does not expect the value indicated by the release indication field to be different from the index of any one transmission configuration and from any state value in the release state set, or considers this to be an error case (error case) when a situation occurs in which the value indicated by the indication field is different from the index of any one transmission configuration and from any state value in the release state set, and the DCI does not release any transmission configuration. Taking the corresponding relationship between the state value in the release state set and the index of the transmission configuration shown in table one as an example, if the value of the release indication field is one of 0 to 11, the indication field of this embodiment indicates an index of a transmission configuration; in the present embodiment, even when the value of the release indication field is one of 0 to 3, the indication field of the present embodiment is not considered as a state value indicating the release state set, which corresponds to the joint release being disabled. If only a part of state values in the release state set are the same as the index of the transmission configuration, only the joint release corresponding to the part of state values is forbidden, and other state values can be indicated, so that the joint release is realized.

The size of the release indication field of the DCI in the embodiment of the present application is not fixed and is related to the maximum state value in the release state set, so that the method provided in the embodiment of the present application may save signaling overhead for indicating the released transmission configuration.

As shown in fig. 66, based on the same technical concept, an apparatus 1100 is further provided in this embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus 1100 may be a terminal or a network device, may also be an apparatus in a terminal or a network device, or may be an apparatus that can be used in cooperation with a terminal or a network device. In one design, the apparatus 1100 may include a module corresponding to one to perform the method/operation/step/action performed by the terminal or the network device in the foregoing method embodiment, where the module may be a hardware circuit, or may be software, or may be implemented by combining a hardware circuit and software. In one design, the apparatus may include a processing module 1101 and a communication module 1102. The processing module 1101 is used to invoke the communication module 1102 to perform the receiving and/or transmitting functions.

When used to perform the method performed by the terminal:

a communication module 1102, configured to receive downlink control information DCI for releasing non-dynamic scheduling data transmission;

a processing module 1101 for:

determining X bits in the DCI as a release indication field indicating a released transmission configuration, wherein X is determined according to a maximum state value in a release state set, each state value pair in the release state set being applied to one or more transmission configurations of a plurality of transmission configurations, each transmission configuration comprising configuration information for a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduled data transmission;

and determining the released transmission configuration according to the release indication field.

In another embodiment, the present application further provides a communication device having a structure as shown in fig. 6 for implementing the method of the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

a processing module 1101 for:

determining X bits in the DCI as a release indication field indicating a released transmission configuration, wherein X is determined according to a maximum state value in a release state set, each state value pair in the release state set being applied to one or more transmission configurations of a plurality of transmission configurations, each transmission configuration comprising configuration information for a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduled data transmission; and

The division of the modules in the embodiments of the present application is schematic, and only one logical function division is provided, and in actual implementation, there may be another division manner, and in addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processor, may also exist alone physically, or may also be integrated in one module by two or more modules. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode.

Fig. 7 shows an apparatus 1200 provided in this embodiment of the present application, configured to implement the functions of the terminal or the network device in the foregoing method. When the function of the network device is implemented, the apparatus may be the network device, or an apparatus in the network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with the network device. When the functions of the terminal are realized, the device may be the terminal, may be a device in the terminal, or may be a device capable of being used in cooperation with the terminal. Wherein the apparatus may be a system-on-a-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. The apparatus 1200 includes at least one processor 1220, which is configured to implement the functions of the terminal or the network device in the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application. The apparatus 1200 may also include a communication interface 1213. In embodiments of the present application, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface for communicating with other devices over a transmission medium. For example, the communication interface 1213 is used for the apparatus in the apparatus 1200 to communicate with other devices. Illustratively, when the apparatus 1200 is a network device, the other device may be a terminal. When the apparatus 1200 is a terminal device, the other apparatus may be a network device. The processor 1220 utilizes the communication interface 1213 for transceiving data and for implementing the methods of the above-described method embodiments. Illustratively, when implementing the functionality of the terminal, the processor 1220 is configured to receive downlink control information DCI for releasing non-dynamically scheduled data transmission using the communication interface 1213; processor 1220 is configured to: determining X bits in the DCI as a release indication field indicating a released transmission configuration, wherein X is determined according to a maximum state value in a release state set, each state value pair in the release state set being applied to one or more transmission configurations of a plurality of transmission configurations, each transmission configuration comprising configuration information for a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduled data transmission; and determining the released transmission configuration according to the release indication field. In another embodiment, the processor 1220 is configured to receive downlink control information DCI for releasing non-dynamically scheduled data transmission using the communication interface 1213; processor 1220 is configured to: determining X bits in the DCI as a release indication field indicating a released transmission configuration, wherein X is determined according to a maximum state value in a release state set, each state value pair in the release state set being applied to one or more transmission configurations of a plurality of transmission configurations, each transmission configuration comprising configuration information for a set of transmission parameters for non-dynamically scheduled data transmission; and determining the released transmission configuration according to the release indication field. The processor 1220 and the communication interface 1213 may also be used to perform other corresponding steps or operations performed by the terminal or the network device in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not described herein again.

The apparatus 1200 may also include at least one memory 1230 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 1330 is coupled to the processor 1220. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be an electrical, mechanical or other form for information interaction between the devices, units or modules. The processor 1220 may cooperate with the memory 1230. Processor 1220 may execute program instructions stored in memory 1230. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

The specific connection medium among the communication interface 1213, the processor 1220 and the memory 1230 is not limited in this embodiment. In fig. 7, the memory 1230, the communication interface 1220 and the transceiver 1213 are connected by a bus 1240, which is indicated by a thick line in fig. 7, and the connection manner among the other components is only for illustrative purposes and is not meant to be limiting. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 7, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

When the apparatus 1100 and the apparatus 1200 are embodied as a chip or a system of chips, the output or the reception of the communication module 1102 and the communication interface 1213 may be baseband signals. When the apparatus 1100 and the apparatus 1200 are embodied as devices, the communication module 1102 and the communication interface 1213 may output or receive radio frequency signals. In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

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

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed on an apparatus, causes the apparatus to implement the method described in the above method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, which, when executed on an apparatus, causes the apparatus to implement the method described in the above method embodiments.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While the preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the application.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the embodiments of the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to encompass such modifications and variations.

Claims

PCT domestic application, the claims have been published.