CN108235340B

CN108235340B - Downlink scheduling method, device and base station

Info

Publication number: CN108235340B
Application number: CN201611192179.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 邓云
Original assignee: Spreadtrum Communications Shanghai Co Ltd
Current assignee: Spreadtrum Communications Shanghai Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-12-21
Filing date: 2016-12-21
Publication date: 2021-08-20
Anticipated expiration: 2036-12-21
Also published as: CN108235340A

Abstract

The invention provides a downlink scheduling method, a downlink scheduling device and a base station. The method comprises the following steps: and scheduling each group of user equipment by adopting a PRB Pair sharing mode, wherein the number of the user equipment in each group of user equipment is higher than that of the shared PRB Pair. The invention can fully utilize transmission resources and improve the use efficiency of frequency spectrum.

Description

Downlink scheduling method, device and base station

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a downlink scheduling method, an apparatus, and a base station.

Background

When there is a data transmission demand, a UE (User Equipment) in LTE or New Radio, New air interface, 5G technology may access a network to establish RRC connection, first establish a signaling Radio bearer, and then establish a data Radio bearer to transmit data. After establishing the data radio bearer, the UE may begin receiving data and transmitting data.

Currently, the UE has many applications for instant messaging, such as WeChat, QQ, etc., and a considerable portion of data generated by these applications is small data, which has a size of only tens of bits or only a few bits at a time. However, according to the existing scheduling policy, when a base station allocates downlink transmission resources to each UE, at least one PRB Pair (Physical Resource Block Pair) needs to be allocated, where one PRB Pair occupies 2 slots and 14 symbols, when the base station transmits data to a certain UE through one PRB Pair, the base station determines the number of bits that one PRB Pair can transmit according to the channel quality parameter of the location where the UE is located, and according to the existing protocol, when space division multiplexing is not adopted, one PRB Pair can transmit 712 bits (adopting a 64QAM modulation and coding format) or 968 bits (adopting a 256QAM modulation and coding format) at most; when the channel quality is poor when the UE is at the cell edge, only tens of bits of data can be transmitted by one PRB Pair.

Therefore, in the process of implementing the present invention, the inventors found that at least the following technical problems exist in the prior art:

for the UE at the non-cell edge, the base station uses one PRB Pair to transmit small data to the base station, which may cause resource waste and result in low spectrum efficiency.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, the present invention provides a downlink scheduling method, an apparatus and a base station, which can improve the utilization efficiency of a frequency spectrum.

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a downlink scheduling method, which is applicable to a base station, and includes:

and scheduling each group of user equipment by adopting a PRB Pair sharing mode, wherein the number of the user equipment in each group of user equipment is higher than that of the shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, before scheduling each group of user equipments in a manner of sharing PRB Pair, the method further includes:

measuring downlink data of all connected user equipment in a cell;

and grouping the user equipment with the size of the downlink data smaller than the first threshold, wherein the total amount of the current downlink data of each group of user equipment does not exceed the bearing capacity of the shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, the scheduling each group of user equipment in a PRB Pair sharing manner includes:

respectively sending RRC signaling to a plurality of user equipment in any group of user equipment, wherein the RRC signaling carries indication information of shared PRB Pair of the plurality of user equipment, position information of the plurality of user equipment in the shared PRB Pair and indication information of a public RNTI;

receiving RRC connection reconfiguration completion signaling sent by the plurality of user equipment;

transmitting DCI scrambled with the common RNTI to the plurality of user equipments.

Optionally, the location information of each of the plurality of user equipments in the shared PRB Pair includes:

the combination of subcarrier information, symbol number or resource unit occupied by different user equipment.

respectively sending RRC signaling to a plurality of user equipment in any group of user equipment, wherein the RRC signaling carries indication information of PRB Pair shared by the plurality of user equipment;

and sending DCI to the plurality of user equipment respectively, wherein the DCI carries the position information of the plurality of user equipment in the shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, the DCI is scrambled with a new RNTI different from the C-RNTI, the new RNTI being transmitted by the RRC signaling.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a downlink scheduling apparatus, which is suitable for a base station, and includes:

and the scheduling unit is used for scheduling each group of user equipment by adopting a mode of sharing the PRB Pair, and the number of the user equipment in each group of user equipment is higher than that of the shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

a measuring unit, configured to measure downlink data of all connected ues in a cell;

and the grouping unit is used for grouping the user equipment with the size of the downlink data smaller than the first threshold, and the total amount of the current downlink data of each group of user equipment does not exceed the bearing capacity of the shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, the scheduling unit includes:

a first sending subunit, configured to send RRC signaling to each of multiple user equipments in an arbitrary group of user equipments, where the RRC signaling carries indication information that the multiple user equipments share a PRB Pair, location information of the multiple user equipments in the shared PRB Pair, and indication information of a common RNTI;

a first receiving subunit, configured to receive RRC connection reconfiguration complete signaling sent by the multiple user equipments;

a second transmitting subunit, configured to transmit DCI scrambled with the common RNTI to the plurality of user equipments.

Optionally, the location information, in the shared PRB Pair, of each of the multiple user equipments carried in the RRC signaling sent by the first sending subunit includes:

Optionally, the scheduling unit includes:

a third sending subunit, configured to send RRC signaling to each of multiple user equipments in any group of user equipments, where the RRC signaling carries indication information that the multiple user equipments share a PRB Pair;

a second receiving subunit, configured to receive RRC connection reconfiguration complete signaling sent by the multiple pieces of user equipment;

a fourth sending subunit, configured to send DCI to the multiple user equipments, where the DCI carries location information of the multiple user equipments in a shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, the DCI transmitted by the fourth transmitting subunit is scrambled with a new RNTI different from the C-RNTI, and the new RNTI is transmitted by the RRC signaling transmitted by the third transmitting subunit.

In a third aspect, the present invention provides a base station, where the base station includes the above downlink scheduling apparatus.

According to the downlink scheduling method, the downlink scheduling device and the base station, downlink data of all connected user equipment in a cell are measured, and for the user equipment with less downlink data, the base station can transmit small data to a plurality of user equipment through one or more shared PRB Pair, so that transmission resources can be fully utilized, and the use efficiency of frequency spectrum is improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a downlink scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a downlink scheduling method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of positions of different UEs in one PRB Pair according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the positions of different UEs in one PRB Pair according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a downlink scheduling apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a scheduling unit of a downlink scheduling apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a scheduling unit of a downlink scheduling apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, 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 only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a downlink scheduling method, as shown in fig. 1, which is applicable to a base station, and the method includes:

and S11, scheduling each group of user equipment by adopting a PRB Pair sharing mode, wherein the number of the user equipment in each group of user equipment is higher than that of the shared PRB Pair, including the situation that a plurality of UE share one or more PRB Pair.

As shown in fig. 2, before scheduling each group of user equipments in a PRB Pair sharing manner, the method further includes:

s09, the base station measures downlink data of all connected user equipment in the cell, selects the user equipment of which the size of the downlink data is smaller than a first threshold, and when the size of the downlink data is smaller than the first threshold, the downlink data is all small data, wherein the first threshold can be set according to channel conditions and the number of UE needing to be shared;

s10, according to the channel quality parameters of each user equipment and the downlink data of each user equipment, grouping the user equipment with the size of the selected downlink data smaller than a first threshold value, wherein the total amount of the current downlink data of each group of user equipment does not exceed the carrying capacity of the shared PRB Pair, thereby determining the number of the UE sharing the PRB Pair, when the UE is at the edge of a cell, a group of UE is only possible to be one UE, and at the moment, the existing mode is adopted for scheduling, when the channel quality of the position of the UE is better, a group of UE is possible to have a plurality of UEs; after the grouping is completed, S11 is executed.

Optionally, taking a group of user equipments as an example, the base station may use a DCI (Downlink Control Information, referred to as Downlink Control signaling in LTE, and may use other names in 5G, which is not limited in this patent) common to a plurality of user equipments in the group to schedule the plurality of user equipments to share one or some PRB pairs or PRBs, including:

the base station respectively sends RRC signaling to the plurality of UE, wherein the RRC signaling carries indication information of the plurality of user equipment sharing PRB Pair, such as information for starting sharing scheduling, and is used for informing the UE that the base station will adopt a mode of sharing PRB Pair to schedule the UE;

the RRC signaling indicates the respective location information of the UEs in the shared PRB Pair to the multiple UEs, and here, the RRC signaling is used instead of DCI to indicate the respective location information of different UEs in the shared PRB Pair, mainly because the DCI indicates that the location information of different UEs in the PRB Pair requires a large number of bits, and it is necessary to indicate the UE identity and the specific location information of the UEs in the PRB Pair at the same time, but the number of bits that the DCI located in the physical layer can carry is limited. The location information of each of the multiple UEs in the PRB Pair mainly includes subcarrier information, symbol number, or a combination of Resource Elements (REs) occupied by different UEs, the base station indicates, through the RRC signaling, subcarrier information occupied by each UE and symbol number occupied by each UE, as shown in fig. 3, a group of 4 UEs is shown, where each UE occupies 12 subcarrier bandwidths, only one symbol (first symbol) in the PRB Pair is used for DCI transmission, other symbols are used for downlink data transmission of 4 UEs, 4 UEs occupy transmission resources of 3 or 4 symbols in a time domain, respectively, where UE1 occupies 3 symbols, UE2 occupies 3 symbols, UE3 occupies 4 symbols, and UE4 occupies 3 symbols; other implementations are also possible, as shown in fig. 4, each UE occupies 3 sub-carrier bandwidths, and each UE occupies 13 symbols; in addition, the base station can also allocate different RE combinations in the PRB Pair to different UEs through RRC signaling. It should be noted that more than one symbol in a PRB Pair may be used for transmission of DCI, for example, the first 3 symbols may be used for transmission of DCI, and for fig. 3, the base station may indicate that UE1 and UE2 use two symbols, and UE3 and UE4 use 4 symbols and 3 symbols, respectively.

In LTE, resource allocation is in units of PRB pairs, which is exemplified in this patent by multiple UEs sharing one or more PRB pairs, and in 5G, resource allocation may be in units of PRB. Fig. 3 and 4 in this patent both use one PRB Pair as an example for explanation, but actually, the shared PRB Pair or shared PRB is not limited to one PRB Pair or PRB, and multiple user equipments may share multiple PRB pairs or PRBs, as long as the number of user equipments is higher than the number of shared PRB pairs or PRBs, for example, when 4 user equipments share 2 PRB pairs.

In addition, the RRC signaling indicates a common RNTI (Radio Network Temporary Identifier) to different UEs, when the base station schedules the multiple user equipments in a PRB Pair sharing manner, the DCI is scrambled using the common RNTI, and when the base station schedules the multiple user equipments in the existing manner, the DCI is usually scrambled using a C-RNTI (Cell RNTI, UE-specific Identifier in a Cell).

After receiving the RRC signaling (e.g., RRC connection reconfiguration signaling), the UE learns that the base station will schedule itself in a PRB Pair sharing manner, so as to transmit downlink data, and sends an RRC connection reconfiguration complete signaling to the base station;

after receiving RRC connection reconfiguration complete signaling sent by the UEs, the base station sends DCI common to the UEs, where the DCI common to the UEs includes information indicating location information of PRB resources (i.e. location information occupied by shared PRB Pair in system bandwidth), MCS (Modulation and coding format), HARQ process number, and whether to update data, and the like, where the location information of PRB resources is for 4 UEs, and other parameters may be common to a certain UE or 4 UEs, for example, MCS may be common, that is, 4 UEs use the same MCS; or the HARQ process number is for a certain UE, that is, each UE may have a different HARQ process number, and in FDD, there are 8 HARQ processes in downlink, which requires 3-bit indication, and 4 UEs require 12-bit indication of HARQ processes of different UEs.

The common DCI is scrambled by the common RNTI, the UE needs to detect the DCI scrambled by the common RNTI in a PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel), and after receiving the DCI scrambled by the common RNTI, each UE obtains a signal belonging to the UE from a corresponding PRB resource indicated by the common DCI according to position information of data of the UE in the PRB Pair indicated by RRC signaling, and decodes the data contained in the signal.

For other groups of UEs, the same scheduling method is used for scheduling, and the number of UEs in each group may be different, for example, 2 or 3.

In the downlink scheduling method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the base station indicates the use position of the UE in the shared PRB Pair to different UEs through RRC signaling, and simultaneously indicates the common RNTI, after receiving the DCI scrambled by the common RNTI, the UE receives signals from the corresponding position of the PRB Pair according to the position indicated in the RRC signaling, and then decodes the downlink data. Compared with the prior art, the base station can transmit small data to a plurality of UEs simultaneously through one or a plurality of shared PRB Pair, so that transmission resources can be fully utilized, and the use efficiency of frequency spectrum is improved.

Optionally, taking a group of user equipment as an example, when the base station schedules a plurality of user equipments in the group to share one or some PRB Pair or PRB, in addition to using DCI common to the plurality of user equipments, the base station may also schedule the plurality of user equipments respectively using a plurality of DCIs, that is, one DCI schedules one user equipment, including:

respectively sending RRC signaling to the plurality of user equipment, wherein the RRC signaling carries indication information of the plurality of user equipment sharing PRB Pair, such as information for starting sharing scheduling, and is used for informing the UE base station to schedule the UE in a mode of sharing PRB Pair; the RRC signaling can simultaneously and optionally carry indication information of RNTIs of the user equipment;

the base station receives RRC connection reconfiguration completion signaling sent by the user equipment, and at the moment, the UE needs to start receiving DCI of shared scheduling, wherein the DCI format is different from the existing DCI format;

and sending DCI to the multiple user equipments, where the DCI includes, in addition to information about the location of PRB resources, MCS (Modulation and coding scheme), HARQ process number, and whether to update data, location information indicating that each user equipment is in a certain PRB Pair (or certain PRB pairs) shared by the user equipments, such as information indicating which symbols are used for the UE, which subcarriers are used for the UE, or which RE combinations are used for the UE. The base station may scramble the DCI during the shared transmission using the C-RNTI of the UE (at this time, the number of blind detections for detecting the DCI by the UE may be increased), or scramble the DCI during the shared transmission using a new RNTI different from the C-RNTI, and at this time, the base station needs to tell the UE about the new RNTI through an RRC signaling before sending the DCI scrambled by the new RNTI.

After the UE receives the DCI indicating the shared scheduling PRB Pair, each UE receives a signal on a corresponding symbol according to the position information of the PRB resource indicated in the DCI and the specific position in the PRB Pair, and decodes the data.

In the downlink scheduling method provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the base station indicates, to different UEs, scheduling information sharing one or more PRB pairs through independent DCI, where the DCI indicates position information of each UE in the shared PRB pairs. After receiving the DCI, the UE resolves the downlink data from the corresponding location. Compared with the prior art, the base station can transmit small data to a plurality of UEs simultaneously through one or a plurality of shared PRB Pair, so that transmission resources can be fully utilized, and the use efficiency of frequency spectrum is improved.

It should be noted that, when the downlink data is less, the base station schedules the multiple user equipments in a manner of sharing PRB Pair; when the downlink data is more, the base station still uses the existing mode (namely, the granularity of scheduling by using the PRB Pair) to schedule the user equipment.

Through the two modes, the base station can realize that each group of user equipment is scheduled by adopting a mode of sharing PRB Pair.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a downlink scheduling apparatus 4, where the apparatus 4 includes:

a scheduling unit 41, configured to schedule each group of user equipments in a manner of sharing PRB Pair, where the number of user equipments in each group of user equipments is higher than the number of shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 5, the apparatus 4 further includes:

a measuring unit 42, configured to measure downlink data of all connected ues in a cell;

a grouping unit 43, configured to group user equipments with a size of downlink data smaller than a first threshold, where a total amount of current downlink data of each group of user equipments does not exceed a carrying capacity of the shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 6, the scheduling unit 41 includes:

a first sending subunit 411, configured to send, to each of multiple user equipments in an arbitrary group of user equipments, an RRC signaling, where the RRC signaling carries indication information that the multiple user equipments share a PRB Pair, location information of the multiple user equipments in the shared PRB Pair, and indication information of a common RNTI;

a first receiving subunit 412, configured to receive RRC connection reconfiguration complete signaling sent by the multiple user equipments;

a second transmitting subunit 413, configured to transmit DCI scrambled with the common RNTI to the plurality of user equipments.

Optionally, the location information, in the shared PRB Pair, of each of the multiple user equipments carried in the RRC signaling sent by the first sending subunit 411 includes:

The downlink scheduling device provided by the embodiment of the invention indicates the use position of the UE in the shared PRB Pair to different UEs through RRC signaling, and indicates the common RNTI at the same time, after receiving DCI scrambled with the common RNTI, the UE receives signals from the corresponding position of the PRB Pair according to the position indicated in the RRC signaling, and then decodes downlink data. Compared with the prior art, small data can be transmitted to a plurality of UEs simultaneously through one or a plurality of shared PRB Pair, transmission resources can be fully utilized, and the use efficiency of frequency spectrum is improved.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 7, the scheduling unit 41 may also have other implementation manners, including:

a third sending subunit 414, configured to send RRC signaling to each of multiple user equipments in any group of user equipments, where the RRC signaling carries indication information that the multiple user equipments share a PRB Pair;

a second receiving subunit 415, configured to receive RRC connection reconfiguration complete signaling sent by the multiple user equipments;

a fourth sending subunit 416, configured to send, to the multiple user equipments, DCI respectively, where the DCI carries location information of the multiple user equipments in a shared PRB Pair.

Optionally, the DCI sent by the fourth sending subunit 416 is scrambled with a new RNTI different from the C-RNTI, and the new RNTI is transmitted by the RRC signaling sent by the third sending subunit 414, and is told to the UE in advance.

The downlink scheduling apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present invention indicates, to different UEs, scheduling information sharing one or more PRB pairs through independent DCI, where the DCI indicates location information of each UE in the shared PRB pairs. After receiving the DCI, the UE resolves the downlink data from the corresponding location. Compared with the prior art, small data can be transmitted to a plurality of UEs simultaneously through one or a plurality of shared PRB Pair, transmission resources can be fully utilized, and the use efficiency of frequency spectrum is improved.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a base station, which comprises the downlink scheduling device.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the processes of the methods of the embodiments described above can be implemented by a computer program, which can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, can include the processes of the embodiments of the methods described above. The storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like.

The above description is only for the specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present invention are included in 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 downlink scheduling method, adapted to a base station, includes:

measuring downlink data of all connected user equipment in a cell;

grouping all user equipment with the size of downlink data smaller than a first threshold value, so that each group of user equipment obtained by grouping shares one or more PRB Pair, wherein the number of the user equipment in each group of user equipment is higher than that of the shared PRB Pair, and the total amount of the downlink data of each group of user equipment at this time does not exceed the carrying capacity of the shared PRB Pair;

each group of user equipment is scheduled by adopting a PRB Pair sharing mode, and the method comprises the following implementation modes:

if the scheduling is realized by using the common DCI of the plurality of user equipments in each group of user equipments, the method comprises the following steps: respectively sending RRC signaling to a plurality of user equipment in any group of user equipment, wherein the RRC signaling carries indication information of shared PRB Pair of the plurality of user equipment, position information of the plurality of user equipment in the shared PRB Pair and indication information of a public RNTI; receiving RRC connection reconfiguration completion signaling sent by the plurality of user equipment; transmitting DCI scrambled with the common RNTI to the plurality of user equipments;

if the scheduling is implemented by using the DCI which is individually shared by the plurality of user equipments in each group of user equipments, the method includes: respectively sending RRC signaling to a plurality of user equipment in any group of user equipment, wherein the RRC signaling carries indication information of PRB Pair shared by the plurality of user equipment; receiving RRC connection reconfiguration completion signaling sent by the plurality of user equipment; and sending DCI to the plurality of user equipment respectively, wherein the DCI carries the position information of the plurality of user equipment in the shared PRB Pair.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the position information of each of the plurality of user equipments in a shared PRB Pair comprises:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the DCI is scrambled with a new RNTI different from a C-RNTI, which is transmitted by the RRC signaling.

4. A downlink scheduling apparatus, adapted to a base station, comprising:

a grouping unit, configured to group all user equipments with downlink data size smaller than a first threshold, so that each group of user equipments obtained by grouping shares one or more PRB pairs, where the number of user equipments in each group of user equipments is higher than the number of shared PRB pairs, and the total amount of downlink data of each group of user equipments at this time does not exceed the carrying capacity of the shared PRB pairs;

a scheduling unit, configured to schedule each group of user equipments in a PRB Pair sharing manner, where the scheduling unit has the following implementation manners:

if the scheduling is implemented by using DCI common to a plurality of user equipments in each group of user equipments, the scheduling unit includes:

a second transmitting subunit configured to transmit DCI scrambled with the common RNTI to the plurality of user equipments;

if the scheduling is implemented by using DCI that is individually shared by a plurality of user equipments in each group of user equipments, the scheduling unit includes:

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the location information of each of the plurality of user equipments in the shared PRB Pair, carried by the RRC signaling sent by the first sending subunit, includes:

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the DCI transmitted by the fourth transmission subunit is scrambled with a new RNTI different from the C-RNTI, and wherein the new RNTI is transmitted by RRC signaling transmitted by the third transmission subunit.

7. A base station, characterized in that the base station comprises the downlink scheduling apparatus according to any one of claims 4 to 6.