Patent Description:
Wireless communications is a communication mode in which information is exchanged by using a feature that an electromagnetic wave signal is propagated in free space. Wireless communications technologies develop fastest and are most widely applied in the communications field, and have penetrated into all aspects of people's lives and work. All of <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, WLAN, Bluetooth, a wideband satellite system, a digital television, and the like are applications of the wireless communications technologies. In a wireless communications system, there are limited wireless channels, and wireless channels are also extremely valuable resources. To improve a capacity of the system, channel resources need to be allocated properly. Because a data volume of downlink transmission is far greater than a data volume of uplink transmission, it is particularly important to properly allocate downlink channel resources.

Allocating frequency domain resources of downlink channels is allocating frequency domain resources of downlink system bandwidth. In an LTE system, a basic unit of the downlink system bandwidth in frequency domain is a resource block (RB). Because the system bandwidth is equal to user equipment (UE) bandwidth, a resource block group (RBG) size in downlink resource allocation is bound to the system bandwidth. Therefore, downlink resources can be allocated for a terminal only based on location information of frequency domain resources of the entire system bandwidth. However, in some cases, a value of the UE bandwidth may be less than a value of the system bandwidth. If a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource to be received by UE is still scheduled based on the RBG size that is related to the system bandwidth, flexibility of UE resource scheduling is restricted, and frequency selection performance is affected. In addition, information overheads that are used for downlink resource allocation and that are in a control channel in the LTE system are relatively large.

<NPL> discusses two-level DL control channel design. The content of slow-DCI (downlink control information) is transmitted at most once per subframe and its content applies to more than one sTTI, while fast-DCI is transmitted in sPDCCH and its content applies only to a specific sTTI.

To improve flexibility of PDSCH resource scheduling and reduce information overheads of downlink resources, this application discloses a resource configuration method and an apparatus. Specific technical solutions include the following.

According to a first aspect, this application provides a resource configuration method, according to claim <NUM>.

According to a second aspect, this application further provides a base station, according to claim <NUM>.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention are set out in the dependent claims.

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application more clearly, the following briefly describes the accompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments. Apparently, a person of ordinary skill in the art may derive other drawings from these accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

Embodiments of this application may be applied to various communications systems, for example, an LTE system, or other wireless communications systems that use various wireless access technologies, for example, systems that use access technologies such as code division multiple access, frequency division multiple access, time division multiple access, orthogonal frequency division multiple access, and single carrier frequency division multiple access, and a subsequent evolved system, for example, a fifth generation <NUM> system.

The embodiments of this application may be applied to a wireless communications system that includes a network device and a terminal device (terminal device or terminal equipment). Specifically, the embodiments of the present invention may be applied to data transmission between the terminal device and the network device.

The terminal device may be a device that provides a user with voice and/or data connectivity, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, or another processing device connected to a wireless modem. A wireless terminal may communicate with one or more core networks through a radio access network (RAN). The wireless terminal may be a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone (also referred to as a "cellular" phone) or a computer with a mobile terminal, for example, may be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer built-in, or in-vehicle mobile apparatus, which exchanges voice and/or data with the radio access network. For example, the wireless terminal may be a device such as a personal communications service (PCS) phone, a cordless telephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The wireless terminal may be also referred to as a system, a subscriber unit (SU), a subscriber station (SS), a mobile station (MS), a remote station (RS), an access point (AP), a remote terminal (RT), an access terminal (AT), a user terminal (UT), a user agent (UA), a user device, or user equipment (UE).

The network device may be a base station, an enhanced base station, a relay having a scheduling function, a device having a base station function, or the like. The base station may be an evolved NodeB (eNB) in an LTE system, or a base station in another system. This is not limited in the embodiments of the present invention.

In the LTE system, a basic unit in frequency domain is a subcarrier, and a subcarrier spacing is <NUM>. At an LTE physical layer, downlink system bandwidth is represented by <MAT>, and expressed in number of resource blocks (RB). Each RB includes <NUM> contiguous subcarriers in frequency domain and six or seven consecutive OFDM symbols in time domain.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a downlink time-frequency resource grid. Each element in the resource grid is referred to as a resource element (RE). The RE is a smallest physical resource, and includes one subcarrier within one OFDM symbol. A basic time unit of downlink resource scheduling in LTE is one downlink subframe. Scheduling within one downlink subframe involves two RBs that are consecutive in time. A downlink subframe is divided into a control region and a data region. A physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) is transmitted in a data region of a downlink subframe, and is a downlink channel in LTE that bears major data transmission. An LTE time-frequency resource used by the PDSCH also includes an RB. To receive the PDSCH correctly, a terminal device needs to first demodulate a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The PDCCH is transmitted in a control region of the downlink subframe. Downlink control information (DCI) carried by the PDCCH contains information that can indicate a location of an RB used by the PDSCH in frequency domain, that is, downlink resource allocation information.

In an LTE system, a base station usually uses three resource allocation types. The three resource allocation types are type <NUM>, type <NUM>, and type <NUM>. The base station determines, based on a selected PDCCH DCI format and a configuration of a related bit in DCI, a resource allocation type used by a PDSCH. A specific configuration process is as follows.

Resource allocation type <NUM>: In resource allocation type <NUM>, the base station uses a bitmap (bitmap) in DCI in a PDCCH to indicate a location of a resource block group (RBG) allocated to a PDSCH. The RBG is a group of RBs that are contiguous in frequency domain. In other words, each RBG includes a same quantity of RBs. An RBG size is related to downlink system bandwidth <MAT>. A relationship is shown in the following Table <NUM>.

For the system bandwidth <MAT>, the RBG size corresponding to the system bandwidth is P, and a total quantity of resource overheads occupied by the system bandwidth may be expressed in <MAT>. Then, a corresponding bitmap totally includes <MAT> bits. Each bit is corresponding to one RBG, a most significant bit represents RBG <NUM>, and a least significant bit represents RBG <MAT>. If an RBG is allocated to a PDSCH, a corresponding bit in the bitmap is set to <NUM>; otherwise, a corresponding bit in the bitmap is set to <NUM>.

For example, when the system bandwidth <MAT> is <NUM> RBs, it can be learned from the foregoing table that the RBG size P corresponding to the system bandwidth is <NUM>. Then, the bitmap totally includes <MAT> bits. Each bit represents two RBs, corresponding to one RBG, that are contiguous in frequency domain. It is assumed that a bitmap code of resources allocated to a PDSCH is "<NUM>", as shown in <FIG>. Then, RBGs at locations <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> are allocated to the PDSCH.

Resource allocation type <NUM>: In resource allocation type <NUM>, all RBGs of system bandwidth are divided into P subsets. P is an RBG size. Each RBG subset p (<NUM> ≤ p < P) includes all RBGs that start from an RBG numbered p and whose numbers are at an interval of P. RB resources allocated to a PDSCH must be of a same RBG subset. A value of the RBG subset p may be set by using DCI in a PDCCH. The DCI in the PDCCH indicates, by using a bitmap, locations of the RB resources allocated to the PDSCH. Each bit in the bitmap is corresponding to one RB in an RBG subset.

Resource allocation type <NUM>: In resource allocation type <NUM>, resources allocated to a PDSCH are RBs that are contiguous in frequency domain. In DCI in a PDCCH resource, resource allocation information includes a starting RB allocation position and a length of continuously allocated RBs.

For the foregoing three resource allocation types: For resource allocation type <NUM>, because a resource scheduling granularity is relatively large, a minimum unit of resource scheduling is an RBG, each RBG includes a plurality of RBs, and for relatively large system bandwidth, a time-frequency resource cannot be allocated on a per RB basis, a resource waste may be resulted when a system load is relatively low; for resource allocation type <NUM>, because each resource allocation cannot cover all RBs of system bandwidth, and a quantity and locations of schedulable RBs are restricted, resource allocation type <NUM> is not suitable for a case in which PDSCH bandwidth is relatively large; and for resource allocation type <NUM>, because resources that need to be allocated to a PDSCH are RBs that are contiguous in frequency domain, only allocation of RBs that are contiguous in frequency domain is supported, and arbitrary RB allocation is not supported.

Among the foregoing resource allocation types of the LTE system, resource allocation types <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> are all restricted by some conditions. For example, UE bandwidth value is restricted by a system bandwidth value. When bandwidth of UE is less than the system bandwidth, if a PDSCH resource to be received by the UE is still scheduled based on the RBG size that is related to the system bandwidth, flexibility of UE resource scheduling is restricted, and frequency selection performance is affected.

Therefore, to improve flexibility of PDSCH resource scheduling, a two-level downlink control channel structure is introduced in the embodiments of this application. A specific structure is shown in <FIG>. The channel structure includes a level-<NUM> control channel and a level-<NUM> control channel. The level-<NUM> control channel is located in a control region of a subframe, and the level-<NUM> control channel is located in a data region of the subframe. Further, DCI carried by the level-<NUM> control channel may be used to indicate resource allocation information of a PDSCH. A time-frequency resource of the level-<NUM> control channel is mapped onto a resource to which the PDSCH belongs, and transmitted to a terminal along with the PDSCH. The level-<NUM> control channel also includes DCI that is used to carry some other control information. For example, the DCI includes related information such as a modulation and coding scheme, initial transmission, or retransmission.

If a downlink resource is allocated by using the control channels of two levels, the level-<NUM> control channel is carried by a downlink control channel, and available time-frequency resources are relatively scarce, whereas the level-<NUM> control channel is carried by a downlink data channel, and available time-frequency resources are relatively sufficient. Generally, if only the level-<NUM> control channel is used to indicate resource allocation information, information indication overheads that need to be used are relatively large, and a capacity of the level-<NUM> control channel is affected. Therefore, on a premise that the control channels of two levels are used, overheads of downlink resource allocation information in the level-<NUM> control channel are reduced, and flexibility of PDSCH resource scheduling is improved.

As shown in <FIG>, an embodiment of this application provides a resource configuration method, applied to a two-level control channel structure that includes a level-<NUM> control channel and a level-<NUM> control channel.

Step <NUM>: A base station obtains receive bandwidth of a terminal. Optionally, the base station also receives channel state information (CSI) of the terminal.

Step <NUM>: The base station generates first information based on the receive bandwidth, where the first information is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by a downlink data channel.

Specifically, the receive bandwidth includes at least one first resource element. A bandwidth size of each first resource allocation unit is corresponding to a subband within the receive bandwidth. The base station evenly divides the receive bandwidth into several subbands based on the size of the first resource allocation unit. Optionally, the first resource element may be a first-type RBG. In step <NUM>, on a side of the base station, a size of the first-type RBG may be set to P<NUM> based on a predefined or semi-statically configured size of the first-type RBG. Optionally, during configuration, the base station may correlate a value of the size P<NUM> of the first-type RBG to receive bandwidth <MAT> of UE, and pre-define a correspondence between the value of the size P<NUM> of the first-type RBG and the receive bandwidth <MAT> of the UE. The following Table <NUM> shows a possible correspondence between the size of the first-type RBG and the receive bandwidth of the UE.

After the UE accesses an LTE system, the UE reports a receive bandwidth capability of the UE to the base station, and the base station determines a value of P<NUM> based on a correspondence between the receive bandwidth capability of the UE and the size of the first-type RBG.

After obtaining the channel state information and the receive bandwidth of the terminal, the base station determines the size of the first resource allocation unit and a location of a frequency domain resource of the downlink data channel configured to the terminal, and determines the first information based on the size of the first resource allocation unit and the location of the frequency domain resource of the downlink data channel configured to the terminal.

Further, the first information includes first indication information, second indication information, and first configuration information. The first indication information is used to indicate a bitmap of the frequency domain resource range on the receive bandwidth. The bitmap includes at least one bit, and each of the at least one bit indicates one first resource element. The second information indicates the location of the downlink data channel within the frequency domain resource range. The first configuration information is used for configuring a size of a second resource element. After generating the first information, the base station adds the first information to DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel.

Step <NUM>: The base station generates second information based on the first information, where the second information is used to indicate a location of the downlink data channel within the frequency domain resource range, and the base station adds the generated second information to DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel.

Step <NUM>: The base station sends the first information to the terminal through the level-<NUM> control channel, and sends the second information to the terminal through the level-<NUM> control channel.

Optionally, the base station first sends the level-<NUM> control channel that carries the first information to the terminal, then sends the level-<NUM> control channel that carries the second information to the terminal, and also sends a downlink data resource to the terminal.

Optionally, in step <NUM>, that the base station determines the size of the first resource element based on the receive bandwidth includes:.

In a specific embodiment, a process in which the base station generates the first information includes:
The base station configures the first-type RBG based on information such as the received receive bandwidth of the terminal and the CSI. The base station divides operating receive bandwidth <MAT> of the UE into <MAT> bandwidth regions based on the size of the first-type RBG. A size of each bandwidth region in frequency domain is P<NUM> RBs that are contiguous in frequency domain, where P<NUM> is the size of the first-type RBG. The base station indicates, in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel and by using the first indication information, a location, on the receive bandwidth of the UE, of a bandwidth region set in which a PDSCH resource allocated to the UE is located. Specifically, if the first indication information is bitmap information, a bitmap totally includes <MAT> bits. Each bit is corresponding to one first-type RBG, a most significant bit represents first-type RBG <NUM>, and a least significant bit represents first-type RBG <MAT>. If an RB in a first-type RBG is allocated as a PDSCH resource of UE, a corresponding bit in the bitmap is set to <NUM>; otherwise, a corresponding bit in the bitmap is set to <NUM>.

For example, receive bandwidth <MAT> of UE is <NUM>. If a relationship between the receive bandwidth of the UE and a size of a first-type RBG is shown in the foregoing table, a size P<NUM> of each first-type RBG is <NUM>. A total quantity of RBGs is <MAT>. In other words, the bitmap totally includes <NUM> bits. If a bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel is "<NUM>", PDSCH resources allocated to the UE are located in a bandwidth region set that includes first-type RBGs <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>, as shown in <FIG>.

The first information generated by the base station includes the second indication information. The second indication information may be information required by the first information for indicating a size of a time-frequency resource of the level-<NUM> control channel, and specifically includes the following information bits:
a quantity of OFDM symbols occupied by the level-<NUM> control channel: <NUM> or <NUM> bits, for example, as shown in the following Table <NUM>.

The second indication information further includes a quantity of control channel elements (CCE) used by the level-<NUM> control channel, for example, <NUM> bits. The level-<NUM> control channel is mapped onto a downlink time-frequency resource based on a CCE structure. Each CCE includes a fixed quantity of REs, for example, including <NUM> REs, for example, as shown in Table <NUM>.

Further, the first information includes the first configuration information. The first configuration information is used as a <NUM>-bit information field in the level-<NUM> control channel.

The information field is used for configuring a size P<NUM> of a second-type RBG, for example, as shown in Table <NUM>.

Optionally, the base station flexibly configures a value of the size P<NUM> of the second-type RBG, that is, P<NUM> PRBs that are contiguous in frequency domain, based on a bandwidth size of the PDSCH resource scheduled to the UE. In addition, in a same PDSCH resource scheduling process, the size of the second-type RBG should be less than the size of the first-type RBG, that is, P<NUM> < P<NUM>. Moreover, optionally, the configured value of P<NUM> meets a relationship P<NUM> = N * P<NUM>, where N is an integer greater than <NUM>. In other words, one first-type RBG includes a plurality of second-type RBGs. As shown in <FIG>, one first-type RBG includes four second-type RBGs.

The base station allocates, in the bandwidth region set in which the PDSCH resource is located, the PDSCH resource by using the second-type RBG as a resource allocation unit.

The base station sends, to the terminal, the generated level-<NUM> control channel, the generated level-<NUM> control channel, and the location of the frequency domain resource of the downlink data channel configured to the terminal. The terminal receives and demodulates the level-<NUM> control channel, and obtains the first information in the level-<NUM> control channel, or obtains the first indication information, the second indication information, and the first configuration information in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel. Then, the terminal performs blind detection on the level-<NUM> control channel based on the obtained information.

The UE obtains, based on the second indication information in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel, sizes of resources occupied by the level-<NUM> control channel in time domain and in frequency domain, and further obtains a DMRS sequence value used for demodulating the level-<NUM> control channel. In addition, the UE determines, based on a location of a first bit that is set to <NUM> and that is in the bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel, a bandwidth region in which a starting resource mapping position of the level-<NUM> control channel is located, and obtains a value of a size of a resource allocation unit of the bandwidth region based on the first configuration information, that is, the value of the size P<NUM> of the second-type RBG. One bandwidth region includes <MAT> second-type RBGs, and the level-<NUM> control channel may perform starting-position mapping on each of these second-type RBGs. Therefore, the UE demodulates the level-<NUM> control channel at locations of the <MAT> second-type RBGs by using a DMRS sequence. That is, a maximum quantity of blind detection operations performed by the UE on the level-<NUM> control channel is <MAT>.

For example, the size P<NUM> of the second-type RBG is set to <NUM>, and a corresponding DMRS sequence used for demodulating the level-<NUM> control channel is "abed". As shown in <FIG>, a horizontal coordinate represents time domain, and a longitudinal axis represents frequency domain. If the bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel is "<NUM>", a first bit coded <NUM> in the bitmap is in a third bit in the bitmap. In this case, the bandwidth region in which the starting resource mapping position of the level-<NUM> control channel is located is first-type RBG <NUM>. First-type RBG <NUM> has <MAT> second-type RBGs. Therefore, the UE needs to demodulate the level-<NUM> control channel at locations of the four candidate second-type RBGs by using the DMRS sequence "abed".

This embodiment of this application provides the method for allocating a PDSCH resource through joint indication by using control channels of two levels. According to the method, a downlink resource allocation unit, that is, the size of the second-type RBG, can be configured based on a downlink resource scheduling status, thereby improving flexibility of PDSCH resource allocation; and bandwidth regions are obtained through division based on the level-<NUM> control channel, and the level-<NUM> control channel further indicates a resource allocation location within a bandwidth region set, thereby reducing indication information overheads in the level-<NUM> control channel and also reducing information indication overheads used for resource allocation in the control channels.

Specifically, if the level-<NUM> control channel is used to indicate PDSCH resource allocation information, for example, the method described in resource allocation type <NUM> is used, for example, the RBG size P is <NUM>, bitmap information totally includes <MAT> bits. The bitmap information is equivalent to the resource allocation information. The <NUM> bits are overheads used by the level-<NUM> control channel in the LTE system for the resource allocation information. In other words, the overheads are <NUM> bits.

According to the resource configuration method provided in this application, if the size P<NUM> of each first-type RBG is <NUM>, the bitmap totally includes <MAT> bits. The bitmap information is resource allocation information in the level-<NUM> control channel, that is, the generated first information. The first information includes the first indication information. The <NUM> bits are overheads used by the level-<NUM> control channel for the resource allocation information. In other words, the overheads are <NUM> bits. If locations of frequency domain resources of a PDSCH are shown in the figure, the bitmap information in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel is "<NUM>". The configured size P<NUM> of the second-type RBG is set to <NUM>. The UE obtains a value of P<NUM> from the <NUM>-bit first configuration information. When the bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel is "<NUM>", it can be learned from the foregoing step <NUM> that there are totally L = <NUM> bits coded "<NUM>". In other words, the frequency domain resources of the PDSCH are in bandwidth regions of first-type RBGs <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>. In this case, a bitmap in the level-<NUM> control channel includes <MAT> bits. Bitmap information is resource allocation information in the level-<NUM> control channel, that is, third indication information. The <NUM> bits are overheads used by the level-<NUM> control channel for the resource allocation information. Therefore, when the method provided in this embodiment of this application is used, required channel overheads are: the overheads of the level-<NUM> control channel (that is, the first indication information): <NUM> bits; overheads of the first configuration information: <NUM> bits; and overheads of the third indication information: <NUM> bits. Total overheads of the three are <NUM> bits.

According to the method for jointly indicating a PDSCH resource location by using control channels of two levels in this embodiment of this application, the total overheads occupying the control channels are <NUM> bits, and are less than <NUM> bits used when only the level-<NUM> control channel is used to indicate PDSCH resource allocation information, thereby effectively reducing information indication overheads used by the control channel for resource allocation.

In addition, the method provided in this application further includes the following beneficial effects:.

The following embodiment is not presented as an embodiment of the invention, but as an example useful for understanding the invention.

Corresponding to the resource configuration method provided in the foregoing embodiment, this embodiment further provides a resource receiving method, applied to a terminal device.

Step <NUM>: A terminal receives a level-<NUM> control channel and a level-<NUM> control channel that are sent by a base station.

Step <NUM>: The terminal demodulates the level-<NUM> control channel, to obtain first information, where the first information is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by a downlink data channel, and the first information includes first indication information, second indication information, and first configuration information.

Step <NUM>: The terminal demodulates the level-<NUM> control channel based on the first information, to obtain second information from the level-<NUM> control channel, where the second information is used to indicate a location of a downlink data resource within the frequency domain resource range.

Step <NUM>: The terminal determines a location of the downlink data resource in frequency domain based on the second information and the first information.

Optionally, the first information includes the second indication information, and that the terminal demodulates the level-<NUM> control channel based on the first information, to obtain second information includes: obtaining, by the terminal based on the second indication information, sizes of resources occupied by the level-<NUM> control channel in time domain and frequency domain; and
demodulating the level-<NUM> control channel based on the second indication information, and generating the second information, where the second information includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate a bitmap of the downlink data channel within the frequency domain resource range.

Specifically, after receiving and demodulating the level-<NUM> control channel, the terminal, for example, UE, obtains the third indication information in the second information in the level-<NUM> control channel, and obtains PDSCH resource allocation information based on the first indication information and the first configuration information in the first information.

The UE determines, based on a location of a bit that is coded "<NUM>" and that is in a bitmap in DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel, a location of a bandwidth region set, on receive bandwidth of the UE, in which a PDSCH resource is located. Each bandwidth region has <MAT> second-type RBGs. If the bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel totally has L bits coded "<NUM>", the bandwidth region set totally has <MAT> second-type RBGs. In this case, a bitmap in DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel totally includes <MAT> bits. Each bit is corresponding to one second-type RBG, a most significant bit represents second-type RBG <NUM>, and a least significant bit represents RBG <MAT>. If a second-type RBG in the bandwidth region set is allocated as a PDSCH resource of UE, a corresponding bit in the bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel is set to <NUM>; otherwise, a corresponding bit in the bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel is set to <NUM>. Therefore, the UE determines a location of the PDSCH resource in frequency domain based on the location of the bandwidth region set, on the receive bandwidth of the UE, in which the PDSCH resource is located, and based on a location of the PDSCH resource in the bandwidth region set.

In a specific embodiment, as shown in <FIG>, when the bitmap in the DCI (that is, the first indication information) in the level-<NUM> control channel is "<NUM>", there are totally L = <NUM> bits coded "<NUM>". Because each first-type RBG represents one bandwidth region, first-type RBGs <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> form the bandwidth region set. The bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel includes <MAT> bits. Therefore, there are totally <NUM> second-type RBGs in the bandwidth region set. When the bitmap in the DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel is "<NUM> ", PDSCH resources allocated to the UE are second-type RBGs <NUM>-<NUM> and <NUM>-<NUM>.

Optionally, the second information further includes second configuration information, and the second configuration information is used to indicate a manner in which a downlink data channel resource scheduled by the base station to the terminal next time is allocated.

Specifically, if the second configuration information is a <NUM>-bit information field, the terminal obtains, based on an indication of the information field, a manner in which a PDSCH resource scheduled by the base station to the UE next time is allocated.

When a bit value of the information field is set to "<NUM>", correspondingly, a PDSCH resource is allocated to the UE through the level-<NUM> control channel. Optionally, in this allocation manner, resource allocation methods of resource allocation type <NUM>, type <NUM>, and type <NUM> in an LTE system may be used in the level-<NUM> control channel.

When a bit value of the information field is set to "<NUM>", a PDSCH resource is allocated to the UE through joint indication by using control channels of two levels. Resource allocation methods are method procedures of step <NUM> to step <NUM> and step <NUM> to step <NUM> in the foregoing embodiments.

In addition, the base station may alternatively set the value of the information bit based on a status of next PDSCH resource scheduling. Before next PDSCH resource scheduling is configured for the terminal, a current PDSCH resource allocation manner may be predefined or may be set by using a higher layer signaling indication.

In another embodiment of this application, a resource configuration method is further provided. In the method, locations of downlink data channels within a shared frequency domain resource range are indicated for a group of terminals by using a level-<NUM> control channel.

Step <NUM>: A base station obtains receive bandwidth reported by a plurality of terminals.

The base station obtains channel state information CSI and receive bandwidth information of the terminals, and determines a first resource allocation unit, that is, a size of a first-type RBG, based on the receive bandwidth. The base station determines, based on the CSI of the terminal UEs, sizes and frequency-domain locations of PDSCH resources scheduled to the terminals.

Step <NUM>: The base station groups the plurality of terminals based on the receive bandwidth, and configures a same level-<NUM> control channel for terminals in a same group.

The base station groups the different accessed UEs based on the receive bandwidth of the UEs and a PDSCH resource scheduling status.

If a plurality of UEs operate on same receive bandwidth, to-be-scheduled PDSCH resources are distributed in frequency domain in a relatively centralized manner, and sizes of resources occupied by level-<NUM> control channels in time domain and frequency domain are the same, the base station classifies these UEs into a group. The base station configures a same level-<NUM> control channel for the UEs in the group, as shown in <FIG>, and divides the receive bandwidth into bandwidth regions for the UEs in the group based on the same size of the first-type RBG. The size of the first-type RBG may be determined by using the method described in step <NUM> to step <NUM> in the foregoing embodiment.

Step <NUM>: The base station generates, based on channel state information and receive bandwidth information, first information that is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by downlink data channels.

Second information is generated based on the channel information, locations of frequency domain resources of downlink data channels configured to the terminals, and the first information. The second information is mainly used to indicate a location of a frequency domain resource occupied by a downlink data resource within the first range.

A difference between this step and the foregoing embodiment is that a bitmap in DCI in the level-<NUM> control channel is used to indicate a location, on the UE receive bandwidth, of a bandwidth region set in which PDSCH resources of all the UEs in the group are located.

Step <NUM>: The base station generates second information based on the first information and the channel state information, where the second information is used to indicate a location of a downlink data resource within the frequency domain resource range.

Step <NUM>: The base station sends the unique level-<NUM> control channel to the terminals in the group.

Step <NUM>: The base station sends, to each terminal in the same group, a level-<NUM> control channel and a PDSCH resource corresponding to each terminal, where the level-<NUM> control channel includes the first information, and the level-<NUM> control channel includes the second information.

Step <NUM>: After receiving downlink channels of the same group, including the level-<NUM> control channel, the level-<NUM> control channels, and the PDSCH resources, the terminals demodulate the level-<NUM> control channel, to obtain the second information from the level-<NUM> control channel, where the second information includes first indication information, second indication information, and first configuration information. Each terminal in the group performs, based on the second information, blind detection on the level-<NUM> control channel that belongs to the terminal.

After receiving and demodulating the level-<NUM> control channel, the UEs classified into the same group obtain bitmap information in the DCI. The bitmap indicates the bandwidth region set in which the PDSCH resources of all the UEs in the group are located. Therefore, in a bandwidth region corresponding to each bit set to "<NUM>" in the bitmap, there may be a starting resource location of a level-<NUM> control channel of UE in the group. In this case, each UE in the group may need to perform blind detection on a level-<NUM> control channel in the bandwidth region corresponding to each bit set to "<NUM>" in the bitmap. A blind detection method is the same as that described in step <NUM> to step <NUM> in the foregoing embodiment.

Step <NUM>: Each terminal demodulates the level-<NUM> control channel based on the first information, to obtain third indication information from the level-<NUM> control channel. Each terminal determines a location of a downlink data channel resource in frequency domain based on the third indication information, the first indication information, and the first configuration information.

Step <NUM>: Each terminal obtains allocation information about the PDSCH frequency domain resource based on the third indication information, the first indication information, and the first configuration information.

Further, the foregoing method further includes step <NUM>: Further obtain second configuration information by performing blind detection on the second information. The second configuration information is used for determining a manner in which a PDSCH frequency domain resource scheduled by the base station to the terminal next time is allocated.

According to the method provided in this embodiment, the base station groups the plurality of terminals, and further when configuring a resource location in frequency domain for each terminal, uses the same level-<NUM> control channel to indicate, simultaneously for a group of terminals, for example, for a plurality of UEs, the location of the bandwidth region set in which the PDSCH resource is located, thereby preventing the base station from generating the first information in the level-<NUM> control channel for each terminal, and further reducing overheads of the level-<NUM> control channel.

In addition, compared with a downlink resource allocation method in LTE, the method provided in this aspect has the following improvement: PDSCH resource allocation information is no longer terminal-UE-specific, and some of resource allocation information may simultaneously indicate frequency domain location regions in which PDSCHs of a plurality of terminals are located. Therefore, overheads of resource allocation information are further reduced.

This application further provides a base station, as shown in <FIG>, applied to a two-level control channel structure that includes a level-<NUM> control channel and a level-<NUM> control channel. The base station includes a transceiver <NUM> and a processor <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> includes at least one communications interface and/or an I/O interface. In addition, the base station further includes a communications bus <NUM> and a memory <NUM>.

The transceiver <NUM> is configured to obtain receive bandwidth of a terminal.

The processor <NUM> is configured to generate first information based on the receive bandwidth, where the first information is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by a downlink data channel.

The processor <NUM> is further configured to generate second information based on the first information, where the second information is used to indicate a location of the downlink data channel within the frequency domain resource range.

The transceiver <NUM> is further configured to: send the first information to the terminal through the level-<NUM> control channel, and send the second information to the terminal through the level-<NUM> control channel.

Optionally, the receive bandwidth includes at least one first resource element; and the processor <NUM> is further specifically configured to: determine a size of the first resource element based on the receive bandwidth; determine, based on the size of the first resource element, a location of the first resource element occupied within the frequency domain resource range; and generate the first information based on the location of the first resource element and the size of the first resource element.

Optionally, the processor <NUM> is further configured to determine the size of the first resource element based on a predefined correspondence between the receive bandwidth and the size of the first resource element; and is further configured to: configure the size of the first resource element in a dynamic or semi-static manner by using radio resource control higher layer signaling.

Optionally, each of the at least one first resource element includes a plurality of second resource elements, and the first information further includes first configuration information used for configuring a size of the second resource element.

The processor <NUM> is further specifically configured to: determine, based on the size of the second resource element, a location of the downlink data channel in the second resource element occupied within the frequency domain resource range.

The second information includes third indication information. The third indication information is used to indicate a bitmap of the downlink data channel within the frequency domain resource range. The bitmap includes at least one bit, and each of the at least one bit indicates one second resource element. That the first information is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by a downlink data channel includes: the first information includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate a bitmap of the frequency domain resource range on the receive bandwidth; and the bitmap includes at least one bit, and each of the at least one bit indicates one first resource element. The first information further includes second indication information. The second indication information is used to indicate configuration information of the level-<NUM> control channel. The second indication information includes a quantity of OFDM symbols occupied by the level-<NUM> control channel and a quantity of control channel elements used by the level-<NUM> control channel.

The transceiver <NUM> and the processor <NUM> of the base station in this embodiment may alternatively be a transceiver unit and a processing unit, respectively. The transceiver unit and the processing unit are configured to perform all functions of the transceiver <NUM> and the processor <NUM> in this embodiment, respectively.

The following entity referred to as a terminal is not presented as an embodiment of the invention, but as an example useful for understanding the invention".

This application further provides a terminal, as shown in <FIG>, corresponding to a base station. The terminal includes a transceiver <NUM> and a processor <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> includes at least one communications interface and/or an I/O interface. In addition, the terminal further includes a communications bus <NUM> and a memory <NUM>.

The transceiver <NUM> is configured to receive a level-<NUM> control channel and a level-<NUM> control channel that are sent by a base station.

The processor <NUM> is configured to demodulate the level-<NUM> control channel, to obtain first information, where the first information is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by a downlink data channel.

The processor <NUM> is further configured to demodulate the level-<NUM> control channel based on the first information, to obtain second information from the level-<NUM> control channel, where the second information is used to indicate a location of a downlink data resource within the frequency domain resource range.

The processor <NUM> is further configured to determine a location of the downlink data resource in frequency domain based on the second information and the first information.

Optionally, the first information includes second indication information; and the processor <NUM> is further specifically configured to: obtain, based on the second indication information, sizes of resources occupied by the level-<NUM> control channel in time domain and frequency domain; and demodulate the level-<NUM> control channel based on the second indication information, and generate the second information, where the second information includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate a bitmap of the downlink data channel within the frequency domain resource range.

If the second information further includes second configuration information, the processor <NUM> is further configured to determine, based on the second configuration information, a manner in which a downlink data channel resource scheduled by the base station to the processor <NUM> next time is allocated.

In addition, the transceiver <NUM> and the processor <NUM> of the terminal in this embodiment may alternatively be a transceiver unit and a processing unit, respectively. The transceiver unit and the processing unit are configured to perform all functions of the transceiver <NUM> and the processor <NUM> in this embodiment, respectively.

The base station and terminal devices provided in the embodiments of this application implement the following beneficial effects:.

This application further provides a resource configuration system. The system includes a base station and a terminal, and is applied to a two-level control channel structure that includes a level-<NUM> control channel and a level-<NUM> control channel.

The base station is configured to: obtain receive bandwidth of the terminal; generate first information based on the receive bandwidth, where the first information is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by a downlink data channel; generate second information based on the first information, where the second information is used to indicate a location of the downlink data channel within the frequency domain resource range; and send the first information to the terminal through the level-<NUM> control channel, and send the second information to the terminal through the level-<NUM> control channel.

The terminal is configured to: receive a level-<NUM> control channel and a level-<NUM> control channel that are sent by the base station; demodulate the level-<NUM> control channel, to obtain first information, where the first information is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by a downlink data channel; demodulate the level-<NUM> control channel based on the first information, to obtain second information from the level-<NUM> control channel, where the second information is used to indicate a location of a downlink data resource within the frequency domain resource range; and determine a location of the downlink data resource in frequency domain based on the second information and the first information.

In addition, if the system includes at least one terminal, the base station is further configured to: obtain receive bandwidth reported by a plurality of terminals; and group the plurality of terminals based on the receive bandwidth, and configure a same level-<NUM> control channel for terminals in a same group; and the base station is further configured to generate first information and second information based on channel state information and receive bandwidth information, where the second information is used to indicate a location of a downlink data resource within a frequency domain resource range.

The base station is further configured to send the level-<NUM> control channel to the terminals in the group, and send a level-<NUM> control channel to each terminal in the same group, so that after receiving and demodulating the level-<NUM> control channel, each terminal obtains the first information, performs blind detection on the level-<NUM> control channel based on the first information, and obtains a location of a PDSCH resource in frequency domain, thereby avoiding that the base station generates the first information in the level-<NUM> control channel for each terminal, and further reducing overheads of the level-<NUM> control channel.

Further, the processor may be a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control program execution in the solutions of the present invention.

The memory may be a read-only memory (ROM) or another type of static storage device capable of storing static information and instructions, or a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device capable of storing information and instructions; or may be an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or another compact disc storage, an optical disc storage (including a compressed optical disc, a laser disc, an optical disc, a digital universal optical disc, a blue-ray optical disc, and the like), a magnetic disk storage medium or another magnetic storage device, or any other medium capable of carrying or storing expected program code in a form of instructions or data structures and capable of being accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory may independently exist, or may be integrated into the processor. The memory is configured to store application program code used to execute the solutions of the present invention, where the application program code is executed under control of the processor. The processor is configured to execute the application program code stored in the memory.

In the foregoing embodiments, the "unit" may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a circuit, a processor that executes one or more software or firmware programs and a memory, an integrated logic circuit, and/or another device that can provide the foregoing functions.

The embodiments of the present invention further provide a computer storage medium, configured to store a computer software instruction used by the resource configuration method and the resource receiving method shown in <FIG>, <FIG>, or <FIG>. The computer storage medium includes a program used to execute the foregoing method embodiments. After the stored program is executed, a feedback parameter can be sent.

Although the present invention is described with reference to the embodiments, in a process of implementing the present invention that claims protection, a person skilled in the art may understand and implement other variations of the disclosed embodiments by viewing the accompanying drawings, disclosed content, and the accompanying claims. In the claims, "comprising" does not exclude another component or another step, and "a" or "one" does not exclude a case of multiple. A single processor or another unit may implement several functions enumerated in the claims. The fact that some measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot bring better effects.

A person skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, an apparatus (device), or a computer program product. Therefore, the present invention may use a form of hardware only embodiments, software only embodiments, or embodiments with a combination of software and hardware. Moreover, the present invention may use a form of a computer program product that is implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to a disk memory, a CD-ROM, an optical memory, and the like) that include computer-usable program code. The computer program is stored/distributed in an appropriate medium, provided with other hardware or as a part of hardware, or may be distributed in another form such as in the Internet or in another wired or wireless telecommunications system.

The present invention is described with reference to the flowcharts and/or block diagrams of the method, the apparatus (device), and the computer program product in the embodiments of the present invention. It should be understood that computer program instructions may be used to implement each process and/or each block in the flowcharts and/or the block diagrams, and a combination of a process and/or a block in the flowcharts and/or the block diagrams. These computer program instructions may be provided for a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, an embedded processor, or a processor of any other programmable data processing device to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by a computer or a processor of any other programmable data processing device generate an apparatus for implementing a specified function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

These computer program instructions may alternatively be stored in a computer-readable memory that can instruct the computer or any other programmable data processing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory generate an artifact that includes an instruction apparatus. The instruction apparatus implements a specified function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

These computer program instructions may alternatively be loaded onto a computer or another programmable data processing device, so that a series of operations and steps are performed on the computer or the another programmable device, thereby generating computer-implemented processing. Therefore, the instructions executed on the computer or the another programmable device provide steps for implementing a specified function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

Claim 1:
A resource configuration method, applied to a two-level control channel structure that comprises a level-<NUM> control channel and a level-<NUM> control channel, wherein the method comprises:
obtaining (<NUM>), by a base station, receive bandwidth of a terminal;
generating (<NUM>), by the base station, first information based on the receive bandwidth, wherein the first information is used for determining a frequency domain resource range used by a downlink data channel;
generating (<NUM>), by the base station, second information based on the first information, wherein the second information is used to indicate a location of the downlink data channel within the frequency domain resource range;
sending (<NUM>), by the base station, the first information to the terminal through the level-<NUM> control channel, and sending the second information to the terminal through the level-<NUM> control channel,
wherein the receive bandwidth comprises at least one first resource element; the method characterized in that
the generating first information based on the receive bandwidth comprises:
determining, by the base station, a size of the first resource element based on the receive bandwidth;
determining, by the base station based on the size of the first resource element, a location of the first resource element occupied within the frequency domain resource range; and
generating, by the base station, the first information based on the location of the first resource element and the size of the first resource element.