Patent Description:
The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and particularly to information transmission methods and devices.

For the next generation mobile communications technologies, the brief introduction is as follows.

The mobile Internet is subverting the traditional mobile communication service model, providing users with an unprecedented usage experience, which has a profound impact on all aspects of people's work and life. The mobile Internet will promote the further upgrade of human social information interaction methods, providing users with a richer service experience such as augmented reality, virtual reality, ultra high definition (3D) video, mobile cloud or the like. The further development of the mobile Internet will bring about a thousand times increase in future mobile traffic, and promote a new round of changes in mobile communications technologies and industries. The Internet of Things (IoT) has expanded the range of services for mobile communications, from human-to-human communication to the human-machine and machine-machine intelligent interconnection, making mobile communications technologies penetrated into a wider range of industries and fields. In the future, mobile medical, car networking, smart home, industrial control, environmental monitoring, or the like will promote the explosive growth of IoT applications, and hundreds of billions of devices will access the network to achieve a true "Internet of Everything". At the same time, massive device connectivity and diversified IoT services will also bring new technical challenges to mobile communications.

As new service requirements continue to emerge and become more demanding, higher performance demands are laid on future mobile communications systems, such as higher peak rates, better user experience rates, smaller latency, higher reliability, higher spectral efficiency and higher energy efficiency, and it is required to support more user access and to use various types of services.

A physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the LTE system is used for carrying scheduling information and other control information. There may be a plurality of PDCCHs in a control area of each downlink subframe. User equipment (UE) tries to decode each PDCCH in the search space according to the format of to-be-monitored downlink control information (DCI).

To sum up, in the existing LTE system, the UE blindly detects its own PDCCH according to the desired information. In the future mobile communications system, it is necessary to introduce scheduling or to notify related information of a group of terminals, but there is no solution on how to transmit information of a group of terminals at present.

In the RAN1 Ad Hoc meeting (R1-<NUM>) document, it is disclosed that: according to the agreements from RAN1 NR Ad Hoc meeting, the term 'group common PDCCH' refers to a channel that at least carries 'Slot format related information' intended for the group of UEs, and FFS if the 'group common PDCCH' is applicable to carry other group common information(s). In LTE, PCFICH, PHICH and a DCI transmitted in PDCCH common search space are used to carry group common information, and different types of group common information transmitted in PDCCH channels can have different DCI formats. Similarly, in NR different group common information can be transmitted in different channels (if any) and/or different DCI format(s) in NR-PDCCH common search space. In this contribution, the term of group-common NR-PDCCH refers to one or more channels (e.g. NR-PDCCH, and/or NR-PCFICH and/or NR-PHICH) that support a 'group common PDCCH' carrying information of e.g. the slot structure and/or other group common information(s).

In the RAN1 Ad Hoc meeting (R1-<NUM>) document, it is disclosed that: dynamic resource allocation information is transmitted in the downlink control information (DCI). In NR, it is expected that both group-common DCI and UE-specific DCI can be used. One type of Group-common DCI would be DCI at least containing slot format related information, which is called "group common PDCCH". The other type of Group-Common DCI is "PDCCH for group common channels", which can be used for random access response and so on. Group-common DCI at least containing slot format related information is under discussion in RAN1. How often this type of group-common DCI is present should be configurable in our view. Group-common DCI for group common channels and UE-specific DCIs for the unicast data transmission can be associated with individual schedulable resource sets.

In the RAN1 Ad Hoc meeting (R1-<NUM>) document, it is disclosed that: group-common control information is transmitted on a NR-PDCCH. Following this approach the group-common control information could be defined in a unique and very compact DCI format. Such a compact DCI format also facilitates employing a very low coding rate targeting reliable reception at cell edge users. A group-common ID may be used to detect the NR-PDCCH containing the group-common DCI.

Embodiments of the present application provide an information transmission method and device, for realizing the transmission of information of a group of terminals.

To describe the technical solutions in embodiments of the present application more clearly, the accompanying drawings required for describing embodiments will be briefly described below. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the following description show merely some embodiments of the present application, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawings from these accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

With the development of mobile technology, future mobile communications systems need to provide lower network delay and support a wider variety of services. A downlink control channel may inform or schedule one terminal, all terminals within a base station, or a group of terminals within the base station. The downlink control channel is various in type and the transmission mode is more flexible. A downlink control channel for scheduling one terminal to transmit data can be sent by the base station when data needs to be transmitted from the terminal, and a common control channel for scheduling all terminals in the base station can be transmitted in a common search space every slot.

In embodiments of the present application, information of a group of terminals is carried by a group common PDCCH. What the information of the group of terminals specifically includes is not limited in embodiments of the present application. Considering that the information carried by the group common PDCCH does not need to be transmitted at the same time, some information requires a higher transmission frequency for transmission, and other information requires a lower transmission frequency. Therefore, the information carried by the group common PDCCH can be transmitted in different downlink control information (DCI) formats according to the information type.

The group common PDCCH in embodiments of the present application carries information of a group of terminals, and the group of terminals includes at least one terminal.

The terminal in embodiments of the present application is also referred to as UE. The UE may be stationary or mobile. The UE may be also referred to as a mobile station, a subscriber unit, station, or the like. The UE may be a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communications device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless telephone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet computer, or the like. The UE can communicate with network side devices such as a macro eNB, a pico eNB, a femto eNB, and a relay station.

In embodiments of the present application, information of a group of terminals that needs to be transmitted through the group common PDCCH, for example, slot structure indication information, PDCCH monitor related information, transmission and receiving point (TRP) configuration information, and the like, may be transmitted using different DCI formats.

At least one type of DCI format is used for carrying the information of a group of UEs by the group common PDCCH, for example, two types: a DCI format X (or referred to as the first DCI format) and a DCI format Y (or referred to as at least one type of DCI formats other than the first DCI format).

Optionally, different information can be transmitted using different DCI formats.

For example, information to be sent using the DCI format X includes: slot format indication for indicating a structure of a slot. The structure of the slot is used, for example, to indicate the number of downlink (DL) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, the number of uplink (UL) OFDM symbols, the number of guard period (GP) OFDM symbols, or the like. The terminal needs to know the structure of the slot to determine which symbols may be used for uplink transmission and which symbols may be used for downlink transmission.

Other information can be transmitted using the DCI format Y, and the other information may include such as a downlink control channel detection period, subcarrier space (SCS) information (or referred to as numerology information), transmission and receiving point (TRP) information, or the like.

The information to be sent using different DCI formats can be divided according to different rules. For example, the rules include sending period and importance level of the information to be carried by the group common PDCCH. Specifically, it can be specified by a protocol. For example, slot format information is necessary, so it is important and has higher importance level, and can be transmitted using one DCI format. Some information plays a role in auxiliary transmission, so it can be considered as having a lower important level, and can be transmitted using another DCI format.

Information can be transmitted using different DCI formats on the group common PDCCH in the same slot.

The transmission periods of information transmitted using different DCI formats may be different. For example, information transmitted using a DCI format X needs to be sent once every N slots, and information transmitted using a DCI format Y needs to be sent once every 2N slots.

The base station sends information of a group of terminals on a group common PDCCH. Specifically, the information can be sent by using the following two approaches.

Approach <NUM>: A base station and a terminal predefine information content carried by different DCI formats, subsequently the base station notifies the terminal of the related information of the DCI formats through high layer signaling, for example, an information sending period corresponding to each DCI format, and/or indication information used to indicate the DCI format type that the terminal needs to receive, and the terminal may detect the corresponding DCI format according to the related information and obtain corresponding information.

The information sending periods corresponding to different DCI formats may be different. For example, the information sending period corresponding to the DCI format X is N slots, and the information sending period corresponding to the DCI format Y is 2N slots, N is a preset positive integer.

The base station informs the terminal of the indication information used to indicate the DCI format type that the terminal needs to receive through the high layer signaling. For example, the base station notifies the terminal that only the DCI format X needs to be received and detected, or the base station notifies the terminal that only the DCI format Y needs to be received and detected, or the base station notifies the terminal that the DCI format X and the DCI format Y need to be received and detected.

Approach <NUM>: A base station sends information of a group of terminals using a DCI format X and/or a DCI format Y on a group common PDCCH.

To sum up, referring to <FIG>, on a network side, for example, on a base station side, an information transmission method provided in embodiments of the present application includes the following steps.

S101: determining information of a group of terminals to be sent.

S102: sending, through a group common PDCCH, the information of the group of terminals.

Optionally, different types of information of the group of terminals are sent using at least one DCI format through the group common PDCCH.

Optionally, the information of the group of terminals at least includes: a slot format indication; the slot format indication is sent using a first DCI format, and information other than the slot format indication is sent by using at least one DCI format other than the first DCI format.

For example, the information other than the slot format indication includes downlink control channel detection period, subcarrier space information, and transmission and receiving point information.

Optionally, the sending periods of information sent using different DCI formats are different.

Optionally, the step of sending, through a group common PDCCH, the information of the group of terminals specifically includes: sending, through high layer signaling, information about at least one DCI format; or sending, on the group common PDCCH, different types of information of the group of terminals using at least one DCI format.

Optionally, the information about the at least one DCI format includes: an information sending period corresponding to a DCI format used for sending the information of the group of terminals, and/or indication information of the DCI format that needs to be detected by the terminal.

An information transmission method on a terminal side corresponding to the foregoing information transmission method on the network side will be described below.

Approach <NUM>: if a base station and a terminal have predefined information content transmitted using different DCI formats, then the terminal receives a group common PDCCH according to DCI format related information notified through high layer signaling.

If the base station notifies the terminal of the transmission periods of different DCI formats through the high layer signaling, for example, the transmission period of a DCI format X is N slots, and the transmission period of a DCI format Y is 2N, then the terminal detects and receives the group common PDCCH according to the DCI format X every N slots, and detects and receives the group common PDCCH according to the DCI format Y every 2N slots.

Alternatively, the base station notifies the terminal of the DCI format type that the terminal needs to detect and receive through the high layer signaling, and it is assumed that there are two types of DCI formats transmitted on the group common PDCCH: a DCI format X and a DCI format Y.

For example, if the base station notifies the terminal that the DCI format X needs to be detected and received by the terminal through the high layer signaling, the terminal detects and receives the group common PDCCH in each group common PDCCH resource set according to the DCI format X. Alternatively, if the base station notifies the terminal that the DCI format Y needs to be detected and received by the terminal through the high layer signaling, the terminal detects and receives the group common PDCCH in each group common PDCCH resource set according to the DCI format Y. Alternatively, if the base station notifies the terminal that the DCI format X and the DCI format Y need to be detected and received by the terminal through the high layer signaling, the terminal detects and receives the group common PDCCH in each group common PDCCH resource set according to the DCI format X and the DCI format Y.

Approach <NUM>: If the base station directly notifies the terminal of the DCI format that the terminal needs to detect, that is, the base station sends the information of a group of terminals using at least one DCI format on the group common PDCCH in an explicit mode, the terminal detects and receives the group common PDCCH in each group common PDCCH resource set according to the DCI format X and/or the DCI format Y.

To sum up, on a terminal side, referring to <FIG>, an information transmission method provided in embodiments of the present application includes the following steps.

S202: obtaining information of a group of terminals from the group common PDCCH.

Optionally, the information of the group of terminals is sent using at least one DCI format through the group common PDCCH.

Optionally, the step of detecting a group common PDCCH specifically includes: receiving, through high layer signaling, information about at least one DCI format, and detecting the group common PDCCH according to the information about the at least one DCI format; or detecting, within each group common PDCCH resource set, the group common PDCCH according to the at least one DCI format.

Three specific embodiments are described in details below.

Embodiment <NUM>: referring to <FIG>, it is assumed that information transmitted on a group common PDCCH is carried by two DCI formats, such as a DCI format X and a DCI format Y. The information transmitted using the DCI format X at least includes structure information of a slot, and the information transmitted using the DCI format Y includes other information, such as a downlink control channel detection period, numerology information, TRP information, or the like. Certainly, this is just a possible example herein, and the information contained in the information sent using the DCI format X and the DCI format Y can be determined according to specific needs. It is assumed that UE <NUM>, UE <NUM>, and UE <NUM> need to detect and receive a group common PDCCH <NUM>. It is assumed that a base station notifies, through high layer signaling, for example, a radio resource control (RRC) signal, the terminal that the sending period of the group common PDCCH is N slots, the sending period of the information sent using the DCI format X is N slots, and the sending period of the information transmitted using the DCI format Y is 2N slots, N is a positive integer greater than or equal to <NUM>. The terminal detects and receives the information sent according to the DCI format X every N slots, and obtains the information sent using the DCI format X, for example, the structure indication information of the slot; and the terminal detects and receives the information sent according to the DCI format Y every 2N slots, and obtains the information sent using the DCI format Y, for example, a downlink control channel detection period, numerology information, TRP information, or the like.

Embodiment <NUM>: referring to <FIG>, it is assumed that information transmitted on a group common PDCCH is carried by two DCI formats, such as a DCI format X and a DCI format Y. The information sent using the DCI format X at least includes structure information of a slot, and the information sent using the DCI format Y includes other information, such as a downlink control channel detection period, numerology information, TRP information, or the like. Certainly, this is just a possible example herein, and the information contained in the information sent using the DCI format X and the DCI format Y can be determined according to specific needs. It is assumed that UE <NUM>, UE <NUM>, and UE <NUM> need to detect and receive a group common PDCCH <NUM>. It is assumed that the base station notifies, through high layer signaling, for example, RRC signaling, the terminal that the sending period of the group common PDCCH is N slots. At the same time, the base station notifies, through RRC signaling, the terminal of the DCI format that needs to be detected and received. For example, if the base station notifies, through RRC signaling, the terminal that the DCI format to be detected by the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> is a DCI format X, the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> receives only the information sent using the DCI format X in a group common PDCCH resource set. For example, if the base station notifies, through RRC signaling, the terminal that the DCI format to be detected by the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> is a DCI format Y, the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> receives only the information sent using the DCI format Y in the group common PDCCH resource set. For example, if the base station notifies, through RRC signaling, the terminal that the DCI format to be detected by the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> includes a DCI format X and a DCI format Y, the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> receives the information sent using the DCI format X and the DCI format Y in the group common PDCCH resource set.

Embodiment <NUM>: referring to <FIG>, it is assumed that information transmitted on a group common PDCCH is carried by two DCI formats, such as a DCI format X and a DCI format Y. The information sent using the DCI format X at least includes structure information of a slot, and the information sent using the DCI format Y includes other information, such as a downlink control channel detection period, numerology information, TRP information, or the like. Certainly, this is just a possible example herein, and the information contained in the information sent using the DCI format X and the DCI format Y can be determined according to specific needs. It is assumed that UE <NUM>, UE <NUM>, and UE <NUM> need to detect and receive a group common PDCCH <NUM>. It is assumed that the base station notifies, through high layer signaling, for example, RRC signaling, the terminal that the sending period of the group common PDCCH is N slots. The base station sends the information of a group of terminals in each group common PDCCH resource set using the DCI format X and/or the DCI format Y as needed. The terminal detects and receives the information in each group common PDCCH resource set by using the DCI format X and/or the DCI format Y as needed. For example, if the base station sends information of a group of terminals only using the DCI format X in a group common PDCCH resource set on the slot <NUM>, the terminal detects the DCI format X and the DCI format Y in the resource set, and finally only successfully detects the DCI format X, and obtains the information sent using the DCI format X, such as the structure indication information of the slot. For another example, if the base station sends information of a group of terminals in the slot N by using the DCI format X and the DCI format Y, the terminal detects the DCI format X and the DCI format Y in a group common PDCCH resource set on the slot N, detects the DCI format X and the DCI format Y, and successfully obtains the information sent using the DCI format X and the DCI format Y.

Embodiment <NUM>: it is assumed that information transmitted on a group common PDCCH is carried by a plurality of DCI formats, such as a DCI format X, a DCI format Y and a DCI format Z. Information transmitted using the DCI format X at least contains structure information of a slot, and the information sent using the DCI format Y and the DCI format Z contains other information, such as a downlink control channel detection period, numerology information, TRP information, pre-emption, transmission power control command (TPC command) information, or the like. The other information is respectively carried by different DCI formats according to the information type, for example, the information transmitted using the DCI format Y includes pre-emption information, and the information transmitted using the DCI format Z includes TPC command information. It is assumed that UE <NUM>, UE <NUM>, and UE <NUM> need to detect and receive a group common PDCCH <NUM>. It is assumed that the base station notifies, through high layer signaling, for example, RRC signaling, the terminal that the sending period of the group common PDCCH is N slots. At the same time, the base station notifies, through RRC signaling, the terminal of the DCI format that needs to be detected and received. For example, if the base station notifies, through RRC signaling, the terminal that the DCI format to be detected by the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> is a DCI format X, the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> receives only the information sent using the DCI format X in a group common PDCCH resource set. For example, if the base station notifies, through RRC signaling, the terminal that the DCI format to be detected by the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> includes a DCI format Y and a DCI format Z, the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> receives the information sent using the DCI format Y and the DCI format Z in a group common PDCCH resource set. For example, if the base station notifies, through RRC signaling, the terminal that the DCI format to be detected by the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> includes a DCI format X, a DCI format Y and a DCI format Z, the terminal UE <NUM>/UE <NUM>/UE <NUM> receives the information sent using the DCI format X, the DCI format Y and the DCI format Z in a group common PDCCH resource set. The types of DCI formats transmitted on the group common PDCCH are not limited in this embodiment, and the number of DCI formats is not limited to three.

Corresponding to the method on the network side, referring to <FIG>, an information transmission device provided in this embodiment of the present application includes: a determining unit <NUM>, used for sending information of a group of terminals to be sent; and a sending unit <NUM>, used for sending, through a group common PDCCH, the information of the group of terminals.

Optionally, the sending unit sends different types of information of the group of terminals using at least one DCI format through the group common PDCCH.

Optionally, the information of the group of terminals at least includes: a slot format indication; the slot format indication is sent using a first DCI format, and information other than the slot format indication is sent using at least one DCI format other than the first DCI format.

Optionally, the sending unit is used for: sending, through high layer signaling, information about at least one DCI format; or sending, on the group common PDCCH, different types of information of the group of terminals in the at least one DCI format.

Corresponding to the method on the terminal side, referring to <FIG>, an information transmission device provided in this embodiment of the present application includes: a detecting unit <NUM>, used for detecting a group common PDCCH; and an obtaining unit <NUM>, used for obtaining information of a group of terminals from the group common PDCCH.

Optionally, the detecting unit is used for: receiving, through high layer signaling, information about at least one DCI format, and detecting the group common PDCCH according to the information about the at least one DCI format; or detecting, within each group common PDCCH resource set, the group common PDCCH according to the at least one DCI format.

On a network side, referring to <FIG>, another information transmission device provided in this embodiment of the present application includes: a processor <NUM>, used for reading a program in a memory <NUM>, to perform the following operations: determining information of a group of terminals to be sent; and controlling a transceiver <NUM> to send the information of the group of terminals through a group common PDCCH.

Optionally, the processor <NUM> controls the transceiver <NUM> to send different types of information of the group of terminals using at least one DCI format through the group common PDCCH.

Optionally, the processor <NUM> controls the transceiver <NUM> to send information about the at least one DCI format through high layer signaling; or the processor <NUM> controls the transceiver <NUM> to send, on the group common PDCCH, different types of information of the group of terminals using at least one DCI format.

The transceiver <NUM> is used for receiving and sending data under the control of the processor <NUM>.

In <FIG>, a bus architecture may include any quantity of interconnected buses and bridges; and specifically, various circuits of one or more processors represented by the processor <NUM> and a memory represented by the memory <NUM> are linked together. The bus architecture may further connect various other circuits such as a peripheral device, a voltage stabilizer, and a power management circuit. These are well-known in the art, and therefore are not further described in this description. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver <NUM> can be a plurality of components, including a transmitter and a transceiver, to provide a unit for communicating with various other devices on a transmission medium. The processor <NUM> is responsible for bus architecture management and general processing. The memory <NUM> may store data used when the processor <NUM> executes an operation.

The processor <NUM> may be a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or a complex programmable logic device (CPLD).

On a terminal side, referring to <FIG>, another information transmission device provided in this embodiment of the present application, for example, UE, includes: a processor <NUM>, used for reading a program in a memory <NUM>, to perform the following operations: detecting a group common PDCCH by using a transceiver <NUM>; and obtaining information of a group of terminals from the group common PDCCH.

Optionally, the processor <NUM> controls the transceiver <NUM> to receive information about the at least one DCI format through high layer signaling, and detect the group common PDCCH based on the information about the at least one DCI format; or the processor <NUM> controls the transceiver <NUM> to detect, within each group common PDCCH resource set, the group common PDCCH according to the at least one DCI format.

In <FIG>, a bus architecture may include any quantity of interconnected buses and bridges; specifically, various circuits of one or more processors represented by the processor <NUM> and a memory represented by the memory <NUM> are linked together. The bus architecture may further connect various other circuits such as a peripheral device, a voltage stabilizer, and a power management circuit. These are well-known in the art, and therefore are not further described in this description. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver <NUM> can be a plurality of components, including a transmitter and a receiver, to provide a unit for communicating with various other devices on a transmission medium. For different user equipment, the user interface <NUM> may also be an interface capable of externally or internally connecting the required devices, and the connected devices include but are not limited to a keypad, a display, a speaker, a microphone, a joystick, or the like.

The processor <NUM> is responsible for bus architecture management and general processing. The memory <NUM> may store data used when the processor <NUM> executes an operation.

Optionally, the processor <NUM> may be a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or a complex programmable logic device (CPLD).

Any of the information transmission devices on the terminal side provided in embodiments of the present application may be any type of terminal device.

The terminal device may also be referred to as user equipment ("UE" for short), a mobile station ("MS" for short), a mobile terminal, or the like. Optionally, the terminal may have the ability to communicate with one or more core networks via a radio access network (RAN). For example, the terminal can be a mobile phone (or referred to as a "cellular" phone), or a computer with mobile performance. For example, the terminal can also be a portable, pocket, handheld, computer built-in or vehicle-mounted mobile device.

Any of the information transmission devices on the network side provided in embodiments of the present application may be any type of network device or any type of base station.

The network device may be a base station (for example, an access point), and may refer to a device in communication with a wireless terminal via one or more sectors at an air interface in an access network. The base station may be configured to mutually convert a received over-the-air frame and an IP packet and serve as a router between the wireless terminal and a rest portion of the access network, wherein the rest portion of the access network may include an Internet protocol (IP) network. The base station may also coordinate attribute management of the air interface. For example, the base station may be a base station (BTS, Base Transceiver Station) in GSM or CDMA, may also be a base station (NodeB) in WCDMA, may further be an evolved NodeB (NodeB, eNB, or e-NodeB, evolutional Node B) in the LTE, and may also be a network device (gNB) in a <NUM> system, which is not limited in embodiments of the present disclosure.

Embodiments of the present application provide a computer storage medium for storing a computer program instruction used by the devices provided in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, and the instruction includes a program for executing any one of the information transmission methods provided in the foregoing embodiments of the present application.

The computer storage medium can be any available medium or data storage device accessible by a computer, including but not limited to a magnetic storage (for example, floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, magneto-optical disk (MO), or the like), an optical storage (for example, CD, DVD, BD, HVD, or the like), a semiconductor memory (for example, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, non-volatile memory (NAND FLASH), solid-state disk (SSD)), and the like.

To sum up, in embodiments of the present application, information of a group of terminals is carried by a group common PDCCH. Further, the information may be transmitted using different DCI formats. Further, the information transmitted using different DCI formats may be different, and is transmitted by using the same or different transmission periods. Therefore, the technical solution provided in embodiments of the present application can make the transmission of information of a group of terminals carried by the group common PDCCH be more flexible between the base station and the terminal.

A person skilled in the art should understand that, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Therefore, the present application may be used in a form of complete hardware embodiment, complete software embodiment, or embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may be used in a form of computer program product implemented on one or more computer-applicable storage media (which include but are not limited to a magnetic disk memory and an optical memory) that contain computer-applicable program code.

The present application is described with reference to the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams of the methods, devices (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that computer program instructions may be used to implement each process and/or each block in the flow diagrams and/or the block diagrams and a combination of a process and/or a block in the flow diagrams and/or the block diagrams. The computer program instructions may be provided to processors of universal computers, dedicated computers, embedded processing machines, or other programmable data processing devices to generate a machine to enable the instructions executed by the processors of the computers or other programmable data processing devices to generate device for implementing the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flow diagrams and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagrams.

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

Claim 1:
An information transmission method, comprising:
determining (S101) information of a group of terminals to be sent; wherein the information of the group of terminals at least comprises: a slot format indication; the slot format indication is sent using a first DCI format, and information other than the slot format indication is sent using at least one DCI format other than the first DCI format; and
sending (S102), through a group common physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, the information of the group of terminals using at least one DCI format;
characterized in that:
information about the at least one DCI format comprises at least one of: an information sending period corresponding to the at least one DCI format used for sending the information of the group of terminals, or indication information of the at least one DCI format that needs to be detected by the terminals;
wherein the information about the at least one DCI format is sent through high layer signaling.