D2D device discovery method and apparatus based on LTE cellular communications system

1. A discovery method in a device to device (D2D) communications system, comprising:

acquiring, by a first D2D user equipment (UE), timing information of the first D2D UE from a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular communications system;

receiving, by the first D2D UE in a first discovery subframe, a device discovery signal from a second D2D UE according to the timing information, and the device discovery signal comprises a pilot orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol and a device information OFDM symbol; and

acquiring, by the first D2D UE, an arrival time of the device discovery signal sent by the second D2D UE by performing a time domain correlation of the pilot OFDM symbol of the device discovery signal received in the first discovery subframe and a local pilot sequence, and acquiring device information of the second D2D UE by parsing the device information OFDM symbol of the device discovery signal received in the first discovery subframe;

wherein the first discovery subframe comprises 14 OFDM symbols, and a frame structure of the first discovery subframe comprises:

every seven OFDM symbols of the first discovery subframe are divided into one group, and, in each group, any one symbol among the second symbol to the sixth symbol is a pilot OFDM symbol and other six OFDM symbols are device information OFDM symbols.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first discovery subframe comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, and each of the OFDM symbols is divided into M frequency resource elements in a frequency domain, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 1; and

one or more frequency resource elements of each OFDM symbol serve as a device discovery resource element, and one or more of the device discovery resource elements are selected by each D2D UE as a carrier for a device discovery signal of the each D2D UE.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, when the timing information is uplink timing information or downlink timing information, receiving, by the first D2D UE in the first discovery subframe, the device discovery signal from the second D2D UE according to the timing information comprises:

receiving, by the first D2D UE in the first discovery subframe, the device discovery signal from the second D2D UE according to the uplink timing information or the downlink timing information of the first D2D UE.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first discovery subframe comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, and each of the OFDM symbols comprises a cyclic prefix (CP), and a guard interval (GI) is added to the first discovery subframe, wherein the GI is located between the first discovery subframe and an adjacent paging subframe following the first discovery subframe, and the length of the CP of the first discovery subframe is determined according to the GI.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first discovery subframe comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, and each of the OFDM symbols comprises a cyclic prefix (CP), wherein:

both the first discovery subframe and an adjacent paging subframe following the first discovery subframe use normal CPs or extended CPs.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

sending, by the first D2D UE, a device discovery signal to the second D2D UE in a second discovery subframe according to the timing information, so that the second D2D UE receives, in the second discovery subframe, the device discovery signal sent by the first D2D UE, performs a time domain correlation of a pilot OFDM symbol of the device discovery signal received hi the second discovery subframe and a local pilot sequence, to acquire an arrival time of the device discovery signal sent by the first D2D UE, parses a device information OFDM symbol of the device discovery signal received in the second discovery subframe, to acquire device information of the first D2D UE.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

calculating, by the first D2D UE, a time at which a signal is sent to the second D2D UE, according to the acquired arrival time of the device discovery signal sent by the second D2D UE and the device information of the second device.

8. A device to device (D2D) user equipment (UE), comprising:

a processor, configured to acquire timing information of the D2D UE from a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular communications system;

a receiver, configured to receive, in a first discovery subframe, a device discovery signal from a second D2D UE according to the timing information, and the device discovery signal comprises a pilot orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol and a device information OFDM symbol; and

the processor is further configured to: acquire an arrival time of the device discovery signal sent by the second D2D UE by performing a time domain correlation of the pilot OFDM symbol of the device discovery signal received in the first discovery subframe and a local pilot sequence, and acquire device information of the second D2D UE by parsing the device information OFDM symbol of the device discovery signal received in the first discovery subframe;

wherein the first discovery subframe comprises 14 OFDM symbols, and a frame structure of the first discovery subframe comprises:

every seven OFDM symbols of the first discovery subframe are divided into one group, and, in each group, any one symbol among the second symbol to the sixth symbol is a pilot OFDM symbol and other six OFDM symbols are device information OFDM symbols.

9. The D2D UE according to claim 8 , wherein the first discovery subframe comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, and each of the OFDM symbols is divided into M frequency resource elements in a frequency domain, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 1; and

one or more frequency resource elements of each OFDM symbol serve as a device discovery resource element, and one or more of the device discovery resource elements are selected by each D2D UE as a carrier for a device discovery signal of the each D2D UE.

10. The D2D UE according to claim 8 , wherein, when the timing information is uplink timing or downlink timing, the receiver is configured to receive, in the first discovery subframe, the device discovery signal from the second D2D UE according to the uplink timing or the downlink timing of the D2D UE.

11. The D2D UE according to claim 8 , wherein the first discovery subframe comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, and each of the OFDM symbols comprises a cyclic prefix (CP), and a guard interval (GI) is added to the first discovery subframe, wherein the GI is located between the first discovery subframe and an adjacent paging subframe following the first discovery subframe, and the length of the CP of the first discovery subframe is determined according to the GI.

12. The D2D UE according to claim 8 , wherein the first discovery subframe comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, and each of the OFDM symbols comprises a cyclic prefix (CP), wherein:

both the first discovery subframe and an adjacent paging subframe following the first discovery subframe use normal CPs or extended CPs.

13. The D2D UE according to claim 8 , wherein the D2D UE further comprises a transmitter, configured to send a device discovery signal to the second D2D UE in a second discovery subframe according to the timing information, so that the second D2D UE receives, in the second discovery subframe, the device discovery signal sent by the D2D UE, performs a time domain correlation of a pilot OFDM symbol of the device discovery signal received in the second discovery subframe and a local pilot sequence, to acquire an arrival time of the device discovery signal sent by the D2D UE, parses a device information OFDM symbol of the device discovery signal received in the second discovery subframe, to acquire device information of the D2D UE.

14. The D2D UE according to claim 13 , wherein, when the timing information is uplink timing or downlink timing, the transmitter is configured to send the device discovery signal to the second D2D UE in the second discovery subframe according to the uplink timing or the downlink timing of the D2D UE.