Method and apparatus for indicating and determining slot structure

1. A method for indicating a slot structure, comprising:

determining, by a base station, a structure of a slot;

indicating, by the base station, the structure of the slot to a user equipment in a dynamic or semi-static manner;

wherein the slot comprises a structure of one or a combination of the following regions: an uplink region, a downlink region, an unknown region, an empty region and a guard period region, each region comprising one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; wherein:

the uplink region is configured for transmission of uplink data;

the downlink region is configured for transmission of downlink data;

the unknown region is configured to allow the base station to perform related operations without any restrictions, and the user equipment side does not make any assumptions and not transmit and receive data on the OFDM symbols in the region before it receives Uplink (UL) grant or Downlink (DL) assignment sent by the base station;

the empty region is configured for transmission of no data; and

the guard period region is configured for conversion of downlink to uplink, and provided by the base station side.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein when the slot comprises the uplink region and the downlink region, the uplink region is behind the downlink region;

when the slot comprises the downlink region and the unknown region, the unknown region is behind the downlink region;

when the slot comprises the uplink region and the unknown region, the unknown region is in front of or behind the uplink region; and

when the slot comprises the uplink region, the downlink region and the unknown region, the downlink region is in front of the uplink region, and the unknown region is behind the downlink region and in front of the uplink region.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the base station indicates the structure of the slot to the user equipment through a group common Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); and

the group common PDCCH carries control information targeting to a group of user equipment.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein when structures of a plurality of slots are indicated through the group common PDCCH, the number N of the plurality of slots indicated by the group common PDCCH is informed by higher layer signaling; and

one group common PDCCH uses one slot format indication field indicating the structures of the N slots;

or, the group common PDCCH uses N slot format indication fields indicating the structures of the N slots respectively.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the base station schedules data to be transmitted in the unknown regions of same or different slots through a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted in the downlink region of the slot, wherein the data are uplink transmission and/or downlink reception.

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein when the structure of the slot comprises a plurality of possible combinations, the base station informs, through the higher layer signaling, the user equipment of M types of slot structures needed to be dynamically informed, and M is a natural number.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the base station transmits indication information containing ceil(log2(M)) bits through the group common PDCCH, and informs the user equipment of the structures of one or more slots; and

when the base station informs, through the higher layer signaling, M types of slot structures needed to be dynamically indicated, the base station informs the regions included in each type of the slot structures and the number of the OFDM symbols included in each region.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein when the base station indicates the structure of the slot to the user equipment in the semi-static manner, the base station configures uplink and downlink structures of each slot within N ms through the higher layer signaling, and N is a positive integer more than 0.

9. A method for determining a slot structure, comprising: higher layer signaling, and N is a positive integer more than 0;

receiving a structure of a slot, indicated by a base station to a user equipment in a dynamic or semi-static manner; and

determining, by the user equipment, structures of one or more slots according to the indicated structure of the slot;

wherein the slot comprises a structure of one or a combination of the following regions: an uplink region, a downlink region, an unknown region, an empty region and a guard period region, each region comprising one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; wherein:

the uplink region is configured for transmission of uplink data;

the downlink region is configured for transmission of downlink data;

the unknown region is configured to allow the base station to perform related operations without any restrictions, and the user equipment side does not make any assumptions and not transmit and receive data on the OFDM symbols in the region before it receives Uplink (UL) grant or Downlink (DL) assignment sent by the base station;

the empty region is configured for transmission of no data; and

the guard period region is configured for conversion of downlink to uplink, and provided by the base station side.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein when the slot comprises the uplink region and the downlink region, the uplink region is behind the downlink region;

when the slot comprises the downlink region and the unknown region, the unknown region is behind the downlink region;

when the slot comprises the uplink region and the unknown region, the unknown region is in front of the uplink region or behind the uplink region; and

when the slot comprises the uplink region, the downlink region and the unknown region, the downlink region is in front of the uplink region, and the unknown region is behind the downlink region and in front of the uplink region.

11. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the base station indicates the structure of the slot to the user equipment through a group common Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); and

the group common PDCCH carries control information targeting to a group of user equipment.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein when structures of a plurality of slots are indicated through the group common PDCCH, the number N of the plurality of slots indicated by the group common PDCCH is informed by higher layer signaling; and

one group common PDCCH uses one slot format indication field indicating the structures of the N slots;

or, the group common PDCCH uses N slot format indication fields indicating the structures of the N slots respectively.

13. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the user equipment transmits or receives data in the unknown regions of the same or different slots based on a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted by the base station in the downlink region of the slot.

14. The method according to claim 11 , wherein when the structure of the slot comprises a plurality of possible combinations, the user equipment acquires M types of slot structures, needed to be dynamically informed, through a notification transmitted by the base station through the higher layer signaling.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the user equipment receives indication information containing ceil(log2(M)) bits through the group common PDCCH, and obtains the structures of one or more slots; and

when the user equipment obtains, through the higher layer signaling, M types of slot structures needed to be dynamically indicated, the user equipment obtains the regions included in each type of slot structures and the number of the OFDM symbols included in each region.

16. The method according to claim 9 , wherein when the user equipment receives the structures of the slots indicated by the base station in the semi-static manner, uplink and downlink structures of each slot within N ms are configured through the higher layer signaling, and N is a positive integer more than 0.

17. An apparatus for indicating a slot structure, comprising:

a processor, configured to read a program in a memory and perform the following process: determining a structure of a slot;

a transceiver, configured to receive and transmit data under the control of the processor, and perform the following process:

indicating the structure of the slot to a user equipment in a dynamic or semi-static manner;

wherein the slot comprises a structure of one or a combination of the following regions: an uplink region, a downlink region, an unknown region, an empty region and a guard period region, each region comprising one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; wherein:

the uplink region is configured for transmission of uplink data;

the downlink region is configured for transmission of downlink data;

the unknown region is configured to allow the base station to perform related operations without any restrictions, and the user equipment side does not make any assumptions and not transmit and receive data on the OFDM symbols in the region before it receives Uplink (UL) grant or Downlink (DL) assignment sent by the base station;

the empty region is configured for transmission of no data; and

the guard period region is configured for conversion of downlink to uplink, and provided by the base station side.

18. An apparatus for determining a slot structure, comprising:

a transceiver, configured to receive and transmit data under the control of the processor, and perform the following process:

receiving a structure of a slot, indicated by a base station to a user equipment in a dynamic or semi-static manner; and

a processor, configured to read a program in a memory and perform the following process:

determining structures of one or more slots according to the indicated structure of the slot;

wherein the slot comprises a structure of one or a combination of the following regions: an uplink region, a downlink region, an unknown region, an empty region and a guard period region, each region comprising one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; wherein:

the uplink region is configured for transmission of uplink data;

the downlink region is configured for transmission of downlink data;

the unknown region is configured to allow the base station to perform related operations without any restrictions, and the user equipment side does not make any assumptions and not transmit and receive data on the OFDM symbols in the region before it receives Uplink (UL) grant or Downlink (DL) assignment sent by the base station;

the empty region is configured for transmission of no data; and

the guard period region is configured for conversion of downlink to uplink, and provided by the base station side.