Communication method and communications apparatus

A communication method, comprising:

• sending, by a network device, reference signal configuration information to a terminal device, wherein the reference signal configuration information comprises at least one of:
• a first beam sweeping type and a first reference signal beam indication;
• sending, by the network device according to the reference signal configuration information, a reference signal to the terminal device;
• wherein one of the following occurs:
• data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol as the reference signal when the first beam sweeping type is sweeping a transmit beam or not sweeping a receive beam;
• data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same OFDM symbol as the reference signal when the first reference signal beam indication is the same as a beam indication of the data;
• or
• data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same OFDM symbol as the reference signal when the first beam sweeping type is sweeping a transmit beam or not sweeping a receive beam, and the first reference signal beam indication is the same as a beam indication of the data.

A communications apparatus that is a terminal device or a chip of the terminal device, comprising:

• a receiver, configured to receive reference signal configuration information from a network device, wherein the reference signal configuration information comprises at least one of:
• a first beam sweeping type and a first reference signal beam indication;
• and
• receive a reference signal from the network device;
• and
• a processor, configured to perform one of the following:
• when the first beam sweeping type is sweeping a transmit beam or not sweeping a receive beam, determine that data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol as the reference signal;
• when the first reference signal beam indication is the same as a beam indication of data, determine that the data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same OFDM symbol as the reference signal;
• or
• when the first beam sweeping type is sweeping a transmit beam or not sweeping a receive beam, and the first reference signal beam indication is the same as a beam indication of data, determine that the data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same OFDM symbol as the reference signal.

A communications apparatus that is a network device or a chip of the network device, comprising:

• a transmitter, configured to send reference signal configuration information to a terminal device, wherein the reference signal configuration information comprises at least one of:
• a first beam sweeping type and a first reference signal beam indication;
• and
• send, according to the reference signal configuration information, a reference signal to the terminal device;
• wherein one of the following occurs:
• data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol as the reference signal when the first beam sweeping type is sweeping a transmit beam or not sweeping a receive beam;
• data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same OFDM symbol as the reference signal when the first reference signal beam indication is the same as a beam indication of the data;
• or
• data can be mapped onto another resource element that is located on the same OFDM symbol as the reference signal when the first beam sweeping type is sweeping a transmit beam or not sweeping a receive beam, and the first reference signal beam indication is the same as a beam indication of the data.