Dynamic Uplink TX DC Subcarrier Position Report

Abstract

Methods for wireless communications by User Equipment (UE) are described. Reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information may include decoding a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message received from a base station. The RRC message may include a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information. It may be determined that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred, thereby creating at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location. In response to determining the change, a Media Access Control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) may be encoded for transmission to the base station. The MAC CE may include information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

Description

Technology Field

[0001] This application generally relates to wireless communication systems comprising a transmitting (Tx) direct current (DC) subcarrier position reporting. Background Technology

[0002] Wireless mobile communication technology transmits data between a base station and a wireless mobile device using various standards and protocols. Wireless communication system standards and protocols may include 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) LTE (long term evolution) (e.g., 4G) or New Radio (NR) (e.g., 5G); the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.16 standard, commonly known to industry groups as WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access); and the IEEE 802.11 standard for WLAN (wireless local area network), commonly known to industry groups as Wi-Fi. In 3GPP RANs (radio access networks) of LTE systems, base stations may include RAN nodes such as E-UTRAN (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) Node B (also commonly referred to as Evolved Node B, Enhanced Node B, eNodeB, or eNB) and / or E-UTRAN's RNC (Radio Network Controller), which communicate with radio communication devices known as user equipment (UE). In 5th generation (5G) radio RANs, RAN nodes may include 5G nodes, NR nodes (also referred to as next-generation Node B or g Node B (gNB)).

[0003] RANs use radio access technology (RAT) to communicate between RAN nodes and UEs. RANs may include global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) RAN, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), and / or E-UTRAN, which provide access to communication services through the core network. Each RAN operates according to a specific 3GPP RAT. For example, GERAN implements GSM and / or EDGE RAT, UTRAN implements universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) RAT or other 3GPP RAT, E-UTRAN implements LTE RAT, and NG-RAN implements 5G RAT. In certain deployments, E-UTRAN may also implement 5G RAT.

[0004] Frequency bands for 5G NR may be separated into two different frequency ranges. Frequency range 1 (FR1) includes sub-6 GHz frequency bands, some of which are bands available under previous standards, but can potentially be extended to cover new spectrum offerings from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz. Frequency range 2 (FR2) includes frequency bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. Bands within the millimeter wave (mmWave) range of FR2 have a shorter range than the bands within FR1 but have a higher available bandwidth. Those skilled in the art will recognize that these frequency ranges provided as examples may change over time or zone by zone. Brief explanation of the drawing

[0005] To facilitate the identification of discussions regarding any specific element or action, the top digit or numbers of the drawing number refer to the drawing number where the element was first introduced. Figure 1 illustrates a communication flow diagram associated with the current signaling of a Tx DC subcarrier location report. Figure 2a illustrates examples of the current Tx DC subcarrier location reporting disadvantages. Figure 2b illustrates examples of current Tx DC subcarrier location reporting disadvantages. Figure 2c illustrates examples of the current Tx DC subcarrier location reporting disadvantages. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of information that may be included in a Tx DC subcarrier position report MAC CE. FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of information that may be included in a Tx DC subcarrier position report MAC CE. FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of information that may be included in a reduced-size MAC CE used with an RRC completion message to report Tx DC position information. Figure 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method for reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information. Figure 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method for reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information. FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method for reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information. FIG. 9 illustrates a system according to one embodiment. FIG. 10 illustrates infrastructure equipment according to one embodiment. FIG. 11 illustrates a platform according to one embodiment. FIG. 12 illustrates a device according to one embodiment. FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary interface according to one embodiment. FIG. 14 illustrates components according to one embodiment. Specific details for implementing the invention

[0006] Release-15 of 3GPP NR provides that when a UE is transmitting on an uplink (UL) channel, the UE may report the current transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location to the network (NW). This location information can assist the NW in processing zero DC physical resource blocks (PRBs) for effective demodulation and decoding. In particular, the DC subcarrier location may include the center of the relevant frequency band and allow the NW to know the location within the frequency spectrum where the UE is allowed to transmit. The UE may report the current Tx DC subcarrier location for a cell group along with each of the carriers configured by the UE in that cell group. Additionally, for each of the carriers, the UE reports for each configured bandwidth portion (BWP).

[0007] The following includes information elements (IE) associated with the principles described in this specification:

[0008]

[0009]

[0010] FIG. 1 illustrates a communication flowchart associated with the current signaling of a Tx DC subcarrier location report. As illustrated, the UE (102) may be in a connection mode (illustrated by block (106)) with respect to the base station (104) (e.g., gNB). As illustrated by arrow (108), the base station (104) may configure the UE (102) to report the Tx DC subcarrier location via a radio resource control (RRC) configuration. Finally, as illustrated by arrow (110), the UE (102) reports the Tx DC subcarrier location via a radio RRC configuration.

[0011] In particular, the current signaling associated with Tx DC subcarrier location reporting has various drawbacks. Specifically, the UE reports Tx DC subcarrier location information only in response to an RRC configuration along with a DC location request from the base station, which causes several additional problems. First, the UE may not report the Tx DC subcarrier location on its own (i.e., only when triggered by the NW).

[0012] Secondly, depending on the given configuration of the UE, the Tx DC subcarrier position may change in response to the addition / removal of carriers, the activation / deactivation of carriers, or a BWP switch on any active carrier. Additionally, in the case of in-band adjacent or non-adjacent carrier aggregation (CA) where multiple carriers are processed by the UE using Tx chain hardware (HW) sharing, a switch on the BWP on any of the carriers may cause the UL Tx DC subcarrier position to change in the UE.

[0013] Thirdly, the UE may not notify the NW of changes to this information unless the NW explicitly requests it via RRC messaging. Therefore, the NW may not always be aware of changes in Tx DC subcarrier positions, which can reduce UL Tx decoding performance in the NW and lead to inefficient use of resources. Additionally, BWP switching can be performed by the NW without RRC signaling (i.e., DCI-based), which can also result in changes to the Tx DC subcarrier position.

[0014] FIGS. 2a through 2c illustrate examples of current Tx DC subcarrier position reporting disadvantages. As illustrated, FIGS. 2a through 2c each includes bit 2 (218) having four BWPs (i.e., BWP (202) through BWP (208)) and carrier B (220) having four BWPs (i.e., BWP (210) through BWP (216)).

[0015] As illustrated in FIG. 2a, bit 2 (218) and carrier B (220) include an in-band adjacent carrier aggregation (CA) in which only bit 2 (218) is activated (i.e., carrier B (220) is not currently activated). Additionally, both the active Tx DC position and the reported Tx DC position are the same (i.e., within BWP (202)).

[0016] As illustrated in FIG. 2b, at some points, carrier B (220) may also be activated. In such cases, the active Tx DC position may be associated with a specific BWP of carrier B (220). As illustrated, the active Tx DC position associated with carrier B (220) is within the BWP (214). However, the NW may not be notified of the current Tx DC position associated with bit 2 (218) (i.e., within the BWP (202)). In particular, the NW may not know the active Tx DC position associated with that carrier while activating carrier B (220) in relation to a given UE, because the activation may be performed by a layer of the NW different from the layer associated with receiving the Tx DC position report. For example, carrier activation may occur via downlink control information (DCI), while the Tx DC position report is performed via RRC. Some networks can be configured to share information between various layers, but others may not.

[0017] As illustrated in FIG. 2c, the UE may share UL Tx HW resources (e.g., to use a broadband UL for both carriers A and B having a single PLL for Tx), which may result in the Tx DC carrier being shifted. In particular, FIG. 2c illustrates a broadband UL Tx (222) spanning bit 2 (218) and carrier B (220). In such cases, the NW may incorrectly assume different UL Tx DC subcarrier positions for one or more carriers. More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 2c, NW can expect the Tx DC position to be at a lower frequency within BWP (208) (as indicated by arrow (224)) and / or at a lower frequency within BWP (210) (as indicated by arrow (226)) when the actual Tx DC subcarrier position (as indicated by arrow (228)) may be at a higher frequency within BWP (208).

[0018] Therefore, RRC-based signaling may not be effective for transmitting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information to the NW based on a combination of at least one of the following: 1. The location of the UL Tx DC may vary based on the active configuration of the BWPs of the active carriers; 2. The location of the UL Tx DC may vary based on the activation and deactivation of the carriers; and 3. Active BWP information is not always available via RRC.

[0019] One possible option to improve current signaling could be to report Tx DC subcarrier location information for all possible DC locations based on different BWP configurations of active BWPs. However, when there are two carriers with four BWP locations, there are at least 16 combinations for which the UE can report UL Tx DC subcarrier locations to the NW. Therefore, signaling overhead can be enormous because the number of combinations explodes as the number of carriers increases (e.g., for three carriers, there could be at least 64 combinations).

[0020] Instead, three different detailed solutions are provided in this specification. In the first detailed solution, the UE can trigger UL Tx DC subcarrier location reporting using a Media Access Control (MAC) control element (MAC CE). In particular, through RRC messaging, the NW can configure the UE to dynamically report UL Tx DC subcarrier location information. In this way, the UE can recognize that the NW supports decoding of the MAC CE.

[0021] Tx DC subcarrier position reporting may allow reporting by the UE whenever there is a change in the UL Tx DC subcarrier position on any active carrier. For example, these changes may be in response to the switching of the BWP via RRC (or DCI), or due to a transition from Time Division Duplex (TDD) to the initial Downlink (DL) BWP. In particular, the NR MAC for that cell group may trigger the MAC CE. The trigger of the MAC CE may also reuse the logic of other MAC CE triggers, such as Buffer Status Report (BSR). Similarly, the MAC may reuse the actions associated with the triggering of the MAC CE. Additionally, the priority of the DC position MAC CE may be lower than that of the secondary cell (SCell) BFR MAC CE. As a sub-option associated with the first detailed solution, the transmission of the MAC CE may be delayed using a timer.

[0022] MAC CE may include at least a Tx DC subcarrier position for each of the carriers in the current BWP configuration. It should be noted that MAC CE includes a DC position assuming the currently active BWPs within all carriers the UE is operating on. When a BWP switch is present or a carrier is enabled / disabled, if this results in a change in the Tx DC subcarrier position for any of the active carriers based on the UE's internal implementation, another MAC CE may be triggered. Optionally, more information related thereto may also be transmitted as an option (e.g., a 7.5 kHz shift) for each of the BWPs having active carriers.

[0023] In another option, the MAC CE can be limited simply to the Tx DC subcarrier location for the active carrier's currently active BWP or to the Tx DC subcarrier locations for all configured BWPs of the active carrier. When the Tx DC subcarrier locations for all configured BWPs of the active carrier are transmitted, the MAC CE can be large, whereas the UE may not need to trigger another MAC CE for the carrier's BWP switch if the Tx DC subcarrier location cannot change. The advantage of limiting reporting for the active BWP to the Tx DC subcarrier location is to keep the MAC CE content concise and relevant to the current situation. However, doing so may also carry the risk of triggering MAC CEs more frequently.

[0024] In another option, the UE can trigger UL Tx DC subcarrier location reporting with MAC CE for both the Master Cell Group (MCG) and the Secondary Cell Group (SCG). The MAC CE may also include the Tx DC subcarrier location for each carrier from another cell group when configured (i.e., when there is a change in the Tx DC subcarrier location of any carriers within another cell group). This option is also applicable to LTE-NR duplex. For example, when the UE is in a DC with LTE and NR, where LTE and NR form adjacent bands (i.e., in-band adjacent DC combinations).

[0025] Additionally, the UE can trigger a MAC CE on the MCG, and the primary cell (PCell) within the MCG can transmit this information to the SCG. This solution can be particularly practical in in-band EN_DC cases where the PCell and the primary SGC cell (PSCell) are typically co-located.

[0026] In contrast, the UE may be limited to triggering MAC CE in NR cell-groups (i.e., whenever an NR is located in an MCG or SCG). In particular, such an option does not require MCG-SCG coordination.

[0027] The UL Tx DC subcarrier location information MAC CE can also provide location information for supplementary UL BWPs of the same serving cell. The UE can provide Tx DC subcarrier locations for both normal UL and SUL BWPs of the active BWP within the active carrier. Additionally, if either the normal UL (NUL) or SUL Tx DC subcarrier location information changes, the MAC CE can be triggered.

[0028] Additionally, MAC CE signaling may be self-completed signaling or delta-based signaling. In self-completed signaling, the UE may report UL Tx DC subcarrier location information along with the MAC CE, and this MAC CE may include location information of all serving cells. Thus, the NW may have all relevant location information related to the serving cells from this single MAC CE.

[0029] In delta-based signaling, the UE can simply provide location information for a serving cell (and corresponding BWPs) whose information has changed compared to the previous MAC CE transmission. If information for a specific serving cell is absent, the NW can expect that the Tx DC subcarrier location information has not changed from the previous information transmitted by the UE.

[0030] Self-reliant signaling can be beneficial because the UE does not need to remember previously provided information, and the NW does not need to store the configuration or transmit the configuration to other network nodes. In contrast, delta-based signaling has advantages based on the compact nature of associated MAC CE signaling.

[0031] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment (300) of information that may be included in the MAC CE discussed herein when a BWP ID is included. In contrast, FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment (400) of information that may be included in the MAC CE discussed herein when a BWP ID is not included.

[0032] The second detailed solution relates to dynamic signaling using MAC and semi-static signaling using RRC. The second detailed solution can reduce the content of the MAC CE by having the UE provide Tx DC subcarrier location information for multiple combinations in advance as part of an RRC reconstruction completion message. Subsequently, the MAC CE can refer to one of the provided combinations as part of a dynamic update of the Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0033] As part of an arbitrary RRC reconfiguration message in which the carrier configuration or BWP configuration changes, the UE may provide the NW with combinations of possible Tx DC subcarrier locations with different combinations of configured BWPs / carriers. The Tx DC subcarrier locations may be the values ​​of entries, each of which contains DC location information for each BWP / SUL BWP of each carrier. Subsequently, the MAC CE references the entry ID, where the size of the MAC CE is significantly reduced. Thus, the size of the dynamic update is concise.

[0034] As part of the RRC reconfiguration complete message, the UE may provide an information element (IE), UplinkTxDirectConfiguration, which contains a list of Tx DC subcarrier locations for each of the configured BWPs for each of the configured serving cells. Each part of this list is a representation of the IE, UplinkTxDirectCurrentList (from slide 3). The UE may attempt to provide a comprehensive list of these combinations, and in the MAC CE, simply refers to the combination being used by the UE. For design purposes, assuming the UplinkTxDirectCurrentList list consists of 512 entries, the MAC CE may refer to an index from one of these entries. For example, the last line of the following IE may be added to the IE included above.

[0035]

[0036]

[0037] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment (500) of information that may be included in a reduced-size MAC CE used with an RRC completion message to report Tx DC location information, as further described in relation to the second detailed solution.

[0038] The third detailed solution relates to dynamic signaling using RRC. In particular, the third detailed solution uses only RRC messaging (i.e., without MAC CE) to provide Tx DC location information. Tx DC location information for all carriers and the corresponding BWPs in UL / SUL for these carriers can be provided via RRC messaging without any request from the network.

[0039] In this embodiment, the UE may trigger an RRC message whenever a change in the Tx DC position occurs on any of the carriers. In one example, the UE may use UE Auxiliary Information (UAI) RRC messages. In another example, the UE may generate a new RRC message solely for the purpose of reporting the Tx DC position.

[0040] Additionally, the first option of the third detailed solution may include a UE RRC message containing a snapshot of all DC Tx locations for all carriers / BWPs in the RRC message. Thus, this message can provide a complete picture of the NW without referring to any other information.

[0041] In the second option of the third detailed solution, the UE RRC message may be a quasi-"delta" configuration in that the content of this RRC message must be combined with the previous configuration provided by the UE using the same RRC message to derive Tx DC location information. Therefore, the second option can reduce the message size of the RRC message, but ultimately adds requirements to both the NW and the UE to remember the content of the last transmitted RRC message associated with the Tx DC location.

[0042] In particular, the three detailed solutions discussed herein may provide the following benefits: 1. the ability of the UE to trigger a message to the NW whenever the Tx DC subcarrier configuration changes in the UE; 2. the ability of the UE to trigger the transmission of location information without RRC intervention and to accurately provide UE Tx DC subcarrier information in a timely manner for effective UL Tx decoding in the NW; 3. the ability to trigger such information without an explicit RRC transaction—the NW does not need to respond again with RRC signaling (i.e., an acknowledgment)—; and 4. avoidance of additional UE and NW processing by skipping encryption and integrity procedures.

[0043] FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method (600) for reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information. In block (602), the method (600) decodes a radio resource control (RRC) message received from a base station. The RRC message may include a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information. In block (604), the method (600) determines that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred and generates at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location. For example, the new UL Tx DC subcarrier location may include a BWP of an active carrier different from the BWP of an active carrier associated with the previous UL Tx DC subcarrier. In block (606), the method (600), in response to determining the change, encodes a Media Access Control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) for transmission to a base station. MAC CE may include information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0044] The method (600) may also include at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location being associated with a first bandwidth portion (BWP) of the carrier, and at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location being associated with a different second BWP of the carrier. The method (600) may also include information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location including UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to each active carrier associated with the UE.

[0045] The method (600) may also include the UE including a bandwidth portion (BWP) configuration, and information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location including information associated with each BWP of each active carrier associated with the UE. The method (600) may also include additional information associated with at least one of the BWPs of each active carrier associated with the UE being included in the MAC CE. The additional information may include at least information associated with frequency shifts corresponding to at least one BWP.

[0046] The method (600) may also include information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location, which includes information corresponding only to the active BWP of each active carrier. The method (600) may also include the transmission of the encoded MAC CE being delayed by a timer. The method (600) may also include the MAC CE being encoded for transmission to both the master cell group (MCG) and the secondary cell group (SCG) associated with the UE.

[0047] The method (600) may also include information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location, which includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to at least one active carrier associated with MCG and at least one active carrier associated with SCG. The method (600) may also include transmitting an encoded MAC CE to MCG, and a primary cell (PCell) of MCG transmitting the encoded MAC CE to SCG.

[0048] The method (600) may also include that the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location also includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to a UL BWP of a serving cell of an MCG or SCG. The method may also include that the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to a supplemental UL BWP of a serving cell of an MCG or SCG. The method (600) may also include that the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location is limited to UL Tx DC subcarrier location information that has been changed since at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0049] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method (700) for reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information. In block (702), the method (700) decodes a radio resource control (RRC) message received from a base station. The RRC message may include a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information. In block (704), in response to decoding the RRC message, the method (700) encodes a message for transmission to the base station via RRC signaling. The message may include each combination of possible Tx DC subcarrier locations, which are configured bandwidth portions (BWPs) of the configured carriers associated with the UE.

[0050] In block (706), the method (700) determines that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred and creates at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location. For example, the new UL Tx DC subcarrier location may include a BWP of an active carrier that is different from the BWP of an active carrier associated with the previous UL Tx DC subcarrier. In block (708), the method (700), in response to determining the change, encodes a Media Access Control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) for transmission to a base station. The MAC CE may include information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0051] The method (700) may also include an encoded message containing a list of Tx DC subcarrier locations for each configured BWP of each configured serving cell associated with the UE. The method (700) may also include an index associated with an entry in the encoded message containing information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location within the MAC CE.

[0052] FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method (800) for reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information. In block (802), the method (800) decodes a radio resource control (RRC) message received from a base station. The RRC message may include a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information. In block (804), the method (800) determines that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred and generates at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location. For example, the new UL Tx DC subcarrier location may include a BWP of an active carrier different from the BWP of an active carrier associated with the previous UL Tx DC subcarrier. In block (806), in response to determining the change, the method (800) encodes a message for transmission to a base station via RRC signaling. The message may include information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0053] The method (800) may also include the encoded message utilizing UE auxiliary information (UAI) RRC messaging. The method (800) may also include information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location including a snapshot of all Tx DC subcarrier location information associated with each configured bandwidth portion (BWP) of each configured carrier associated with the UE. The method (800) may also include the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location being limited to UL Tx DC subcarrier location information that has changed since at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0054] FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a network system (900) according to various embodiments. The following description is provided for an exemplary system (900) operating with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, exemplary embodiments are not limited thereto, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., 6th generation (6G) systems), IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.).

[0055] As illustrated in FIG. 9, the system (900) includes UE (922) and UE (920). In this embodiment, the UE (922) and the UE (920) are exemplified as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but also any mobile or non-mobile computing device, e.g., consumer electronic devices, cellular phones, smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashboard mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDT), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine control units (ECUs), electronic / engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, It may include microcontrollers, control modules, EMS (engine management systems), networked or "smart" devices, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, etc.

[0056] In some embodiments, the UE (922) and / or UE (920) may be IoT UEs, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lifetime UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as MTC or M2M to exchange data with an MTC server or device via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), using short-lifetime connections. The IoT UEs may run background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connections to the IoT network.

[0057] UE (922) and UE (920) may be configured to connect with an access node or a wireless access node (illustrated as (R)AN (908)), for example, to be coupled to communicate with it. In embodiments, (R)AN (908) may be an NG RAN or SG RAN, E-UTRAN, or legacy RAN, such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, terms “NG RAN,” etc. may refer to (R)AN (908) operating in an NR or SG system, and terms “E-UTRAN,” etc. may refer to (R)AN (908) operating in an LTE or 4G system. UE (922) and UE (920) utilize connections (or channels) (illustrated as connection (904) and connection (902), respectively), each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in more detail below).

[0058] In these embodiments, the connection (904) and the connection (902) are air interfaces for enabling communication coupling and may be compatible with cellular communication protocols, such as GSM protocol, CDMA network protocol, PTT protocol, POC protocol, UMTS protocol, 3GPP LTE protocol, SG protocol, NR protocol, and / or any of other communication protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UE (922) and the UE (920) may directly exchange communication data through the ProSe interface (910). The ProSe interface (910) may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink (SL) interface (110) and may include one or more logic channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0059] The UE (920) is illustrated as being configured to access the AP (912) (also referred to as "WLAN node," "WLAN," "WLAN end," "WT," etc.) via a connection (924). The connection (924) may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP (912) will include a Wi-Fi® (wireless fidelity) router. In this example, the AP (912) may be connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in more detail below). In various embodiments, the UE (920), (R)AN (908), and AP (912) may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. LWA operation may involve the UE (920) being in RRC_CONNECTED configured by the RAN node (914) or RAN node (916) to utilize LTE and WLAN wireless resources. LWIP operation may involve the UE (920) using WLAN wireless resources (e.g., connection (924)) through IPsec protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) transmitted through the connection (924). IPsec tunneling may include protecting the original headers of the IP packets by encapsulating the entire original IP packets and adding a new packet header.

[0060] (R)AN (908) may include one or more AN nodes, such as RAN nodes (914) and RAN nodes (916), that enable access (904) and access (902). As used herein, terms “access node,” “access point,” etc. may describe equipment that provides wireless baseband functions for data and / or voice connectivity between a network and one or more users. Such access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs, or TRPs, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., ground access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographical area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, terms “NG RAN node,” etc. may refer to a RAN node operating in an NR or SG system (e.g., gNB), and terms “E-UTRAN node,” etc. may refer to a RAN node operating in an LTE or 4G system (900) (e.g., eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN node (914) or RAN node (916) may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station, and / or a low-power (LP) base station for providing femtocells, picocells, or other similar cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

[0061] In some embodiments, all or part of the RAN node (914) or RAN node (916) may be implemented as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as CRAN and / or vBBUP (virtual baseband unit pool). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP comprises: a RAN function partition, such as a PDCP partition, in which RRC and PDCP layers are operated by CRAN / vBBUP and other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes (e.g., RAN node (914) or RAN node (916)); a MAC / PHY partition in which RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by CRAN / vBBUP and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes (e.g., RAN node (914) or RAN node (916)); Alternatively, a “lower PHY” partitioning may be implemented in which the upper parts of the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and PHY layer are operated by CRAN / vBBUP and the lower parts of the PHY layer are operated by individual RAN nodes. This virtualized framework enables the freed-up processor cores of the RAN node (914) or RAN node (916) to perform other virtualized applications. In some embodiments, individual RAN nodes may represent individual gNB-DUs connected to the gNB-CU via individual F1 interfaces (not shown in FIG. 9). In these embodiments, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs, and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server located in the (R)AN (908) (not shown) or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP.Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes (914) or RAN nodes (916) may be next-generation eNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol endpoints toward the UE (922) and UE (920) and connect to the SGC via the NG interface (discussed below). In V2X scenarios, one or more of the RAN nodes (914) or RAN nodes (916) may be RSUs or may act as them.

[0062] The terms "Roadside Unit" or "RSU" may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used in V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, wherein an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU," an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU," an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU," and so on. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with a radio frequency circuitry located on the roadside that provides connectivity support for passing vehicle UEs (vUEs). An RSU may also include an internal data storage circuitry for storing cross-map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications / software for detecting and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate in the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communications (DSRC) band to provide very low-latency communications required for high-speed events such as collision avoidance and traffic alerts. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate in the cellular V2X band to provide other cellular communication services in addition to the aforementioned low-latency communications. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and / or provide uplink and downlink communications by providing access to one or more cellular networks. Part or all of the computing device(s) and the radio frequency circuitry of the RSU may be packaged within a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller for providing wired access (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or backhaul network.

[0063] The RAN node (914) and / or the RAN node (916) may terminate the air interface protocol and may be a first contact point for the UE (922) and the UE (920). In some embodiments, the RAN node (914) and / or the RAN node (916) may perform various logical functions for the (R)AN (908), including but not limited to wireless network controller (RNC) functions such as wireless bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic wireless resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0064] In the embodiments, UE (922) and UE (920) may be configured to communicate with each other or with RAN node (914) and / or RAN node (916) using OFDM communication signals over a multicarrier communication channel according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), but not limited thereto, however, the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. OFDM signals may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

[0065] In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from the RAN node (914) and / or the RAN node (916) to the UE (922) and UE (920), while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink within each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, making it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot within a radio frame. The minimum time-frequency unit in the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid contains a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of a given physical channel to the resource elements. Each resource block contains a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources currently available for allocation. There exist several different physical downlink channels that are transmitted using such resource blocks.

[0066] According to various embodiments, UE (922) and UE (920), and RAN node (914) and / or RAN node (916) communicate data (e.g., transmit and receive) through a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz band.

[0067] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE (922) and UE (920) and the RAN node (914) or RAN node (916) may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these embodiments, the UE (922) and UE (920) and the RAN node (914) or RAN node (916) may perform one or more known medium detection operations and / or carrier detection operations to determine whether one or more channels within the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier detection operations may be performed according to the listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0068] LBT is a mechanism that enables equipment (e.g., UE (922) and UE (920), and RAN node (914) or RAN node (916), etc.) to detect a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is detected to be idle (or when a specific channel within the medium is detected to be unoccupied). The medium detection operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine the presence or absence of other signals on the channel to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with current systems and other LAA networks within the unlicensed spectrum. ED may include detecting RF energy across the intended transmission band for a certain period of time and comparing the detected RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0069] Typically, existing systems within the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technologies. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as a UE (922), AP (912), etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may perform CCA before transmitting. Additionally, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where more than one WLAN node detects the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly generated within the CWS, which increases exponentially upon the occurrence of a collision and is reset to a minimum value upon successful transmission. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the WLAN's CSMA / CA. In some embodiments, the LBT procedure for DL ​​or UL transmit bursts, each containing PDSCH or PUSCH transmits, may have an LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​for CWS for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmit may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (e.g., transmit burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0070] LAA mechanisms are built upon the CA technologies of LTE Advanced systems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers may differ for DL ​​and UL, where the number of UL CCs is less than or equal to the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs may have different bandwidths from other CCs. In TDD systems, not only the number of CCs but also the bandwidths of each CC are typically the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0071] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of serving cells may differ, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. A primary service cell or PCell can provide PCCs for both UL and DL and can handle RRC and NAS-related activities. Other serving cells are referred to as SCells, and each SCell can provide individual SCCs for both UL and DL. SCCs can be added and removed as needed, whereas changing a PCC may require the UE (922) to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and LAA SCells are assisted by PCells operating in licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE can receive UL acknowledgments representing different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe on the configured LAA SCells.

[0072] The PDSCH transmits user data and upper-layer signaling to the UE (922) and UE (920). The PDCCH transmits, among other things, information regarding transmission formats and resource allocations associated with the PDSCH channel. It may also notify the UE (922) and UE (920) regarding transmission formats, resource allocations, and HARQ information associated with the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE (920) within the cell) may be performed at either the RAN node (914) or the RAN node (916) based on channel quality information fed back from either the UE (922) or the UE (920). Downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted over the PDCCH used (e.g., assigned to it) for each of the UE (922) and UE (920).

[0073] PDCCH transmits control information using CCEs. Before being mapped to resource elements, PDCCH complex symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be substituted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the DCI size and channel conditions, PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L = 1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0074] Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are extensions of the concepts described above. For example, some embodiments may utilize EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for transmitting control information. EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more ECCEs. Similarly, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as EREGs. In some situations, an ECCE may have a different number of EREGs.

[0075] A RAN node (914) or a RAN node (916) may be configured to communicate with each other through an interface (930). In embodiments where the system (900) is an LTE system (e.g., when the core network (CN) (906) is an EPC), the interface (930) may be an X2 interface. An X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC. In some embodiments, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). X2-U may provide flow control mechanisms for user data packets transmitted through the X2 interface and may be used to communicate information regarding the transfer of user data between eNBs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transmitted from a MeNB to a SeNB; It may provide information regarding the successful sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from SeNB to UE (922) for user data; information regarding PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to UE (922); information regarding the current minimum desired buffer size in SeNB for transmission to UE user data, etc. X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transmissions from source to target eNBs, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; as well as inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0076] In embodiments where the system (900) is an SG or NR system (e.g., when CN (906) is an SGC), the interface (930) may be an Xn interface. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the SGC, between a RAN node (914) (e.g., gNB) connected to the SGC and an eNB, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC (e.g., CN (906)). In some embodiments, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. Xn-U provides non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and may support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. Xn-C provides management and error handling functions, and functions to manage the Xn-C interface; Mobility support for a UE (922) in a connection mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) may be provided, which includes a function for managing UE mobility for a connection mode between one or more RAN nodes (914) or RAN nodes (916). Mobility support may include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node (914) to a new (target) serving RAN node (916); and control of user plane tunnels between the old (source) serving RAN node (914) and the new (target) serving RAN node (916). The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on top of an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer built on top of UDP and / or IP layer(s) for delivering user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP can sit on top of the IP layer and can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages.At the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other embodiments, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or Xn-C protocol stack may be identical or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stack(s) illustrated and described herein.

[0077] (R)AN (908) is illustrated as being communicably coupled to a core network, in this embodiment, a CN (906). The CN (906) may include one or more network elements (932), which are configured to provide various data and telecommunications services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE (922) and UE (920)) connected to the CN (906) via the (R)AN (908). The components of the CN (906) may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transient machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the aforementioned network node functions through executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logic instantiation of CN (906) may be referred to as a network slice, and a logic instantiation of a part of CN (906) may be referred to as a network subslice. NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions performed on physical resources, including a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches, or alternatively by proprietary hardware. In other words, NFV systems may be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0078] Generally, the application server (918) may be an element that provides applications using IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domains, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server (918) may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE (922) and UE (920) via the EPC. The application server (918) may communicate with the CN (906) via the IP communication interface (936).

[0079] In embodiments, CN (906) may be an SGC, and (R)AN (116) may be connected to CN (906) through an NG interface (934). In embodiments, the NG interface (934) may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface (926) that transmits traffic data between a RAN node (914) or a RAN node (916) and a UPF, and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface (928) that is a signaling interface between a RAN node (914) or a RAN node (916) and an AMF.

[0080] In the embodiments, CN (906) may be an SG CN, whereas in other embodiments, CN (906) may be an EPC. If CN (906) is an EPC, (R)AN (116) may be connected to CN (906) through the S1 interface (934). In the embodiments, the S1 interface (934) may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface (926) that transmits traffic data between the RAN node (914) or RAN node (916) and the S-GW, and an S1-MME interface (928) which is a signaling interface between the RAN node (914) or RAN node (916) and the MMEs.

[0081] FIG. 10 illustrates examples of infrastructure equipment (1000) according to various embodiments. Infrastructure equipment (1000) may be implemented as a base station, a wireless head, a RAN node, an AN, an application server, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, infrastructure equipment (1000) may be implemented in or by a UE.

[0082] The infrastructure equipment (1000) includes an application circuit (1002), a baseband circuit (1004), one or more radio front end modules (RFEM) (1006), a memory circuit (1008), a power management integrated circuitry (PMIC, 1010), a power tee circuit (1012), a network controller circuit (1014), a network interface connector (1020), a satellite positioning circuit (1016), and a user interface circuit (1018). In some embodiments, the device infrastructure equipment (1000) may include additional elements, such as memory / storage, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device. For example, the above circuits may be individually included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other similar embodiments. The application circuit (1002) includes one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and LDOs (low drop-out voltage regulators), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces, such as SPI, I 2It includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more of C, or a universal programmable serial interface module, a real-time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, universal input / output (I / O or IO), memory card controllers such as SD (Secure Digital) MMC (MultiMediaCard) or similar, USB (Universal Serial Bus) interfaces, MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface) interfaces, and JTAG (Joint Test Access Group) test access ports. Processors (or cores) of the application circuitry (1002) may be coupled with or include memory / storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in memory / storage so that various applications or operating systems can run on the infrastructure equipment (1000). In some embodiments, the memory / storage elements may be on-chip memory circuits that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0083] The processor(s) of the application circuit (1002) may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), one or more programmable logic devices (PLDs), one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit (1002) may be a special-purpose processor / controller for operation according to various embodiments of this specification, or may include such a. As examples, the processor(s) of the application circuit (1002) are one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon® processor(s); AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) Ryzen® processor(s), APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), or Epyc® processors; ARM-based processor(s) licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., e.g., ARM Cortex-A series processors and ThunderX2® provided by Cavium(TM), Inc.; MIPS Technologies, Inc.It may include MIPS-based designs from, e.g., MIPS Warrior P-class processors; etc. In some embodiments, the infrastructure equipment (1000) may not use the application circuitry (1002) and instead may include a special purpose processor / controller for processing IP data received from, for example, an EPC or 5GC.

[0084] In some embodiments, the application circuit (1002) may include one or more hardware accelerators, such as microprocessors or programmable processing devices. One or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. As examples, programmable processing devices may include one or more field-programmable devices (FPDs), such as FPGAs, etc.; PLDs, such as CPLDs, HCPLDs, etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc., but are not limited thereto. In such embodiments, the circuit of the application circuit (1002) may include logic blocks or logic fabrics, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions, such as procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuit of the application circuit (1002) may include memory cells (e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, static memory (e.g., SRAM, anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic structures, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs). The baseband circuit (1004) may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module including two or more integrated circuits.

[0085] The user interface circuit section (1018) may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the infrastructure equipment (1000) or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable interaction with the infrastructure equipment (1000). The user interfaces may include, but are not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers or other audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or a display device, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc.

[0086] The radio front-end module (RFEM) (1006) may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave RFICs (radio frequency integrated circuits). In some embodiments, one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative embodiments, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front-end module (1006) that integrates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

[0087] The memory circuit (1008) may include one or more of volatile memory including DRAM and / or SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random access memory), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (generally referred to as flash memory), PRAM (phase change random access memory), MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory), etc., and may integrate three-dimensional (3D) XPOINT (cross-point) memories from Intel® and Micron®. The memory circuit (1008) may be implemented as one or more of solder-down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules, and plug-in memory cards.

[0088] The PMIC (1010) may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of the conditions of a brown out (voltage shortage) and a surge (overvoltage). The power tee circuit (1012) may provide electrical power drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and data access to infrastructure equipment (1000) using a single cable.

[0089] The network controller circuit (1014) may provide access to a network using standard network interface protocols such as Ethernet, Ethernet over GRE tunnels, Ethernet over MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to / from the infrastructure equipment (1000) via a network interface connector (1020) using a physical connection that may be electrical (commonly referred to as "copper interconnection"), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuit (1014) may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some embodiments, the network controller circuit (1014) may include multiple controllers to provide access to different networks using the same or different protocols.

[0090] The positioning circuit section (1016) includes a circuit section for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by a positioning network of a GNSS (global navigation satellite system). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the US GPS (Global Positioning System), Russia's GLONASS (Global Navigation System), the European Union's Galileo system, China's BeiDou navigation satellite system, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation), Japan's QZSS (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System), France's DORIS (Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite), etc.). The positioning circuit (1016) includes various hardware elements (e.g., hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. to facilitate OTA communication) to communicate with components of the positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit (1016) may include a Micro-PNT (Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing) IC that performs position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance using a master timing clock. The positioning circuit (1016) may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit (1004) and / or the wireless front-end module (1006) to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network.The positioning circuit section (1016) may also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit section (1002), which can use the data to synchronize various infrastructures and operations, etc. The components illustrated in FIG. 10 may communicate with each other using an interface circuit section that may include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as ISA (industry standard architecture), EISA (extended ISA), PCI (peripheral component interconnect), PCIx (peripheral component interconnect extended), PCIe (PCI express), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be, for example, a proprietary bus used in an SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems, such as I. 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interfaces, and power bus may be included.

[0091] FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a platform (1100) according to various embodiments. In the embodiments, the computer platform (1100) may be suitable for use as UEs, application servers, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform (1100) may include any combination of the components illustrated in the example. The components of the platform (1100) may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs) adapted to the computer platform (1100), parts thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof, or otherwise as components integrated within the chassis of a larger system. The block diagram of FIG. 11 is intended to illustrate a high-level view of the components of the computer platform (1100). However, some of the illustrated components may be omitted, additional components may exist, and different arrangements of the illustrated components may occur in other embodiments.

[0092] The application circuit section (1102) comprises one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces, such as SPI, I 2The circuit includes, but is not limited to, one or more of C or general-purpose programmable serial interface modules, RTCs, timer-counters including interval and watch timers, general-purpose IOs, memory card controllers such as SD MMCs or similars, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces, and JTAG test access ports. Processors (or cores) of the application circuit (1102) may be coupled with or include memory / storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in memory / storage so that various applications or operating systems can run on the platform (1100). In some embodiments, the memory / storage elements may be on-chip memory circuits that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0093] The processor(s) of the application circuit (1102) may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, a multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, some other known processing element, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit (1102) may be a special purpose processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments of this specification, or may include such a.

[0094] As examples, the processor(s) of the application circuit (1102) may include Intel® Architecture Core™-based processors, such as Quark™, ​​Atom™, i3, i5, i7, or MCU-class processors, or other such processors available from Intel® Corporation. The processors of the application circuit (1102) may also include Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or Accelerated Processing Units (APUs); AS-A9 processor(s) from Apple® Inc., Snapdragon™ processor(s) from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc.® OMAP™ (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) processor(s); MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; It may be one or more of ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors. In some embodiments, the application circuit (1102) may be part of an SoC in which the application circuit (1102) and other components are formed on a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC (system on a chip) boards from Intel® Corporation.

[0095] Additionally or alternatively, the application circuit (1102) may include, but not be limited to, one or more FPDs, e.g., FPGAs, etc.; PLDs, e.g., CPLDs, HCPLDs, etc.; ASICs, e.g., structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuit of the application circuit (1102) may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as procedures, methods, functions, etc. of various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuit of the application circuit (1102) may include memory cells (e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, static memory (e.g., SRAM, anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic structures, data, etc. in lookup tables (LUTs), etc.

[0096] The baseband circuit section (1104) may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module including two or more integrated circuits.

[0097] The wireless front-end module (RFEM) (1106) may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave RFICs. In some embodiments, one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative embodiments, both mmWave and sub-mmWave wireless functions may be implemented in the same physical wireless front-end module (1106) that incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

[0098] The memory circuit (1108) may include any number and type of memory devices used to provide a given amount of system memory. As examples, the memory circuit (1108) may include one or more of volatile memory including RAM, DRAM and / or SD RAM, and high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), PRAM, MRAM, etc. The memory circuit (1108) may be developed according to JEDEC (Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council) LPDDR (low power double data rate)-based designs such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit (1108) may be implemented in one or more of solder-down packaged integrated circuits, single-die package (SDP), dual-die package (DDP) or quad-die package (Q17P), socketed memory modules, and dual inline memory modules (DIMM) including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, or may be soldered onto a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In low-power embodiments, the memory circuit (1108) may be on-die memory or registers associated with the application circuit (1102). To provide permanent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit (1108) may include one or more mass storage devices, which, among others, may include solid-state disk drives (SSDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), micro HDDs, resistive change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories.For example, the computer platform (1100) may include three-dimensional (3D) XPOINT memories from Intel® and Micron®.

[0099] The removable memory (1126) may include devices, circuits, enclosures / housings, ports, or receptacles used to couple portable data storage devices to the platform (1100). These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage purposes and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., SD cards, microSD cards, xD picture cards, etc.), and USB flash drives, optical discs, external HDDs, etc.

[0100] The platform (1100) may also include an interface circuit (not shown) used to connect external devices to the platform (1100). External devices connected to the platform (1100) through the interface circuit include sensors (1122) and electromechanical components (shown as EMCs (1124)), as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memory (1126).

[0101] Sensors (1122) include devices, modules, or subsystems intended to detect events or changes in their environment and transmit information (sensor data) regarding the detected events to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, in particular, inertia measurement units (IMUs) including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and / or magnetometers; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) including 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and / or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors; barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensors; It includes proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detectors, etc.), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers; microphones or other similar audio capture devices; etc.

[0102] EMCs (1124) include devices, modules, or subsystems intended to enable the platform (1100) to change its state, position, and / or orientation, or to move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, EMCs (1124) may be configured to generate messages / signaling to indicate the current state of the EMCs (1124) and transmit them to other components of the platform (1100). Examples of EMCs (1124) include one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and / or solid state relays (SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and / or other similar electromechanical components. In embodiments, the platform (1100) is configured to operate one or more EMCs (1124) based on one or more captured events and / or commands or control signals received from service providers and / or various clients. In some embodiments, the interface circuit may connect the platform (1100) to the positioning circuit (1116). The positioning circuit (1116) includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by the positioning network of the GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the US GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou navigation satellite system, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.).The positioning circuit (1116) includes various hardware elements (e.g., hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. to facilitate OTA communication) to communicate with components of the positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit (1116) may include a Micro-PNT IC that performs position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance using a master timing clock. The positioning circuit (1116) may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit (1104) and / or the wireless front-end module (1106) to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit section (1116) may also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit section (1102), which can use the data to synchronize various infrastructures (e.g., wireless base stations) and operations for turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0103] In some embodiments, the interface circuitry may connect the platform (1100) to a near-field communication circuitry (illustrated as the NFC circuitry (1112)). The NFC circuitry (1112) is configured to provide contactless short-range communications based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between the NFC circuitry (1112) and NFC-enabled devices (e.g., "NFC touchpoints") outside the platform (1100). The NFC circuitry (1112) includes an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processor coupled with the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip / IC that provides NFC functions to the NFC circuitry (1112) by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to emit near-field RF signals. RF signals can power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmit stored data to the NFC circuit (1112) or to initiate data transmission between the NFC circuit (1112) and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) located near the platform (1100).

[0104] The driver circuit section (1118) may include software and hardware elements that operate to control specific devices that are embedded within the platform (1100), connected to the platform (1100), or otherwise coupled to the platform (1100) for communication. The driver circuit section (1118) may include individual drivers that allow other components of the platform (1100) to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may exist within the platform (1100) or be connected thereto. For example, the driver circuit section (1118) may include a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touchscreen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touchscreen interface of a platform (1100), sensor drivers for acquiring sensor readings of sensors (1122) and controlling and allowing access to sensors (1122), EMC drivers for acquiring actuator positions of EMCs (1124) and / or controlling and allowing access to EMCs (1124), a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and audio drivers for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0105] A power management integrated circuit (illustrated as a PMIC (1110)) (also referred to as the "power management circuit") can manage power supplied to various components of the platform (1100). In particular, with respect to the baseband circuit (1104), the PMIC (1110) can control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. The PMIC (1110) may often be included when the platform (1100) can be powered by a battery (1114), for example, when the device is included in the UE.

[0106] In some embodiments, the PMIC (1110) may control various power saving mechanisms of the platform (1100) or may otherwise be part of them. For example, if the platform (1100) is in the RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to a RAN node as it expects to receive traffic soon, the platform may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mode after a period of inactivity. During this state, the platform (1100) may be powered off for short time intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period, the platform (1100) may transition to the RRC_Idle state, where the platform is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The platform (1100) enters a very low power state and performs paging, which periodically wakes up to listen to the network again and then powers off again. The platform (1100) may not receive data in this state; to receive data, it must be switched back to the RRC_Connected state. An additional power saving mode may allow the device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device may be completely unreachable to the network and completely powered off. Any data transmitted during this time will cause a large delay, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0107] The battery (1114) can supply power to the platform (1100), but in some examples, the platform (1100) may be mounted in a fixed position and may have a power supply coupled to an electric grid. The battery (1114) may be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery, e.g., a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some embodiments, such as in V2X applications, the battery (1114) may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[0108] In some embodiments, the battery (1114) may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform (1100) to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery (1114). The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery (1114) to provide failure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery (1114). The BMS may communicate information about the battery (1114) to the application circuit (1102) or other components of the platform (1100). The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that allows the application circuit (1102) to directly monitor the voltage of the battery (1114) or the current flow from the battery (1114). Battery parameters such as transmission frequency, network operation, and detection frequency can be used to determine the actions that the platform (1100) can perform.

[0109] A power block, or other power supply coupled to the electrical grid, may be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery (1114). In some examples, the power block may be replaced by a wireless power receiver to obtain power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna within a computer platform (1100). In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuits selected may depend on the size of the battery (1114) and, accordingly, the required current. Charging may be performed using, among other things, the Airfuel standard published by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance.

[0110] The user interface circuit section (1120) includes various input / output (I / O) devices present within or connected to the platform (1100) and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform (1100) and / or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the platform (1100). The user interface circuit section (1120) includes an input device circuit section and an output device circuit section. The input device circuit section includes any physical or virtual means for receiving input, including, among other things, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, microphones, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuit section includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information, such as sensor readings, actuator position(s), or other similar information, or otherwise conveying information. The output device circuit may include any number of audio or visual displays and / or combinations thereof, particularly including one or more simple visual outputs / indicators, such as binary state indicators (e.g., LEDs) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g., Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), wherein outputs such as characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. are generated or produced from the operation of the platform (1100). The output device circuit may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printer(s), etc.In some embodiments, the sensors (1122) may be used as an input device circuit (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.), and one or more EMCs may be used as an output device circuit (e.g., an actuator for providing haptic feedback). In other examples, an NFC circuit comprising an NFC controller and a processing device coupled with an antenna element may be included to read electronic tags and / or connect with other NFC-enabled devices. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, non-volatile memory ports, USB ports, audio jacks, power source interfaces, etc.

[0111] Although not illustrated, the components of the platform (1100) may communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology that may include any number of technologies, such as ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIix, PCIe, Time-Trigger Protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be, for example, a proprietary bus / IX used in an SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems, such as, among others, I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interfaces, and power bus may be included.

[0112] FIG. 12 illustrates exemplary components of a device (1200) according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the device (1200) may include an application circuitry (1206), a baseband circuitry (1204), a radio frequency (RF) circuitry (illustrated as RF circuitry (1202)), a front-end module (FEM) circuitry (illustrated as FEM circuitry (1232)), one or more antennas (1230), and a power management circuitry (PMC) (illustrated as PMC (1234)), which are coupled together at least as illustrated. The components of the illustrated device (1200) may be included in a UE or RAN node. In some embodiments, the device (1200) may include fewer elements (for example, the RAN node may not use the application circuitry (1206) and instead may include a processor / controller for processing IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, the device (1200) may include additional elements such as, for example, memory / storage, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., the circuits may be individually included in more than one device for C-RAN (Cloud-RAN) implementations).

[0113] The application circuit section (1206) may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuit section (1206) may include circuit sections such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled to or include memory / storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in memory / storage so that various applications or operating systems can run on the device (1200). In some embodiments, the processors of the application circuit section (1206) may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

[0114] The baseband circuit section (1204) may include one or more circuit sections, such as, but not limited to, single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuit section (1204) may include one or more baseband processors or control logic for processing baseband signals received from the receiving signal path of the RF circuit section (1202) and for generating baseband signals for the transmitting signal path of the RF circuit section (1202). The baseband circuit section (1204) may interface with the application circuit section (1206) for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling the operations of the RF circuit section (1202). For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit (1204) may include a 3G (third generation) baseband processor (3G baseband processor (1208)), a 4G (fourth generation) baseband processor (4G baseband processor (1210)), a 5G (fifth generation) baseband processor (5G baseband processor (1212)), or other baseband processor(s) (1214) for other existing generations, generations under development or to be developed in the future (e.g., 2G (second generation), 6G (sixth generation), etc.). The baseband circuit (1204) (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors) may process various wireless control functions that enable communication with one or more wireless networks through the RF circuit (1202). In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the illustrated baseband processors may be included in modules that are stored in memory (1220) and executed through a central processing unit (CPU) (1216). Wireless control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc.In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit (1204) may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit (1204) may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. Embodiments of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

[0115] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit (1204) may include one or more DSPs, such as audio DSP(s) (1218). The one or more audio DSP(s) (1218) may include elements for compression / decompression and echo removal, and in other embodiments may include other suitable processing elements. The components of the baseband circuit may be suitably combined on a single chip, a single chipset, or, in some embodiments, placed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuit (1204) and the application circuit (1206) may be implemented together, for example, on an SOC.

[0116] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit (1204) may provide communication compatible with one or more wireless technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit (1204) may support communication with an EUTRAN or other WMAN (wireless metropolitan area networks), WLAN, or WPAN (wireless personal area network). Embodiments in which the baseband circuit (1204) is configured to support wireless communication of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as a multimode baseband circuit.

[0117] The RF circuit section (1202) can enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuit section (1202) may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with wireless networks. The RF circuit section (1202) may include a receiving signal path that may include a circuit section for down-converting RF signals received from the FEM circuit section (1232) and providing baseband signals to the baseband circuit section (1204). The RF circuit section (1202) may also include a transmitting signal path that may include a circuit section for up-converting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuit section (1204) and providing RF output signals to the FEM circuit section (1232) for transmission.

[0118] In some embodiments, the receiving signal path of the RF circuit (1202) may include a mixer circuitry (1222), an amplifier circuitry (1224), and a filter circuitry (1226). In some embodiments, the transmitting signal path of the RF circuit (1202) may include a filter circuitry (1226) and a mixer circuitry (1222). The RF circuit (1202) may also include a synthesizer circuitry (1228) for synthesizing frequencies for use by the mixer circuitry (1222) of the receiving signal path and the transmitting signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry (1222) of the receiving signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry (1232) based on the synthesized frequencies provided by the synthesizer circuitry (1228). The amplifier circuit (1224) may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals, and the filter circuit (1226) may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. The output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuit (1204) for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, but this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit (1222) of the receiving signal path may include passive mixers, but the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0119] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit (1222) of the transmission signal path may be configured to upconvert input baseband signals based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit (1228) to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuit (1232). The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuit (1204) and may be filtered by the filter circuit (1226).

[0120] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit (1222) of the receiving signal path and the mixer circuit (1222) of the transmitting signal path may include two or more mixers and may each be arranged for orthogonal down-conversion and up-conversion. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit (1222) of the receiving signal path and the mixer circuit (1222) of the transmitting signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit (1222) of the receiving signal path and the mixer circuit (1222) of the transmitting signal path may each be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit (1222) of the receiving signal path and the mixer circuit (1222) of the transmitting signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[0121] In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, but the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit (1202) may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit (1204) may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuit (1202).

[0122] In some dual-mode embodiments, individual radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, but the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0123] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit (1228) may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, but other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable, so the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. For example, the synthesizer circuit (1228) may be a synthesizer including a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a phase-locked loop having a frequency divider.

[0124] The synthesizer circuit section (1228) may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit section (1222) of the RF circuit section (1202) based on frequency input and divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit section (1228) may be a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0125] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), but this is not a requirement. The divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuit (1204) or the application circuit (1206) (e.g., an application processor) depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on a channel indicated by the application circuit (1206).

[0126] The synthesizer circuit (1228) of the RF circuit (1202) may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on carry-out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some exemplary embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded and tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0127] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit (1228) may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, whereas in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and may be used in conjunction with an orthogonal generator and a divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency having multiple different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be an LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit (1202) may include an IQ / polar converter.

[0128] The FEM circuit section (1232) may include a receiving signal path configured to amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuit section (1202) for further processing, so as to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas (1230). The FEM circuit section (1232) may also include a transmitting signal path configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuit section (1202) for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas (1230). In various embodiments, amplification through the transmitting or receiving signal paths may be performed only in the RF circuit section (1202), only in the FEM circuit section (1232), or in both the RF circuit section (1202) and the FEM circuit section (1232).

[0129] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit (1232) may include a TX / RX switch for switching between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit (1232) may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit (1232) may include an LNA for amplifying received RF signals and providing the amplified received RF signals as output (e.g., to the RF circuit (1202)). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit (1232) may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying input RF signals (e.g., provided by the RF circuit (1202)), and one or more filters for generating RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the antennas (1230)).

[0130] In some embodiments, the PMC (1234) can manage the power supplied to the baseband circuit (1204). In particular, the PMC (1234) can control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. The PMC (1234) may often be included when the device (1200) can be powered by a battery, for example, when the device (1200) is included in a UE. The PMC (1234) can increase power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation sizes and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0131] FIG. 12 illustrates that the PMC (1234) is coupled only to the baseband circuit (1204). However, in other embodiments, the PMC (1234) may additionally or alternatively be coupled to other components such as, but not limited to, the application circuit (1206), the RF circuit (1202), or the FEM circuit (1232) and perform similar power management operations for them.

[0132] In some embodiments, the PMC (1234) may control various power saving mechanisms of the device (1200) or otherwise be part of them. For example, if the device (1200) is in the RRC_Connected state, which is still connected to a RAN node as it expects to receive traffic soon, the device may enter a state known as DRX mode after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device (1200) may be powered off for short time intervals and thus save power.

[0133] If there is no data traffic activity during an extended period, the device (1200) may transition to an RRC_Idle state in which the device is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device (1200) enters an ultra-low power state, and the device performs paging, periodically waking up to listen to the network again and then being powered off again. The device (1200) may not receive data in this state, and to receive data, it transitions back to an RRC_Connected state.

[0134] An additional power saving mode may allow the device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device may be completely unreachable from the network and fully powered off. Any data transmitted during this time will cause significant delay, and it is assumed that this delay is acceptable.

[0135] Processors of the application circuit section (1206) and processors of the baseband circuit section (1204) may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuit section (1204) may be used, either alone or in combination, to execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functions, while processors of the application circuit section (1206) may utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and additionally execute Layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP (transmission communication protocol) and UDP (user datagram protocol) layers). As mentioned herein, Layer 3 may include a Wireless Resource Control (RRC) layer, which is described in more detail below. As mentioned herein, Layer 2 may include a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, a Wireless Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, which are described in more detail below. As mentioned in this specification, Layer 1 may include the physical (PHY) layer of a UE / RAN node, which is described in more detail below.

[0136] FIG. 13 illustrates exemplary interfaces (1300) of a baseband circuit according to some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuit (1204) of FIG. 12 may include a 3G baseband processor (1208), a 4G baseband processor (1210), a 5G baseband processor (1212), other baseband processor(s) (1214), a CPU (1216), and a memory (1220) used by said processors. As illustrated, each of the processors may include its own memory interface (1302) for transmitting / receiving data to / from the memory (1220).

[0137] A baseband circuit (1204) is one for communicatingly coupling to other circuits / devices, such as a memory interface (1304) (e.g., an interface for transmitting / receiving data to / from memory outside the baseband circuit (1204)), an application circuit interface (1306) (e.g., an interface for transmitting / receiving data to / from the application circuit (1206) of FIG. 12), an RF circuit interface (1308) (e.g., an interface for transmitting / receiving data to / from the RF circuit (1202) of FIG. 12), a wireless hardware connectivity interface (1310) (e.g., an interface for transmitting / receiving data to / from NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Low Power Bluetooth®), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface (1312) (e.g., an interface for transmitting / receiving power or control signals to / from the PMC (1234)). The above interfaces may be additionally included.

[0138] FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating components (1400) capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transient machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Specifically, FIG. 14 illustrates a schematic representation of hardware resources (1402) comprising one or more processors (1406) (or processor cores), one or more memory / storage devices (1414), and one or more communication resources (1424), each of which may be coupled to communicate via a bus (1416). In embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor (1422) may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / subslices to utilize the hardware resources (1402).

[0139] Processor(s) (1406) (e.g., CPU (central processing unit), RISC processor, CISC processor, GPU, DSP, e.g. baseband processor, ASIC, RFIC, other processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processor (1408) and processor (1410).

[0140] The memory / storage devices (1414) may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage devices (1414) may include any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state storage, etc., but are not limited to these.

[0141] Communication resources (1424) may include interconnect or network interface components or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripheral devices (1404) or one or more databases (1420) via a network (1418). For example, communication resources (1424) may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., low-power Bluetooth®), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

[0142] Instructions (1412) may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors (1406) to perform any one or more of the methods described herein. Instructions (1412) may exist wholly or partially in at least one of the processors (1406), memory / storage devices (1414), or any suitable combination thereof (e.g., in the processor's cache memory). Furthermore, any part of instructions (1412) may be transferred to hardware resources (1402) from any combination of peripheral devices (1404) or databases (1420). Thus, the memory of the processors (1406), memory / storage devices (1414), peripheral devices (1404), and databases (1420) are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0143] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components described in one or more of the prior art drawings may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as described in the following embodiment section. For example, a baseband circuit as described above in relation to one or more of the prior art drawings may be configured to operate according to one or more of the embodiments described below. For another example, a circuit associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in relation to one or more of the prior art drawings may be configured to operate according to one or more of the embodiments described in the following embodiment section.

[0144] Example Section

[0145] The following embodiments relate to additional embodiments.

[0146] Example 1 may include a method for wireless communications by user equipment (UE), the method comprising: decoding a radio resource control (RRC) message received from a base station—the RRC message includes a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information—; determining that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred and generating at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location; and in response to determining the change, encoding a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) for transmission to a base station, wherein the MAC CE includes information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0147] Example 2 may include the method of Example 1, at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location is associated with a first bandwidth portion (BWP) of the carrier, and at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location is associated with a different second BWP of the carrier.

[0148] Example 3 may include the method of Example 1, and the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to each active carrier associated with the UE.

[0149] Example 4 may include the method of Example 1, and the UE includes a bandwidth portion (BWP) configuration, and information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes information associated with each BWP of each active carrier associated with the UE.

[0150] Example 5 may include the method of Example 4, and additional information associated with at least one of the BWPs of each active carrier associated with the UE is included in the MAC CE, and the additional information includes at least information associated with frequency shifts corresponding to at least one BWP.

[0151] Example 6 may include the method of Example 1, and the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes information corresponding only to the active BWP of each active carrier.

[0152] Example 7 may include the method of Example 1, and the transmission of the encoded MAC CE is delayed by a timer.

[0153] Example 8 may include the method of Example 1, and MAC CE is encoded for transmission to both the master cell group (MCG) and the secondary cell group (SCG) associated with the UE.

[0154] Example 9 may include the method of Example 8, and the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to at least one active carrier associated with MCG and at least one active carrier associated with SCG.

[0155] Example 10 may include the method of Example 8, and the encoded MAC CE is transmitted to the MCG, and the primary cell (PCell) of the MCG transmits the encoded MAC CE to the SCG.

[0156] Example 11 may include the method of Example 10, and the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location also includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to the UL BWP of the serving cell of the MCG or SCG.

[0157] Example 12 may include the method of Example 8, and the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to a supplemental UL BWP of a serving cell of an MCG or SCG.

[0158] Example 13 may include the method of Example 1, and the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier position is limited to UL Tx DC subcarrier position information changed after at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier position.

[0159] Example 14 may include a method for wireless communications by user equipment (UE), the method comprising: decoding a radio resource control (RRC) message received from a base station—the RRC message includes a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information—; in response to decoding the RRC message, encoding a message for transmission to a base station via RRC signaling—the message includes each combination of possible Tx DC subcarrier locations with configured bandwidth portions (BWPs) of configured carriers associated with the UE—; determining that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred and generating at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location; and in response to determining the change, encoding a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) for transmission to a base station, wherein the MAC CE includes information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0160] Example 15 may include the method of Example 14, and the encoded message includes a list of Tx DC subcarrier locations for each configured BWP of each configured serving cell associated with the UE.

[0161] Example 16 may include the method of Example 14, and information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location within MAC CE includes an index associated with an entry in the encoded message.

[0162] Example 17 may include a method for wireless communications by user equipment (UE), the method comprising: decoding a radio resource control (RRC) message received from a base station—the RRC message includes a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information—; determining that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred and generating at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location; and in response to determining the change, encoding a message for transmission to a base station via RRC signaling, wherein the message includes information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location.

[0163] Example 18 may include the method of Example 17, and the encoded message utilizes UE Auxiliary Information (UAI) RRC messaging.

[0164] Example 19 may include the method of Example 17, and the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes a snapshot of all Tx DC subcarrier location information associated with each configured bandwidth portion (BWP) of each configured carrier associated with the UE.

[0165] Example 20 may include the method of Example 17, and the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier position is limited to UL Tx DC subcarrier position information that has changed since at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier position.

[0166] Example 21 may include a device comprising means for performing one or more elements of a method or any other method or process described in any of the above examples or related thereto, or any other method or process described in this specification.

[0167] Example 22 may include one or more non-transient computer-readable media containing instructions, the instructions causing an electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in any of the examples or related thereto, or any other method or process described herein, when the instructions are executed by one or more processors of the electronic device.

[0168] Example 23 may include a device comprising logic, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of a method or any other method or process described in any of the above examples or related methods or any other method or process described in this specification.

[0169] Example 24 may include a method, technique, or process as described or related in any of the above examples or parts thereof.

[0170] Example 25 may include a device comprising one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media containing instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause one or more processors to perform methods, techniques, or processes such as those described or related to any of the examples above, or parts thereof.

[0171] Example 26 may include a signal as described or related to any of the above examples or parts thereof.

[0172] Example 27 may include a signal encoded as a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in any of the above examples, or parts thereof, or related thereto, or as otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0173] Example 28 may include a signal encoded in data such as that described in any of the above examples, or parts thereof, or related thereto, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0174] Example 29 may include a signal encoded as a datagram, packet, frame, segment, PDU, or message as described in any of the above examples, or parts thereof, or related thereto, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0175] Example 30 may include an electromagnetic signal that transmits computer-readable instructions, wherein the execution of computer-readable instructions by one or more processors causes one or more processors to perform methods, techniques, or processes such as those described or related in any of the examples above, or parts thereof.

[0176] Example 31 may include a computer program containing instructions, wherein the execution of the program by a processing element causes the processing element to perform methods, techniques, or processes such as those described or related in any of the examples above, or parts thereof.

[0177] Example 32 may include a signal within a wireless network as illustrated and described in this specification.

[0178] Example 33 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as illustrated and described in this specification.

[0179] Example 34 may include a system for providing wireless communication as illustrated and described in this specification.

[0180] Example 35 may include a device for providing wireless communication as illustrated and described in this specification.

[0181] Any of the embodiments described above may be combined with any other embodiments (or combinations of embodiments) unless otherwise clearly indicated. The foregoing description of one or more embodiments is for illustrative and descriptive purposes only and is not intended to be comprehensive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the exact form disclosed. Modifications and variations may be possible in consideration of the above teachings or may be obtained from the practice of various embodiments.

[0182] The embodiments and implementations of the systems and methods described herein may include various operations that can be implemented as machine-executable instructions to be executed by a computer system. The computer system may include one or more general-purpose or special-purpose computers (or other electronic devices). The computer system may include hardware components that include specific logic for performing operations, or may include a combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0183] It should be recognized that the systems described herein include descriptions of specific embodiments. These embodiments may be combined into single systems, partially combined into other systems, divided into multiple systems, or divided or combined in other ways. Additionally, it is considered that parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of one embodiment may be used in other embodiments. It is recognized that parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. are described in one or more embodiments merely for clarity, and that parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. may be combined with or substituted for parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of other embodiments unless specifically disclaimed herein.

[0184] It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information must follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or government requirements for maintaining users' privacy. In particular, personally identifiable information data must be managed and handled to minimize the risk of unintended or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use must be clearly indicated to users.

[0185] Although the foregoing has been described in some detail for the sake of clarity, it will be apparent that specific changes and modifications may be made without departing from the principles of the invention. It should be noted that there are many alternative ways to implement both the processes and apparatuses described herein. Accordingly, the embodiments shall be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive, and the description is not limited to the details given herein but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

Claims

Claim 1 A method for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: decoding a radio resource control (RRC) message received from a base station, wherein the RRC message includes a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information, wherein the configuration for dynamically reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information configures the UE to trigger the UL Tx DC subcarrier location reporting using a Media Access Control (MAC) control element (MAC CE), and the UE determines from the configuration that the base station supports decoding the MAC CE; determining that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred and generating at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location; and in response to determining the change, encoding the MAC CE for transmission to the base station, wherein the MAC CE includes information corresponding to the at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location. Claim 2 A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier position is associated with a first bandwidth portion (BWP) of the carrier, and at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier position is associated with a different second BWP of the carrier. Claim 3 A method according to claim 1, wherein the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to each active carrier associated with the UE. Claim 4 A method according to claim 1, wherein the UE includes a bandwidth portion (BWP) configuration, and the information corresponding to the at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes information associated with each BWP of each active carrier associated with the UE. Claim 5 A method according to claim 4, wherein additional information associated with at least one of the BWPs of each active carrier associated with the UE is included in the MAC CE, and the additional information includes at least information associated with frequency shifts corresponding to the at least one BWP. Claim 6 A method according to claim 1, wherein the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes information corresponding only to the active BWP of each active carrier. Claim 7 A method according to claim 1, wherein the transmission of the encoded MAC CE is delayed by a timer. Claim 8 A method according to claim 1, wherein the MAC CE is encoded for transmission to both the master cell group (MCG) and the secondary cell group (SCG) associated with the UE. Claim 9 A method according to claim 8, wherein the information corresponding to the at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location comprises UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to at least one active carrier associated with the MCG and at least one active carrier associated with the SCG. Claim 10 A method according to claim 8, wherein the encoded MAC CE is transmitted to the MCG, and the primary cell (PCell) of the MCG transmits the encoded MAC CE to the SCG. Claim 11 In claim 10, the information corresponding to at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location also includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to a UL BWP of a serving cell of the MCG or the SCG. Claim 12 A method according to claim 8, wherein the information corresponding to the at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location includes UL Tx DC subcarrier location information corresponding to a supplemental UL BWP of the serving cell of the MCG or the SCG. Claim 13 A method according to claim 1, wherein the information corresponding to the at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier position is limited to the UL Tx DC subcarrier position information changed after the at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier position. Claim 14 A method for wireless communication by a User Equipment (UE), comprising: decoding a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message received from a base station; wherein the RRC message includes a configuration for dynamically reporting uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) DC subcarrier location information, and the configuration for dynamically reporting UL Tx DC subcarrier location information configures the UE to trigger the UL Tx DC subcarrier location reporting using a Media Access Control (MAC) control element (MAC CE), and the UE determines from the configuration that the base station supports decoding the MAC CE; and in response to decoding the RRC message, encoding a message for transmission to the base station via RRC signaling; wherein the message includes each combination of possible Tx DC subcarrier locations with configured bandwidth portions (BWPs) of configured carriers associated with the UE; and determining that a change associated with at least one previous UL Tx DC subcarrier location has occurred, thereby generating at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location. A method comprising: a step of; and a step of encoding the MAC CE for transmission to the base station in response to determining the change, wherein the MAC CE includes information corresponding to the at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location. Claim 15 In claim 14, the method wherein the encoded message comprises a list of Tx DC subcarrier locations for each configured BWP of each configured serving cell associated with the UE. Claim 16 In claim 14, the information corresponding to the at least one new UL Tx DC subcarrier location within the MAC CE comprises an index associated with an entry within the encoded message. Claim 17 delete Claim 18 delete Claim 19 delete Claim 20 delete

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