Listen-before-speak process with increased awareness of priorities and interruptions

Abstract

An enhanced listen-before-talk process may be performed by a device for efficiently accessing and utilizing available resources. The process may include: specifying an input parameter value related to an expected wireless communication of the device, adjusting an output parameter value based on the input parameter value and an access history of the device, and determining whether to access at least a portion of the wireless communication resources for wireless communication based at least on the output parameter value. The output parameter value may be related to the wireless communication resources that the device is able to access, and the access history may track previous wireless communication resource accesses by the device. The input parameter value may include a requested channel occupancy time, a requested frequency resource, a requested transmission power, and / or a priority and / or urgency of a requested transmission, and the output parameter value may include an energy detection threshold, a contention window size, and / or an extended idle channel assessment bypass.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to wireless communications and communication devices, and more particularly to a listen-before-talk (LBT) process in wireless communication devices during LTE and 5G New Radio (5G-NR) communications.

[0002] Related technical description

[0003] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In recent years, wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers have become increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting phone calls, many mobile devices now also provide access to the Internet, email, text messaging, and navigation using the Global Positioning System (GPS), and are capable of operating sophisticated applications that utilize these functions.

[0004] Long Term Evolution (LTE) has become the technology of choice for most wireless network operators around the world, providing mobile broadband data and high-speed Internet access to their user base. The next telecommunication standard proposed to surpass the current International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) standard is called the 5th Generation Mobile Network or 5th Generation Wireless System, or 5G for short (also known as 5G-NR for 5G New Radio, also known as NR for short). Compared to the current LTE standard, 5G-NR proposes higher capacity for a higher density of mobile broadband users, while supporting ultra-reliable and massive machine communications from device to device, as well as lower latency and lower battery consumption. In addition, there are multiple other different wireless communication technologies and standards. In addition to the wireless communication standards mentioned above, some examples of wireless communication standards include GSM, UMTS (WCDMA, TDS-CDMA), Advanced LTE (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE802.11 (WLAN or Wi-Fi), IEEE802.16 (WiMAX), Bluetooth TM etc.

[0005] In general, wireless communication technologies such as cellular communication technologies are generally designed to provide mobile communication capabilities to wireless devices. In addition, in addition to the above-mentioned communication standards, there are also extended standards that are intended to improve the transmission coverage in certain cellular networks. For example, LTE in unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) and NR in unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) allow cellular operators / service providers to enhance the coverage in their cellular networks by transmitting in unlicensed bands also used by other wireless communication technologies. In order to standardize the operation of LTE and NR in unlicensed bands, the use of a contention protocol called listen before talk (LBT) is introduced. LBT promotes the coexistence of devices operating according to different wireless communication protocols on the same frequency band. The LBT process basically allows a device to first sense its radio environment before starting wireless transmission and find a network or idle radio channel that allows the device to operate on it. Therefore, an effective LBT process can use wireless resources more efficiently.

[0006] Other corresponding problems related to the prior art will become apparent to those skilled in the art after comparing such prior art with the disclosed embodiments described herein. Summary of the invention

[0007] The embodiments described herein relate to user equipment (UE) devices, base stations and / or relay stations, and associated methods for performing an enhanced listen-before-talk (LBT) process during wireless communications, such as during long-term evolution (LTE) and / or 5G-NR (NR) wireless communications and transmissions. The standardization of NR, much like the standardization of LTE, covers a wide range of use cases. Given the diversity of applications and scenarios, both LT and NR have made provisions for operating in different frequency bands (including frequency bands in unlicensed spectrum) to expand network capacity when and where needed. Therefore, LTE and NR are designed to support operations in both traditional licensed spectrum bands and unlicensed bands, the latter of which are generally referred to as LTE-U for LTE in unlicensed spectrum, and NR-U for NR in unlicensed spectrum, respectively. The implementation of the LBT process in LTE and NR plays an effective role in alleviating coexistence issues that may arise when devices operate according to different wireless communication standards in the same (unlicensed) frequency band, thereby providing a mechanism for balancing the performance between different wireless communication protocols. Therefore, LBT has become an important topic for NR-U, and the challenge is to enhance the current LBT process.

[0008] For example, when considered in the context of NR, different services and different types of signaling may have different real-time / quality of service (QoS) requirements. For example, the ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) of the intelligent transport system (ITS) requires real-time data transmission, while data download has a certain level of tolerance for communication delays. In other words, the URLLC of ITS may have QoS requirements that are not necessarily applicable to standard data download operations. Therefore, an enhanced LBT process may be implemented to meet different service and signaling requirements, ultimately leading to more efficient resource usage and more reliable wireless communications.

[0009] Based on the above, in some embodiments, when determining parameters to consider for allocating wireless communication resources to a device, the LBT process may consider one or more of the following factors:

[0010] The priority of the requested transfer;

[0011] The requested channel occupancy time;

[0012] ● the requested frequency resource; and / or

[0013] • Requested transmit power spectral density.

[0014] For example, the LBT procedure can be used to perform bandwidth part (BWP) switching and real-time traffic management over NR-U.

[0015] Thus, in some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may perform an LBT process that enables multiple different devices to effectively access resources and use resources in a balanced manner, for example, in an unlicensed band. The LBT process may include: specifying one or more input parameter values ​​related to the wireless communication that the device intends to perform, adjusting one or more output parameter values ​​based on the one or more input parameter values ​​and the access history of the device, and determining whether to access at least a portion of the wireless communication resources for wireless communication based at least on the one or more output parameter values. The one or more output parameter values ​​are related to the wireless communication resources that the device can access, and the access history keeps track of the wireless communication resource accesses performed by the device. The input parameter values ​​may include at least those previously listed above, and the output parameter values ​​may include an energy detection threshold, a contention window size, and / or an extended idle channel assessment bypass.

[0016] The LBT process may also include: if at least a portion of the wireless communication resources are allocated to the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a lower future priority of the device; and if no wireless communication resources are allocated to the device due to the LBT process, adjusting the access history to indicate a higher future priority of the device. Thus, when determining whether to access the wireless communication resources, the decision may be based at least on the current priority of the device indicated by the access history.

[0017] Based on the above, the device may perform an LBT process at a non-idle first bandwidth part (BWP), access wireless communication resources in the first BWP according to a second higher priority LBT process, transmit BWP-switching information using the accessed wireless communication resources in the first BWP to switch to a currently idle second BWP, and communicate through the wireless communication resources accessed in the second BWP according to the transmission of the BWP-switching information. The device may release the wireless communication resources in the first BWP immediately after transmitting the BWP-switching information. Finally, at the beginning of the on-duration of the discontinuous reception period, the device may specify at least some of the input parameter values ​​to indicate a high priority request for accessing wireless communication resources accessible to the device.

[0018] The present invention is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the themes described in this document. Therefore, it should be understood that the above features are only examples and should not be interpreted as narrowing the scope or essence of the themes described in this invention in any way. Other features, aspects and advantages of the themes described herein will become apparent through the following detailed description, drawings and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Figure 1 An exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication system according to some embodiments is shown;

[0020] Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary base station and an exemplary access point in communication with an exemplary wireless user equipment (UE) device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0021] Figure 3 shows an exemplary simplified block diagram of a UE according to some embodiments;

[0022] Figure 4 shows an exemplary simplified block diagram of a base station according to some embodiments;

[0023] Figure 5 shows an exemplary simplified block diagram of an exemplary cellular communication circuit according to some embodiments;

[0024] Figure 6 shows an exemplary timing diagram illustrating general operation of a UE supporting C-DRX over a period of time;

[0025] Figure 7 An exemplary simplified block diagram illustrating a listen-before-talk (LBT) process controller is shown according to some embodiments;

[0026] Figure 8An exemplary diagram illustrating use of an LBT process for resources switched with bandwidth parts (BWP) according to some embodiments is shown; and

[0027] Fig. 9 An exemplary timeline diagram illustrating the use of an LBT process for managing real-time data traffic over NR-U is shown in accordance with some embodiments.

[0028] Although the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereof are not intended to limit this document to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, their purpose is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives that fall within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] Acronyms

[0030] Various acronyms are used throughout this application. The definitions of the most prominent acronyms used that may appear throughout this application are as follows:

[0031] ACK: Acknowledgement

[0032] ■ARQ: Automatic Repeat Request (also: Automatic Repeat Query)

[0033] ■BPSK: Binary Phase Shift Keying

[0034] ■BS: Base Station

[0035] ■BWP: Bandwidth Part

[0036] ■C-DRX: Connected Mode Discontinuous Reception

[0037] ■CCE: Control Channel Element

[0038] ■CFI: Control Format Indicator

[0039] ■COT: Channel Occupancy Time

[0040] ■CQI: Channel Quality Indicator

[0041] ■CRC: Cyclic Redundancy Check

[0042] ■CWS: Contention Window Size

[0043] ■DCI: Downlink Control Information

[0044] ■DL: Downlink (from BS to UE)

[0045] ■DL-SCH: Downlink Shared Channel

[0046] ■DRX: Discontinuous Reception

[0047] ■eCCA: Extended Clear Channel Assessment

[0048] ■ED:Energy Detection

[0049] ■eNB: Evolved Node B (base station in LTE / E-UTRAN)

[0050] FDD: Frequency Division Duplex

[0051] ■FEC: Forward Error Correction

[0052] gNB: Next-generation Node B (base station in NR / 5G-NR)

[0053] GPS: Global Positioning System

[0054] GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

[0055] ■HARQ: Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

[0056] ■ITS: Intelligent Transmission System

[0057] LBT: Listen before you speak

[0058] LTE: Long Term Evolution

[0059] ■MAC: Media Access Control (layer)

[0060] MIMO: Multiple Input Multiple Output

[0061] ■NACK: Negative Acknowledgement

[0062] NR: New Radio (also known as 5G-NR)

[0063] NW: Network

[0064] OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

[0065] ■PCFICH: Physical Control Format Indicator Channel

[0066] ■PDCCH: Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0067] ■PDSCH: Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0068] ■PDU: Protocol Data Unit

[0069] ■PHICH: Physical HARQ Indicator Channel

[0070] ■PHY: Physical (layer)

[0071] ■PUSCH: Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0072] PSD: Power Spectral Density

[0073] QoS: Quality of Service

[0074] QPSK: Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

[0075] ■REG: Resource Element Group

[0076] ■RNTI: Radio Network Temporary Identifier

[0077] RRC: Radio Resource Control

[0078] RSRP: Reference Signal Received Power

[0079] ■RSSI: Reference Signal Strength Indicator

[0080] RX: Receive

[0081] SINR: Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio

[0082] TB: Transfer Block

[0083] ■TDD: Time Division Duplex

[0084] ■TTI: Transmission Time Interval

[0085] TX: Transmit

[0086] UE: User Equipment

[0087] ■UL: Uplink (from UE to BS)

[0088] ■ULSCH: Uplink Shared Channel

[0089] ■UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

[0090] ■URLLC: Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication.

[0091] the term

[0092] The following is a glossary of terms that will appear in this application:

[0093] Memory medium - any of various types of non-transitory memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory medium" is intended to include installation media, for example, CD-ROM, floppy disk or tape device; computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory such as flash memory, magnetic media, for example, hard disk drive or optical storage device; registers, or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium may also include other types of memory or a combination thereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a first computer system executing a program, or may be located in a different second computer system connected to the first computer system via a network such as the Internet. In the latter example, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer system for execution. The term "memory medium" may include two or more memory media that may reside in different locations in different computer systems connected, for example, via a network. The memory medium may store program instructions (e.g., in the form of a computer program) that may be executed by one or more processors.

[0094] Carrier Medium—storage media as described above, and physical transmission media such as a bus, network, and / or other physical transmission media that transport signals such as electrical, electromagnetic or digital signals.

[0095] Programmable hardware element - includes various hardware devices that include multiple programmable function blocks connected via programmable interconnects. Examples include FPGA (field programmable gate array), PLD (programmable logic device), FPOA (field programmable object array), and CPLD (complex PLD). Programmable function blocks can vary from fine-grained (combinational logic unit or lookup table) to coarse-grained (arithmetic logic unit or processor core). Programmable hardware elements may also be referred to as "configurable logic units".

[0096] Computer system (or computer)—any of various types of computing or processing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), a mainframe computer system, a workstation, a network appliance, an Internet appliance, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a television system, a grid computing system, or other devices or combinations of devices. In general, the term "computer system" can be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combination of devices) having at least one processor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

[0097] User Equipment (UE) (or "UE device") - any of various types of computer system devices that perform wireless communications. Also referred to as wireless communication devices, many of which may be mobile and / or portable. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smart phones (e.g., iPhone TM, based on Android TM phones) and tablets such as iPads TM 、Samsung Galaxy TM etc., gaming devices (such as Sony PlayStation TM , Microsoft XBox TM etc.), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS TM , PlayStation Portable TM 、Gameboy Advance TM , iPod TM ), laptops, wearable devices (e.g., Apple Watch TM , Google Glass TM ), PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices or other handheld devices, etc. Various other types of devices may include Wi-Fi communication capabilities or both cellular and Wi-Fi communication capabilities and / or other wireless communication capabilities (e.g., via short-range radio access technologies (SRAT) such as BLUETOOTH TM In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" can be broadly defined to cover any electronic device, computing device and / or telecommunication device (or combination of devices) capable of wireless communication and may also be portable / mobile.

[0098] Wireless device (or wireless communication device) - any of various types of computer system devices that perform wireless communication using WLAN communication, SRAT communication, Wi-Fi communication, etc. As used herein, the term "wireless device" may refer to a UE device as defined above or a fixed device such as a fixed wireless client or a wireless base station. For example, a wireless device may be a wireless station of any type of 802.11 system, such as an access point (AP) or a client station (UE), or a wireless station of any type of cellular communication system that communicates according to a cellular radio access technology (e.g., LTE, CDMA, GSM), such as a base station or a cellular phone.

[0099] Communication device - any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communication, where the communication may be wired or wireless. A communication device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed at a location. A wireless device is an example of a communication device. A UE is another example of a communication device.

[0100] Base Station (BS)—The term "base station" has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone system or radio system.

[0101] Processor—refers to various elements (e.g., circuits) or combinations of elements that are capable of performing functions in a device (e.g., in a user equipment device or in a cellular network device). Processors may include, for example: general purpose processors and associated memory, portions or circuits of individual processor cores, entire processor cores or processing circuit cores, processing circuit arrays or processor arrays, circuits such as ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), programmable hardware elements such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and any various combinations of the foregoing.

[0102] Channel - a medium used to transmit information from a sender (transmitter) to a receiver. It should be noted that since the characteristics of the term "channel" may vary according to different wireless protocols, the term "channel" used in the present invention may be considered to be used in a manner that conforms to the standards of the type of device to which the term is used. In some standards, the channel width may be variable (e.g., depending on device capabilities, frequency band conditions, etc.). For example, LTE may support scalable channel bandwidths of 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz. In contrast, a WLAN channel may be 22 MHz wide, while a Bluetooth channel may be 1 MHz wide. Other protocols and standards may include different definitions of channels. In addition, some standards may define and use multiple types of channels, such as different channels for uplink or downlink and / or different channels for different purposes such as data, control information, etc.

[0103] Frequency band—The term “frequency band” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a segment of the spectrum (eg, radio frequency spectrum) in which channels are used or set aside for the same purpose.

[0104] Wi-Fi—The term "Wi-Fi" has the full scope of its usual meaning and includes at least wireless communication networks or RATs that are served by wireless LAN (WLAN) access points and provide connectivity to the Internet through these access points. Most modern Wi-Fi networks (or WLAN networks) are based on the IEEE 802.11 standard and are marketed under the name "Wi-Fi". Wi-Fi (WLAN) networks are distinct from cellular networks.

[0105] Automatic—refers to an action or operation performed by a computer system (e.g., software executed by a computer system) or a device (e.g., a circuit, a programmable hardware element, an ASIC, etc.) without the need for user input to directly specify or perform the action or operation. Thus, the term "automatic" is in contrast to a user manually performing or specifying an action, where the user provides input to directly perform the action. An automatic process may be initiated by input provided by a user, but subsequent actions performed "automatically" are not specified by the user, i.e., are not performed "manually," where the user specifies each action to be performed. For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typing in information, selecting checkboxes, radio selections, etc.) is manually filling out the form, even though the computer system must update the form in response to the user action. The form may be automatically filled out by a computer system, where the computer system (e.g., software executed on the computer system) analyzes the fields of the form and fills out the form without any user input specifying the answers to the fields. As indicated above, a user may invoke automatic filling out of a form, but not participate in the actual filling out of the form (e.g., the user does not manually specify the answers to the fields but rather they are automatically completed). This specification provides various examples of operations that are automatically performed in response to actions taken by a user.

[0106] Approximately - refers to a value that is close to a correct or exact value. For example, approximately can refer to a value that is within 1% to 10% of an exact (or desired) value. However, it should be noted that the actual threshold value (or tolerance) may depend on the application. For example, in some embodiments, "approximately" may mean within 0.1% of some specified or desired value, while in various other embodiments, the threshold value may be, for example, 2%, 3%, 5%, etc., depending on the expectations or requirements of a particular application.

[0107] Concurrency - refers to parallel execution or implementation, where tasks, processes, or programs are executed in an at least partially overlapping manner. For example, concurrency can be achieved using "strong" or strict parallelism, where tasks are executed (at least partially) in parallel on respective computing elements, or using "weak parallelism", where tasks are executed in an interleaved manner (e.g., by time multiplexing of execution threads).

[0108] Station (STA)—The term "station" herein refers to any device that has the ability to communicate wirelessly (e.g., using the 802.11 protocol). A station may be a laptop, desktop PC, PDA, access point, or Wi-Fi phone, or any type of device similar to a UE. A STA may be fixed, mobile, portable, or wearable. Generally speaking, in wireless networking terminology, a station (STA) broadly encompasses any device that has wireless communication capabilities, and the terms station (STA), wireless client (UE), and node (BS) are therefore often used interchangeably.

[0109] DCI—refers to Downlink Control Information. There are various DCI formats in PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel), for example in LTE. A DCI format is a predefined format in which downlink control information is packaged / formed and transmitted in PDCCH.

[0110] Configured to - Various components may be described as being "configured to" perform one or more tasks. In such environments, "configured to" is a broad statement that generally means "having a structure" that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently performing the task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors can be configured to electrically connect a module to another module even when the two modules are not connected). In some environments, "configured to" can be a broad statement that generally means "having a circuit system that performs one or more tasks during operation." Thus, the component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently turned on. Typically, circuits that form the structure corresponding to "configured to" may include hardware circuits.

[0111] For ease of description, various components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such descriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase "configured to". The description of a component being configured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended to not invoke the interpretation of the sixth paragraph of Section 112 of Title 35 of the United States Code on that component.

[0112] Figure 1 and Figure 2 —Communications systems

[0113] Figure 1 An exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication system according to some embodiments is shown. Note that Figure 1 The system is only an example of one possible system, and the embodiments may be implemented in any of a variety of systems as desired.

[0114] As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a base station 102, which communicates with one or more user equipment 106A, user equipment 106B, etc. to user equipment 106N through a transmission medium. Each user equipment may be referred to as a "user equipment" (UE) or a UE device in this document. Therefore, user equipment 106 is referred to as a UE or a UE device. Various UE devices in the UE device may implement a listen-before-talk (LBT) process according to various embodiments disclosed herein.

[0115] Base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site, and may include hardware for enabling wireless communication with UEs 106A to 106N. Base station 102 may also be configured to communicate with network 100, such as a core network of a cellular service provider, a telecommunications network such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, a neutral host or various CBRS (Citizen Broadband Radio Service) deployments, and various possibilities. Therefore, base station 102 may facilitate communication between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. The communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a "cell". It should also be noted that a "cell" may also refer to a logical identity for a given coverage area at a given frequency. In general, any independent cellular wireless coverage area may be referred to as a "cell". In such a case, a base station may be located at a specific intersection of three cells. In this uniform topology, a base station may serve three 120-degree beam width areas called cells. Moreover, for carrier aggregation, small cells, relays, etc. may all represent cells. Thus, particularly in carrier aggregation, there may be primary cells and secondary cells that may serve at least partially overlapping coverage areas but on different respective frequencies. For example, a base station may serve any number of cells, and the cells served by a base station may or may not be collocated (e.g., a remote radio head). Also as used herein, with respect to a UE, a base station may sometimes be considered to represent a network in light of the UE's uplink and downlink communications. Thus, a UE that communicates with one or more base stations in a network may also be interpreted as a UE that communicates with the network, and may also be considered to be at least a portion of a UE that communicates on or through a network.

[0116] The base station 102 and the user equipment may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using any of a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), which are also referred to as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LAA / LTE-U, 5G-NR (abbreviated as NR), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX, etc. It is noted that if the base station 102 is implemented in the context of LTE, it may alternatively be referred to as an "eNodeB" or "eNB". It is noted that if the base station 102 is implemented in the context of 5G NR, it may alternatively be referred to as a "gNodeB" or "gNB". In some embodiments, the base station 102 (e.g., an eNB in ​​an LTE network or a gNB in ​​an NR network) may communicate with at least one UE or a group of UEs that perform an LBT process according to various embodiments disclosed herein. Depending on a given application or specific considerations, for convenience, some different RATs may be functionally grouped according to overall defining characteristics. For example, all cellular RATs may be collectively considered to represent a first (form / type) RAT, while Wi-Fi communications may be considered to represent a second RAT. In other cases, individual cellular RATs may be individually considered to be different RATs. For example, when distinguishing between cellular communications and Wi-Fi communications, "first RAT" may collectively refer to all cellular RATs considered, while "second RAT" may refer to Wi-Fi. Similarly, when applicable, different forms of Wi-Fi communications (e.g., over 2.4 GHz vs. over 5 GHz) may be considered to correspond to different RATs. In addition, cellular communications performed according to a given RAT (e.g., LTE or NR) may be distinguished from each other based on the spectrum in which those communications are performed. For example, LTE or NR communications may be performed on a primary licensed spectrum as well as on a secondary spectrum such as an unlicensed spectrum. In general, the use of various terms and expressions will always be clearly indicated with respect to the context of the various applications / implementations considered and in that context.

[0117] As shown, base station 102 may also be configured to communicate with network 100 (e.g., a cellular service provider's core network, a telecommunications network such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, among other possibilities). Thus, base station 102 may facilitate communications between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. In particular, cellular base station 102 may provide UE 106 with various communication capabilities, such as voice, SMS, and / or data services.

[0118] Base station 102 and other similar base stations (such as base stations 102B...102N) operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards can therefore be provided as a network of cells that can provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UE 106A-N and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0119] Thus, although base station 102 may function as Figure 1 106A-N, but each UE 106 may also be able to receive signals from (and possibly be within communication range of) one or more other cells (which may be provided by base stations 102B-N and / or any other base stations), which may be referred to as "neighboring cells." Such cells may also be able to facilitate communications between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. Such cells may include "macro" cells, "micro" cells, "pico" cells, and / or cells of any various other granularity of service area size. For example, in Figure 1 Base stations 102 and 102B shown in FIG. 1 may be macro cells, while base station 102N may be a micro cell. Other configurations are also possible.

[0120] In some embodiments, base station 102 may be a next generation base station, e.g., a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station or "gNB". In some embodiments, a gNB may be connected to a legacy Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network and / or to a New Radio Communications Core (NRC) network. In addition, a gNB cell may include one or more transmission and reception points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating in accordance with 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs within one or more gNBs.

[0121] As described above, UE 106 may be able to communicate using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, UE 106 may be configured to communicate using any or all of 3GPP cellular communication standards (such as LTE or NR) or 3GPP2 cellular communication standards (such as cellular communication standards in the CDMA2000 series of cellular communication standards). In some embodiments, UE 106 may be configured to perform LBT processes according to various embodiments as disclosed herein when establishing wireless communication with base station 102. Base station 102 and other similar base stations operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards may therefore be provided as one or more cell networks, which may provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping services to UE 106 and similar devices over a wide geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0122] UE 106 may also or alternatively be configured to use WLAN, BLUETOOTHTM 、BLUETOOTH TM The UE 106 may communicate with the network 100 through one or more base stations or through other devices, stations, or any apparatus not explicitly shown but considered to be part of the network 100. Therefore, the UE 106 communicating with the network may be interpreted as the UE 106 communicating with one or more network nodes that are considered to be part of the network, and may interact with the UE 106 to communicate with the UE 106, and in some cases affect at least some communication parameters and / or the use of communication resources of the UE 106.

[0123] In addition, for example Figure 1 As shown in , at least some UEs (e.g., UE 106D and 106E) may represent vehicles that communicate with each other and with base station 102, for example, via cellular communications such as 3GPP LTE and / or 5G-NR communications. Additionally, UE 106F may represent pedestrians that are communicating and / or interacting with the vehicles represented by UE 106D and 106E in a similar manner. In the context of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications (such as communications specified by 3GPP TS 22.185 V 14.3.0, etc.), disclosed in Figure 1 Various aspects of a vehicle communicating in a network illustrated in FIG.

[0124] Figure 2 An exemplary user device 106 (e.g., one of devices 106-A through 106-N) is shown communicating with a base station 102 and an access point 112 according to some embodiments. The UE 106 may be a device having cellular communication capabilities and non-cellular communication capabilities (e.g., BLUETOOTH TM, Wi-Fi, etc.), such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, a computer or a tablet computer, or almost any type of wireless device. UE 106 may include a processor configured to execute program instructions stored in a memory. UE 106 may execute any of the method implementation schemes described in the present invention by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or in addition, UE 106 may include programmable hardware elements, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) configured to execute any of the method implementation schemes described in the present invention or any part of any of the method implementation schemes described in the present invention. UE 106 may be configured to communicate using any one of a plurality of wireless communication protocols. For example, UE 106 may be configured to communicate using two or more of CDMA 2000, LTE, LTE-A, NR, WLAN, or GNSS. Other combinations of wireless communication standards are also possible.

[0125] UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols according to one or more RAT standards, such as those previously described above. In some embodiments, UE 106 may share one or more parts of a receive chain and / or transmit chain between multiple wireless communication standards. The shared radio component may include a single antenna, or may include multiple antennas for performing wireless communication (e.g., for MIMO). Alternatively, UE 106 may include an independent transmit chain and / or receive chain (e.g., including independent antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol configured to communicate with it. As another alternative, UE 106 may include one or more radio components or radio circuits shared between multiple wireless communication protocols, as well as one or more radio components used exclusively by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, UE 106 may include a radio for communicating using any of LTE or CDMA2000 1xRTT or 5G-NR (NR) and / or using Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH. TM Each of the radio circuits communicates with each other. Other configurations are also possible.

[0126] Figure 3 —Exemplary UE

[0127] Figure 3A block diagram of an exemplary UE 106 according to some embodiments is shown. As shown, the UE 106 may include a system on chip (SOC) 300, which may include parts for various purposes. For example, as shown, the SOC 300 may include a processor 302 that can execute program instructions for the UE 106, and a display circuit 304 that can perform graphics processing and provide display signals to a display 360. The processor 302 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 340, and / or other circuits or devices (such as display circuit 304, radio circuit 330, connector I / F 320 and / or display 360), which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor 302 and convert those addresses into locations in a memory (e.g., memory 306, read-only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310). The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table conversion or setting. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as part of the processor 302.

[0128] As shown, SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of UE 106. For example, UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g., including NAND flash memory 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for coupling to a computer system), a display 360, and wireless communication or radio circuits 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR, CDMA2000, BLUETOOTH TM , Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.). The UE device 106 may include at least one antenna (e.g., 335a), and may include multiple antennas (e.g., as shown by antennas 335a and 335b) for performing wireless communications with base stations and / or other devices. Antennas 335a and 335b are shown by way of example, and the UE device 106 may include fewer or more antennas. In general, one or more antennas are collectively referred to as antennas 335. For example, the UE device 106 may use antenna 335 to perform wireless communications with the aid of radio circuitry 330. As described above, in some embodiments, the UE may be configured to perform wireless communications using multiple wireless communication standards.

[0129] As further described later herein, the UE 106 (and / or the base station 102) may include hardware and software components for implementing at least the method for the UE 106 to perform the LBT process. The one or more processors 302 of the UE device 106 may be configured to implement a portion or all of the methods described herein, for example by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments, the one or more processors 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). In addition, as Figure 3 As shown, according to various embodiments disclosed herein, the processor 302 may be coupled to other components and / or may interoperate with other components to implement communication combined with the LBT process or LBT process control through the UE 106. Specifically, according to various embodiments disclosed herein, the processor 302 may be coupled to Figure 3 Other components shown and / or may be used with Figure 3 The other components shown in the figure interoperate to facilitate UE 106 to communicate in a manner that attempts to enhance the LBT process. One or more processors 302 can also implement various other applications and / or end-user applications running on UE 106. It should also be noted that processor 302 can represent multiple processing elements that can interoperate to execute any or all of various applications and end-user applications and / or perform part or all of the methods described herein.

[0130] In some embodiments, the radio circuit 330 may include a separate controller dedicated to controlling communications for each respective RAT standard. Figure 3 As shown, the radio circuit 330 may include a Wi-Fi controller 356, a cellular controller (eg, a 3GPP LTE controller and / or a 3GPP NR controller) 352, and a BLUETOOTH controller. TM Controller 354, and in at least some embodiments, one or more or all of these controllers may be implemented as respective integrated circuits (referred to as ICs or chips) that communicate with each other and with SOC 300 (more specifically, with processor 302). For example, Wi-Fi controller 356 may communicate with cellular controller 352 via a cell-ISM link or WCI interface, and / or BLUETOOTH TM Controller 354 may communicate with cellular controller 352 via a cell-ISM link or the like. Although three separate controllers are shown within radio circuitry 330, other embodiments may have fewer or more similar controllers for various different RATs that may be implemented in UE device 106. For example, in Figure 5At least one exemplary block diagram of some embodiments of the cellular controller 352 is shown in FIG. 1 and is further described below.

[0131] Figure 4 —Exemplary block diagram of a base station

[0132] Figure 4 1 shows a block diagram of an exemplary base station 102 according to some embodiments. Note that Figure 4 The base station of is only one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 or other circuit or device, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor 404 and convert these addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450).

[0133] Base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide access to the telephone network described above. Figure 1 and Figure 2 The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a plurality of devices such as the UE device 106 of the telephone network described in the embodiment of the present invention. The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also be configured or alternatively configured to couple to a cellular network, such as a core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to a plurality of devices such as the UE device 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may be coupled to the telephone network via the core network, and / or the core network may provide the telephone network (e.g., in other UE devices served by the cellular service provider).

[0134] The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434a, and may include multiple antennas (e.g., as shown by antennas 434a and 434b) for performing wireless communications with mobile devices and / or other devices. Antennas 434a and 434b are shown as examples, and the base station 102 may include fewer or more antennas. In general, one or more antennas are collectively referred to as antennas 434. Antenna 434 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver, and may be further configured to communicate with UE device 106 via radio circuit 430. Antenna 434 communicates with radio circuit 430 via communication chain 432. Communication chain 432 may be a receiving chain, a transmitting chain, or both. Radio circuit 430 may be designed to communicate via various wireless telecommunication standards, including but not limited to LTE, LTE-A, 5G-NR (NR), WCDMA, CDMA2000, etc. One or more processors 404 of the base station 102 can operate by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium) to enable the base station 102 to communicate with a UE device that performs the LBT process as disclosed herein. Alternatively, the processor 404 can be configured as a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) or a combination thereof. In the case of certain RATs (e.g., Wi-Fi), the base station 102 can be designed as an access point (AP), in which case the network port 470 can be implemented to provide access to a wide area network and / or one or more local area networks, for example, it can include at least one Ethernet port, and the radio circuit 430 can be designed to communicate according to the Wi-Fi standard. The base station 102 can operate according to the various methods disclosed herein for communicating with a mobile device capable of performing the LBT process disclosed herein.

[0135] Figure 5 —Exemplary Cellular Communications Circuit

[0136] Figure 5 An exemplary simplified block diagram of an exemplary cellular controller 352 according to some embodiments is shown. Note that Figure 5The block diagram of the cellular communication circuitry of is only one example of possible cellular communication circuitry; other circuitry, such as circuitry that includes or is coupled to sufficient antennas for different RATs to perform uplink activities using separate antennas, or circuitry that includes or is coupled to fewer antennas, such as circuitry that can be shared between multiple RATs, is also possible. According to some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 352 may be included in a communication device such as the communication device 106 described above. As described above, the communication device 106 may be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or mobile station, a wireless device or wireless station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, or portable computing device), a tablet computer, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices.

[0137] Cellular communication circuitry 352 may be (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) coupled to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335a-b and 336 as shown. In some embodiments, cellular communication circuitry 352 may include dedicated receive chains (including and / or coupled to (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) dedicated processors and / or radio components) for multiple RATs (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR). For example, Figure 5 As shown, the cellular communication circuit 352 may include a first modem 510 and a second modem 520. The first modem 510 may be configured for communication according to a first RAT (e.g., such as LTE or LTE-A), and the second modem 520 may be configured for communication according to a second RAT (e.g., such as 5G NR).

[0138] As shown, the first modem 510 may include one or more processors 512 and a memory 516 in communication with the processor 512. The modem 510 may communicate with a radio frequency (RF) front end 530. The RF front end 530 may include circuits for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 530 may include a receiving circuit (RX) 532 and a transmitting circuit (TX) 534. In some embodiments, the receiving circuit 532 may communicate with a downlink (DL) front end 550, which may include circuits for receiving radio signals via an antenna 335a.

[0139] Similarly, the second modem 520 may include one or more processors 522 and a memory 526 in communication with the processor 522. The modem 520 may communicate with the RF front end 540. The RF front end 540 may include circuits for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 540 may include a receiving circuit 542 and a transmitting circuit 544. In some embodiments, the receiving circuit 542 may communicate with the DL front end 560, which may include circuits for receiving radio signals via the antenna 335b.

[0140] In some embodiments, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuit 534 to an uplink (UL) front end 572. In addition, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuit 544 to the UL front end 572. The UL front end 572 may include circuitry for transmitting radio signals via the antenna 336. Thus, when the cellular communication circuit 352 receives an instruction to transmit according to a first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuit 534 and the UL front end 572) supported by the first modem 510, the switch 570 may be switched to a first state that allows the first modem 510 to transmit signals according to the first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuit 534 and the UL front end 572). Similarly, when the cellular communication circuit 352 receives an instruction to transmit according to a second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuit 544 and the UL front end 572) supported by the second modem 520, the switch 570 may be switched to a second state that allows the second modem 520 to transmit signals according to the second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuit 544 and the UL front end 572).

[0141] As described herein, the first modem 510 and / or the second modem 520 may include hardware and software components for implementing any of the various features and techniques described herein. For example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium), the processors 512, 522 may be configured to implement part or all of the features described herein. Alternatively (or in addition), the processors 512, 522 may be configured as programmable hardware elements, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Alternatively (or in addition), in combination with one or more of the other components 530, 532, 534, 540, 542, 544, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336, the processors 512, 522 may be configured to implement part or all of the features described herein.

[0142] In addition, as described herein, the processors 512, 522 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processors 512, 522 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processors 512, 522. In addition, each integrated circuit may include circuits (e.g., first circuits, second circuits, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processors 512, 522.

[0143] In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuit 352 may include only one transmit / receive chain. For example, the cellular communication circuit 352 may not include the modem 520, the RF front end 540, the DL front end 560, and / or the antenna 335b. As another example, the cellular communication circuit 352 may not include the modem 510, the RF front end 530, the DL front end 550, and / or the antenna 335a. In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuit 352 may also not include the switch 570, and the RF front end 530 or the RF front end 540 may communicate with the UL front end 572, for example, directly.

[0144] C-DRX operation mode

[0145] Discontinuous reception (or DRX) is an example of a power saving technique developed to save power in transceiver circuits. In a device utilizing DRX, if there is no information (e.g., data packets) to be received or transmitted, portions of the wireless circuitry may be turned off. The wireless circuitry may be periodically turned on to determine if there is information to be received, and if such determination indicates that no new information is incoming, the wireless circuitry is then turned off again. A device utilizing DRX may determine from a header in a transmitted data packet whether the information contained in the data packet is intended for the device. If the information is not relevant to the device, the circuitry may be turned off for at least a portion of the remainder of the data packet, and then turned on before the next header. In addition, a neighboring cell search may be performed when the wireless circuitry is powered on during operation in the DRX mode. A neighboring cell search may be performed so that a cell can be reselected and a mobile device can be switched from one cell to another. DRX may be enabled in different network connection states, including a connected mode and an idle mode. In a connected DRX (C-DRX) mode, the UE listens to downlink (DL) data packets following a specified pattern determined by a base station (BS). In Idle DRX (I-DRX) mode, the UE listens to paging from the BS to determine whether it needs to re-enter the network and acquire uplink (UL) timing.

[0146] The parameters of the DRX cycle can be configured by the BS through different timers: The DRX inactivity timer indicates the time to wait before enabling DRX in the number of consecutive subframes. Short DRX cycles and long DRX cycles are defined to allow the BS to adjust the DRX cycle based on the application. The DRX short cycle timer can be defined to determine when to convert to a long DRX cycle. When there is no reception of a data packet for an extended period of time after successfully receiving a data packet, the BS can trigger an RRC connection release and the UE can enter the RRC IDLE state, during which idle DRX can be enabled. The on-duration timer can be used to determine the number of frames in which the UE will read the DL control channel in each DRX cycle before entering the power saving mode. The allowed values ​​are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 and 200. During the idle DRX mode, the UE can monitor one paging time (PO) per DRX cycle, which is one subframe.

[0147] Figure 6 Various aspects of general C-DRX operation are shown. As indicated at 602, the UE 106 may operate in an active state and may perform one or more uplink and / or downlink (UL / DL) transmissions (e.g., transmitting uplink data and / or receiving downlink data). At 604, an inactivity timer may be started. In 602, the inactivity timer may be started at the end of an active transmission. Note that the inactivity timer may have been started one or more times during the active transmission in 602, but may be reset each time due to continued activity (transmission) until activity is no longer observed at 604, at which point it may run until expiration at 608. The inactivity timer may have any length as desired; some examples of possible inactivity timer lengths may include 100ms, 80ms, 50ms, 40ms, or any other value.

[0148] In 606, between the initiation (at 604) and expiration (at 608) of the inactivity timer, the UE 106 may not perform any uplink or downlink transmissions, but may continue to operate in an active state and may monitor one or more communication channels (e.g., PDCCH) to obtain a downlink grant. At 608, the inactivity timer may expire. At this point, since sufficient time periods of data communication inactivity have been observed (e.g., as indicated by the expiration of the inactivity timer), the UE 106 may transition to a reduced power state (DRX). During the time period that the UE 106 operates in the reduced power state, the UE 106 may power off and / or reduce the power to one or more components (such as baseband logic components and / or radio components).

[0149] At 610, the UE 106 may "wake up" and re-enter an active state. The UE 106 may wake up at a time specified by the schedule, for example, the time may be notified by a base station (e.g., an eNode-B in LTE or a gNode-B in NR). At a specified time (or after a specified interval), if there is any downlink data pending, the base station may notify the UE 106 of a downlink grant for the UE 106, so the UE 106 may check (e.g., monitor a communication channel such as a PDCCH) for a downlink grant during that time. If necessary, one or more other functions may also be performed during that time. This time period may also be referred to as an "on duration" in C-DRX operation. According to some embodiments, the on duration may last for a specified length of time, such as 5ms or 10ms, or another length of time specified, for example, by the 3GPP 36.331 specification; alternatively, the on duration may last until certain functions have been performed and may end when no further specified functions need to be performed. At 612, the on-duration may end, and if no downlink grant is received during the on-duration, the UE 106 may return to "sleep" and transition back to a reduced power state. Any number of subsequent cycles of sleep (DRX) and wake-up (on-duration) may be performed as desired.

[0150] Note that the UE 106 may also be configured to switch between C-DRX cycles of different lengths. For example, as shown, the UE 106 may perform up to a predetermined number (such as 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.) of "short C-DRX" cycles 514 (which may last for 20ms, 40ms, 80ms, or any other time length), and if no uplink or downlink transmission is performed at the end of the predetermined number of cycles, the UE 106 may perform one or more "long C-DRX" cycles 616 (which may last for 80ms, 160ms, 320ms, or any other time length, for example, as specified by 3GPP 36.331), which may specify a longer reduced power state operation before waking up the active state on duration operation. The long C-DRX cycle may continue until further active communication occurs (e.g., which may be initiated by the UE 106 or the network), or one or more other conditions occur that may cause the UE 106 to switch out of the long C-DRX cycle. If active communications are initiated again at some subsequent time, the UE 106 may perform similar steps (e.g., monitoring activity / inactivity via an inactivity timer and initiating one or more C-DRX cycles if sufficient inactivity is seen between active communications), e.g., depending on communication activity.

[0151] Listen before talking (LBT) process

[0152] As mentioned above, the standardization of NR (similar to the standardization of LTE) covers a wide range of use cases, and given the diversity of possible applications and scenarios, provisions are made for operating in different frequency bands, including frequency bands in unlicensed spectrum. Therefore, the implementation of the enhanced LBT process (e.g., in LTE and / or NR) can play an effective role in improving the mitigation of coexistence issues that may affect devices operating according to different wireless communication standards / protocols in the same (unlicensed) frequency band. This article provides an example of LBT deployment in an NR (5G-NR) system, and specifically as implemented in a UE. However, the various systems and methods for the enhanced LBT process disclosed herein are also applicable to all communication systems that adopt LBT or LBT processes similar to LBT intent and operation, and are also applicable to the base station side. For example, the enhanced LBT process disclosed herein can be implemented on the UE and base station side in both LTE-U and NR-U systems. For example, the enhanced LBT process can be implemented in eNB and gNB and UEs in LTE (LTE-U) and NR (NR-U) systems, respectively.

[0153] As mentioned previously, different services and different types of signaling may have different real-time and quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as when considered in the context of NR. For example, ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) of intelligent transport systems (ITS) requires real-time data transmission, while simple data downloads may be characterized by a certain level of tolerance for communication delays. Therefore, the enhanced LBT process may facilitate finer control of resource allocation based on different service and signaling requirements, ultimately leading to more efficient resource usage and more reliable wireless communications.

[0154] Thus, in some embodiments, the LBT (process) controller may use some or all of the following input information to determine certain output parameters, which in turn may be used to prioritize which wireless communication resources are allocated to devices:

[0155] The priority of the requested transfer;

[0156] The requested channel occupancy time;

[0157] ● the requested frequency resource; and / or

[0158] • Requested transmit power spectral density.

[0159] The LBT controller may be used to determine resource allocation when performing bandwidth part (BWP) switching, real-time traffic management over NR-U, and / or when performing various other applicable wireless communication tasks.

[0160] Figure 7An exemplary block diagram illustrating an LBT process controller according to some embodiments is shown. Figure 6 As shown, the LBT controller 702 may include an LBT parameter portion 704 and an accumulated credit / penalty portion 706 (for simplicity, the accumulated credit / penalty portion may also be referred to as an access history portion) 706. The LBT controller 702 may adjust several output parameters for controlling the LBT process. The output parameters may include an energy detection (ED) threshold, a contention window size (CWS; a period of time during which the network operates in contention mode), and / or an extended clear channel assessment (eCCA) bypass (where CCA refers to determining whether the medium / resource is idle and may include carrier sensing and energy detection).

[0161] In addition, the LBT controller 702 may include several inputs or input parameters for adjusting the output parameters. The input parameters may include a requested transmission priority or a requested urgency of the transmission (e.g., from the service and / or from signaling), a requested channel occupancy time (COT), a requested frequency resource, and / or a requested transmission power spectral density. It should be noted that although Figure 7 The embodiments illustrated in are shown as including certain parameters, but various embodiments may introduce additional parameters, or they may feature different combinations of parameters on both the input and output sides of the LBT parameter portion 704 while maintaining the overall structure and operation of the LBT controller 702.

[0162] A requested transmission priority (or urgency of requested transmission) parameter may be included to take into account the priority / urgency of the expected transmission during the LBT process. In addition, the overall selection of medium (resources or frequency resources) utilization across UEs may be guaranteed based on an access history mechanism implemented as a cumulative credit / penalty mechanism 706. In one sense, the access history mechanism 706 may be used to establish a process by which each UE is appropriately or fairly allocated resources relative to other UEs that also request resources. For example, a UE may request a high priority transmission, which may be granted to the UE via a smaller value of a CWS parameter, and / or a higher value of an ED threshold parameter, and / or a "true" value of an eCCA bypass parameter. After granting one or more resources for transmission, or after granting transmission, the UE may receive a debit (which may be considered a "penalty"), which results in an indication or instruction to the UE to provide the medium (or one or more resources) to other UEs in the next round of LBT process (or the next round of LBT control) if other UEs are also waiting for access. The debit or penalty marking may be implemented based on correspondingly adjusted output parameter values, such as by adjusting the CWS to be longer, and / or adjusting the ED threshold to be lower, and / or adjusting the eCCA bypass to "false".

[0163] The requested COT may also be considered during the LBT process or LBT control. There may be situations or circumstances where the UE may need or request real-time access to the medium (or resource) but only for a short period of time rather than a relatively long access period. In some embodiments, the LBT controller 702 may give this situation a higher priority by adjusting the corresponding values ​​of any one or more of the three output parameters as described above. Based at least on the requested COT, a credit / penalty mechanism or access history mechanism 706 may also be applied to grant access rights to the medium / resource.

[0164] The LBT controller 702 may also consider the requested transmission frequency resources during the LBT process. There may be instances or scenarios where a UE may require sparse utilization of the medium or resources, such as in the case of DCI transmissions. Because such short transmissions on sparse frequency resources (e.g., transmissions of a duration shorter than a specified duration considered to be "short duration") do not cause a significant increase in interference within the medium or frequency resources, the LBT controller 702 may give higher priority to requests for resources for such transmissions, for example, by setting a smaller CWS, and / or a higher ED threshold, and / or by enabling eCCA bypass. The access history (or credit / penalty) mechanism 706 may be applied again to ensure fairness, such as balanced access to resources across all UEs.

[0165] The requested transmit power spectral density (PSD) may also be used as an input parameter by the LBT controller 702. Since a lower transmit PSD does not produce a significant increase in interference within the medium or frequency resources, the LBT controller 702 may use the requested transmit PSD to control the priority of UE access to the medium / resources.

[0166] Use of enhanced LBT controller for bandwidth fraction switching

[0167] A carrier bandwidth part (BWP) is a set of contiguous physical resource blocks selected from a contiguous subset of common resource blocks of a given numerology on a given carrier. For the downlink, a UE may be configured with up to several (e.g. four) carrier BWPs, with only one carrier BWP being active at a given time. For the uplink, a UE may similarly be configured with up to several (e.g. four) carrier BWPs, with only one carrier BWP being active at a given time. If the UE is configured with a supplementary uplink, the UE may additionally be configured with up to four carrier BWPs in the supplementary uplink, with only one carrier BWP being active at a given time.

[0168] Figure 8An exemplary diagram illustrating the use of resource utilization / configuration / allocation of the LBT controller 702 for bandwidth part (BWP) switching according to some embodiments is shown. Without loss of generality, in Figure 8 In the example shown, the UE is configured with two BWPs, where the currently active BWP is indicated as BWP0. The UE may perform an LBT procedure for each BWP, indicating LBT for BWP0 and LBT1 for BWP1, respectively. As shown in 802, according to the current (prior art) LBT procedure, if the medium (or resource) is busy (or utilized) at BWP0 and idle at BWP1, the base station (e.g., gNB) cannot utilize BWP1 if there is no available licensed band. It should also be noted that even if a licensed band is available, the available licensed band will need to have the ability and speed to switch the active BWP from BWP0 to BWP1, which may be the case for LTE NR-U deployments with LTE as the licensed band.

[0169] However, the LBT controller 702 may be used to facilitate BWP switching for transmitting DCI. As described above, DCI transmission indicates a situation where the UE needs to sparsely utilize the medium or resources, i.e., the UE needs the resource for transmission for a duration shorter than a specified duration that is considered to be a "short duration". Since such transmission does not cause a significant increase in interference within the resource, it may be given a higher priority. Therefore, if the medium or resource currently in use is busy at BWP0 and it (they) is idle at BWP1, the UE may initiate a second, higher priority LBT process for BWP0, wherein a specific set of inputs or input parameter value requests are provided to the LBT controller 702. For example, in this case, the following input parameter requests may be provided to the LBT controller 702: sparse frequency resources (e.g., the size of the requested frequency resources is less than a specified size / threshold), short COT (e.g., a COT shorter than a specified COT), and / or transmission urgency (e.g., the transmission is indicated as urgent). In this way, after performing the higher priority LBT, the medium may be accessed at BWP0, as shown in 804. Once the UE obtains the medium / resources in BWP0, the UE may transmit a BWP-Switch DCI that only requires the use of sparse frequency resources on BWP0 for a shorter period of time, as indicated by the input parameters during the previous LBT procedure. The UE may release the medium / resources in BWP0 immediately after transmitting the BWP-Switch DCI transmission. Once the BWP-Switch DCI is successfully transmitted over BWP0, the UE may start communicating with other devices using BWP1 resources.

[0170] Using enhanced LBT controller to manage real-time traffic on NR-U

[0171] Another example of wireless communication that may benefit from the use of LBT controller 702 involves short and periodic real-time transmissions (e.g., voice or smart traffic systems). Fig. 9 An exemplary timeline diagram illustrating the use of an LBT controller 702 to manage real-time data traffic over NR-U is shown in accordance with some embodiments. As the traffic on-duration approaches, the UE may provide the following inputs to the LBT controller 702: a shorter COT (e.g., a COT shorter than a specified COT), a high priority / urgency of the requested transmission (e.g., the transmission is indicated as having a high priority), and a sparse use of frequency resources (e.g., the size of the requested frequency resources is less than a specified size). In this way, access to the medium / resources may be reduced, thereby providing a greater opportunity to deliver real-time traffic over NR-U. Similarly, because such data traffic has low utilization of the medium / resources, losses are reduced during the DRX cycle, allowing the UE to request higher priority access to the medium / resources again during the next on-duration period, such as Fig. 9 shown.

[0172] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0173] Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in any of a variety of forms. For example, in some embodiments, the present invention may be implemented as a computer-implemented method, a computer-readable storage medium, or a computer system. In other embodiments, one or more custom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs may be used to implement the present invention. In other embodiments, one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs may be used to implement the present invention.

[0174] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory storage element) may be configured to store program instructions and / or data, wherein if the program instructions are executed by a computer system, the computer system is caused to perform a method, such as any of the method embodiments described herein, or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset of any method embodiments described herein, or any combination of such subsets.

[0175] In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may be configured to include a processor (or a group of processors) and a memory medium (or a memory element), wherein the memory medium stores program instructions, wherein the processor is configured to read and execute the program instructions from the memory medium, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement any of the various method implementations described herein (or any combination of the method implementations described herein, or any subset of any method implementations described herein or any combination of such subsets). The device may be implemented in any of various forms.

[0176] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to encompass all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. A device for wireless communication, comprising: A processor is configured to cause a device to perform a listen-before-speak (LBT) process, wherein the process includes causing the processor to cause the device to: identifying one or more input parameter values ​​associated with intended wireless communications with the device; as well as adjusting one or more output parameter values ​​based on the one or more input parameter values ​​and an access history for the device, wherein the one or more output parameter values ​​relate to wireless communication resources accessible to the device, and wherein the access history tracks prior wireless communication resource accesses by the device prior to the intended wireless communication; as well as At least a portion of the wireless communication resources is used for the intended wireless communication based at least on the adjusted one or more output parameter values.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more input parameter values ​​include one or more of the following: The requested channel occupancy time; The requested frequency resource; the requested transmit power; or The priority and / or urgency of the requested transmission.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more output parameter values ​​include one or more of the following: Energy detection threshold; contention window size; or Extended clear channel assessment bypass.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to further cause the device to: When performing the LBT process: if the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is used by the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a lower future priority for the device; if the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is not being used by the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a higher future priority for the device; as well as Whether to use the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is determined based at least on a current priority level of the device as indicated by the access history.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication resources that the device can use are part of an unlicensed frequency band.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to further cause the device to: performing a second LBT process at the currently active first bandwidth part BWP, wherein the second LBT process indicates an access request having a higher priority than the access request indicated by the LBT process; using wireless communication resources in the first BWP according to the second LBT process; transmitting BWP-switching information using the wireless communication resources in the first BWP, wherein the BWP-switching information is transmitted to switch to a second BWP that is currently idle; as well as According to transmitting the BWP-switching information, communication is performed through the wireless communication resources used in the second BWP.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to further cause the device to: The wireless communication resources in the first BWP are released immediately after the transmission of the BWP-switching information.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to further cause the device to: At least some of the one or more input parameter values ​​are identified to indicate a high priority request for access to the wireless communication resources available to the device at the beginning of an on-duration during discontinuous reception.

9. A device for wireless communication, comprising: radio circuitry configured to facilitate wireless communications of the device; and a processor communicatively coupled to the radio circuit and configured to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) process, wherein as part of the LBT process, the processor is configured to: identifying one or more input parameter values ​​associated with intended wireless communications with the device; adjusting one or more output parameter values ​​based on the one or more input parameter values ​​and an access history for the device, wherein the one or more output parameter values ​​relate to wireless communication resources accessible to the device, and wherein the access history tracks prior wireless communication resource accesses by the device prior to the intended wireless communication; as well as At least a portion of the wireless communication resources is used for the intended wireless communication based at least on the adjusted one or more output parameter values.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the one or more input parameter values ​​include one or more of the following: The requested channel occupancy time; The requested frequency resource; the requested transmit power; or The priority and / or urgency of the requested transmission.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the one or more output parameter values ​​include one or more of the following: Energy detection threshold; contention window size; or Extended clear channel assessment bypass.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to: When performing the LBT process: if the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is used by the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a lower future priority for the device; if the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is not being used by the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a higher future priority for the device; as well as Whether to use the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is determined based at least on a current priority level of the device as indicated by the access history.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein the wireless communication resources that the device can use are part of an unlicensed frequency band.

14. The device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to further cause the device to: performing a second LBT process at the currently active first bandwidth part BWP, wherein the second LBT process indicates an access request having a higher priority than the access request indicated by the LBT process; using wireless communication resources in the first BWP according to the second LBT process; transmitting BWP-switching information using the wireless communication resources in the first BWP, wherein the BWP-switching information is transmitted to switch to a second BWP that is currently idle; as well as According to transmitting the BWP-switching information, communication is performed through the wireless communication resources used in the second BWP.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to further cause the device to: The wireless communication resources in the first BWP are released immediately after the transmission of the BWP-switching information.

16. The device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to further cause the device to: At least some of the one or more input parameter values ​​are identified to indicate a high priority request for access to the wireless communication resources available to the device at the beginning of an on-duration during discontinuous reception.

17. A non-transitory memory element storing instructions executable by a processor to cause a device to: performing a listen-before-talk (LBT) process, wherein as part of the LBT process, the instructions are executable by the processor to cause the device to: identifying one or more input parameter values ​​associated with intended wireless communications with the device; adjusting one or more output parameter values ​​based on the one or more input parameter values ​​and an access history of the device, wherein the one or more output parameter values ​​relate to wireless communication resources accessible to the device, and wherein the access history tracks previous wireless communication resource accesses by the device prior to an intended wireless communication; as well as At least a portion of the wireless communication resources is used for the intended wireless communication based at least on the adjusted one or more output parameter values.

18. The non-transitory memory element of claim 17, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to further cause the apparatus to: When performing the LBT process: if the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is used by the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a lower future priority for the device; if the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is not being used by the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a higher future priority for the device; as well as Whether to use the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is determined based at least on a current priority level of the device as indicated by the access history.

19. The non-transitory memory element of claim 17, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to further cause the apparatus to: performing a second LBT process at the currently active first bandwidth part BWP, wherein the second LBT process indicates an access request having a higher priority than the access request indicated by the LBT process; using wireless communication resources in the first BWP according to the second LBT process; transmitting BWP-switching information using the wireless communication resources in the first BWP, wherein the BWP-switching information is transmitted to switch to a second BWP that is currently idle; as well as According to transmitting the BWP-switching information, communication is performed through the wireless communication resources used in the second BWP.

20. The non-transitory memory element of claim 19, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to further cause the apparatus to: The wireless communication resources in the first BWP are released immediately after the transmission of the BWP-switching information.

21. A method for performing a listen-before-speak (LBT) process by a device, the method comprising: identifying one or more input parameter values ​​associated with intended wireless communications with the device; adjusting one or more output parameter values ​​based on the one or more input parameter values ​​and an access history of the device, wherein the one or more output parameter values ​​relate to wireless communication resources accessible to the device, and wherein the access history tracks previous wireless communication resource accesses by the device prior to an intended wireless communication; as well as At least one or more adjusted output parameter values ​​are tracked to utilize at least a portion of the wireless communication resources for the intended wireless communication.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the one or more input parameter values ​​include one or more of the following: The requested channel occupancy time; The requested frequency resource; the requested transmit power; or The priority and / or urgency of the requested transmission.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the one or more output parameter values ​​include one or more of the following: Energy detection threshold; contention window size; or Extended clear channel assessment bypass.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising: When performing the LBT process: if the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is used by the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a lower future priority for the device; if the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is not being used by the device, adjusting the access history to indicate a higher future priority for the device; as well as Whether to use the at least a portion of the wireless communication resources is determined based at least on a current priority level of the device as indicated by the access history.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the wireless communication resources available to the device are part of an unlicensed frequency band.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising: performing a second LBT process at the currently active first bandwidth part BWP, wherein the second LBT process indicates an access request having a higher priority than the access request indicated by the LBT process; using wireless communication resources in the first BWP according to the second LBT process; transmitting BWP-switching information using the wireless communication resources in the first BWP, wherein the BWP-switching information is transmitted to switch to a second BWP that is currently idle; as well as According to transmitting the BWP-switching information, communication is performed through the wireless communication resources used in the second BWP.

27. The method according to claim 26, further comprising: The wireless communication resources in the first BWP are released immediately after the transmission of the BWP-switching information.

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising: At least some of the one or more input parameter values ​​are identified to indicate a high priority request to access the wireless communication resources accessible to the device at the beginning of an on-duration during discontinuous reception.

29. A non-transitory computer readable memory medium having program instructions stored thereon, wherein the program instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 21 to 28.

30. A computer program product comprising program instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 21 to 28.

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