Method, apparatus and medium for beam allocation for beamforming wireless communication

Abstract

Aspects described herein relate to configuring a medium access control (MAC)-control element (CE) to update a sounding reference signal (SRS) beam within a wireless communication system. Other aspects described herein relate to configuring default beam information for determining a beam for data channel communications within a wireless communication system. A user equipment (UE) or other device may determine to configure a beam for data channel communications using the default beam information, and to perform power control using, for example, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) parameter. Additionally, in some examples, a device may send data channel communications using a beam configured based on the default beam information.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This patent application claims priority to Non-Provisional Application No. 16 / 376,989 filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on April 5, 2019, and Provisional Application No. 62 / 654,250 filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on April 6, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein as if fully set forth below and for all applicable purposes. Technical Field

[0003] Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for determining beams for beamforming signals in wireless communications. Background Art

[0004] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems.

[0005] These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate at a city, country, region, and even global level. For example, the fifth generation (5G) wireless communication technology, also known as 5G New Radio (5G NR), is envisioned to expand and support various usage scenarios and applications for the current mobile network generation. In one aspect, 5G communication technology may include: enhanced mobile broadband that addresses human-centric use cases for accessing multimedia content, services, and data; ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), with certain specifications for latency and reliability; and massive machine-type communications, which may allow for very large numbers of connected devices and the transmission of relatively small amounts of non-delay-sensitive information. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to grow, further improvements in 5G communication technology and beyond are needed.

[0006] In wireless communication technologies such as 5G, LTE, etc., a PUSCH beam for beamforming a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission can be determined based on a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource indicator (SRI) previously sent from a device. However, problems may arise if the entire system is configured to require the use of radio resource control (RRC) to update the SRS beam. In addition, sometimes the SRI does not exist (e.g., before receiving an SRS configuration, in the case of falling back on downlink control information (DCI) that does not have an SRI, etc.), in which case determining the PUSCH beam (e.g., based on the SRI) may be uncertain. Summary of the invention

[0007] In one aspect, a method of wireless communication includes: configuring a non-radio resource control (RRC) control element to update a sounding beam used for data channel communication; updating the sounding beam using the non-RRC control element; and sending the data channel communication based at least in part on the sounding beam updated using the non-RRC control element.

[0008] On the other hand, a user equipment (UE) includes: at least one antenna; and a processing circuit operatively coupled to the at least one antenna, the processing circuit being configured to: (a) configure a non-RRC control element to update a sounding beam for data channel communication, (b) update the sounding beam using the non-RRC control element; and (c) send data channel communication based at least in part on the sounding beam updated using the non-RRC control element.

[0009] On the other hand, a method for performing wireless communications within a wireless communication system includes: determining whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available; in response to determining that the sounding beam is not available, deriving at least one power control parameter for the data channel communication from a radio resource control (RRC) control configuration; and sending the data channel communication based at least in part on the at least one power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration.

[0010] On the other hand, a user equipment (UE) includes: at least one antenna; and a processing circuit operatively coupled to the at least one antenna, the processing circuit being configured to: (a) determine whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available; (b) in response to determining that the sounding beam is not available, derive at least one power control parameter for the data channel communication from a radio resource control (RRC) control configuration; and (c) send the data channel communication based at least in part on the at least one power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] Various aspects of the disclosure will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are provided for illustration and not limitation of the disclosed aspects, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and wherein:

[0012] Figure 1 An example of a wireless communication system according to various aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0013] Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a user equipment (UE) according to various aspects of the present disclosure;

[0014] Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a base station according to various aspects of the present disclosure;

[0015] Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a method for configuring default beam information according to various aspects of the present disclosure;

[0016] Figure 5 An example of a wireless communication system supporting uplink beam allocation according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0017] Figure 6 A process of updating a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) Resource Indicator (SRI) by configuring a Medium Access Control (MAC)-Control Element (CE) with a SRI and / or new beam information / data is shown in accordance with an illustrative embodiment;

[0018] Figure 7 shows a process for configuring SRI when SRS is not present according to an illustrative embodiment;

[0019] Fig. 8A -C shows an operating environment including a resource module for beam configuration in radio resource control (RRC) and / or MAC-CE according to an illustrative embodiment;

[0020] Fig. 9 shows a power control process and a power control module for beam configuration according to an illustrative embodiment;

[0021] Fig.10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system including a base station and UEs according to various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Fig.11 An exemplary system on chip (SoC) for use in a UE is shown.

[0023] Fig.12 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus employing a processing system that can utilize Figure 1-11Systems, methods and devices.

[0024] Fig.13 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components of a computing and / or processing system equipped with components for configuring a MAC-CE to update an SRS beam.

[0025] Fig.14 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components of a computing and / or processing system equipped with components for utilizing default beam information.

[0026] Fig.15 An exemplary procedure for configuring a MAC-CE to update an SRS beam is outlined.

[0027] Fig.16 Further illustrated is an exemplary process for configuring the MAC-CE to update the SRS beam.

[0028] Fig.17 An exemplary process for utilizing default beam information is outlined.

[0029] Fig.18 Further illustrated is an exemplary process for utilizing default beam information.

[0030] Fig.19 Further exemplary processes for utilizing default beam information are shown.

[0031] Fig. 20 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components of a computing and / or processing system equipped with components for configuring non-RRC control elements to update sounding beams for data channel communications.

[0032] Fig.21 An exemplary process for configuring non-RRC control elements to update sounding beams for data channel communications is outlined.

[0033] Fig. 22 A user plane protocol stack with a MAC sublayer is shown.

[0034] Fig.23 An exemplary MAC-CE is shown.

[0035] Fig.24 An exemplary process for deriving power control parameters for data channel communications without a sounding beam is outlined. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] Various aspects are now described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of one or more aspects. However, it is apparent that these aspects can be practiced without these specific details.

[0037] Some features described herein generally relate to using non-radio resource control (RRC) control elements (e.g., medium access control (MAC) control elements (CEs)) to update sounding beams (e.g., sounding reference signal (SRS) beams) without using or introducing any new RRC configuration parameters, especially within so-called "fifth generation" (5G) wireless communication technology systems or other wireless communication systems. Using MAC-CE to update SRS beams without relying on RRC can help to update physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) beams faster, especially in scenarios where only one SRS is configured.

[0038] Other described features generally relate to configuring default beam information for use by a device to determine a beam to use for data channel communications when other beam information may not be available. For example, a device may typically use an SRS resource indicator (SRI) to determine a beam to use for data channel communications, but the SRS and / or SRI may not always be present or defined. In an example, a device may use a default beam configuration to determine a beam to use in sending data channel communications. In an example, a device may semi-statically configure the default beam information to a virtual control channel resource from which a beam may be derived (e.g., without actually sending control data on the virtual control channel resource). In another example, a device may configure the default beam information to another beam, such as an actual control channel resource, another signal, etc., which may be based on a configuration received from a network.

[0039] As used in this application, the terms "component", "module", "system", etc. are intended to include computer-related entities, such as but not limited to: hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software or executable software. For example, a component can be but not limited to a process, a processor, an object, an executable file, an execution thread, a program and / or a computer running on a processor. As an illustration, both an application program running on a computing device and a computing device can be a component. One or more components can reside in a process and / or an execution thread, and a component can be located on a computer and / or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can be executed from various computer-readable media having various data structures stored thereon. These components can communicate through local and / or remote processes, for example, according to a signal having one or more data packets, such as data from a component, which uses the signal to interact with another component in a local system, a distributed system and / or interact with other systems on a network such as the Internet.

[0040] The technology described herein can be used for various wireless communication systems, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA system can implement radio technologies such as CDMA2000, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), etc. CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. IS-2000 versions 0 and A are commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1X, 1X, etc. IS-856 (TIA-856) is commonly referred to as CDMA20001xEV-DO, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. A TDMA system can implement radio technologies such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). OFDMA systems can implement technologies such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM TMRadio technologies such as LTE and UTRA. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Advanced LTE (LTE-A) are versions of UMTS using E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described in the documents of an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in the documents of an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2). The technology described herein can be used for the systems and radio technologies mentioned above and other systems and radio technologies, including cellular (e.g., LTE) communications on shared radio spectrum bands. However, the following description describes an LTE / LTE-A system for example purposes, and LTE terminology is used in most of the following descriptions, although these technologies are applicable outside of LTE / LTE-A applications (e.g., to fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) networks or other next generation communication systems).

[0041] The following description provides examples and does not limit the scope, applicability or examples set forth in the claims. The functions and arrangements of the elements discussed may be changed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Various examples may omit, replace or add various processes or components, as appropriate. For example, the described methods may be performed in an order different from that described, and various steps may be added, omitted or combined. In addition, features described for some examples may be combined in other examples.

[0042] Various aspects or features will be presented in terms of systems that may include a number of devices, components, modules, etc. It should be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc., and / or may not include all of the devices, components, modules, etc. discussed in conjunction with the figures. Combinations of methods may also be used.

[0043] Example of wireless communication access network

[0044] refer to Figure 1According to various aspects described herein, an example wireless communication access network 100 includes at least one UE 104 having a modem 140 for communicating in a wireless network and a communication component 142 for determining and / or allocating beam information, as further described herein. In addition, the wireless communication access network 100 (also referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) includes at least one base station 102, and the UE 104 can communicate with one or more nodes of the wireless communication access network via the base station 102 to transmit data corresponding to a service. The base station 102 may also have a modem 144 for communicating in a wireless network and a communication component 146 for receiving a beam failure recovery request (BFRQ) signal, as further described herein. In this regard, for example, the communication component 142 may determine default beam information for generating a beam for data channel communication to the base station 102. In another example, the communication component 142 may indicate information about the BFRQ using a parameter or attribute of a component carrier (CC) or related communication, and the communication component 146 may receive the information and determine parameters for sending a recovery beam to the UE 104. In other examples, discussed further below, the UE may configure the MAC-CE to update the SRS beam.

[0045] One or more UEs 104 and / or one or more base stations 102 may communicate with other UEs and / or other base stations via an evolved packet core (EPC) 160. The base stations 102 (which may be collectively referred to as an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN)) may interface with the EPC 160 via a backhaul link 132 (e.g., an S1 interface). The base stations 102 may perform one or more of the following functions, among other functions: delivery of user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, radio access network (RAN) sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and device tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC 160) over a backhaul link 134 (e.g., an X2 interface). Backhaul link 134 may be wired or wireless.

[0046] Base station 102 can communicate with UE 104 wirelessly. Each base station 102 can provide communication coverage for its own geographic coverage area 110. There may be overlapping geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell 102' may have a coverage area 110' that overlaps with the coverage area 110 of one or more macro base stations 102. A network including both small cells and macro cells may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home evolved Node B (eNB) (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG). A communication link 120 between base station 102 and UE 104 may include an uplink (UL) (also referred to as a reverse link) transmission from UE 104 to base station 102 and / or a downlink (DL) (also referred to as a forward link) transmission from base station 102 to UE 104. The communication link 120 may use multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming and / or transmit diversity. The communication link may be through one or more carriers. The base station 102 / UE 104 may use spectrum of up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100 MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in carrier aggregation for a total of up to Y*x MHz (where x may be the number of component carriers) for transmission in each direction. The carriers may or may not be adjacent or contiguous to each other. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to DL compared to UL). The component carriers may include a primary component carrier and one or more secondary component carriers. The primary component carrier may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell) and the secondary component carrier may be referred to as a secondary cell (SCell).

[0047] Some UEs 104 may communicate with each other using a device-to-device (D2D) communication link 192. The D2D communication link 192 may use DL / UL WWAN spectrum. The D2D communication link 192 may use one or more sidelink channels, such as a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH). The D2D communication may be through various wireless D2D communication systems, such as, for example, FlasLinQ, WiMedia, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi based on IEEE 802.11 standards, LTE, or NR.

[0048] The wireless communication system may also include a Wi-Fi access point (AP) 156 that communicates with a Wi-Fi station (STA) 152 in the 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum via a communication link 154. When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, the STA 152 / AP 156 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) before communicating to determine whether the channel is available. In one example, the AP 156 may use aspects described herein in the context of the base station 102, where appropriate. Similarly, for example, the STA 152 may use aspects described herein in the context of the UE 104, where appropriate.

[0049] The small cell 102' may operate in licensed and / or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in unlicensed spectrum, the small cell 102' may employ NR and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum used by the Wi-Fi AP 156. The small cell 102' employing NR in the unlicensed spectrum may improve coverage and / or increase capacity of the access network.

[0050] The gNodeB (gNB) 180 may operate at millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies to communicate with the UE 104. When the gNB 180 operates at mmW or near mmW frequencies, the gNB 180 may be referred to as a mmW base station. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is a portion of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF ranges from 30 GHz to 300 GHz with wavelengths between 1 mm and 10 mm. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW may extend down to frequencies of 3 GHz with wavelengths of 100 mm. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz and is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communications using the mmW / near mmW radio frequency bands have extremely high path loss and short range. The mmW base station gNB 180 may utilize beamforming 184 with the UE 104 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range.

[0051] The EPC 160 may include a mobility management entity (MME) 162, other MMEs 164, a serving gateway 166, a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) gateway 168, a broadcast multicast service center (BM-SC) 170, and a packet data network (PDN) gateway 172. The MME 162 may communicate with a home subscriber server (HSS) 174. The MME 162 may be a control node that handles signaling between the UE 104 and the EPC 160. In general, the MME 162 may provide bearer and connection management. User Internet Protocol (IP) packets (e.g., user IP packets of the UE 104 or user IP packets related to the UE 104) may be forwarded through the serving gateway 166, which itself is connected to the PDN gateway 172. The PDN gateway 172 may provide UE IP address allocation and other functions. The PDN gateway 172 and the BM-SC 170 may be connected to the IP service 176. The IP services 176 may include the Internet, an intranet, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a PS streaming service, and / or other IP services. The BM-SC 170 may provide functionality for MBMS user service provisioning and delivery. The BM-SC 170 may serve as an entry point for content provider MBMS transmissions, may be used to authorize and initiate MBMS bearer services within a public land mobile network (PLMN), and may be used to schedule MBMS transmissions. The MBMS Gateway 168 may be used to distribute MBMS services to base stations 102 belonging to a multicast broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) area of ​​a broadcast specific service, and may be responsible for session management (start / stop) and collecting billing information related to eMBMS.

[0052] A base station may also be referred to as a gNB, a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB), an access point, a base transceiver station, a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), or some other suitable term. Base station 102 provides an access point to EPC 160 for one or more UEs 104. Examples of UE 104 include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system, a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., an MP3 player), a camera, a game console, a tablet computer, a smart device, a wearable device, a vehicle, an electric meter, a gas pump, a large or small kitchen appliance, a health care device, an implant, a display, or any other similar functional device. Some of UE 104 may be referred to as IoT devices (e.g., a parking meter, a gas pump, a toaster, a vehicle, a heart monitor, etc.). UE 104 may also be referred to as a station, a mobile station, a user station, a mobile unit, a user unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communication device, a remote device, a mobile user station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology.

[0053] Illustrative Examples of UE Implementations

[0054] Various aspects are described with reference to one or more components and one or more methods that can perform the actions or operations described herein. Although the operations described herein are presented in a particular order and / or as being performed by example components, it should be understood that the order of actions and the components that perform the actions may vary depending on the implementation. In addition, it should be understood that the following actions, functions, and / or described components may be performed by a specially programmed processor, a processor that executes specially programmed software or a computer-readable medium, or by any other combination of hardware components and / or tangibly embodied software components that can perform the described actions or functions.

[0055] refer to Figure 2, an example of an implementation of the UE 104 may include various components, some of which have been described above and further described herein, including components such as one or more processors 212 and memory 216 communicating via one or more buses 244 and a transceiver 202, which may operate in conjunction with the modem 140 and / or the communication component 142 to implement one or more functions described herein related to determining and allocating beam information for transmitting data channel communications, as further described herein. In addition, the one or more processors 212, the modem 140, the memory 216, the transceiver 202, the RF front end 288, and the one or more antennas 286 may be configured to support voice and / or data calls (simultaneous or non-simultaneous) in one or more radio access technologies.

[0056] In one aspect, the one or more processors 212 may include the modem 140 and / or may be part of the modem 140 using one or more modem processors. Thus, various functions related to the communication component 142 may be included in the modem 140 and / or the processor 212 and may be performed by a single processor in one aspect, while in other aspects, different ones of these functions may be performed by a combination of two or more different processors. For example, in one aspect, the one or more processors 212 may include any one or any combination of a modem processor, or a baseband processor, or a digital signal processor, or a transmit processor, or a receiver processor, or a transceiver processor associated with the transceiver 202. In other aspects, some features of the one or more processors 212 and / or the modem 140 associated with the communication component 142 may be performed by the transceiver 202.

[0057] In addition, the memory 216 can be configured to store data used herein and / or local versions of the applications 275 or one or more of the communication components 142 and / or its subcomponents executed by the at least one processor 212. The memory 216 may include any type of computer-readable medium usable by a computer or the at least one processor 212, such as a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a tape, a disk, an optical disk, a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, and any combination thereof. In one aspect, for example, the memory 216 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores one or more computer-executable codes that define one or more of the communication components 142 and / or its subcomponents, and / or data associated therewith, when the UE 104 is operating the at least one processor 212 to execute one or more of the communication components 142 and / or its subcomponents.

[0058] The transceiver 202 may include at least one receiver 206 and at least one transmitter 208. The receiver 206 may include hardware, firmware, and / or software code executable by a processor for receiving data, the code including instructions and stored in a memory (e.g., a computer-readable medium). The receiver 206 may be, for example, a radio frequency (RF) receiver. In one aspect, the receiver 206 may receive a signal transmitted by at least one base station 105. In addition, the receiver 206 may process such received signals and may also obtain measurement values ​​of the signal, such as, but not limited to, Ec / Io, SNR, RSRP, RSSI, etc. The transmitter 208 may include hardware, firmware, and / or software code executable by a processor for sending data, the code including instructions and stored in a memory (e.g., a computer-readable medium). Suitable examples of the transmitter 208 may include, but are not limited to, an RF transmitter.

[0059] Additionally, in one aspect, the UE 104 may include an RF front end 288 that may be operable to communicate with the one or more antennas 265 and the transceiver 202 for receiving and transmitting radio transmissions, such as wireless communications transmitted by at least one base station 102 or wireless transmissions transmitted by the UE 104. The RF front end 288 may be connected to the one or more antennas 265 and may include one or more low noise amplifiers (LNAs) 290, one or more switches 292 (two of which are shown), one or more power amplifiers (PAs) 298, and one or more filters 296 for transmitting and receiving RF signals.

[0060] In one aspect, the LNA 290 can amplify the received signal at a desired output level. In one aspect, each LNA 290 can have a specified minimum and maximum gain value. In one aspect, the RF front end 288 can use one or more switches 292 to select a particular LNA 290 and its specified gain value based on the desired gain value for a particular application.

[0061] In addition, for example, the RF front end 288 can use one or more PAs 298 to amplify the signal for RF output at a desired output power level. In one aspect, each PA 298 can have a specified minimum and maximum gain value. In one aspect, the RF front end 288 can use one or more switches 292 to select a particular PA 298 and its specified gain value based on the desired gain value for a particular application.

[0062] In addition, for example, the RF front end 288 can use one or more filters 296 to filter the received signal to obtain an input RF signal. Similarly, in one aspect, for example, a corresponding filter 296 can be used to filter the output from the corresponding PA 298 to produce an output signal for transmission. In one aspect, each filter 296 can be connected to a specific LNA 290 and / or PA 298. In one aspect, the RF front end 288 can use one or more switches 292 to select a transmit or receive path using a specified filter 296, LNA 290, and / or PA 298 based on the configuration specified by the transceiver 202 and / or the processor 212.

[0063] Thus, the transceiver 202 may be configured to transmit and receive wireless signals via the RF front end 288 through the one or more antennas 265. In one aspect, the transceiver may be tuned to operate at a specified frequency so that the UE 104 may communicate with, for example, one or more base stations 102 or one or more cells associated with the one or more base stations 102. In one aspect, the modem 140 may configure the transceiver 202 to operate at a specified frequency and power level based on, for example, a UE configuration of the UE 104 and a communication protocol used by the modem 140.

[0064] In one aspect, modem 140 can be a multi-band-multi-mode modem that can process digital data and communicate with transceiver 202 so that digital data is sent and received using transceiver 202. In one aspect, modem 140 can be multi-band and configured to support multiple frequency bands of a specific communication protocol. In one aspect, modem 140 can be multi-mode and configured to support multiple operating networks and communication protocols. In one aspect, modem 140 can control one or more components (e.g., RF front end 288, transceiver 202) of UE 104 so that it is possible to transmit and / or receive signals from the network based on a specified modem configuration. In one aspect, modem configuration can be based on the mode of the modem and the frequency band in use. On the other hand, modem configuration can be based on UE configuration information associated with UE 104 provided by the network during cell selection and / or cell reselection.

[0065] Default beam configuration components and methods

[0066] In one aspect, the communication component 142 may include: a default beam configuration component 252 for configuring default beam information that can be used to generate a beam for data channel communication in the absence of other explicit beam information (e.g., in the absence of SRI, the previous most recent actual physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), etc.), and / or a beamforming component 254 for beamforming the data channel communication signal based at least in part on the default beam information (or other determined beam information). The communication component 142 may also optionally include a beam recovery component 256 for sending a BFRQ signal on the resources of the CC to indicate to the base station 102 beam failure and / or recovery information to be used when sending a recovery beam.

[0067] In one aspect, the processor(s) 212 may correspond to a Fig.10 Similarly, the memory 216 may correspond to one or more processors in conjunction with the UE described in the embodiment of the present invention. Fig.10 The memory described by the UE in .

[0068] refer to Figure 3 , an example of an implementation of the base station 102 may include various components, some of which have been described above, but include components such as one or more processors 312 and memory 316 communicating via one or more buses 344 and a transceiver 302, which may operate in conjunction with the modem 144 and communication component 146 to implement one or more of the functions described herein related to receiving BFRQ signals and transmitting corresponding recovery beams.

[0069] The transceiver 302, receiver 306, transmitter 308, one or more processors 312, memory 316, applications 375, bus 344, RF front end 388, LNA 390, one or more switches 392 (two of which are shown), filter 396, PA 398, and one or more antennas 365 may be the same as or similar to the corresponding components of UE 104 described above, but are configured or otherwise programmed for base station operation as opposed to UE operation.

[0070] In one aspect, the communication component 146 may optionally include: a BFRQ detection component 352 for detecting a BFRQ signal and / or related parameters based on receiving the BFRQ signal from the UE 104, and / or a beam transmission component 354 for transmitting a recovery beam to the UE 104 based on one or more parameters related to the BFRQ signal.

[0071] In one aspect, the processor(s) 312 may correspond to a Fig.10Similarly, the memory 316 may correspond to one or more processors in conjunction with the base station described in the embodiment of the present invention. Fig.10 The memory described by the base station in.

[0072] Figure 4 A flow chart illustrating an example of a method 400 for configuring default beam information for generating a beam for data channel communication. In one example, UE 104 may use Figure 1-2 One or more components described in the method 400 may be used to perform the functions described in the method 400.

[0073] In method 400, at box 402, default beam information can be configured for determining a beam for data channel communication. In one aspect, the default beam configuration component 252 (e.g., together with (one or more) processors 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 142, etc.) can configure default beam information for determining a beam for data channel communication. For example, the default beam configuration component 252 can configure the default beam information for generating a beam when other explicit beam information is not available. For example, the beamforming component 254 can generally generate a beam based on the SRI, but there may be a situation where the SRI is not defined, for example, when a fallback DCI that may not include the SRI is received from the base station 102 and / or before the SRS is configured. Therefore, as the term is used herein, a condition where no sounding beam is available (or the sounding beam is not available) means including, for example, a situation where no SRS is configured or an SRI indication is not provided in the DCI. Although the primary example of a sounding beam described herein is an SRS beam, aspects of the devices, systems, and methods described herein need not be limited to SRS implementations. In another example, the beam of the most recent actual PUCCH resource can be used as a beam for sending data channel communications. However, the actual PUCCH resources may be infrequent (e.g., and may become obsolete for the current communication environment), such as when the frequency of the semi-static PUCCH configuration is insufficient and may have occurred at some time in the past (e.g., many time slots ago and may not be optimal for representing the current communication environment). In another example, the PUCCH may not exist (e.g., for a CC in a PUCCH group that does not carry a PUCCH). In this case, the beamforming component 254 can utilize a beam generated based on default beam information, for example, for data channel communications.

[0074] In one example, configuring the default beam information at block 402 may optionally include, at block 404, configuring a virtual control channel resource from which a beam may be derived. In one aspect, the default beam configuration component 252 (e.g., in conjunction with the processor(s) 212, the memory 216, the transceiver 202, the communication component 142, etc.) may configure a virtual control channel resource from which a beam may be derived. For example, the default beam configuration component 252 may semi-statically configure the default beam information as a virtual PUCCH resource that may be considered virtual based on control data not being transmitted on the resource. In one example, the default beam configuration component 252 may reuse a configuration process and / or attributes associated with an actual PUCCH resource including spatial information (e.g., a transmit beam) when generating the virtual PUCCH resource as the default beam information.

[0075] For example, the default beam configuration component 252 can generate virtual PUCCH resources periodically or semi-persistently, where the period or other timing / event-related information used to generate the virtual PUCCH can be configured (e.g., by the base station 102 and / or similar to a scheduling request (SR) or persistent / semi-persistent channel state information (CSI) report). In addition, in one example, the communication component 142 can exclude virtual PUCCH resources from the PUCCH resource set so that the ACK / NACK resource indicator (ARI) or other PUCCH index does not point to the virtual PUCCH resources because they are not used for transmission. In another example, the communication component 142 can include virtual PUCCH resources from the PUCCH resource set, but the indexing, such as the ARI, can be disabled or not allowed, or the indexing for special situations / purposes, such as updating virtual resource beams, can be enabled.

[0076] In addition, in one example, when determining the nearest PUCCH resource (e.g., virtual or actual) for determining a default beam for data channel communication, the default beam configuration component 252 can determine the virtual PUCCH resource. In this regard, for example, a PUCCH duration can be associated with a virtual PUCCH resource, wherein the default beam configuration component 252 determines the nearest PUCCH resource based on a last symbol (e.g., an OFDM symbol). In addition, for example, other attributes of the virtual PUCCH resource (e.g., the allocated resource blocks) may not be required and may not be included in the configuration (or may be otherwise deleted from the configuration). In yet another example, the attribute can be set to zero or other unused value (e.g., number of resource blocks = 0), which can indicate that the PUCCH resource is virtual at this point.

[0077] In another example, configuring the default beam information at block 402 may optionally include, at block 406, receiving an indication of another beam to be used when determining a beam for data channel communication. In one aspect, the default beam configuration component 252 (e.g., together with (one or more) processors 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 142, etc.) may receive an indication of another beam to be used when determining a beam for data channel communication. For example, the default beam configuration component 252 may receive an indication of using another beam from the base station 102. The base station 102 may signal the indication, for example, using radio resource control (RRC) layer signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), downlink control information (DCI), etc., and may signal the indication periodically or semi-persistently to update the beam to be used as the default beam. In one example, the default beam configuration component 252 may receive an indication of using a beam configuration that is the same as a beam configuration used for a specific PUCCH resource (e.g., a resource for SR or periodic CSI), and the default beam configuration component 252 may accordingly set the default beam information based on the indicated beam (e.g., the specific PUCCH resource) and / or the indicated beam configuration configured by the base station 102.

[0078] In addition, as described, the default beam configuration component 252 can determine whether to configure the default beam information as a virtual PUCCH resource or use another beam based on one or more parameters. For example, the one or more parameters can relate to the time associated with the virtual PUCCH and other beams, so that the default beam configuration component 252 can use the most recent one as the default beam information, and / or use one or the other when the time difference reaches a threshold, etc. In an example, the time can be associated and measured as a real time, a number of time slots or symbols, etc.

[0079] In yet another example, configuring the default beam information at block 402 may optionally include, at block 408, configuring beam information related to one or more other component carriers (CCs). In one aspect, the default beam configuration component 252 (e.g., together with the processor(s) 212, the memory 216, the transceiver 202, the communication component 142, etc.) may configure beam information related to one or more other CCs. For example, the beam used for data channel communication may correspond to a CC established with the base station 102 on the UE 104, and the default beam information for the CC may be determined based on information (e.g., beams or other situations) related to one or more other CCs (e.g., in the same group or not in the same group as the CC). Thus, in one example, the default beam configuration component 252 may determine the default beam information for the CC by utilizing information from other CCs, although there may be no PUCCH in the CC. However, in other examples, the PUCCH may be used in the CC, but the default beam information for the CC may still be determined based on one or more other CCs.

[0080] For example, each CC may have a subset of actual PUCCH resources, virtual PUCCH resources, other default beam information, etc., as described above, for determining the beam used for data channel communications. In order to determine the beam used for data channel communications on each CC, the default beam information may be based on specific (actual or virtual) PUCCH resources, other default beam information, etc. defined for a specific reference CC, wherein information about which CC is the reference CC may be configured at the UE 104 (e.g., by the base station 102 or otherwise). In one example, the CCs may be divided into groups, and a reference CC may be assigned to each group so that for each CC in the group, the default beam information for each CC may be determined based on the beam information of the reference CC. In addition, the default beam configuration component 252 may divide the CCs into groups in the defined PUCCH groups of the CCs, respectively. In addition, in one example, for a CC group having a single CC carrying a PUCCH, the CC carrying the PUCCH may be used as a reference CC for determining the default beam information for other CCs in the group. In addition, for example, the default beam configuration component 252 can determine to exclude certain PUCCH resources when determining default beam information (e.g., beam scanning transmission). In the case where the CC group contains CCs from different frequency bands (e.g., from sub-6 GHz (FR1) and millimeter wave (FR2) bands), the beams defined for CCs in one frequency band may not be meaningfully used in another frequency band. Therefore, in this case, a virtual PUCCH resource can be configured on a CC in a frequency band where no actual PUCCH is configured. The resource can be identified as a virtual resource (used only for determining the beam) by the above method and can be associated with all CCs in the PUCCH group that are located in the frequency band. Alternatively, an alternative partitioning of CCs other than band-based CC partitioning can be constructed or configured, and each of these partitions can be associated with a CC carrying a real or virtual PUCCH.

[0081] In method 400, at block 410, a determination may be made (e.g., by a UE) to use default beam information to configure a beam for data channel communication. In one aspect, beamforming component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 142, etc.) may determine to use default beam information to configure a beam for data channel communication. In one example, beamforming component 254 may determine to use default beam information based at least in part on determining that other beam information is not configured or indicated (e.g., other beam information is not available, does not exist, etc.). For example, this may include determining that an SRI is not available, a PUCCH resource is not available or expired (e.g., determined to have an associated time that differs by a threshold relative to a current time), etc. At this point, beamforming component 254 may generate a beam for data channel communication using default beam information, wherein the default beam information may include a virtual PUCCH resource or other configured beam, beam information from another CC, etc., as described.

[0082] In method 400, at block 412, data channel communications may be transmitted based on a beam configured using the default beam information based on a determination to use the default beam information. In one aspect, communication component 142 (e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, etc.) may transmit data channel communications based on a beam configured using the default beam information based on a determination to use the default beam information. For example, communication component 142 may transmit beamformed data channel communications by adjusting communication properties of multiple antennas of UE 104 to achieve a directional beam generated by beamforming component 254.

[0083] According to the described techniques, a base station (e.g., 102) may allocate communication resources to a UE (e.g., 115). Examples of such communication resources are further described below and include PUSCH resources, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources, physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources, and physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) resources. In some cases, a communication resource may be associated with a transmission (e.g., it may be sent using a given transmit beam and received using a given receive beam). As further described below, the UE 115 and the base station 102 may identify a default uplink transmit beam to be used by the UE 115 to transmit an uplink transmission based at least in part on the allocated communication resources (e.g., either a given transmit beam and / or a given receive beam). The UE 115 and the base station 102 may identify a trigger condition for the UE 115 to communicate using the default uplink transmit beam. For example, UE 115 may determine that it has not yet received an indication from base station 102 regarding a particular uplink beam to use, or that the beam indication from base station 102 may have been received too late for UE 115 to process the indication and configure the indicated uplink beam in a timely manner.

[0084] Figure 5 An example of a wireless communication system 500 supporting uplink beam allocation according to various aspects of the present disclosure is shown. The wireless communication system 500 includes a base station 102-a and a UE 115-a, each of which may be a reference Figure 1 Examples of corresponding devices described.

[0085] The wireless communication system 500 may operate in a frequency range associated with beamformed transmissions between the base station 102-a and the UE 115-a. For example, the wireless communication system 500 may operate using the mmW frequency range (e.g., or other frequency ranges). As a result, signal processing techniques such as beamforming may be used to coherently combine energy and overcome path loss.

[0086] As an example, the base station 102-a can include multiple antennas. In some cases, each antenna can transmit a phase-shifted version of a signal such that the phase-shifted versions interfere constructively in some areas and destructively in other areas. For example, weights can be applied to the various phase-shifted versions in order to direct the transmission in a desired direction. These techniques (or similar techniques) can be used to increase the coverage area 110a of the base station 102-a, or otherwise benefit the wireless communication system 500.

[0087] Transmit beams 505-a and 505-b represent examples of beams on which data may be sent. Thus, each transmit beam 505 may be directed from UE 115-a to a different area of ​​the coverage area, and in some cases, two or more beams may overlap. Transmit beams 505-a and 505-b may be transmitted simultaneously or at different times. In either case, base station 102-a may be able to receive one or more transmit beams 505 via corresponding receive beams 510-a and 510-b.

[0088] In one example, UE 115-a can form one or more transmit beams 505. Similar to base station 102-a, UE 115-a can include multiple antennas. Each of transmit beams 510-a and 510-b can be received using one of receive beams 510-a and 510-b (e.g., UE 115-a can be located within wireless communication system 500 so that base station 102-a receives two beamformed transmit beams 505). This scheme can be referred to as a receive diversity scheme. In some cases, receive beam 510 can receive a single transmit beam 505-a (e.g., receive beam 510-a can receive transmit beam 505-a including various path losses and multipath effects). That is, each antenna of base station 102-a can receive transmit beam 505-a that has experienced different path losses or phase shifts (e.g., different phase shifts due to different path lengths between the respective antennas of base station 102-a and UE 115-a) and appropriately combine the received signals represented by receive beams 510-a and 510-b. Transmit beam 505 and corresponding receive beam 510 can be referred to as a beam pair link.

[0089] In some cases, the UE 115-a may identify a transmit beam 505 to be used for a PUSCH transmission based on a beam indicator received from the base station 102-a. For example, the beam indicator may be an SRI or a transmission configuration identifier (TCI), each of which may be carried in a downlink control information (DCI) transmission from the base station 102-a. The beam indicator may implicitly or explicitly indicate to the UE 115-a which uplink or downlink beam to use for subsequent uplink or downlink communications. For example, the SRI may indicate to the UE 115-a to use a specific uplink beam used for a previously sent SRS transmission. Alternatively, the TCI may indicate to the UE 115-a to use a specific downlink receive beam used for a previously received reference signal (e.g., CSI-RS), or to use a specific uplink transmit beam (e.g., a beam of SRS). Thus, in some examples, the TCI may be considered a generalization of the SRI.

[0090] As an example, a UE 115-a may be configured with an SRS resource set that includes one or more SRS resources, each of which is transmitted via a respective transmit beam 505 (e.g., for channel sounding). The base station 102-a may process the SRS transmission and indicate a preferred transmit beam 505 for uplink communications from the UE 115-a in the form of an SRI. The SRI may represent an index to one of a plurality of SRS resources within the SRS resource set (where each SRS resource is associated with a respective transmit beam 505). The PUSCH transmission may be quasi-co-located (i.e., using the same transmit beam 505) with the SRS transmitted on the resources indicated by the SRI. Thus, upon receiving the SRI, the UE 115-a may know which transmit beam 505 to use for communicating with the base station 102-a.

[0091] However, an uplink grant (e.g., which may be included in a DCI transmission) may not always include an SRI, in which case the transmit beam 505 for the PUSCH transmission may not be specified. For example, the DCI transmission may be a fallback DCI transmission (e.g., which may not include an SRI field as part of the uplink grant). In other cases (e.g., for uplink transmissions for semi-persistent scheduling (SPS)), the PUSCH resources may not have an associated grant that may include an SRI. That is, although an SPS activation (e.g., which may trigger the use of resources preconfigured via radio resource control (RRC) signaling) may include a beam indication, the indicated transmit beam 505 may not be suitable for subsequent uplink transmissions (e.g., due to changed channel conditions). In other examples, the UE 115-a may not be configured to transmit an SRS (e.g., in which case the transmit beam 505 will not be specified because the base station 102-a does not have SRS resources for which to transmit a beam indicator). In this case (e.g., among other cases), the following aspects may be used to identify the default transmit beam 505. Identification of this case may be referred to as a triggering condition for UE 115-a to use the default uplink transmit beam.

[0092] For example, the default transmit beam 505 can be associated with the most recent uplink or downlink transmission (e.g., or resources configured to carry such a transmission). For example, the base station 102-a can configure resources for use by the UE 115-a for uplink transmissions, such as scheduling request (SR) transmissions. Although these resources may not be used in some cases (e.g., because the UE 115-a has no data to send on these resources), in aspects of the present disclosure, these resources may still be used to identify the default transmit beam 505. In some cases, the transmission or resources may be semi-statically configured (e.g., SPS resources). Additionally or alternatively, the resources may be dynamically scheduled. Dynamically scheduled resources may in some cases be associated with increased transmit beam 505 ambiguity (e.g., due to the possibility that the UE 115-a does not receive a grant to schedule resources), but the following aspects may be used to resolve such ambiguity.

[0093] According to some techniques described herein, whenever an SRS or SRI is not present (e.g., or if an SRI arrives too late to be useful), a default transmit beam 505 may be used. For example, UE 115-a may need to receive an SRI before a certain timing threshold in order to program uplink transmit beam 505 in response to the SRI. Thus, this timing threshold may vary between UEs 115 in some cases (e.g., based on the beam switching capabilities of UE 115).

[0094] In a first set of examples, a default transmit beam 505 may be identified based on one or more downlink transmissions or resources. For example, a default transmit beam may be selected based on a beam used by UE 115-a to receive a most recent PDCCH CORE SET (coreset). For example, the most recent PDCCH coreset may be a coreset received before a certain threshold time as described above. In aspects of the present disclosure, a PDCCH coreset may be selected from a set of candidate PDCCH coresets (e.g., based on an index of the PDCCH coreset). For example, UE 115-a may in some cases identify a PDCCH coreset with a lowest index among candidate PDCCH coresets. In some cases, UE 115-a may limit a candidate pool based on a reception time of the PDCCH coreset. For example, UE 115-a may select a coreset within a configured search space or within a configured candidate coreset that completes its reception at a recent (e.g., most recent) OFDM symbol. In the event that multiple PDCCH coresets are received during the OFDM symbol, UE 115-a can employ a tie-breaking procedure (e.g., a lowest index coreset, a highest index coreset, etc. can be selected among the multiple PDCCH coresets). Using the most recently received previous PDCCH coreset can in some cases eliminate (e.g., or mitigate) the need for beam switching between PDCCH and PUSCH (e.g., which can save processing power, can reduce latency, or can provide other such benefits to UE 115-a).

[0095] As another example, the default transmit beam 505 can be selected based on the beam of the most recent channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) transmission (e.g., which can be a semi-persistent CSI-RS, a persistent CSI-RS, or an aperiodic or dynamically scheduled CSI-RS). The CSI-RS can be used to perform channel sounding in the downlink. Thus, the CSI-RS can be sent on one (or more) beams, and the UE 115-a can select one of these beams to use for identifying the default transmit beam 505 (e.g., the most recent beam, the lowest indexed beam, etc.). However, some such rules for selecting one of the beams may be arbitrary (e.g., there may be no guarantee that the best beam is selected because the base station 102-a may not know which beam is the best without feedback from the UE 115-a). However, in some cases, only a single CSI-RS beam may be used (e.g., to measure frequency selectivity within the channel), in which case such arbitrary nature of the selection process may be excluded.

[0096] As another example, the default transmit beam 505 may be selected based on the beam of the most recent previous PDSCH transmission. In some cases, this approach may suffer from the problem of missing the grant of the PDSCH (e.g., as described above). However, this problem may be alleviated if there is an ongoing SPS downlink PDSCH (e.g., which may not require a grant), in which case the beam may be used to select the default transmit beam 505. In some cases, such an SPS downlink PDSCH may use the most recent PDCCH transmission to define its own beam. However, this approach may not be equivalent to directly using the most recent PDCCH beam (e.g., due to the different periodicities of the PDCCH and the SPS downlink PDSCH).

[0097] In some cases, UE 115-a may use a combination of the above downlink-based schemes (e.g., the beam of the most recent transmission, where the transmission may be PDCCH, PDSCH, CSI-RS, or some subset thereof). As an example, UE 115-a may select only the SPS downlink PDSCH as the default, but if the CSI-RS only uses one beam, then the default transmit beam 505 may be selected based on the most recent CSI-RS beam instead.

[0098] In some examples, these downlink-based schemes may be more suitable for UEs 115 with uplink / downlink beam correspondence (e.g., reciprocity), where the downlink receive beam is also suitable for uplink transmission. However, not all UEs 115 may support such reciprocity. Such UEs 115 (e.g., and UEs 115 that support reciprocity in some cases) may benefit from uplink-based schemes.

[0099] Thus, in a second set (e.g., supplemental) of examples, a default transmit beam 505 may be identified based on one or more uplink transmissions or resources. As an example, the default transmit beam 505 may be selected based on a beam of a nearest PUCCH resource (e.g., which may be a configured resource that is not actually used to carry a transmission, such as an unused SR resource or a resource carrying a PUCCH transmission). However, using the PUCCH resources that are actually transmitted may cause ambiguity between the UE 115-a and the base station 102-a (e.g., due to the lost transmission problem discussed above for grant-based downlink transmissions). PUCCH resources may in some cases be configured for one or more of a plurality of purposes (e.g., SR, periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic channel quality indicator (CQI) reporting, beam failure recovery, etc.). In some cases, the PUCCH resources configured for each of these purposes may be associated with a different periodicity. In addition, within an SR resource, there may be a separate PUCCH resource configuration for SR for each of a plurality of different logical channels. In some cases, the default transmit beam 505 may be selected based on PUCCH resources associated with a particular one of these purposes (e.g., SR resources), or the default transmit beam 505 may be selected based on PUCCH resources associated with a recent transmission among all of these purposes. For example, such "recentness" of the transmission may be defined using a slot-based or OFDM symbol-based time granularity. As discussed with respect to the PDCCH coreset, any tie between PUCCH resources may be resolved by selecting based on a PUCCH resource index (e.g., or by a frequency domain index of the resource). In some cases, the PUCCH resources used for beam failure recovery may be beam scanned (e.g., and therefore not suitable for selection of the default transmit beam 505).

[0100] Additionally or alternatively, a PUCCH resource may be dynamically selected (e.g., for ACK transmission). In some cases, multiple ACK resources, each with a different beam, may be configured, of which one is selected for sending the ACK. Thus, in some cases, a default transmit beam 505 may be selected based on the beam corresponding to the most recently sent ACK. However, because the ACK transmission itself may typically be a dynamic transmission (e.g., based on a dynamically scheduled PDSCH transmission), such a scheme may suffer from the lost transmission problem discussed above.

[0101] In another example, the beam of the most recent (previous) SRS resource (e.g., a persistent, semi-persistent, or aperiodic SRS resource) can be used. Such a scheme may experience similar benefits and disadvantages as discussed with reference to the CSI-RS scheme. For example, dynamically scheduled SRS may suffer from lost transmission problems and arbitrary selection of SRS resources may be difficult to resolve (e.g., because UE 115-a may not know which SRS resource corresponds to the best beam without an SRI from base station 102-a). In another example, the beam of the most recent PUSCH transmission based on the SRI can be used.

[0102] As with the downlink scheme, UE 115-a may use a combination of the above-described uplink-based schemes (e.g., the beam of the most recent transmission, where the transmission may be SRS, PUCCH, PUSCH, or some subset thereof). Additionally or alternatively, UE 115-a may use some mix of the above-described downlink-based schemes and uplink-based schemes (e.g., the most recent transmission may be used, regardless of whether it is an uplink transmission or a downlink transmission). Furthermore, in some cases, UE 115-a may be able to switch between the various schemes described above (e.g., where the switching may be done autonomously or may be based on signaling received from base station 102-a).

[0103] Aspects of the present disclosure also relate to handling updates of a default uplink transmit beam 505. For example, a default uplink transmit beam 505 may be associated with a previous transmission (or received or allocated resources). However, the beam used for the resource or transmission may be semi-statically updated (e.g., via MAC-CE or RRC signaling) after the resource has been used but before a PUSCH is sent via the default transmit beam 505. In some such cases, the semi-static update may occur at the beginning of a timeslot identified by an update timeline. According to the described techniques, a UE 115-a may identify a default uplink transmit beam 505 for a PUSCH transmission using the beam indicated by the update in a timeslot carrying a PUSCH transmission. Alternatively, the UE 115-a may use the updated default uplink transmit beam 505 for a PUSCH transmission immediately following a timeslot carrying resources for selecting the updated default uplink transmit beam 505.

[0104] Aspects of the present disclosure also relate to selecting a default uplink transmission beam 505 for SPS uplink transmission and / or unauthorized operation. For example, the beam of the first uplink SPS PUSCH transmission can be based on the SPS startup authorization (e.g., about uplink non-SPS PUSCH). For subsequent SPS PUSCH transmissions, any scheme outlined above can be used to select the default uplink transmission beam 505. In some cases, the SPS resource authorization can be covered by the explicit resource authorization in the same time slot (e.g., or an authorization that overlaps or coincides in time and / or frequency). Such authorization can also cover the default transmission beam 505 (e.g., according to the rules for non-SPS PUSCH outlined above). In some cases, such coverage can be made persistent for future SPS opportunities. For example, the persistence duration can last until the next coverage, can last for a fixed (e.g., configurable) duration, etc. The processing of unauthorized uplink transmission can be similar to (e.g., or be equal to) the processing of SPS uplink transmission. The difference between the two may be that SPS uplink resources always carry transmissions (e.g., for voice communications), whereas ungranted transmission resources may be available but are only used if there is data to send. Thus, beam selection may be similar to that of SPS, but if there is no data to send, the default transmit beam 505 may become unused.

[0105] Various aspects of the present disclosure also relate to beam selection during or after a random access channel (RACH) transmission. For example, the RACH process may use a single beam. The UE 115-a may select a suitable beam among the synchronization signal (SS) beams used for all RACH messages (e.g., including an ACK for message 4 (Msg4-ACK)). After the Msg4-ACK, the selected suitable beam may continue to be used as the default uplink transmit beam 505 until other resources (e.g., PDCCH coreset, PUCCH resources, SRS, CSI-RS) are RRC configured. For example, the RRC configuration may include a TCI state (e.g., beam). After this configuration, the above scheme may be applied. In some cases, the PDCCH coreset scheme may be applied during the RACH (e.g., immediately after the RACH), it being understood that the remaining minimum system information (RMSI) coreset corresponding to the suitable SS beam selected by the UE 115-a for the RACH is the only configured coreset during that time. During RRC configuration, if non-fallback DCI is used that includes beam indication fields (e.g., TCI for downlink grants and SRI for uplink grants), these fields may be set to default values, may be set to send some other information, or may be ignored.

[0106] For a UE 115 with an uplink / downlink beam correspondence, the identified appropriate SS beam may be used as a default beam for both uplink and downlink transmissions until a subsequent RRC configuration (e.g., including coreset, TCI state, etc.) is received. For a UE 115 without an uplink / downlink beam correspondence, the default beam used for uplink transmission may be the beam used to send an uplink RACH message (e.g., msg1, msg3, both) that results in a successful completion of the RACH process. Although msg1 may be sent on resources associated with the identified appropriate SS beam, the msg1 beam itself may be derived from the SS beam only for a UE 115 with an uplink / downlink beam correspondence, and may be a different beam for a UE 115 without the correspondence. In addition, if beam training is allowed during the RACH process, the default beam used after the RACH process and before receiving the subsequent RRC configuration may be the beam identified as a result of the beam training. In this manner, separate default beams may be identified for uplink and downlink transmissions.

[0107] In the case where SRS is not configured, the techniques described herein (e.g., allowing the selection of a default uplink transmit beam 505 without SRS) may allow the SRI field to be dropped from the DCI transmission (e.g., which may reduce signaling overhead). In some such cases, codebook-based precoding may not be supported (e.g., because the precoder operates on an SRS port, which would not be specified in the case of an uplink beam assignment without SRS configuration).

[0108] SRS is a reference signal sent by the UE in the uplink direction, which is used by the base station to estimate the uplink channel quality over a wider bandwidth. The base station can use this information for uplink frequency selective scheduling. The base station can also use SRS for uplink timing estimation as part of the timing alignment process, especially in cases like when no PUSCH / PUCCH transmission occurs in the uplink for a long time, in which case the base station relies on SRS for uplink timing estimation. Since SRS can extend over a larger frequency range, SRS may or may not be sent in the same physical resource block as the physical resource block where PUSCH is sent.

[0109] SRS transmission can occur as single SRS, periodic SRS, and aperiodic SRS. Single SRS and periodic SRS can be referred to as "triggered type 0" SRS transmission configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling. Aperiodic SRS transmission can be referred to as "triggered type 1" SRS transmission, which is configured by RRC but triggered by DCI. The base station can configure the UE with a UE-specific SRS configuration to provide the UE with time domain (subframe) as well as frequency domain resources. In one example, when SRS is configured and SRI is present, PUSCH can use SRS beams.

[0110] However, in some cases, only 1 SRS may be configured, which may require RRC to update the PUSCH beam. This can be slow and inefficient because RRC requires time and resources to execute. In other cases, SRS and / or SRI may not be present at all. Since many PUSCH power control parameters rely on SRI, further inefficiencies are introduced. Although the PUCCH beam can be updated by MAC-CE, not all UEs may be equipped with this capability. If the PUSCH default beam (when there is no SRS / SRI) is based on PUCCH, UEs without this capability will require RRC to update the default PUSCH beam. Therefore, techniques and methods are disclosed herein to provide a more efficient way to establish and / or update PUSCH beams.

[0111] MAC-CE Update of SRS Beam

[0112] In some demonstrative embodiments, the MAC-CE may be configured to allow updating of the SRS beam. For example, the MAC-CE may be configured (by the UE or other appropriate device or system) to include the SRI and / or new beam information. Figure 6In an embodiment, an illustrative process for updating SRI is shown. In box 602, the SRS beam update process starts, where in box 604, the MAC-CE is configured with SRI and / or new beam information / data (by the UE or other suitable device or system). The new beam information / data can be configured as: a pointer, indicator and / or list of transceiver control interface (TCI) states / beams configured for SRS or other channels. For example, the table or list may include, but is not limited to: PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo, SRS-SpatialRelationInfo and TCI-StatesPDCCH. In box 606, the MAC-CE SRI and / or beam information is processed (by the UE or other suitable device or system). In an illustrative embodiment, the processed information / data may include information elements (IEs) pointing to SSB-index, NZP-CSI-RS-index, SRSResource-index, etc. In some demonstrative embodiments, the new beam information may explicitly point to a beam index, such as an SSB-index, an NZP-CSI-RS-index, an SRS-resource-index, etc. In block 608, the new SRI and / or the new beam data are processed (by a UE or other suitable device or system) to define one or more new beams. According to these disclosed examples, new beams may be defined without using any new RRC configuration parameters and / or IEs.

[0113] Steering Figure 7 , which shows an illustrative process 700 for configuring SRI when SRS is not present. After starting in box 702, it is determined in decision box 704 whether SRS exists. If so ("Yes"), the existing (current) SRI is used in box 706. If not ("No"), the process has the option of moving to box 708, where the SRI can be configured to point to an alternative beam index. In one example, the SRI can be interpreted as a TCI in the DL. Alternatively or in addition, the process 700 can move to box 710, where the SRI can be interpreted as pointing to an index in the PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo or TCI-StatesPDCCH list. Depending on the configuration used, the SRI field length can be defined as 3 bits or 6 bits. Figure 7 The process 700 may be used after a RACH process and before SRS configuration, or when SRS is deconfigured / deactivated.

[0114] Go to Figures 8A-8C, an operating environment 800 is disclosed, which shows relevant resource modules for beam configuration in RRC and / or MAC-CE. Although modules 802-818 are shown as separate modules, those skilled in the art will recognize that these modules can be arranged differently and / or combined into modules and / or sub-modules to suit specific applications. During operation, each of the modules (802-818) is configured to be executed via a processing device or multiple processing devices (e.g., 212, 312). In this example, the PUCCH resource configuration list module 802 carries parameters for the PUCCH resource list and / or PUCCH beam configuration. The PUCCH resource list may include, but is not limited to, PUCCH-ResourceSet IE, PUCCH-Resource IE, SRResourceConfig IE and / or PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo IE. The resource list module 802 may also include multiple (e.g., 4) PUCCH-FormatConfig objects, each of which may be applied to all PUSCH resources of a corresponding format (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4).

[0115] In some demonstrative embodiments, the spatial relationship information object (PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo) indicates the beam reference signal to be used whenever the object is referenced. The spatial relationship object (PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo) may be further defined in the illustrated spatial relationship information module 808 and include an identification (ID), a reference signal (RS), and power control parameters, which are defined in Fig. 9 The RS information of module 808 may indicate which beam is being referenced during beamforming.

[0116] The PUCCH resource set IE of the PUCCH resource configuration list module 802 may be further defined in the PUCCH resource set module 804, and may include, but is not limited to, a resource set ID, a list of the maximum number of resources for the PUCCH resource ID (Max#ResourcesPerSet), and a maximum payload for the specified resource set. The PUCCH resource IE of the PUCCH resource configuration list module 802 may be further defined in the PUCCH resource module 806, and may include, but is not limited to, a PUCCH resource ID, a starting physical resource block (PRB), intra-slot frequency hopping information, a second hop PRB, and PUCCH format information.

[0117] Fig. 8A The scheduling request configuration IE of the PUCCH resource configuration list module 802 can be Figure 8BThe scheduling request resource configuration object 810 is further defined ("A"), which may include but is not limited to an ID, a scheduling request ID (SRID), a period and offset, and a PUCCH resource ID. As shown, the PUCCH resource ID of the scheduling request resource configuration object 810 can be referenced back to ("D") the PUCCH resource ID of the PUCCH of the PUCCH resource module 806. Fig. 8A The PUCCH format configuration object of the PUCCH resource configuration list module 802 can be Figure 8C The PUCCH format configuration module 816 is further defined ("B"), which may include but is not limited to interslot hopping information (interslotHopping), additional uplink demodulation reference signal information (additionalDMRS), maximum code rate information (maxCodeRate), slot repetition information (slot-repetition), two-phase shift keying (pi / 2-BPSK), and simultaneous transmission of periodic CSI and HARQ-ACK feedback information (simultaneousHARQ-Ack-CSI), where HARQ refers to hybrid automatic repeat request. Fig. 8A The PUCCH power control IE of the PUCCH resource configuration list module 802 can be Figure 8C The PUCCH module 818 is further defined ("C") and may include, but is not limited to, power control information, which is combined with Fig. 9 Discuss in more detail.

[0118] Additional modules include Figure 8B MAC-CE module 812, wherein the MAC-CE module 812 may include but is not limited to: Fig. 8A The PUCCH spatial relationship information module 808 provides ("H") the PUCCH spatial relationship information ID (PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoID) for each beam, the PUCCH resource ID (PUCCH-ResourceID) when more than one beam is used, and the PUCCH spatial relationship information ID (PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoID). As shown in the figure, additional parameters can be included. Figure 8B The channel state information (CSI) reporting configuration module 814 can also be configured to report the information and resources shown, including PUCCH resources.

[0119] Figure 8BThe MAC-CE module 812 is shown as mapping a specific PUCCH resource to a specific beam (PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoID). In a scenario where multiple PUCCH resources share the same beam, a separate MAC-CE is required for each of them, which may involve a lot of overhead, especially when a large number of PUCCH resources are configured. To alleviate this, an alternative MAC-CE may be specified that associates multiple PUCCH resources with the same beam. For example, the MAC-CE may contain: the IDs of one or more PUCCH resource sets (instead of the IDs of the PUCCH resources), and the beams to be used for all PUCCH resources in these resource sets. Alternatively, the MAC-CE may associate all resources for a specific physical channel with a specific beam; for example, all PUCCH resources, all SRS resources, or all PDCCH CORESETS. A separate MAC-CE may be designed for each of these physical channels, or a single MAC-CE may include an index to identify the physical channel and the associated beam. The bit field representing the beam index can be interpreted differently depending on the physical channel identified, for example, as an index in the PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo information element (IE) pointing to the PUCCH and an index in the TCI-StateSPDCCH IE pointing to the PDCCH. The MAC-CE can also address a subset of physical channel resources using an indication of (one or more) subsets included in the MAC-CE (e.g., PUCCH-ResourceSetID or SRS-ResourceSetID), similar to the PUCCH resource set in the PUCCH case.

[0120] Regarding power control, uplink power control determines the transmit power of different uplink physical channels or signals. For PUSCH, the UE first scales the transmit power P by the ratio of the number of antenna ports with non-zero PUSCH transmissions to the number of antenna ports configured for the transmission scheme. PUSCH,f,c (i,j,q d ,l) linear value The resulting scaled power is then divided equally among the antenna ports on which non-zero PUSCH is transmitted. If the UE transmits PUSCH on carrier f of serving cell c using parameter set configuration indexed j and PUSCH power control adjustment state indexed l, the UE sets the PUSCH transmission power P in PUSCH transmission period i to PUSCH,f,c (i,j,q d ,l) is determined as

[0121]

[0122] in,

[0123] -P CMAX,f,c (i) is the configured UE transmit power defined in [8, TS 38.101] for carrier f of serving cell c in PUSCH transmission period i.

[0124] -P O_PUSCH,f,c (j) is composed of the component P O_NOMINAL_PUSCH,f,c (j) and the component P O_UE_PUSCH,f,c (j), where j∈{0,1,...,,J-1}.

[0125] -For j=0,α f,c (j) = 1. For j = 1, α f,c (1) Provided by the higher layer parameter p0alphasetindex in UL-TWG-Type1 or UL-TWG-Type2. J , α f,c The set of (j) values ​​is provided by the higher layer parameter set p0-pusch-alpha-set in p0-push-alpha-setconfig for carrier f serving cell c and the corresponding index p0alphasetindex of the higher layer parameter, where the size of the set is J-2 and is indicated by the higher layer parameter num-p0-alpha-sets.

[0126] - is the bandwidth of the PUSCH resource allocation expressed in the number of resource blocks of the PUSCH transmission period on carrier f serving cells c and μ.

[0127] -PL f,c (q d ) is the reference signal (RS) resource q used by the UE for carrier f serving cell c dThe computed downlink path loss estimate in dB, where the UE is configured with multiple RS resources via a higher layer parameter num-pusch-pathlossReference-rs and a corresponding set of RS configurations for the multiple RS resources is provided by a higher layer parameter pusch-pathloss-Reference-rs, which includes one or both of the following: a set of SS / PBCH block indices provided by a higher layer parameter pusch-pathlossReference-SSB and a set of CSI-RS configuration indices provided by a higher layer parameter pusch-pathlossReference-CSIRS. The UE identifies an RS resource in the set of RS resources to correspond to an SS / PBCH block or CSI-RS configuration, as provided by a higher layer parameter pusch-pathlossreference-index in pusch-pathlossReference-rs-config.

[0128] If the UE sends a PUCCH on carrier f of primary cell c using the PUCCH power control adjustment state indexed as l, the UE increases the PUCCH transmission power P in PUCCH transmission period i by PUCCH,f,c (i,q u ,q d ,l) is determined as

[0129]

[0130] in

[0131] -P CMAX,f,c (i) is the configured UE transmit power of carrier f of serving cell c in PUCCH transmission period i.

[0132] -P O_PUCCH,f,c (q u ) is the component P provided by the higher layer parameter P0-nominal-PUCCH for carrier f of primary cell c. O_NOMINAL_PUCCH The component P provided by the higher layer parameter P0-PUCCH O_UE_PUCCH (q u ) and the sum of , where 0≤q u <Q u .Q u is P provided by the higher layer parameter num-p0-pucch O_UE_PUCCH The size of the value set. O_UE_PUCCH The value set is provided by the higher layer parameter p0-pucch-set.

[0133] -PL f,c (qd ) is used by UE to use RS resources q d The downlink path loss estimate in dB calculated for carrier f of primary cell c, where 0≤q d <Q d .Q d is the size of the RS resource set provided by the higher layer parameter num-pucch-pathlossReference-rs. The RS resource set is provided by the higher layer parameter pucch-pathlossReference-rs. The RS resource set may include one or both of the following: a set of SS / PBCH block indices provided by the higher layer parameter pucch-pathlossReference-SSB and a set of CSI-RS configuration indices provided by the higher layer parameter pucch-pathlossReference-CSIRS. The UE identifies RS resources in the RS resource set to correspond to a SS / PBCH block or CSI-RS configuration, as provided by the higher layer parameter pusch-pathlossreference-index.

[0134] -Parameter Δ F_PUCCH (F) is provided by the higher layer parameters deltaF-pucch-f0 for PUCCH format 0, deltaF-pucch-f1 for PUCCH format 1, deltaF-pucch-f2 for PUCCH format 2, deltaF-pucch-f3 for PUCCH format 3, and deltaF-pucch-f4 for PUCCH format 4.

[0135] -Δ TF,f,c (i) is the PUCCH transmission power adjustment component for carrier f of primary cell c

[0136] In the absence of SRS / SRI, configuration is required to achieve power control of the beam. In an illustrative embodiment, when SRI is present, multiple (e.g., 4) PUSCH parameters are defined to be associated with SRI. These parameters may include P0 (referred to as P above), O_PUSCH,f,c (j)), α (referred to as α above) f,c (j)), DL-pathloss-reference (referred to as q d) and a closed-loop index (referred to as l above). If the default beam is based on PUCCH, the PUCCH power control is configured with the corresponding parameters (except α). In addition, the PUCCH parameters should be configured within the PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo IE. In some illustrative embodiments, parameters for defining the PUCCH resources of the PUCCH beam may be used, where, for example, α may be hardwired to 1, or alternatively, Msg3-α (which is used for power control of the PUSCH carrying RACH msg3) may be reused. As described above, this configuration may work advantageously when SRS is not present and the SRI is interpreted as pointing to an index in the PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo IE list. In the case of multiple carriers (i.e., carrier aggregation or dual connectivity), PUCCH may refer to PUCCH in PUCCH-PCell or PUCCH-PSCell. In some examples, if the UE is provided via SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl (with more than one value of p0-PUSCH-AlphaSetId value), and if DCI format 0_1 ​​includes an SRI field, the UE obtains a mapping between a set of values ​​of the SRI field in DCI format 0_1 ​​and a set of indices provided by p0-PUSCH-AlphaSetId mapped to a set of P0-PUSCH-AlphaSet values ​​from the sri-PUSCH-PowerControlId in the SRI-PUSCH-PowerControl. If a PUSCH transmission is scheduled by DCI format 0_1 ​​including the SRI field, the UE determines the value of P0 based on the p0-PUSCH-AlphaSetId value mapped to the SRI field value. Thus, in at least some examples, at least one power control parameter (e.g., p0) is derived from an identification value (e.g., p0-PUSCH-AlphaSetId) mapped to an SRI value (e.g., an SRI field value).

[0137] In another example, when SRS or SRI is not present, only some power control parameters may be based on PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo, such as DL-pathloss-reference, and other parameters may be derived in other ways, for example, the loop index may be fixed to l=0, or P0 may be derived assuming j=2, etc. This represents an example by which the system may derive at least some power control parameters for data channel communication from a separate RRC configuration if no SRS beam is available, or wherein at least some power control parameters for data channel communication are set according to a predetermined wireless protocol operating specification. When the power control parameter values ​​are set according to a predetermined specification, this may be considered to be setting the values ​​based on a "hard-coded" feature of the specification. The values ​​l and j are examples of such hard-coded features. The value l is also referred to herein as a power control adjustment state loop index. The value j is also referred to herein as a parameter set configuration index. If the default beam is based on a DL beam, the identified DL beam may also be used as a path loss reference, or may be used under the condition that other configurations determine whether DL RSRP is being monitored for that beam. Alternatively, a similar solution to the PUCCH-based default beam may be used, except that the beam information may come from a different source (e.g., DL beam). As another alternative, a separate RRC configuration directed to power control parameters may be used for cases where SRS / SRI is not present. In some demonstrative embodiments, the default beam may be MAC-CE updatable, and / or may also be used for the PUCCH-based default beam.

[0138] MAC-CE may update the default beam based on the beam associated with the actual or virtual PUCCH resources. Some UEs may lack the capability to handle these MAC-CE based updates and therefore require RRC configuration to update the beam associated with the PUCCH resources. For UEs lacking such capability, the default beam may be based on the beam of a DL channel such as PDCCH, which may be updated by MAC-CE. Alternatively, this scheme may be used for such UEs only if the UE also supports capabilities for reciprocity or UL / DL beam correspondence so that the beam used for downlink reception may also be meaningfully used for uplink transmission.

[0139] Reference now Fig. 9 , the power control equations for PUCCH and PUSCH provided above are shown in equations 902 and 904, respectively, to implement power control of beams formed using the techniques disclosed herein:

[0140] P PUCCH,f,c (i,q u ,q d ,l)=P O_PUCCH,f,c(q u )+PL f,c (q d )+Δ F_PUCCH (F)+Δ TF,f,c (i)+g f,c (i,l)

[0141]

[0142] In some demonstrative embodiments, the power control function may be capped at P CMAX,f,c (i) Also provided in the figure is a PUSCH power control module 906 which may be incorporated as part of the operating environment 800.

[0143] Fig.10 1 is a block diagram of a MIMO communication system 1000 including a base station 102 and a UE 104. The MIMO communication system 1000 may be shown with reference to Figure 1 The wireless communication access network 100 described herein may include various aspects of the wireless communication access network 100. The base station 102 may be a reference Figure 1 Examples of various aspects of base station 102 are described. Base station 102 can be equipped with antennas 1034 and 1035, and UE 104 can be equipped with antennas 1052 and 1053. In MIMO communication system 1000, base station 102 can send data over multiple communication links at the same time. Each communication link can be referred to as a "layer", and the "rank" of the communication link can indicate the number of layers used for communication. For example, in a 2×2 MIMO communication system where base station 102 sends two "layers", the rank of the communication link between base station 102 and UE 104 is two.

[0144] At the base station 102, a transmit (Tx) processor 1020 may receive data from a data source. The transmit processor 1020 may process the data. The transmit processor 1020 may also generate a control symbol or a reference symbol. The transmit MIMO processor 1030 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on ​​the data symbols, control symbols, or reference symbols (if applicable), and may provide an output symbol stream to transmit modulators / demodulators 1032 and 1033. Each modulator / demodulator 1032 to 1033 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator / demodulator 1032 to 1033 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and up-convert) the output sample stream to obtain a DL signal. In an example, DL signals from modulators / demodulators 1032 and 1033 may be sent via antennas 1034 and 1035, respectively.

[0145] UE 104 may be a reference Figure 1-2Examples of various aspects of the UE 104 described herein. At the UE 104, the UE antennas 1052 and 1053 may receive DL signals from the base station 1002 and may provide received signals to modulators / demodulators 1054 and 1055, respectively. Each modulator / demodulator 1054 to 1055 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Each modulator / demodulator 1054 to 1055 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. The MIMO detector 1056 may obtain received symbols from the modulator / demodulators 1054 and 1055, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols (if applicable), and provide detected symbols. The receive (Rx) processor 1058 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 104 to a data output, and provide decoded control information to a processor 1080 or a memory 1082.

[0146] Processor 1080 may, in some cases, execute stored instructions to instantiate communication component 142 (see, e.g., Figure 1 and Figure 2 ).

[0147] On the uplink (UL), at the UE 104, a transmit processor 1064 may receive and process data from a data source. The transmit processor 1064 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal. The symbols from the transmit processor 1064 may be precoded by a transmit MIMO processor 1066 (if applicable), further processed by the modulator / demodulators 1054 and 1055 (e.g., for SC-FDMA, etc.), and sent to the base station 102 based on the communication parameters received from the base station 102. At the base station 102, the UL signals from the UE 104 may be received by the antennas 1034 and 1035, processed by the modulator / demodulators 1032 and 1033, detected by the MIMO detector 1036 (if applicable), and further processed by the receive processor 1038. The receive processor 1038 may provide decoded data to a data output and to the processor 1040 or the memory 1042.

[0148] Processor 1040 may, in some cases, execute stored instructions to instantiate communication component 146 (see, e.g., Figure 1 and Figure 3 ).

[0149] The components of the UE 1004 may be implemented individually or collectively with one or more ASICs adapted to perform some or all applicable functions in hardware. Each of the modules mentioned may be a unit for performing one or more functions related to the operation of the MIMO communication system 1000. Similarly, the components of the base station 102 may be implemented individually or collectively with one or more ASICs adapted to perform some or all applicable functions in hardware. Each of the components mentioned may be a unit for performing one or more functions related to the operation of the MIMO communication system 1000.

[0150] Exemplary System-on-Chip Hardware Environment

[0151] Aspects of the systems and methods described herein can be developed using a variety of mobile devices or other wireless user equipment (UE) devices and used in a wide range of applications. To provide a specific example, an exemplary SoC hardware environment will now be described in which UE components are provided on a SoC processing circuit for use in a mobile communication device or other access terminal.

[0152] Fig.11 1 shows selected components of a UE or other mobile device 1100 having a SoC processing circuit 1102 configured according to one example, in which various novel features may be utilized. The SoC processing circuit 1102 may be a Snapdragon TM The SoC processing circuit 1102 receives power from an external power source 1104 and includes an application processing circuit 1110, which includes a multi-core CPU 1112 and generally controls the operation of all components of the mobile communication device. Note that the external power source is external to the SoC, but is an internal component of the UE 1100, and may include, for example, a rechargeable battery. Fig.11 In the example of , the application processing circuit 1110 is configured to include a MAC-CE controller 1115 and a default beam information controller 1117 (or in conjunction with their operations). The MAC-CE controller 1115 can be configured or equipped to perform or control various operations discussed herein in which the MAC-CE is used to update the SRS beam. The default beam information controller 1117 can be configured or equipped to perform or control various operations discussed herein in which the default beam information is used, particularly in the absence of SRS and / or SRI.

[0153] exist Fig.11In the example of , the application processing circuit 1110 is also coupled to a host memory controller 1150 for controlling the storage of data in an internal shared memory device 1132 forming part of an internal shared hardware (HW) resource 1130. The application processing circuit 1110 may also include a boot RAM or ROM 1118 that stores boot sequence instructions for various components of the SoC processing circuit 1102. The SoC processing circuit 1102 also includes one or more peripheral subsystems 1120 controlled by the application processing circuit 1110. The peripheral subsystem 1120 may include, but is not limited to, a storage subsystem (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM)), a video / graphics subsystem (e.g., digital signal processing circuit (DSP), graphics processing circuit unit (GPU)), an audio subsystem (e.g., DSP, analog-to-digital converter (ADC), digital-to-analog converter (DAC)), a power management subsystem, a security subsystem (e.g., encryption components and digital rights management (DRM) components), an input / output (I / O) subsystem (e.g., keyboard, touch screen), and a wired and wireless connection subsystem (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, global system for mobile (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), 4G long term evolution (LTE) modem). An exemplary peripheral subsystem 1120 as a modem subsystem includes a DSP 1122, various other hardware (HW) and software (SW) components 1124, and various radio frequency (RF) components 1126. In one aspect, each peripheral subsystem 1120 also includes a boot RAM or ROM 1128 that stores a primary boot image (not shown) of the associated peripheral subsystem 1120. As described above, the SoC processing circuit 1102 also includes various internal shared HW resources 1130, such as an internal shared storage device 1132 (e.g., static RAM (SRAM), flash memory, etc.), which is shared by the application processing circuit 1110 and the various peripheral subsystems 1120 to store various runtime data or other parameters and provide host memory, and which can store various keys or passwords for secure processing.

[0154] In one aspect, the components 1110, 1112, 1115, 1117, 1118, 1119, 1120, 1128, 1130, and 1150 of the SoC 1102 are integrated on a single chip substrate. The SoC processing circuit 1102 also includes various external shared HW resources 1140, which may be located on a different chip substrate and may communicate with the SoC processing circuit 1102 via one or more buses. The external shared HW resources 1140 may include, for example, an external shared storage device 1142 (e.g., a double data rate (DDR) dynamic RAM) and / or a permanent or semi-permanent data storage device 1144 (e.g., a secure digital (SD) card, a hard disk drive (HDD), an embedded multimedia card, a universal flash device (UFS), etc.), which may be shared by the application processing circuit 1110 and various peripheral subsystems 1120 to store various types of data, such as operating system (OS) information, system files, programs, applications, user data, audio / video files, etc. When the UE incorporating the SoC processing circuit 1102 is started, the SoC processing circuit begins a system boot process, during which the application processing circuit 1110 can access the boot RAM or ROM 1118 to obtain boot instructions for the SoC processing circuit 1102, including boot sequence instructions for various peripheral subsystems 1120. The peripheral subsystem 1120 may also have an additional peripheral boot RAM or ROM 1128.

[0155] Exemplary Systems and Methods

[0156] Fig.12 It shows that it can be realized Figure 1-11 The overall system or apparatus 1200 of the system, method and apparatus (or aspects thereof) of the present disclosure can be used to include, for example, Fig.10 The processing system 1214 of one or more processing circuits 1204 such as a SoC processing circuit of the present invention implements an element, or any part of an element, or any combination of elements. For example, the device 1200 may be a UE of a mobile communication system. The device 1200 may be used in conjunction with a radio network controller (RNC). In addition to the SoC, examples of the processing circuit 1204 include a microprocessor circuit, a microcontroller, a DSP, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a state machine, a gated logic, a discrete hardware circuit, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functions described throughout the present disclosure. That is, the processing circuit 1204 utilized in the device 1200 may be used to implement the functions described above and in Figure 1 , 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 (and the processes discussed below) Fig.13 , 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24) in any one or more of the processes shown.

[0157] exist Fig.12 In the example of , the processing system 1214 is implemented with a bus architecture, which is generally represented by bus 1202. Bus 1202 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges, depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system 1214. Bus 1202 links various circuits, including one or more processing circuits (generally represented by processing circuit 1204), storage devices 1205, and machine-readable, processor-readable, processing circuit-readable or computer-readable media (generally represented by non-transitory machine-readable media 1206). Bus 1202 may also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be further described. Bus interface 1208 provides an interface between bus 1202 and transceiver 1210 (i.e., receiver / transmitter). Transceiver 1210 provides a means for communicating with various other devices via a transmission medium. Depending on the nature of the device, a user interface 1212 (e.g., keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick) may also be provided.

[0158] The processing circuit 1204 is responsible for managing the bus 1202 and general processing, including executing software stored on the machine-readable medium 1206. When executed by the processing circuit 1204, the software causes the processing system 1214 to perform the various functions described herein for any particular device. The machine-readable medium 1206 may also be used to store data that is manipulated by the processing circuit 1204 when executing the software.

[0159] One or more processing circuits 1204 in the processing system can execute software or software components.Software should be widely interpreted as meaning instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable programs, execution threads, processes, functions, etc., whether they are called software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages ​​or other.Processing circuits can perform tasks.Code segments can represent processes, functions, subroutines, programs, routines, subroutines, modules, software packages, classes, or any combination of instructions, data structures or program statements.By transmitting and / or receiving information, data, independent variables, parameters or storage or storage content, code segments can be coupled to another code segment or hardware circuit.Information, independent variables, parameters, data, etc. can be transmitted, forwarded or sent via any suitable means, including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

[0160] The software may reside on a machine-readable medium 1206. The machine-readable medium 1206 may be a non-transitory machine-readable medium or a computer-readable medium. Non-transitory processing circuit-readable, machine-readable, or computer-readable medium includes, for example, a magnetic storage device (e.g., a hard disk, a floppy disk, a magnetic tape), an optical disk (e.g., a compact disk (CD) or a digital versatile disk (DVD)), a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., a card, stick, or key drive), RAM, ROM, a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, a removable disk, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, and any other suitable medium for storing software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a machine or computer.

[0161] Thus, the various methods described herein may be implemented in whole or in part by instructions and / or data, which may be stored in a "machine-readable medium," "computer-readable medium," "processing circuit-readable medium," and / or "processor-readable medium" and executed by one or more processing circuits, machines, and / or devices. Machine-readable media may also include, for example, carrier waves, transmission lines, and any other suitable medium for transmitting software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. The terms "machine-readable medium," "computer-readable medium," "processing circuit-readable medium," and / or "processor-readable medium" may include, but are not limited to, non-transitory media, such as portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other media capable of storing, containing, or carrying instructions and / or data.

[0162] Therefore, in one aspect of the present disclosure, Fig.12 The processing circuit 1204 shown in FIG. 1 may be specially designed and / or hardwired to perform Figure 1 , 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 (as well as the algorithms, methods and / or blocks discussed below) Fig.13 , 14 , 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24) of a dedicated processing circuit (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)). Therefore, such a dedicated processing circuit (e.g., an ASIC) may be used to perform Figure 1 , 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 (as well as the algorithms, methods and / or blocks discussed below) Fig.13 , 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24). The machine-readable storage medium may store instructions that, when executed by a special-purpose processing circuit (e.g., an ASIC), cause the special-purpose processing circuit to perform the algorithms, methods and / or blocks described herein.

[0163] The machine-readable medium 1206 may reside in the processing system 1214, external to the processing system 1214, or distributed across multiple entities including the processing system 1214. The machine-readable medium 1206 may be embodied in a computer program product. As an example, a computer program product may include a machine-readable medium in a packaging material. Those skilled in the art will recognize how to best implement the functions presented throughout the present disclosure according to the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the entire system. For example, the machine-readable storage medium 1206 may have one or more instructions that, when executed by the processing circuit 1204 (e.g., formed on an IC die), cause the processing circuit to: determine at the UE whether an SRS beam has been configured for data channel communication; when determining that an SRS beam has been configured, configure a MAC-CE to update the SRS beam; use the MAC-CE to update the SRS beam; and use the techniques already described to send data channel communication based at least in part on the SRS updated using the MAC-CE.

[0164] One or more of the components, steps, features and / or functions shown in the figure can be rearranged and / or combined into a single component, block, feature or function, or be included in several components, steps or functions. Additional elements, components, steps and / or functions can also be added without departing from the present disclosure. The device, equipment and / or components shown in the figure can be configured to perform one or more of the methods, features or steps described in the figure. The algorithm described herein can also be effectively implemented in software and / or embedded in hardware.

[0165] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, elements, and / or components described in conjunction with the examples disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with general processing circuitry, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA, or other programmable logic components, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. The general processing circuitry may be a microprocessing circuit, but in an alternative, the processing circuitry may be any conventional processing circuitry, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processing circuitry may also be implemented as a combination of computing components, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessing circuit, a plurality of microprocessing circuits, a combination of one or more microprocessing circuits with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0166] Fig.13Selected and exemplary components of UE 1300 (or other wireless communication device) are shown, which has a processing circuit 1302, in which various components are equipped to implement or perform the above-mentioned MAC-CE-based operations. In particular, a determination controller 1304 is configured to determine whether an SRS beam has been configured for data channel communication. A MAC-CE controller 1306 is provided for configuring MAC-CE to update the SRS beam. An SRS beam update controller 1308 is provided for updating the SRS beam using MAC-CE. A transmission controller 1310 is provided for controlling the transmission of data channel communication based on the SRS updated using MAC-CE. UE 1300 also includes one or more antennas 1312 for use in transmission and reception.

[0167] Fig.14 Selected and exemplary components of another UE 1400 (or other wireless communication device) are shown, which has a processing circuit 1402, in which various components are equipped to implement or perform the above-mentioned operations based on default beam information. In particular, the default beam information controller 1404 is configured to set or determine the default beam information for defining the beam of the data channel communication. The beam configuration controller 1406 is configured to set or determine the beam used for the data channel communication based on ascertaining that the beam information that is not configured or indicated explicitly in the user equipment. The transmission controller 1408 is configured to control the transmission of the data channel communication based on the beam configured using the default beam information. The UE 1400 also includes one or more antennas 1410 for use in sending and receiving.

[0168] Fig.15 A method or process 1500 is broadly shown and summarized as being performed by a suitably equipped device or component, such as the UE 1300 described above. Briefly, at 1502, the UE configures a MAC-CE to update an SRS beam. At 1504, the UE updates the SRS beam using the MAC-CE. At 1506, the UE updates the SRS beam using the MAC-CE. At 1508, the UE sends a data channel communication based at least in part on the SRS updated using the MAC-CE.

[0169] In some examples, combined Fig.15 The functions discussed may be implemented by suitable devices or means, such as: a unit for configuring MAC-CE to update an SRS beam; a unit for updating an SRS beam using MAC-CE; and a unit for sending data channel communications based at least in part on the SRS updated using the MAC-CE.

[0170] Fig.16A method or process 1600 is shown and summarized that can be performed by a suitably equipped device or component such as UE 1300. Briefly, at 1602, the UE configures a MAC-CE to allow an update of an SRS beam by configuring the MAC-CE to include an SRI and new beam information for the new beam, wherein the new beam information includes at least one of (a) a pointer or index or other indicator to a list of TCI states or beams related to the SRS beam, and (b) an explicit pointer to the beam index. At 1604, the UE processes the MAC-CE with the SRI to update the SRS beam.

[0171] Fig.17 A method or process 1700 is broadly illustrated and summarized as being performed by a suitably equipped device or component, such as the UE 1400 described above. Briefly, at 1702, the UE configures default beam information for defining a beam for data channel communications. At 1704, the UE configures a beam for data channel communications based on ascertaining that no explicit beam information is configured or indicated in the UE. At 1706, the UE transmits data channel communications based on the beam configured using the default beam information.

[0172] In some examples, combined Fig.17 The functions discussed can be implemented by suitable devices or means, such as: a unit for configuring default beam information for defining a beam for data channel communication; a unit for configuring a beam for data channel communication based on determining that no explicit beam information is configured or indicated in the UE; and a unit for sending data channel communication based on a beam configured using the default beam information.

[0173] In some examples, combined Fig.17 The functionality discussed may be presented within a non-transitory processor-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: configure a MAC-CE to update an SRS beam; update the SRS beam using the MAC-CE; and control transmission of data channel communications based at least in part on the SRS updated using the MAC-CE.

[0174] Fig.18A method or other process 1800 is broadly shown and summarized as being performed by a suitably equipped device or component, such as the UE 1400 described above. Briefly, at 1802, the UE configures default beam information for defining a beam for data channel communications. At 1804, the UE determines whether non-default (e.g., explicit) beam information has been configured or indicated in the UE for data channel communications. At 1806, upon determining that non-default beam information has not been configured or indicated in the UE for data channel communications, the UE configures a beam for data channel communications using the default beam information. At 1808, the UE transmits data channel communications based on the beam configured using the default beam information.

[0175] In some examples, combined Fig.18 The functions discussed can be implemented by suitable devices or means, such as: a unit for configuring default beam information for defining a beam for data channel communication; a unit for determining whether non-default (e.g., explicit) beam information has been configured or indicated in the UE for data channel communication; a unit for configuring a beam for data channel communication using the default beam information after determining that non-default beam information has not been configured or indicated in the UE for data channel communication; and a unit for sending data channel communication based on a beam configured using the default beam information.

[0176] Fig.19 An additional method or process 1900 is shown and summarized that may be performed by a suitably equipped device or component such as UE 1400. Briefly, at 1902, the UE configures default beam information by semi-statically configuring control channel resources from which beams may be derived by: (a) configuring the resources as virtual by configuring spatial information of the control channel resources without transmitting on the control channel resources, and / or (b) configuring the control channel resources on a periodic or semi-persistent basis, and in some cases, also configuring physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) parameters nominally associated with the explicit beam information configuration to perform power control, wherein at least some of the PUSCH parameters are derived based on corresponding power control parameters associated with the control channel or based on fixed values ​​or any explicit beam information not indicated. At 1904, the UE sends a data channel communication on a first component carrier (CC), wherein default beam information for the communication relates to one or more CCs, and wherein the default beam information is configured by determining that: (a) the CC is configured to send a control channel, (b) the CC is configured based on a predetermined configuration, and / or (c) the CC corresponds to a most recent (previous) beam configuration (e.g., actual or virtual control channel resources) in a set of CCs, which may include selectively excluding one or more control channels, e.g., control channels corresponding to beam scanning transmissions, access channel transmissions, or beam failure recovery request transmissions.

[0177] Fig. 20 Selected and exemplary components of UE 2000 (or other wireless communication device) are shown, and the UE has a processing circuit 2002, in which various components are equipped to implement or perform at least some of the above operations. In particular, a controller 2004 is provided for configuring a non-RRC control element (e.g., a MAC-CE element) to update a sounding beam (e.g., an SRS beam) for data channel communication. An update controller 2006 is configured to update the sounding beam using the non-RRC control element. A transmission controller 2008 is configured to control the transmission of data channel communication based at least in part on the sounding beam updated using the non-RRC control element. UE 2000 also includes one or more antennas 2012 for sending and receiving.

[0178] Fig.21 A method or process 2100 is broadly illustrated and summarized as being performed by a suitably equipped device or component, such as the UE 1300 described above. Briefly, at 2102, the device configures a non-RRC control element to update a sounding beam for a data channel communication. At 2104, the device updates the sounding beam using the non-RRC control element. At 2106, the device sends a data channel communication based at least in part on the sounding beam updated using the non-RRC control element. In some examples, the non-RRC control element is a MAC-CE and the sounding beam is an SRS beam. In some aspects, in conjunction with Fig.21 The discussed functionality may be implemented by suitable devices or means, such as: means for configuring a non-RRC control element to update a sounding beam for data channel communications; means for updating the sounding beam using the non-RRC control element; and means for sending data channel communications based at least in part on the sounding beam updated using the non-RRC control element. Fig.21 The functionality discussed may be presented within a non-transitory processor-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: configure a non-RRC control element to update a sounding beam for data channel communications; update the sounding beam using the non-RRC control element; and send data channel communications based at least in part on the sounding beam updated using the non-RRC control element.

[0179] Further information about the MAC layer and MAC-CE

[0180] Fig. 22A user plane protocol stack 2200 with a MAC sublayer within a UE 2202 and a gNB 2204 is shown. The components shown in the figure include: a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer 2206 in the UE and a corresponding SDAP layer 2208 in the gNB; a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer 2210 in the UE and a corresponding PDCP layer 2210 in the gNB; a radio link control (RLC) layer 2214 in the UE and a corresponding RLC layer 2216 in the gNB; a MAC layer 2218 in the UE and a corresponding MAC layer 2220 in the gNB; and a physical (PHY) layer 2222 in the UE and a corresponding PHY layer 2224 in the gNB.

[0181] Fig.23 It shows that it can be Fig. 22 10. Example MAC CE generated by the MAC layer of a UE. In the first example, MAC CE 2300 includes SRI 2302 and new beam information 2304, which can generally be provided in any suitable form. In the second example, MAC CE 2306 includes SRI 2308 and new beam information 2310 in the form of a pointer to a beam index, such as an SSB index, NZP-CSI-RS-index, SRS-resource index. In the third example, MAC CE 2312 includes SRI 2314 and new beam information 2316 in the form of a pointer / indicator / index to a TCI state / beam list configured for SRS or other channels, such as a list of PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo, SRS-SpatialRelationInfo, TCI-StatesPDCCH. As above combined with Figure 6 As described above, these indicator elements can then point to SSB-index, NZP-CSI-RS-index, SRSResource-index, etc. For further details, see also the discussion above. Fig. 8A , 8B and 8B.

[0182] Additional Exemplary Systems and Methods

[0183] Fig.24 A method or process 2400 is broadly shown and summarized as being performed by a suitably equipped device or component, such as the UE 1300 described above. Briefly, at 2402, the device determines whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available. At 2404, in response to determining that the sounding beam is not available, the device derives at least one power control parameter for data channel communication from an RRC control configuration. At 2406, the device transmits the data channel communication based at least in part on the power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration. In some aspects, in conjunction with Fig.24 The functions discussed may be implemented by a suitable device or apparatus, such as: a processor configured to: determine whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available; in response to determining that the sounding beam is not available, derive at least one power control parameter for data channel communication from an RRC control configuration; and send data channel communication based at least in part on the power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration.

[0184] In other aspects, combined Fig.24 The discussed functionality may be implemented by suitable devices or means, such as: means for determining whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available; means for deriving at least one power control parameter for data channel communication from an RRC control configuration in response to determining that the sounding beam is not available; and means for sending data channel communication based at least in part on the power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration. In some aspects, in conjunction with Fig.24 The functionality discussed may be presented within a non-transitory processor-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: determine whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available; in response to determining that the sounding beam is not available, derive at least one power control parameter for data channel communication from an RRC control configuration; and send data channel communication based at least in part on the power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration.

[0185] Note that various aspects of the present disclosure may be described herein as processes depicted as flow charts, flow charts, structure diagrams, or block diagrams. Although flow charts may describe operations as sequential processes, many operations may be performed in parallel or simultaneously. In addition, the order of operations may be rearranged. When its operations are completed, the process terminates. A process may correspond to a method, function, procedure, subroutine, subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to the function returning to a calling function or a main function.

[0186] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that, in general, logic blocks, modules, circuits and algorithm steps may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software or a combination of both. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality, which may be appropriate in some cases depending on the specific function. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. In particular, as already explained, certain components should be implemented entirely in HW to provide effective SW flexibility.

[0187] The methods or algorithms described in conjunction with the examples disclosed herein may be directly embodied in hardware, in software modules executable by a processor, or in a combination of the two in the form of a processing unit, programming instructions, or other instructions, and may be included in a single device or distributed across multiple devices. The software modules may reside in a RAM memory, a flash memory, a ROM memory, an EPROM memory, an EEPROM memory, a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. The storage medium may be coupled to a processor so that the processor may read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. In an alternative, the storage medium may be integrated with the processor.

[0188] The above specific embodiments described above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings describe examples and do not represent the only examples that can be implemented or within the scope of the claims. When used in this specification, the term "example" means "used as an example, instance, or illustration", rather than "preferred" or "better than other examples". The specific embodiments include specific details to provide an understanding of the described techniques. However, these techniques can be implemented without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form to avoid making the concepts of the described examples difficult to understand.

[0189] Information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or optical particles, computer executable codes or instructions stored on computer-readable media, or any combination thereof.

[0190] The various illustrative blocks and components described in conjunction with the present disclosure may be implemented or executed with a specially programmed device, such as, but not limited to, a processor designed to perform the functions described herein, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. The specially programmed processor may be a microprocessor, but in an alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The specially programmed processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, a combination of one or more microprocessors with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0191] The functions described herein can be implemented by hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented by software executed by a processor, the functions can be stored or sent as one or more instructions or codes on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Other examples and embodiments are within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure and the appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, the above functions can be implemented using software, hardware, firmware, hard wiring, or any combination of these executed by a specially programmed processor. The features that implement the functions can also be physically located in various locations, including being distributed so that the parts of the functions are implemented at different physical locations. In addition, as used herein, including in the claims, the "or" used in the list of items starting with "at least one" indicates a separable list, so that, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C" represents A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C).

[0192] Computer readable medium includes both computer storage medium and communication medium, including any medium that helps to send a computer program from one place to another. Storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a general or special computer. As an example and not limitation, computer readable medium can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, disk storage or other magnetic storage device, or can be used to carry or store the required program code unit of instruction or data structure form and can be accessed by a general or special computer or a general or special processor. In addition, any connection is appropriately referred to as computer readable medium. For example, if coaxial cable, optical fiber cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL) or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio and microwave are used to transmit software from a website, server or other remote source, then coaxial cable, optical fiber cable, twisted pair, DSL or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio and microwave are included in the definition of medium. As used herein, disk and optical disk include compact disc (CD), laser optical disk, optical optical disk, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blue-ray disc, wherein disk usually reproduces data magnetically, and optical disk reproduces data optically with laser. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0193] The previous description of the present disclosure is provided to enable those skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications to the present invention will be apparent, and the common principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In addition, although the elements of the described aspects and / or embodiments may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural form is also encompassed unless expressly stated to be limited to the singular. In addition, unless otherwise stated, all or a portion of any aspect and / or embodiment may be used together with all or a portion of any other aspect and / or embodiment. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the examples and designs described herein, but should be given the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code for wireless communication, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform the following operations: determining whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available; In response to determining that the sounding beam is not available, deriving at least one power control parameter for the data channel communication from a radio resource control (RRC) control configuration, wherein Deriving the at least one power control parameter comprises: In the absence of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or an SRS resource indicator (SRI), the P0 parameter P is derived based on the parameter set configuration index j set to a selected fixed value of two. O_PUSCH,f,c (j), and In the absence of SRS or SRI, the downlink path loss reference q is derived from the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) spatial relation information d ; In response to the absence of the SRS or the SRI, determining a beam for the data channel communication using default beam information, wherein the default beam information is configured as a virtual control channel resource on which control data is not transmitted, or based on information related to one or more component carriers different from the component carrier corresponding to the data channel communication; and The data channel communication is transmitted using the determined beam based at least in part on the at least one power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration.

2. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein: The sounding beam includes a sounding reference signal (SRS) beam.

3. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 2, wherein: The at least one power control parameter is set according to a predetermined wireless protocol operating specification.

4. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein: Deriving the at least one power control parameter further comprises: In the absence of SRS or SRI, the power control adjustment state loop index is set to a selected fixed value.

5. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 4, wherein: When there is no SRS or SRI, the power control adjustment state loop index 1 is set to zero.

6. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein: The data channel communications include physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) communications.

7. A user equipment, comprising: at least one antenna; as well as a processing circuit operatively coupled to the at least one antenna, the processing circuit being configured to: determining whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available; In response to determining that the sounding beam is not available, deriving at least one power control parameter for the data channel communication from a radio resource control (RRC) control configuration, wherein deriving the at least one power control parameter comprises: In the absence of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or an SRS resource indicator (SRI), the P0 parameter P is derived based on the parameter set configuration index j set to a selected fixed value of two. O_PUSCH,f,c (j), and In the absence of SRS or SRI, the downlink path loss reference q is derived from the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) spatial relation information d ; In response to the absence of the SRS or the SRI, determining a beam for the data channel communication using default beam information, wherein the default beam information is configured as a virtual control channel resource on which control data is not transmitted, or based on information related to one or more component carriers different from the component carrier corresponding to the data channel communication; and The data channel communication is transmitted using the determined beam based at least in part on the at least one power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration.

8. The user equipment according to claim 7, wherein: Deriving the at least one power control parameter further comprises: When the SRS or SRI does not exist, the power control adjustment state loop index is set to a selected fixed value.

9. The user equipment according to claim 8, wherein: When the SRS or SRI does not exist, the power control adjustment state loop index 1 is set to zero.

10. A method for wireless communication within a wireless communication system, comprising: determining whether a sounding beam for data channel communication is available; In response to determining that the sounding beam is not available, deriving at least one power control parameter for the data channel communication from a radio resource control (RRC) control configuration, wherein deriving the at least one power control parameter comprises: In the absence of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or an SRS resource indicator (SRI), the P0 parameter P is derived based on the parameter set configuration index j set to a selected fixed value of two. O_PUSCH,f,c (j), and In the absence of SRS or SRI, the downlink path loss reference q is derived from the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) spatial relation information d ; In response to the absence of the SRS or the SRI, determining a beam for the data channel communication using default beam information, wherein the default beam information is configured as a virtual control channel resource on which control data is not transmitted, or based on information related to one or more component carriers different from the component carrier corresponding to the data channel communication; and The data channel communication is transmitted using the determined beam based at least in part on the at least one power control parameter derived from the RRC control configuration.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The sounding beam includes a sounding reference signal (SRS) beam.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein: The at least one power control parameter is set according to a predetermined wireless protocol operating specification.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein: Deriving the at least one power control parameter further comprises: In the absence of SRS or SRI, the power control adjustment state loop index is set to a selected fixed value.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein: When there is no SRS or SRI, the power control adjustment state loop index 1 is set to zero.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The data channel communications include physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) communications.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The P0 parameter P O_PUSCH,f,c (j) is derived without using spatial relationship information.

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein: Physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) spatial relation information is included in the RRC control configuration.

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