Atmospheric channel driven interference processing

Abstract

A method of operating a network node (100) in a radio access network is disclosed, the method comprising operating on a carrier based on a received BS-to-BS interference indication. The disclosure also relates to related apparatus and methods.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to wireless communication technology, and in particular to 5G networks. Background Art

[0002] In wireless communication systems, a variety of interferences may occur. In some cases, if the nature of the interference can be identified, appropriate countermeasures can be performed for specific types of interference.

[0003] Sources of interference, in particular related to TDD (Time Division Duplex, where the same carrier is used for uplink and downlink by switching the direction of communication over time), may occur due to atmospheric conditions, which may lead to the formation of atmospheric channels via which radio signaling from one part of a network can interfere with another network or another part of the same network over a greater distance. This is sometimes referred to as BS-to-BS interference. Summary of the invention

[0004] It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a method allowing for improved handling of interference, in particular BS-to-BS interference.

[0005] In particular, the methods are particularly advantageously implemented in a fifth generation (5G) telecommunication network or a 5G radio access technology or network (RAT / RAN), in particular according to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project, a standardization organization). In particular, a suitable RAN may be a RAN according to NR (e.g. Release 15 or higher) or an LTE evolution. In particular, the methods are suitable for networks with 5000 (or more) or 10000 (or more) network nodes or cells, in which the available number of physical cell IDs for identifying cells is insufficient and must be reused for cells (cells are typically so far apart that cells with the same physical cell ID do not interfere at all). Therefore, identity determination based solely on this ID may be ambiguous.

[0006] A method of operating a network node (also referred to as a receiving node or a victim node) in a radio access network is disclosed. The method includes operating on a carrier (eg, a first carrier) based on a received BS-to-BS interference indication.

[0007] A network node for a radio access network is also disclosed. The network node is adapted to operate on a carrier (e.g., a first carrier) based on a received BS-to-BS interference indication. The network node may receive the BS-to-BS interference indication. The network node may be considered a receiving node or a victim node. For example, a node that sends the BS-to-BS interference indication and / or other signaling received or receivable by the receiving node on a DL may be considered a sending node or an interfering node, e.g., assuming that the node does not intend to send signaling that the receiving node should or may receive.

[0008] Operating on the carrier may include: adapting timing and / or scheduling on the carrier. The timing and / or scheduling may involve, for example, determining the UL / DL mode and / or UL and / or DL ​​time interval on the carrier for TDD operation, and / or may involve, for example, allocating resources to UL and / or DL ​​channels for TDD and / or FDD. The UL / DL mode may indicate a time interval for UL operation and / or DL ​​operation within a frame or time slot. Such a mode may be a basic channel-specific additional resource allocation. In general, the mode may be semi-statically configured to the UE, for example using RRC or MAC signaling, or dynamically controlled and / or scheduled, for example using DCI signaling. Switching from semi-static TDD to dynamic TDD may include, for example, using RRC or DCI signaling to send a corresponding indication to the UE. Adapting timing and / or scheduling may include, for example, allocating resources to the UE accordingly using control information signaling and / or DCI signaling and / or RRC signaling or other forms of scheduling and / or allocation; in particular, this may be related to UL.

[0009] In general, the BS to BS interference indication may be carried by radio signaling, for example in the form of reference signaling and / or SS / PBCH block signaling and / or broadcast signaling. The BS to BS interference indication may be an identity indication, which indicates the identity of the sending node sending the radio signaling. In particular, the identity indication may be provided by a sequence of the reference signaling and / or synchronization signaling and / or other signaling. In particular, the identity may be or be based on a physical cell ID and / or other identity associated with the sending node.

[0010] It may be considered that the BS to BS interference indication is carried by an indication message, for example in the form of a message providing a cell identity and / or carrier interference and / or time delay. The message may be based on information from another victim node or a sending node (which may have detected interference with the receiving node as a source due to a bidirectional atmospheric channel).

[0011] In some variants, operating on the carrier may include utilizing dynamic TDD on the carrier. In particular, this may, for example, switch from semi-static operation to dynamic TDD for one or more UEs. Switching to dynamic TDD may include adapting timing and / or scheduling.

[0012] It may be considered that operating on the carrier may include determining interference timing, such as a time shift between interference signaling and a transmission timing structure used by the network node. The interference timing may, for example, represent and / or be based on a time delay or time shift between the transmission timing structure used by the receiving node and the signaling from the sending node. For example, based on the time delay, the interference timing may represent a time interval, which may include SS / PBCH block transmissions and / or reference signaling, such as reference signaling indicating an identity from the sending node. The time shift and / or time delay may be determined based on the timing of the end of the reference signaling sent by the sending node and received by the receiving node relative to the end of the time slot (according to the timing of the receiving node). It may be assumed that the reference signaling is to be sent so that, in the case of timing according to the sending node, the reference signaling ends with the last symbol of the time slot, and / or so that, according to the timing of the sending node, the end of the reference signaling coincides with the corresponding end of the time slot. Typically, the timing (eg, transmission timing) of a node may be synchronized to and / or represented by a transmission timing structure associated with the node, eg, for downlink transmissions and / or according to a timing reference.

[0013] Typically, operating on the carrier may include muting transmissions on the carrier during a muting time interval in which interference signaling is expected based on the BS to BS interference indication. Muting may relate to uplink and / or downlink. Muting may be viewed as a form of adaptation timing and / or scheduling. The muting time interval may be based on interference timing. In particular, the muting time interval may have an end symbol that is aligned with and / or includes the last symbol of a time slot transmitted according to the transmit timing of the transmitting node, or at a later time. In general, muting may include, for example, not transmitting transmissions and / or not scheduling transmissions during the muting period in the UL, particularly on the (first) carrier, and / or not decoding and / or demodulating received signaling during the muting time interval, and / or placing radio circuits such as transceivers and / or transmitters and / or receivers in a power saving mode and / or a deactivation mode. The muting time interval may start at the end of a DL time interval of the receiving node, and / or at a switch between DL to UL.

[0014] Reference signaling sent by the sending node at the end of the timeslot (according to the transmission timing of the sending node) may be used as a timeslot end indicator, e.g. assuming that the receiving node is informed of the presence of such signaling and / or the form and / or duration of such signaling. Such information may be configured to the node and / or predefined.

[0015] In some variants, operating on the carrier may include scheduling DL operations during a period in which interference signaling is expected based on the BS-to-BS interference indication.

[0016] In general, interfering signaling may be expected during a period based on a time shift or time delay of the signaling relative to the transmission timing of the receiving node (the time shift or time delay may correspond to the interference timing). It may be assumed that the DL time interval of the interfering node can cause the time-shifted signaling to interfere with the UL time interval of the receiving node. In general, the interference timing and / or the silent time interval may be relative to a switch from a DL time interval to a UL time interval.

[0017] Adapting operations on the carrier may include adapting timing and / or scheduling so that a switch from a DL time interval to an UL time interval coincides with the end of an expected interference interval, and / or so that the UL time interval begins at or after the end of a timeslot of a transmission timing structure of an interfering node. It may be assumed that the receiving node may be informed and / or configured with a semi-static TDD mode used by other network nodes, and / or may be using the same semi-static TDD mode. For example, network nodes and / or groups of network nodes in a network may use the same mode.

[0018] Operating on a carrier may include scheduling a guard period based on the BS to BS interference indication. The guard period may be a time interval corresponding to a silent time interval. Alternatively or additionally, during the guard period, measurements may be performed to determine the identity of the interfering node, for example, based on SS / PBCH block transmissions from the interfering node. The guard period may be such that it covers the expected SS / PBCH block transmissions. Such transmissions may be expected based on corresponding information, which may be predefined and / or configured to the receiving node, for example, by a node of a core network (such as an MME) and / or a packet node and / or a gateway (such as an S-GW). The guard period for measurement may be used periodically (e.g., periodically and / or aperiodically) to determine whether BS to BS interference still occurs, for example, by monitoring and / or receiving reference signaling and / or synchronization signaling.

[0019] In general, it may be considered that based on the received BS-to-BS indication, an identity associated with the interfering node is determined. The determination may be performed by the receiving node, which may be adapted accordingly.

[0020] It should be noted that the timing and / or scheduling may be adapted regularly and / or periodically and / or when BS to BS interference is believed to occur, e.g. so that switching from DL to UL is timed to avoid interference from time-shifted DL signaling from an interfering node.

[0021] In general, operating on a carrier may include: timing transmissions (e.g., DL transmissions) so as not to interfere with the UL time intervals of the interfering node. For example, a silent interval may be used to silence the DL transmission accordingly. The silent interval for UL may have the same duration as the silent interval for DL, but may be different. It may be considered to use mini-slot based operations for DL ​​transmissions based on receiving the BS to BS interference indication. In some cases, it may be considered to silence the downlink transmission within the silent time interval at the end of the time slot, wherein the silent time interval may correspond to the time shift (e.g., dt).

[0022] Receiving a BS-to-BS interference indication carried by radio signaling may be considered to be based on monitoring such an indication. Monitoring such an indication may be performed based on a signal quality of the received signaling and / or a temporal behavior of the received signaling (e.g. based on stored information). For example, the monitoring may be triggered if the signal quality drops below a threshold and / or a temporal behavior or change of the signal quality occurs indicating BS-to-BS interference. The indication may be, for example, an improved signal quality within a UL time interval (e.g. periodically within a plurality of time slots and / or at comparable times within the time slots or UL time interval); the times may correspond to a time shift of the signaling from the interfering node.

[0023] In general, BS-to-BS interference may be interference caused by signaling (e.g., downlink signaling) sent by one (sending or interfering) network node (e.g., a gNB or base station) and received by another (receiving or victim) network node, e.g., within a receiving frequency range and / or within a receiving time interval (e.g., UL time interval).

[0024] Operating on a carrier (also referred to as communicating with a carrier) may include, for example, transmitting and / or receiving on the carrier according to scheduling and / or timing. The scheduling may be performed by the (receiving or victim) network node. Scheduling and / or timing may indicate when a carrier is used for transmission and / or reception, and / or when a node expects and / or monitors signaling on the carrier. Such timing may, for example, indicate when a carrier is used for UL and when it is used for DL. The timing may be based on a symbol level or a slot level.

[0025] In some cases, the (first) carrier may be used, for example, as a primary component carrier in a carrier aggregation, which may include one or more additional component carriers. The additional component carriers may be utilized similarly to the (first) carrier.

[0026] It may be considered that the indication of BS-to-BS interference may be represented by radio signaling received from an interfering radio node. The radio signaling may indicate the identity of the interfering node, and / or include reference signaling as discussed herein, and / or may include SS / PBCH block transmissions.

[0027] In general, the indication of BS to BS interference may explicitly or implicitly indicate and / or include the presence of BS to BS interference, and / or indicate the identity of the interfering node and / or cell and / or group. In some cases, the indication may indicate the carrier to which it relates, and / or the time delay and / or the distance to the victim node, for example, the indication is particularly an indication received in an indication message from the network. The indication message from the network may include a message from a network node in the same group as the network node receiving the message (the receiving node), and / or from a grouping node, and / or other nodes of the MME or higher layers, and / or a node in the core network. The indication message from the network may be sent to the receiving node via an X2 or Xn interface and / or an S2 or Sn interface, and / or may be delivered via one or more core network nodes.

[0028] The (first) carrier and / or component carrier may be used for time division duplex TDD operation. TDD systems are particularly sensitive to BS to BS interference. However, in some cases, these methods may also be used for FDD operation. The first carrier may be an FDD uplink or downlink carrier of a paired spectrum (a pair or paired spectrum may represent a UL carrier and a DL carrier for communicating with a UE).

[0029] Operating on a carrier may include adapting (e.g., according to a previous setting or operation) operation or utilization, such as, in particular, changing uplink and / or downlink transmission timing, and / or switching from semi-static TDD operation to dynamic TDD operation. Semi-static TDD operation may be adapted to operation according to a TDD configuration (in particular, the distribution of UL and DL time intervals (e.g., symbols and / or time slots)), the TDD configuration being configured with RRC signaling, and / or being configured for periods of uncertainty and / or longer than 5 or 10 time slots or subframes. In dynamic TDD operation, the TDD configuration may be configured or selected (or configurable or selectable) for one time slot or several time slots based on control information signaling (in particular, using one or more DCI messages). In some cases, the DCI message may select a configuration from a configuration set configured with RRC signaling. Switching to dynamic TDD operation facilitates greater flexibility and / or control of possible interfering signaling.

[0030] The indication of BS to BS interference (BS to BS interference indication) may be received, for example, in an indication message from another network node, for example, via an X2 interface from another or neighboring radio node (such as a gNB or relay node) and / or from an MME, for example, via an S2 or S-type interface. The other node may be used to route the indication from the other node to a further location, which may be transparent to the routing nodes, or the routing nodes may be aware of what they are routing. The indication may be included in a communication message.

[0031] The indication of the BS to BS interference may be considered to include and / or be represented by radio signaling indicating the identity of the network node sending it. In particular, the radio signaling may include reference signaling indicating the identity, and / or synchronization signaling and / or SS / PBCH block signaling, or other signaling indicating the identity.

[0032] Also contemplated is a program product comprising instructions adapted to cause a processing circuit to control and / or perform a method as described herein.

[0033] Furthermore, a carrier medium device carrying and / or storing a program product as described herein may be considered. Also described is a system comprising a network node and a UE as described herein, and an associated information system.

[0034] In particular, the network node and / or UE may operate in TDD mode. In general, the network node may operate on the same carrier and / or overlapping carriers and / or adjacent carriers, and / or on carriers adjacent to each other in frequency space, with a small frequency interval between these carriers (e.g., less than the carrier bandwidth, or between 200% and 50% of the carrier bandwidth, or less). In particular, the receiving node may receive at or near the carrier frequency used by the transmitting node for transmission. The network node may be associated with the same network, for example, operated by the same operator and / or utilizing the same RAT. SS / PBCH block signaling may be delivered via an atmospheric channel.

[0035] Generally speaking, an identity associated with a network node may indicate that the signaling associated with the identity is from the network node and / or is downlink signaling. Thus, if the identity is received, the identity may indicate interference from the network node, also known as base station to base station (BS-BS) interference. This allows the nature of the interference to be identified. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] The accompanying drawings are provided to illustrate the concepts and methods described herein and are not intended to limit their scope. The drawings include:

[0037] Figure 1 An exemplary communication network is shown;

[0038] Figure 2 ac show exemplary reference signaling;

[0039] Figure 3 An exemplary time slot structure is shown;

[0040] Figure 4 An example of a radio node implemented as a terminal or UE is shown; and

[0041] Figure 5 An example of a radio node implemented as a network node, in particular a gNB, is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0042] In the following, concepts and methods are described in the context of NR technology. However, these concepts and methods can be applied to other RATs and / or carrier types.

[0043] Figure 1An exemplary communication network is shown. The network may be operated by one operator, or may include parts operated by different operators. The network may include multiple network nodes 100, such as gNBs or eNBs. The network nodes 100 may be arranged to be distributed over a large area, for example to be able to provide radio access to areas such as cities and / or communities and / or states and / or countries. Any individual node may have one or more neighboring nodes that may have physical proximity to the node. In terms of physical proximity, the radio cells provided by the neighboring nodes may overlap and / or be adjacent, for example, intentionally and / or by design. It may be considered that the possibility of switching is intended for neighboring network nodes. Neighboring network nodes may be connected to each other via a communication interface, such as an X2 or Xn or similar interface.

[0044] The network node may utilize a list of neighboring nodes and / or cells, which list may also include a list of nodes operating according to different RATs (e.g. UMTS or GSM). The list may be provided to one or more user devices, for example using broadcast, unicast or multicast signaling and / or RRC signaling or MAC signaling or even higher layer signaling. The network node 100 may be connected to a core network (CN) for communication, for example individually and / or via a common interface, via an intermediate node, such as a mobility management entity (MME). Different nodes 100 may be connected to the CN via different MMEs. It may be considered that the network nodes 100 and / or cells (which may be associated with the nodes) are grouped, for example into groups G1 and G2. The connection between the MME and the network node may be via a corresponding interface, such as an S1 interface. The MME may be connected to a higher CN layer, such as a gateway such as an S-GW (serving gateway). In the CN, a plurality of entities or nodes may be arranged and / or included, via which communications between network nodes and / or user devices or terminals may be routed. In Figure 1In the example, the additional network node 100 and / or node group is indicated as a RAN unit. A group of network nodes and / or cells may include NG network nodes, where NG may be 1 or greater. Different groups may have different sizes. The number and / or identity of the network nodes in the group may be determined based on the location and / or proximity and / or density and / or geographic location and / or transmission environment and / or radiation distribution diagram of the node distribution. The group may cover an area in which cells and / or network nodes associated with the group may be arranged. It may be considered that in some cases, a group in an area with a higher density of network nodes and / or cells (per area) covers a smaller area than a group in an area with a lower density. Example sizes of groups include 4 or more, 8 or more, 10 or more, 12 or more network nodes and / or cells. The grouping of network nodes and / or cells may be performed and / or configured by a grouping node, which may be a node of a network node or CN, such as an MME or S-GW. In general, network nodes may be grouped into one or more groups. A network node and / or a grouping node may determine and / or have access to a representation or list of one or more groups, in particular the groups to which it belongs and / or the groups of which it is configured or grouped. Signaling of network nodes, in particular network nodes in the same group, and / or cells may be synchronized, for example, according to a timing grid such as a time slot structure. The synchronized signaling may involve a shared time reference, which may indicate a common timing, such as a time slot start and / or end. However, it is contemplated that different sets of parameters may be used in different cells and / or by different nodes, which may still be synchronized following the same time reference.

[0045] In general, neighboring network nodes may interfere with each other. However, in particular within networks operated by the same operator, the impact of such interference on the network side may be limited. In the case of TDD operation, the nodes may have a common UL / DL structure, where the same time slots (e.g. in a frame) may be associated with UL signaling and DL signaling so that all or at least most of the network nodes will transmit or receive at the same time. For FDD operation (where different carriers are used for UL and DL), it is not possible for a network node to receive a DL transmission from another node on the carrier it is listening to.

[0046] However, in some cases, an atmospheric (or long-distance) channel may be formed, which may cause interference from a distant node. Due to atmospheric conditions and / or conditions of the earth's magnetic field or similar influences (such as the influence of the sun), electromagnetic radiation (such as signaling from a radio node) can be sent over a long distance, such as by connecting regions and / or network nodes or groups of network nodes through channels or layers. Such channels can connect groups or regions at larger distances (tens or hundreds of kilometers or more). They may appear unexpectedly, and may be quite stable over time (lasting minutes or hours). The area of ​​the connected region (such as a cross section or a projection relative to the ground) may depend on the exact situation, and they may be irregular and / or asymmetric. Typically, the signal passing through the atmospheric channel will be directional and not isotropic, so that its amplitude or power density may be a significant source of interference. It should be noted that the channel can be bidirectional and / or may have one or more signaling to enter or leave the region. The signaling through the channel may experience multiple deflections on the boundary of the channel.

[0047] In particular, if one of the connected areas is densely populated with network nodes, the atmospheric channel can have a significant impact on the signaling environment. For example, a user equipment may suddenly detect a very distant cell. The impact on the signaling environment of the network nodes may be significant. Figure 1 Signaling of group G1) that reaches a distant area (e.g., covering group G2) through the atmospheric channel experiences a path delay (also called time delay) dt, and possible loss of synchronization between groups or areas (if any). Network nodes 100c2, ..., 100n2 may be in the same area as the nodes of G2, but are not included in group G2 in this example. They may be associated with one of the groups G3, ..., Gn. It should be noted that not all network nodes in a group may be covered by the area included in the channel or terminating the channel, and / or be affected by the interference provided by the channel. Signaling may also be spread in time and / or spread or shifted in frequency to some extent. Figure 1At the bottom of the figure, two TDD time slot arrangements for G1 and G2 are shown, which are assumed to be synchronized and co-aligned in this example, so as to have the same UL / DL time slot sequence, in this example UL / DL / DL / UL, which starts from a common time reference used for both group G1 and group G2. This simple example is discussed to illustrate the nature of the potential problem, and more complex settings may be similarly affected. In particular, UL / DL can change at the symbol time interval level within the time slot, for example depending on the configuration. The figure shows how the UL / DL structure used for signaling at G2 reaches G1 after passing through the atmospheric channel and experiencing a time delay dt. This delay dt (also known as time shift) can correspond to any delay value, which is not necessarily consistent with the timing structure of the time slot grid, but can cause the signaling structure to be arbitrarily shifted relative to the time slot structure, for example so that the signaling starts within the symbol time interval instead of at its beginning. Assuming co-alignment and synchronization, G1 will follow the structure also used by G2 for its own cell and communication. In particular, in the UL timeslot, it will monitor the TDD carrier to receive uplink signaling from the UE in its cell. In the case of a time delay dt, the downlink signaling from G2 (one or more nodes) may extend into the uplink timeslot of G1, causing the signaling from the network nodes in G2 to interfere with the signaling to be received by the nodes in G1. It is conceivable that similar problems may occur with FDD depending on the carriers used. For example, an FDD carrier used for DL ​​in one node or group may be close enough in the frequency domain to an FDD carrier used for UL in another group or node so that the cells may interfere.

[0048] In order to improve the impact of interference driven by atmospheric channels, it is helpful to identify the nature and / or source of the interference, in particular it comes from a network node and / or from which network node. NR (and LTE) allows the physical cell ID to be associated with the cell, which can be encoded in the broadcast signaling (such as synchronization signaling), in particular in the SS / PBCH block in NR or in the PSS / SSS in LTE. The physical cell ID is limited, and the total number of physical cell IDs is lower than the total number of possible cells distributed in all areas that may be affected by the atmospheric channel. It can be considered to include a unique total cell ID (of which the physical cell ID can be a part) in, for example, the primary synchronization signaling (PSS) and / or the secondary synchronization signaling (SSS) and / or the PBCH. In particular, each of the PSS and / or SSS and / or PBCH can carry the bits of the total cell ID in whole or in part. These bits can be encoded into the signaling structure, in particular for the PSS and / or SSS (for example, in terms of its sequence and / or resources), and / or represented by a modulated bit for the PBCH, for example.

[0049] It may be considered to provide a new reference signal or signaling (RS), which may be referred to as interference indication reference signaling (IIRS) or cell ID reference signaling (CIRS). The network node may be adapted to send the reference signaling. In another variant, the network node may be adapted to receive the reference signaling. The reference signaling may indicate the identity of the network node that sent it or the network node group to which it belongs. The reference signaling may be represented by modulation symbols, which may be mapped to resources, such as resource elements, according to a sequence. The sequence may be or is based on a Gold sequence or a Zadoff-Chu sequence or a Golay sequence or another suitable sequence and / or orthogonal sequence set. The sequence may be selected from a sequence set, where the selection of the sequence may indicate a node or group. The set may be a sequence set with suitable orthogonality, for example, a Gold sequence or a Zadoff-Chu sequence or a Golay sequence as indicated above. The sequence may indicate at which modulation state and / or phase and / or value the reference signaling is mapped to the resource element carrying the reference signaling, for example as a sequence of values ​​in the set of {-1,1} or {-1,0,1}, {-1,0,1,2}, etc. The sequence set may be considered to include at least 10, at least 100, or at least 1000 possible sequences. If the synchronization signaling allows identification of approximately 1000 (e.g., 1000 or less, 700 or less, 500 or less, or in some cases 1300 or less) different physical cell IDs (hundreds or approximately 1000 is a typical number of available physical cell IDs), this would allow identification of up to 1000000 different cells or groups by using RS to supplement SS / PBCH block transmissions. Other numbers are also possible. In general, it can be considered that the reference signaling or the reference signaling and other identities of the signaling indicating synchronization signaling (especially SS / PBCH block transmission) can represent one identity in a set of at least 10,000 or at least 50,000 or at least 100,000 different identities. This can be achieved, for example, by providing suitable large and / or different sequences and / or resources to map suitable long sequences to resource elements. In some cases, the information indicating the identity can be encoded into the modulation symbol of the reference signaling.

[0050] Indicating a node or group may be based solely on the reference signaling, or may be based, for example, in combination on the reference signaling and another form of signaling. For example, the reference signaling may indicate a group or node together with a physical cell ID indicated by SS block signaling or other broadcast information. Thus, the reference signaling may supplement the information already provided. For example, depending on the sequence of the reference signaling and / or the position in time and / or frequency, it is assumed that the reference signaling may indicate 1000 different values.

[0051] The reference signaling may cover 2 or more symbols in the time domain, each of which may carry a modulation symbol or a reference symbol, such as a BPSK or QPSK symbol. Two symbols adjacent in time on the same frequency (e.g., the same subcarrier) may be selected so that they have a smooth and / or differentiable connection at their adjacent symbol boundaries, such as Figure 2 In general, it may be considered to repeat each symbol on the same carrier for 2 or more symbols (eg, for two or more times / symbols) (eg, within the duration of the reference signaling). Figure 2 a shows a first symbol NS adjacent to symbol NS+1, which repeats symbol NS and is connected to symbol NS in a differentiable manner. In some cases, repeated and / or successive symbols may be phase shifted relative to the first and / or previous symbol, for example to provide a smooth or differentiable connection. The phase shift may include a cyclic shift so that the total signaling content (e.g., the integral over the symbol) is the same. Alternatively or additionally, it may be considered to provide a differentiable connection in one or two adjacent symbols. Such a connection may cover less than 20% or less than 10% or less than 5% of a symbol duration. The connection may be provided by a component or cyclic prefix (added at the leading edge in the time domain of the subsequent symbol) and / or by a component or cyclic suffix (added at the trailing edge in the time domain of the previous symbol). The appended prefix or suffix may be such that the symbol time length does not extend beyond the configured symbol time length (in some cases, the configured symbol time length may correspond to the symbol time length with a cyclic prefix or an extended cyclic prefix).

[0052] A component prefix or suffix may include and / or be represented by a portion of a symbol structure that is appended at a leading edge or trailing edge, respectively (in the time domain). The prefix or suffix may be smoothly and / or differentially connected to the rest of the symbol structure. In general, a smooth connection and / or a differentiable connection may relate to the signaling and / or modulation structure carried on a symbol (respectively, a resource element on the symbol), in particular with respect to amplitude and / or phase, and with respect to the analogue between two adjacent connections.

[0053] exist Figure 2 In b, a cyclic shift of a symbol with a cyclic prefix is ​​shown, which represents a special form of component prefix (or suffix). The symbol structure is represented by the symbol components ordered in time as a, b, c, d, and the cyclic prefix is ​​represented by the leading "d" in the dashed boundary. It can be seen that the prefix represents a cyclic appendix. The equivalent cyclic suffix would be "a" and have the same symbol components.

[0054] Figure 2c shows another variant of providing an appendix (prefix or suffix) (a prefix in this example). At symbol NS (e.g. in a time slot), a symbol with the structure abcd may be provided, which may be repeated in symbol NS+1. A non-cyclic appendix (a prefix in this example) may be provided. The non-cyclic appendix may represent an internal component of a component structure of a symbol having Q (at least 3) components. An internal component may be a component of a signaling structure that is not adjacent to a symbol boundary and / or extends to a symbol boundary (in the time domain) and / or is embedded within a symbol boundary. For a cyclic appendix, an external component may be used, which extends to a symbol boundary in the time domain. It should be noted that in Figure 2 In c, the component "a" does not extend to the boundary of the symbol because the symbol includes a prefix. The structure of prefix "a"-"abcd" can be considered as a symbol with a non-circular appendix, as does "abcd"-suffix "d".

[0055] Figure 3 An example of a time slot structure is shown. A time slot may include a plurality of symbols in the time domain, for example 14 symbols (numbered from 0 to 13). An SS / PBCH block may be provided within a time slot, which may carry synchronization signaling, in particular PSS and / or SSS, and / or PBCH and / or PDSCH signaling. Alternatively or additionally, reference signaling may be provided, for example, as described herein (in particular Figure 2 ) as described above. It can be seen that the SS / PBCH block transmission represents a block in time / frequency space and can have a substructure including PSS, SSS and PBCH parts. Multiple SS / PBCH blocks can be included in an SS / PBCH block burst. The blocks in a burst can be separated in time by at least one symbol time interval, and / or separated by at most 9 or less, or 7 or less, or 4 or less symbol time intervals. Different blocks in a burst can be separated in time by different numbers of symbol time intervals. In particular, the SS / PBCH blocks of a burst can be on the same frequency, such as bandwidth part and / or subcarrier and / or PRB. Figure 3Resource elements carrying symbols of reference signals with R or -R (corresponding to +1 or -1 in the mapping sequence, respectively) are exemplarily shown. Resource elements carrying reference signaling can be arranged differently, for example, so that they are in a block, where each RE carrying RS (correspondingly, the symbol or signal portion of RS) is adjacent to at least one other RE carrying reference signaling or the symbol or signal portion of reference signaling. Reference signaling can cover 2 or more symbols in the time domain, such as 2, 3 or 4 symbols. In the frequency domain, it can cover L1 subcarriers or L2 PRBs, starting from the subcarrier or PRB with the lowest frequency of the range it covers in the frequency domain to the subcarrier or PRB with the highest frequency. L can correspond to at least 20 PRBs and / or 240 subcarriers, or more. It can be considered that reference signaling (CIRS) covers the frequency range of SS / PBCH blocks sent by the network node (the frequency range can cover 4 symbols in time). Reference signaling can be sent in the same time slot as the SS / PBCH block transmission. However, in some cases, it can be sent in different time slots. In some cases, the network node is adapted to transmit SS / PBCH blocks regularly (e.g., in bursts of one or more blocks) within a radio frame, for example, according to a period or at fixed intervals. Each burst may include one or more individual SS / PBCH block transmissions, which may be separated in time, for example, spread over one or more time slots. It may be assumed that not every time slot in a frame carries an SS / PBCH block transmission for a given network node. Reference signaling may be sent using the same frequency or a different frequency (in particular, a lower frequency). In some cases, the reference signaling (CIRS) may be arranged at the end of the SS / PBCH block transmission, for example, adjacent in time. Alternatively or additionally, the reference signaling (CIRS) may be located at the last symbol in the time slot in which it is transmitted (e.g., time slots 12 and 13, or 11 to 13, or 10 to 13, depending on its duration). It may be considered that the group or total cell ID of the transmitting node may be determined based on the reference signaling, and / or based on the reference signaling and other signaling (in particular, SS / PBCH block signaling). A network node such as a CN or a higher layer node such as an MME may have access to data indicating reference signaling and / or SS / PBCH block signaling and / or mapping reference signaling and / or SS / PBCH block signaling to groups and / or cells and / or nodes.

[0056] The following network node can be considered: it is suitable for determining an identity associated with a second network node based on reference signaling and / or based on reference signaling and associated SS / PBCH block transmissions. In particular, it can be considered that the second network node (or receiving network node) is suitable for receiving SS / PBCH block transmissions associated with received reference signaling (CIRS or IIRS) based on receiving reference signaling. Starting from the position of the reference signaling (for example, at the end of the transmission time slot), the second network node can determine the relative timing (for example, including the time delay dt) and can more easily monitor and / or discover and / or identify the associated SS / PBCH block transmission. The reception of reference signaling can trigger the reception and / or monitoring of SS / PBCH block transmissions. Such monitoring and / or reception can be at a subsequent time in the same time slot, or in a subsequent time slot, or in a time interval covering one or more subsequent time slots and / or SS / PBCH block transmission opportunities of the sending node.

[0057] Alternatively or additionally, the network node or radio node may be adapted to determine the identity based on the received SS / PBCH block transmission and the determined time shift of the received SS / PBCH block transmission. For example, the time shift may be relative to the time slot timing structure, and / or relative to the expected and / or indicated SS / PBCH block transmission and / or relative to the SS / PBCH block transmission of the network node. When the network node has been configured with information indicating when and / or on which time / frequency resources and / or which / which network nodes or node groups the SS / PBCH block transmission may be sent, the SS / PBCH block transmission may be considered to be expected and / or indicated. This information may be provided by a list or mapping of network nodes and / or network node groups. Determining the identity based on the SS / PBCH block transmission may include performing a cell search, and / or identifying a physical cell identity based on the received SS / PBCH block. Based on the time shift, one or more possible candidates may be selected from a plurality of possible cells or nodes to which the physical cell identity (which may include one or more components, such as a cell group ID and a cell ID, which together represent the physical cell ID) may be suitable. For example, a large time shift may indicate a large physical distance between cells and / or nodes and / or groups, while a short time shift may indicate a short physical distance. In particular, given that radio signaling propagates at the speed of light, the time shift may indicate an upper limit on the distance. Therefore, it is possible to determine a candidate. In some cases, the determination may be based on a determined directional angle (particularly a vertical angle) and / or a sector or section of a cell, for example, based on the orientation of one or more receiving beams and / or sectors or sections on which the SS / PBCH block is received. The determination of identity may be based on one or more additional parameters of the SS / PBCH block transmission, such as frequency (particularly the subcarriers used for SS / PBCH block transmission) and / or period. The period may describe when an SS / PBCH block or burst is sent and / or the frequency at which an SS / PBCH block or burst is sent. For example, according to the list or mapping, different periods and / or frequencies may be mapped to or may be mapped to different network nodes and / or cells and / or groups. A mapping may be represented by one or more lists and / or tables, which may indicate any parameters or information discussed herein and / or any combination thereof.

[0058] Alternatively or additionally, a network node or radio node adapted to send an identity indication may be considered. The identity indication may be encoded in a broadcast signal, in particular in a PBCH and / or PDSCH. In particular, the identity indication may be included in an SS / PBCH transmission (e.g. in a PBCH part), and / or may be supplemented with synchronization signaling for indicating the identity.

[0059] In general, an identity may be one of an identity set, for example, by or via a CN and / or MME and / or a packet node, which identity set may be configurable and / or settable and / or configured and / or set for a network node or node group. In some cases, an identity may be preconfigured, for example, when a network node is set. An identity set may include NI different identities, where NI may be at least 5000 or at least 10000 or at least 20000 or at least 50000 or at least 100000. An identity indication may be provided by reference signaling and / or synchronization signaling and / or broadcast signaling (e.g., broadcast message and / or PBCH signaling or message and / or PDSCH message). A PDSCH message may be associated with an SS / PBCH block, for example, adjacent to an SS / PBCH block transmission in time and / or frequency, and / or in the same transmission or transmission block. An identity may be represented and / or representable as a number, such as an integer. If an identity is configured and / or set and / or preconfigured for a network node, the identity may be considered to be associated with the network node. In some cases, the network node may be configured or pre-configured with a possible identity set, wherein one or more identities may be configured and / or indicated by the configuration. This allows changes to be made during operation with limited identity signaling overhead. The identity may be considered to be and / or include a group identity and / or a cell identity and / or a network node identity. Alternatively or additionally, the identity may be or include a unique cell identifier and / or a global cell ID (GCI) or a cell global ID (CGI), etc. In particular, the identity may be represented by and / or corresponds to these bits by 12 or more bits, or 16 or more bits, or 20 or more bits, or 24 or more bits, or 28 or more bits. In some cases, determining the identity may include sending an identity indication indicating the identity to a third network node, which may be a radio network node or a core network node and / or a packet node. The information may be provided to a plurality of nodes, in particular to a radio node (e.g., based on a group list or group configuration or packet mapping) and / or an MME and / or a packet node in the same one or more groups as the network node.

[0060] A grouping node may be any network node that groups one or more network nodes (e.g., radio nodes and / or transmitting radio nodes) into one or more groups and / or notifies and / or configures the grouped nodes accordingly. A grouping node may be a radio node or a node at a higher layer in the network, in particular an MME or S-GW or other gateway or management node. Different grouping nodes may exchange information about groups, such as lists and / or mappings. It may be considered that a grouping management node (which may itself be a grouping node and / or may be at a higher network layer) may receive grouping information from one or more grouping nodes, based on which the grouping management node may provide grouping mappings for multiple groups. In general, a group may include one or more network nodes. The grouping information and / or grouping mapping may include information that maps a group (and / or identity) to one or more parameters, such as a reference signaling structure (e.g., sequence, resource and / or period) and / or time shift and / or distance and / or other parameters. The grouping information and / or information representing the grouping mapping may be configured to a radio node, such as a network node such as a gNB or a base station. Thus, based on the grouping mapping and the determined identity, a network node or a radio node may be informed of which network node is interfering. Alternatively or additionally, the network node that determines the identity may provide the identity information to another node, such as another network node (such as a radio node / gNB / base station) and / or a higher layer node (such as a network node and / or a packet node).

[0061] Typically, the network node and the second network node may be synchronized in time, e.g. using the same time reference. In particular, the transmissions of the nodes may be synchronized such that, e.g., time slot boundaries may coincide, e.g., at the beginning and / or end of a subframe or frame. An SS / PBCH block transmission may represent a transmission of a PSS and / or SSS and / or PBCH and / or PDSCH on resources of an SS / PBCH block. The network node will receive the transmission with at least a time shift due to the transmission time.

[0062] In general, BS-to-BS interference may be interference caused by signaling (e.g., downlink signaling) sent by one (sending or interfering) network node (e.g., a gNB or base station) and received by another (receiving or victim) network node, e.g., within a receiving frequency range and / or within a receiving time interval (e.g., UL time interval).

[0063] In general, the indication of BS to BS interference may explicitly or implicitly indicate and / or include the presence of BS to BS interference, and / or indicate the identity of the interfering node and / or cell and / or group. In some cases, the indication may indicate the carrier to which it relates, and / or the time delay and / or the distance to the victim node, for example.

[0064] Semi-static TDD operation may be suitable for operation according to a TDD configuration (particularly the distribution of UL and DL time intervals (e.g., symbols and / or time slots)) that is configured with RRC signaling and / or configured for periods that are uncertain and / or longer than 5 or 10 time slots or subframes. In dynamic TDD operation, the TDD configuration may be configured or selected (or configurable or selectable) for one time slot or several time slots based on control information signaling (particularly using one or more DCI messages). In some cases, the DCI message may select a configuration from a configuration set that is configured with RRC signaling. Switching to dynamic TDD operation facilitates greater flexibility and / or control of possible interfering signaling.

[0065] Figure 4 A radio node, in particular a terminal or wireless device 10, is schematically shown, which may in particular be implemented as a UE (User Equipment). The radio node 10 comprises a processing circuit (which may also be referred to as a control circuit) 20, which may include a controller connected to a memory. Any module of the radio node 10 (e.g. a communication module or a determination module) may be implemented in and / or executed by the processing circuit 20, in particular as a module in the controller. The radio node 10 also comprises a radio circuit 22 (e.g. one or more transmitters and / or receivers and / or transceivers) providing receiving and transmitting or transceiving functions, the radio circuit 22 being connected to or connectable to the processing circuit. An antenna circuit 24 of the radio node 10 is connected to or connectable to the radio circuit 22 to collect or transmit and / or amplify signals. The radio circuit 22 and the processing circuit 20 controlling it are configured for cellular communication with a network such as a RAN as described herein and / or for sidelink communication. The radio node 10 may generally be adapted to perform any method of operating a radio node such as a terminal or UE disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuits, such as processing circuits and / or modules.

[0066] Figure 5A radio node 100 is schematically shown, which may be implemented in particular as a network node 100, such as an eNB or gNB for NR or the like. The radio node 100 comprises a processing circuit (which may also be referred to as a control circuit) 120, which may include a controller connected to a memory. Any module, such as a transmitting module and / or a receiving module and / or a configuration module of the node 100, may be implemented in and / or executed by the processing circuit 120. The processing circuit 120 is connected to a control radio circuit 122 of the node 100, which provides receiver and transmitter and / or transceiver functions (e.g., including one or more transmitters and / or receivers and / or transceivers). Antenna circuits 124 may be connected or connectable to the radio circuits 122 for signal reception or transmission and / or amplification. The node 100 may be adapted to perform any method for operating a radio node or a network node disclosed herein; in particular, it may include corresponding circuits, such as processing circuits and / or modules. The antenna circuit 124 may be connected to and / or include an antenna array. The node 100 (respectively, its circuitry) may be adapted to perform any of the methods of operating a network node or a radio node as described herein; in particular, it may include corresponding circuitry, such as processing circuitry and / or modules. The radio node 100 may typically include communication circuitry, such as for communicating with another network node (e.g. a radio node) and / or with a core network and / or the Internet or a local area network (in particular with an information system), which may provide information and / or data to be sent to a user equipment.

[0067] A subject transmission may be data signaling or control signaling. The transmission may be on a shared or dedicated channel. Data signaling may be on a data channel (e.g., on a PDSCH or PSSCH), or on a dedicated data channel for low latency and / or high availability (e.g., on a URLLC channel). Control signaling may be on a control channel (e.g., on a common control channel or on a PDCCH or PSCCH), and / or include one or more DCI messages or SCI messages. In some cases, a subject transmission may include or represent reference signaling. For example, it may include DM-RS and / or pilot signaling and / or discovery signaling and / or detection signaling and / or phase tracking signaling and / or cell-specific reference signaling and / or user-specific signaling, in particular CSI-RS. A subject transmission may involve a scheduling assignment and / or a confirmation signaling process (e.g., based on an identifier or sub-identifier) ​​and / or a subdivision. In some cases, a topic transmission may cross a subdivision boundary in time, for example due to being scheduled to start in one subdivision and extend to another subdivision, or even across multiple subdivisions. In this case, the topic transmission may be considered to be associated with the subdivision in which it ends.

[0068] It may be considered that sending (particularly acknowledgment information) confirmation information is based on determining, for example, based on error coding and / or reception quality, whether the subject transmission has been correctly received. The reception quality may, for example, be based on the determined signal quality. Typically, the confirmation information may be sent to the signaling radio node and / or the node device and / or the network.

[0069] The bits of the sub-pattern structure of the confirmation information or such information may represent and / or include one or more bits, in particular a bit pattern. A plurality of bits relating to a data structure or a sub-structure or a message (such as a control message) may be considered as a sub-pattern. The structure or arrangement of the confirmation information may indicate the order and / or meaning and / or mapping and / or pattern of the bits (or bit sub-patterns) of the information. In particular, the structure or mapping may indicate one or more data block structures (such as code blocks and / or code block groups and / or transport blocks and / or messages, such as command messages) to which the confirmation information relates, and / or which bits or bit sub-patterns are associated with which data block structure. In some cases, the mapping may involve one or more confirmation signaling processes (such as processes with different identifiers) and / or one or more different data streams. The configuration or structure or codebook may indicate which / which processes and / or which / which data streams the information relates to. Typically, the confirmation information may include one or more sub-patterns, each of which may relate to a data block structure, such as a code block or a code block group or a transport block. The sub-pattern may be arranged to indicate confirmation or non-confirmation of the associated data block structure, or another retransmission state (such as non-scheduled or non-received). A sub-mode may be considered to include one bit, or in some cases multiple bits. It should be noted that the confirmation information may undergo extensive processing before being sent with the confirmation signaling. Different configurations may indicate different sizes and / or mappings and / or structures and / or modes.

[0070] The confirmation signaling process (providing confirmation information) can be a HARQ process and / or be identified by a process identifier (e.g., a HARQ process identifier or sub-identifier). Confirmation signaling and / or associated confirmation information can be referred to as feedback or confirmation feedback. It should be noted that the data blocks or structures that the sub-mode may relate to may be intended to carry data (e.g., information and / or systematic bits and / or coded bits). However, depending on the transmission conditions, such data may be received or not received (or not received correctly), which can be indicated accordingly in the feedback. In some cases, the sub-mode of confirmation signaling may include padding bits, for example if the number of bits required for the confirmation information for the data block is less than the number of bits indicated as the sub-mode size. For example, this may occur if the size is indicated by a unit size that is larger than that required for the feedback.

[0071] Typically, the confirmation information may at least indicate an ACK or a NACK (e.g., involving a confirmation signaling process), or an element of a data block structure (e.g., a data block, a sub-block group, or a sub-block), or a message (particularly a control message). Typically, the confirmation signaling process may be associated with a specific sub-mode and / or data block structure, and the confirmation information may be provided for the specific sub-mode and / or data block structure. The confirmation information may include multiple pieces of information represented by multiple HARQ structures.

[0072] The confirmation signaling process can determine the correct or incorrect reception and / or corresponding confirmation information of a data block (such as a transport block) and / or its substructure based on the coded bits associated with the data block, and / or based on the coded bits associated with one or more data blocks and / or sub-blocks and / or sub-block groups. The confirmation information (determined by the confirmation signaling process) can involve the entire data block and / or one or more sub-blocks or sub-block groups. A code block can be considered as an example of a sub-block, and a code block group can be considered as an example of a sub-block group. Therefore, the associated sub-mode can include one or more bits indicating the reception state or feedback of the data block, and / or one or more bits indicating the reception state or feedback of one or more sub-blocks or sub-block groups. Each sub-mode or bit of a sub-mode can be associated and / or mapped to a specific data block or sub-block or sub-block group. In some variants, if all sub-blocks or sub-block groups are correctly identified, the correct reception of the data block can be indicated. In this case, the sub-mode can represent confirmation information for the entire data block, thereby reducing overhead compared to providing confirmation information for a sub-block or sub-block group. The smallest structure (e.g., sub-block / sub-block group / data block) for which a sub-mode provides confirmation information and / or is associated with it can be considered to be its (highest) resolution. In some variants, a sub-mode can provide confirmation information about several elements of a data block structure and / or provide confirmation information at different resolutions, for example to allow more specific error detection. For example, even if a sub-mode indicates confirmation signaling involving an entire data block, in some variants, a sub-mode can also provide a higher resolution (e.g., a sub-block or sub-block group resolution). Typically, a sub-mode can include one or more bits indicating ACK / NACK for a data block, and / or one or more bits indicating ACK / NACK for one sub-block or sub-block group or multiple sub-blocks or sub-block groups.

[0073] Sub-blocks and / or sub-block groups may include information bits (indicating data to be sent, such as user data and / or downlink / sidelink data or uplink data). It may be considered that data blocks and / or sub-blocks and / or sub-block groups also include one or more error detection bits, which may be related to information bits and / or determined based on information bits (for sub-block groups, error detection bits may be determined based on information bits and / or error detection bits and / or error correction bits of sub-blocks of sub-block groups). Data blocks or sub-structures (such as sub-blocks or sub-block groups) may include error correction bits, which may be determined based on information bits and error detection bits of blocks or sub-structures, for example, using error correction coding schemes (such as LDPC or polar coding). Typically, the error correction coding of a data block structure (and / or associated bits) may cover and / or be related to information bits and error detection bits of the structure. A sub-block group may represent a combination of one or more code blocks (corresponding bits, respectively). A data block may represent a code block or a code block group, or a combination of multiple code block groups. The transport block may be divided into code blocks and / or code block groups, for example based on the bit size of the information bits of a higher layer data structure provided for size requirements or preferences for error coding and / or error coding (particularly error correction coding). Such a higher layer data structure is sometimes also referred to as a transport block, which in the present context represents information bits without the error coding bits described herein, but may include higher layer error handling information, for example for an Internet protocol such as TCP. However, such error handling information represents information bits in the context of the present disclosure, because the described confirmation signaling process handles it accordingly.

[0074] In some variations, a sub-block such as a code block may include an error correction bit, which may be determined based on the information bit and / or error detection bit of the sub-block. An error correction coding scheme may be used to determine the error correction bit, for example, based on LDPC or polar coding or Reed-Mueller coding. In some cases, a sub-block or code block may be considered to be defined as the following block or bit pattern: it includes information bits, error detection bits determined based on information bits, and error correction bits determined based on information bits and / or error detection bits. It may be considered that in a sub-block (e.g., a code block), the information bits (and possible error correction bits) are protected and / or covered by an error correction scheme or corresponding error correction bits. A code block group may include one or more code blocks. In some variations, additional error detection bits and / or error correction bits are not applied, but one or both of them may be considered to be applied. A transport block may include one or more code block groups. It may be considered that additional error detection bits and / or error correction bits are not applied to a transport block, but one or both of them may be considered to be applied. In some specific variants, the code block group does not include an additional error detection or error correction coding layer, and the transport block may include only additional error detection coding bits without additional error correction coding. This is particularly the case if the transport block size is larger than the code block size and / or the maximum size of the error correction coding. A sub-mode of confirmation signaling (particularly indicating ACK or NACK) may relate to a code block, for example indicating whether the code block has been correctly received. The sub-mode may be considered to relate to a sub-group such as a code block group or a data block such as a transport block. In this case, if all sub-blocks or code blocks of a group or data / transport block are correctly received (e.g. based on a logical 'and' operation), the sub-mode may indicate ACK; if at least one sub-block or code block is not correctly received, the sub-mode may indicate NACK or another erroneous reception state. It should be noted that a code block may be considered to be correctly received if not only the code block has actually been correctly received, but also if it can be correctly reconstructed based on soft combining and / or error correction coding.

[0075] The sub-mode / HARQ structure may involve an acknowledgment signaling process and / or a carrier (such as a component carrier) and / or a data block structure or data block. In particular, it may be considered that one (e.g., specific and / or single) sub-mode involves (e.g., is mapped by a codebook to) one (e.g., specific and / or single) acknowledgment signaling process, such as a specific and / or single HARQ process. It may be considered that in a bit pattern, the sub-mode is mapped to an acknowledgment signaling process and / or a data block or data block structure in a one-to-one manner. In some variants, for example, if multiple data streams sent on a carrier undergo an acknowledgment signaling process, there may be multiple sub-modes (and / or associated acknowledgment signaling processes) associated with the same component carrier. The sub-mode may include one or more bits, and the number of bits may be considered to represent the size or bit size of the sub-mode. Different bit n-tuples (n is 1 or greater) of the sub-mode may be associated with different elements of a data block structure (e.g., a data block or a sub-block or a sub-block group), and / or represent different resolutions. The following variant may be considered: wherein only one resolution is represented by a bit pattern (e.g., a data block). A bit n-tuple may represent confirmation information (also referred to as feedback), in particular ACK or NACK, and optionally (if n>1) may represent DTX / DRX or other reception status. ACK / NACK may be represented by one bit or by multiple bits, for example to improve disambiguation of a bit sequence representing ACK or NACK and / or to improve transmission reliability.

[0076] The confirmation information or feedback information may relate to a plurality of different transmissions, which may be associated with and / or represented by a data block structure (correspondingly, an associated data block or data signaling). The data block structure and / or the corresponding blocks and / or signaling may be scheduled for simultaneous transmission, for example, for the same transmission timing structure, in particular within the same time slot or subframe and / or on the same symbol. However, alternatives with scheduling for non-simultaneous transmissions may be considered. For example, confirmation information may relate to data blocks scheduled for different transmission timing structures, such as different time slots (or mini-slots, or time slots and mini-slots), which may be received (or not received or received incorrectly) accordingly. Typically, the scheduling signaling may include indicating resources (e.g., time and / or frequency resources), for example, for receiving or sending scheduled signaling.

[0077] References to specific resource structures such as transmission timing structures and / or symbols and / or time slots and / or mini-time slots and / or subcarriers and / or carriers may relate to specific parameter sets, which may be predefined and / or configured or configurable. A transmission timing structure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or more symbols. Some examples of transmission timing structures are transmission time intervals (TTIs), subframes, time slots and mini-time slots. A time slot may include a predetermined (e.g., predefined and / or configured or configurable) number of symbols, such as 6, 7, 12 or 14. The number of symbols included in a mini-time slot (which may in particular be configurable or configured) may be less than the number of symbols in a time slot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols. A transmission timing structure may cover a time interval of a specific length, which may depend on the symbol time length and / or cyclic prefix used. A transmission timing structure may relate to and / or cover a specific time interval in a time stream, such as being synchronized for communication. The timing structure (e.g., time slot and / or mini-slot) used for and / or scheduled for transmission can be scheduled or synchronized to the timing structure provided and / or defined by other transmission timing structures relative to the timing structure provided and / or defined by other transmission timing structures. Such a transmission timing structure can define a timing grid, for example, the symbol time interval within an individual structure represents the minimum timing unit. Such a timing grid can be defined, for example, by a time slot or a subframe (wherein in some cases, a subframe can be considered a specific variant of a time slot). The transmission timing structure may have a duration (length of time) determined based on the duration of its symbol (possibly plus the cyclic prefix used), possibly in addition to the cyclic prefix used. The symbols of the transmission timing structure may have the same duration, or in some variants may have different durations. The number of symbols in the transmission timing structure may be predefined and / or configured or configurable, and / or depend on a parameter set. The timing of the mini-slot can generally be configured or configurable, in particular by a network and / or a network node. The timing can be configurable to start and / or end at any symbol of the transmission timing structure (in particular, one or more time slots). A subframe may consist of 1 or more slots, depending on the parameter set. A frame may consist of 10 subframes.

[0078] Generally, a program product comprising instructions is considered, which instructions are suitable for causing the processing circuit and / or control circuit to perform and / or control any method described herein, especially when executed on the processing circuit and / or control circuit. Likewise, a carrier medium device carrying and / or storing the program product as described herein is considered.

[0079] The carrier medium device may include one or more carrier media. Typically, the carrier medium can be accessed and / or read and / or received by a processing circuit or a control circuit. The storage data and / or program product and / or code can be regarded as a part of carrying data and / or program product and / or code. The carrier medium may typically include a guide / transmission medium and / or a storage medium. The guide / transmission medium may be suitable for carrying and / or bearing and / or storing signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and / or electrical signals and / or magnetic signals and / or optical signals. The carrier medium (in particular the guide / transmission medium) may be suitable for guiding such signals to carry them. The carrier medium (in particular the guide / transmission medium) may include an electromagnetic field (for example radio waves or microwaves) and / or a light-transmitting material (for example glass fiber) and / or a cable. The storage medium may include at least one of the following: a memory (which may be volatile or non-volatile), a buffer, a cache, an optical disk, a magnetic storage, a flash memory, etc. The carrier medium and / or the storage medium may be particularly a non-transient medium.

[0080] A system comprising one or more radio nodes, in particular network nodes and user equipment as described herein is described. The system may be a wireless communication system and / or provide and / or represent a radio access network.

[0081] Moreover, a method for operating an information system can generally be considered, which includes providing information. Alternatively or additionally, an information system suitable for providing information can be considered. Providing information can include providing information for a target system and / or providing information to a target system, and the target system can include and / or be implemented as a radio access network and / or a radio node, in particular a network node or a user equipment or a terminal. Providing information can include transmitting and / or streaming and / or sending and / or transferring information, and / or providing information for this and / or for downloading, and / or triggering such provision, such as by triggering different systems or nodes to stream and / or transmit and / or send and / or transfer information. The information system can include a target and / or be connected to or connectable to a target, such as via one or more intermediate systems (such as a core network and / or the Internet and / or a dedicated or local network). Information can be provided using and / or via such an intermediate system. As described herein, providing information can be for radio transmission and / or for transmission via an air interface and / or utilizing a RAN or a radio node. Connecting the information system to a target and / or providing information can be based on a target indication and / or an adaptation target indication. The target indication may indicate a target and / or one or more parameters and / or information related to the transmission of the target on which the path or connection of the target is provided. Such parameters may particularly relate to an air interface and / or a radio access network and / or a radio node and / or a network node. Example parameters may indicate, for example, the type and / or nature of the target and / or the transmission capacity (e.g., data rate) and / or delay and / or reliability and / or cost (correspondingly, one or more estimates thereof). The target indication may be provided by the target, or determined by the information system, for example, based on information and / or historical information received from the target, and / or provided by a user (e.g., a user of an operating target or, for example, a device communicating with the target via RAN and / or an air interface). For example, a user may indicate on a user device communicating with the information system that information will be provided via RAN by, for example, selecting from the selections provided by the information system on a user application or a user interface (which may be a Web interface). The information system may include one or more information nodes. An information node may typically include a processing circuit and / or a communication circuit. In particular, the information system and / or the information node may be implemented as a computer and / or computer device, such as a host computer or host computer device and / or a server or server device. In some variants, an interactive server (e.g., a web server) of the information system may provide a user interface and may trigger, based on user input, the sending and / or streaming of information offers to a user (and / or target) from another server (which may be connected or connectable to the interactive server and / or may be part of the information system or be connected or connectable to a part of the information system).The information can be any kind of data, in particular data intended for use by a user on a terminal, for example, video data and / or audio data and / or position data and / or interactive data and / or game-related data and / or environmental data and / or technical data and / or business data and / or vehicle data and / or environmental data and / or operational data. The information provided by the information system can be mapped to and / or can be mapped to and / or is intended to be mapped to communication or data signaling and / or one or more data channels described herein (which can be signaling or channels of an air interface and / or used in RAN and / or for radio transmission). It can be considered that the information is formatted based on target indications and / or targets, for example, about data volume and / or data rate and / or data structure and / or timing, which can particularly relate to the mapping of communication or data signaling and / or data channels. Mapping information to data signaling and / or data channels can be considered to refer to, for example, using signaling / channels on a higher communication layer to carry data, where signaling / channels are at the bottom layer of the transmission. The target indication may typically include different components that may have different sources and / or may indicate different characteristics of the target and / or the communication path to the target. The format of the information may be specifically selected, for example, from a set of different formats for information to be sent on the air interface and / or by the RAN as described herein. This may be particularly relevant because the air interface may be limited in capacity and / or predictability, and / or potentially cost-sensitive. The format may be selected to be suitable for a transmission indication, which may specifically indicate the path of the information between the target and the information system (which may be the indicated and / or planned and / or expected path) of the RAN or radio node as described herein. The (communication) path of the information may represent the interface (e.g., air and / or cable interface) and / or intermediate system (if any) between the information system and / or the node providing or transmitting the information and the target on which the information is transmitted or will be transmitted. When the target indication is provided, and / or when the information is provided / transmitted by the information system, for example, if the Internet (which may include multiple dynamically selected paths) is involved, the path may be (at least partially) uncertain. The information and / or the format for the information may be packet-based, and / or mapped to and / or mappable to and / or intended to be mapped to packets. Alternatively or additionally, a method for operating a target device may be considered, the method comprising providing a target indication to an information system. Alternatively or additionally, a target device may be considered, the target device being suitable for providing a target indication to an information system. In another approach, a target indication tool may be considered, the target indication tool being suitable for and / or comprising an indication module for providing a target indication to an information system. The target device may typically be a target as described above. The target indication tool may include and / or be implemented as software and / or an application and / or a web interface or user interface, and / or may include one or more modules for implementing actions performed and / or controlled by the tool.The tool and / or target device may be adapted to and / or the method may include: receiving user input, based on which a target indication may be determined and / or provided. Alternatively or additionally, the tool and / or target device may be adapted to and / or the method may include: receiving information and / or communication signaling carrying information, and / or operating information and / or presenting information (e.g., on a screen and / or as audio or as other forms of indication). The information may be based on the received information and / or communication signaling carrying information. Presenting information may include processing the received information, such as decoding and / or transforming, in particular between different formats, and / or for hardware to use for presentation. Operating information may be independent of presentation or not presenting and / or presenting or successfully presenting and / or may be without user interaction or even user reception, for example for an automatic process, or a target device without (e.g., conventional) user interaction, such as an MTC device for automotive or transportation or industrial use. Information or communication signaling may be expected and / or received based on the target indication. Presenting and / or operating information may generally include one or more processing steps, in particular decoding and / or executing and / or interpreting and / or transforming information. The operating information may typically include, for example, relaying and / or sending information over an air interface, which may include mapping the information onto signaling (such mapping may typically involve one or more layers, such as one or more layers of an air interface, such as an RLC (Radio Link Control) layer and / or a MAC layer and / or a physical layer). The information may be imprinted (or mapped) on the communication signaling based on the target indication, which may make it particularly suitable for use in the RAN (e.g., for a target device such as a network node or, in particular, a UE or terminal). The tool may typically be suitable for use on a target device such as a UE or a terminal. Typically, the tool may provide a variety of functions, such as for providing and / or selecting a target indication and / or presenting, for example, video and / or audio and / or operating and / or storing received information. Providing the target indication may include, for example, sending or transmitting the indication as signaling in the RAN, and / or carrying the indication on signaling, in the case where the target device is a UE or a tool for a UE. It should be noted that the information provided in this way may be transmitted to the information system via one or more additional communication interfaces and / or paths and / or connections. The target indication may be a high-layer indication, and / or the information provided by the information system may be high-layer information, such as application layer or user layer, in particular above the radio layer (e.g. transport layer and physical layer). The target indication may be mapped on physical layer radio signaling, such as related to or on the user plane, and / or the information may be mapped on physical layer radio communication signaling, such as related to or on the user plane (in particular in the reverse communication direction). The described method allows providing the target indication, thereby facilitating the information to be provided in a specific format that is particularly suitable and / or adapted to efficiently use the air interface.The user input may, for example, represent a selection from a plurality of possible transmission modes or formats and / or paths (eg in terms of data rate and / or packaging and / or size of the information to be provided by the information system).

[0082] In general, a parameter set and / or a subcarrier spacing may indicate the bandwidth of a subcarrier of a carrier (in the frequency domain) and / or the number of subcarriers in a carrier and / or the numbering of subcarriers in a carrier. In particular, different parameter sets may differ in terms of the bandwidth of the subcarriers. In some variants, all subcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated with them. The parameter set and / or the subcarrier spacing may differ between carriers, in particular in terms of the subcarrier bandwidth. The symbol time length and / or the time length of the timing structure involving the carrier may depend on the carrier frequency and / or the subcarrier spacing and / or the parameter set. In particular, different parameter sets may have different symbol time lengths.

[0083] Signaling may generally include one or more symbols and / or signals and / or messages. A signal may include or represent one or more bits. An indication may represent signaling, and / or may be implemented as one signal or multiple signals. One or more signals may be included in a message and / or represented by a message. Signaling, in particular control signaling, may include multiple signals and / or messages, which may be sent on different carriers and / or associated with different signaling processes, such as indicating and / or involving one or more such processes and / or corresponding information. An indication may include signaling and / or multiple signals and / or messages, and / or may be included therein, indicating that the indication may be sent on different carriers and / or associated with different confirmation signaling processes, such as indicating and / or involving one or more such processes. Signaling associated with a channel may be sent to indicate signaling and / or information for the channel, and / or the transmitter and / or receiver interpret that the signaling belongs to the channel. Such signaling may generally conform to the transmission parameters and / or format for the channel.

[0084] Reference signaling may be signaling including one or more reference symbols and / or structures. Reference signaling may be suitable for measuring and / or estimating and / or indicating transmission conditions, such as channel conditions and / or transmission path conditions and / or channel (or signal or transmission) quality. It may be considered that the transmission characteristics of the reference signaling (e.g., signal strength and / or form and / or modulation and / or timing) may be used for both the transmitter and receiver of the signaling (e.g., due to being predefined and / or configured or configurable and / or being transmitted). Different types of reference signaling may be considered, such as those involving uplink, downlink or sublink, cell-specific (especially the entire cell, such as CRS) or device-specific or user-specific (addressed to a specific target or user equipment, such as CSI-RS), demodulation-related (e.g., DMRS) and / or signal strength-related, such as power-related or energy-related or amplitude-related (e.g., SRS or pilot signaling) and / or phase-related, etc.

[0085] An antenna device may include one or more antenna elements (radiating elements) which may be combined in an antenna array. An antenna array or subarray may include one or more antenna elements which may be arranged, for example, two-dimensionally (e.g., a panel) or three-dimensionally. It may be considered that each antenna array or subarray or element is individually controllable, and accordingly, different antenna arrays are controllable independently of each other. A single antenna element / radiator may be considered as the smallest example of a subarray. Examples of antenna arrays include one or more multi-antenna panels or one or more independently controllable antenna elements. The antenna device may include multiple antenna arrays. It may be considered that the antenna device is associated with a (specific and / or single) radio node (e.g., a configuration or notification or scheduling wireless node), for example, so as to be controlled by or controllable by the radio node. An antenna device associated with a UE or terminal may be smaller than an antenna device associated with a network node (e.g., in terms of the size and / or number of antenna elements or arrays). The antenna elements of the antenna device may be configured for, for example, different arrays, for example, to change beamforming characteristics. In particular, an antenna array may be formed by merging one or more independently or separately controllable antenna elements or subarrays. The beams may be provided by analog beamforming or, in some variants, by digital beamforming. The notification radio node may be configured with the manner of beam transmission, for example by sending a corresponding indicator or indication (e.g. as a beam identification indication). However, the following situation may be considered: the notification radio node is not configured with such information and / or operates transparently without knowing the beamforming manner used. The antenna device may be considered to be individually controllable in terms of the phase and / or amplitude / power and / or gain of the signal fed to it for transmission, and / or the individually controllable antenna device may include independent or separate transmitting and / or receiving units and / or ADCs (analog-to-digital converters, or ADC chains) to convert digital control information into an analog antenna feed for the entire antenna device (the ADC may be considered as part of the antenna circuit, and / or is connected or connectable to the antenna circuit). The scenario in which each antenna element is individually controllable may be referred to as digital beamforming, while the scenario in which a larger array / sub-array is individually controllable may be considered an example of analog beamforming. Hybrid forms may be considered.

[0086] The uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) signaling. The downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMA signaling. However, the signaling is not limited thereto (filter bank based signaling may be considered as an alternative).

[0087] A radio node may generally be considered to be a device or node adapted for wireless and / or radio (and / or microwave) frequency communications and / or communicating using an air interface, eg according to a communication standard.

[0088] A radio node may be a network node or a user equipment or terminal. A network node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network, such as a base station and / or a gNodeB (gNB) and / or an eNodeB (eNB) and / or a relay node and / or a micro / nano / pico / femto node and / or a transmission point (TP) and / or an access point (AP) and / or other nodes, in particular for the RAN described herein.

[0089] In the context of the present disclosure, the terms wireless device, user equipment (UE) and terminal may be considered interchangeable. A wireless device, user equipment or terminal may refer to a terminal device that communicates using a wireless communication network, and / or may be implemented as a user device according to a standard. Examples of user equipment may include a phone such as a smart phone, a personal communication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer (particularly a laptop), a sensor or machine with radio capabilities (and / or suitable for an air interface) (particularly for MTC (machine type communication, sometimes also referred to as M2M (machine to machine)), or a vehicle suitable for wireless communication. A user device or terminal may be mobile or fixed.

[0090] A radio node may typically include processing circuitry and / or radio circuitry. In some cases, a radio node (particularly a network node) may include cable circuitry and / or communication circuitry, through which the radio node may be connected or connectable to another radio node and / or a core network.

[0091] The circuit may include an integrated circuit. The processing circuit may include one or more processors and / or controllers (e.g., microcontrollers) and / or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) and / or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) or the like. It may be considered that the processing circuit includes and / or is (operably) connected to or connectable to one or more memories or storage devices. The storage device may include one or more memories. The memory may be suitable for storing digital information. Examples of memories include volatile and non-volatile memories and / or random access memories (RAM) and / or read-only memories (ROM) and / or magnetic and / or optical memories and / or flash memory and / or hard disk storage and / or EPROM or EEPROM (erasable programmable ROM or electrically erasable programmable ROM).

[0092] The radio circuit may include one or more transmitters and / or receivers and / or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or be operable as a transmitter and a receiver, and / or may include, for example, combined or separate circuits for receiving and transmitting in one package or housing) and / or may include one or more amplifiers and / or oscillators and / or filters and / or may include and / or be connected to or be connectable to antenna circuits and / or one or more antennas and / or antenna arrays. The antenna array may include one or more antennas (which may be arranged in a dimensional array, such as a 2D or 3D array) and / or an antenna panel. A remote radio head (RRH) may be considered as an example of an antenna array. However, in some variants, depending on the type of circuits and / or functions implemented therein, the RRH may also be implemented as a network node.

[0093] The communication circuit may include a radio circuit and / or a cable circuit. The communication circuit may typically include one or more interfaces, which may be an air interface and / or a cable interface and / or an optical interface, such as laser-based. The interface may be particularly packet-based. The cable circuit and / or cable interface may include and / or may be connected or connectable to one or more cables (e.g., optical fiber-based and / or wire-based), which may be directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and / or interfaces) connected or connectable to a target, such as controlled by the communication circuit and / or processing circuit.

[0094] Any or all modules disclosed herein may be implemented in software and / or firmware and / or hardware. Different modules may be associated with different components of a radio node (e.g., different circuits or different parts of a circuit). It may be considered that the modules are distributed across different components and / or circuits. The program product described herein may include modules associated with a device (e.g., a user device or a network node) on which the program product is intended to be executed (the execution may be executed on an associated circuit and / or controlled by it).

[0095] The radio access network may be a wireless communication network and / or a radio access network (RAN), in particular according to a communication standard. The communication standard may in particular be a standard according to 3GPP and / or 5G, for example according to NR or LTE, in particular LTE Evolution.

[0096] A wireless communication network may be and / or include a radio access network (RAN), which may be and / or include any kind of cellular and / or wireless radio network that may be connected to or connectable to a core network. The methods described herein are particularly applicable to 5G networks, such as LTE evolution and / or NR (new radio), and are accordingly applicable to their successors. RAN may include one or more network nodes, and / or one or more terminals, and / or one or more radio nodes. A network node may be a radio node suitable for radio and / or wireless and / or cellular communication with one or more terminals. A terminal may be any device suitable for radio and / or wireless and / or cellular communication with or within a RAN, such as a user equipment (UE) or a mobile phone or a smart phone or a computing device or a vehicle communication device or a device for machine type communication (MTC), etc. The terminal may be mobile or in some cases fixed. RAN or a wireless communication network may include at least one network node and a UE, or at least two radio nodes. A wireless communication network or system, such as a RAN or a RAN system, may generally be considered, which includes at least one radio node, and / or at least one network node and at least one terminal.

[0097] Transmission in a downlink may involve transmission from a network or a network node to a terminal. Transmission in an uplink may involve transmission from a terminal to a network or a network node. Transmission in a sidelink may involve (direct) transmission from one terminal to another terminal. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelink transmission and reception) may be considered as communication directions. In some variants, uplink and downlink may also be used to describe wireless communications between network nodes, for example, for wireless backhaul and / or relay communication and / or (wireless) network communication between base stations or similar network nodes, in particular communications terminated therein. It can be considered that backhaul and / or relay communication and / or network communication are implemented as a form of sidelink communication or a form similar thereto.

[0098] Control information or control information message or corresponding signaling (control signaling) can be sent on a control channel (e.g., a physical control channel), which can be a downlink channel (or in some cases a sidelink channel, such as one UE scheduling another UE). For example, control information / allocation information can be signaled by a network node on a PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) and / or a PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) and / or a HARQ specific channel. Confirmation signaling (e.g., as a form of uplink control information or signaling such as uplink control information / signaling) can be sent by a terminal on a PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) and / or a PUSCH (physical uplink shared channel) and / or a HARQ specific channel. Multiple channels can be applicable to multi-component / multi-carrier indication or signaling.

[0099] Signaling can generally be viewed as representing an electromagnetic wave structure (e.g., in time intervals and frequency intervals) that is intended to convey information to at least one specific or general (e.g., anyone who may pick up the signaling) target. The signaling process may include sending signaling. Sending signaling (particularly control signaling or communication signaling, for example, including or representing confirmation signaling and / or resource request information) may include coding and / or modulation. Coding and / or modulation may include error detection coding and / or forward error correction coding and / or scrambling. Receiving control signaling may include corresponding decoding and / or demodulation. Error detection coding may include and / or be based on parity checks or checksum methods, such as CRC (cyclic redundancy check). Forward error correction coding may include and / or be based on, for example, turbo coding and / or Reed-Muller coding and / or polar coding and / or LDPC coding (low-density parity check). The type of coding used may be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) associated with the coded signal. Considering that coding adds coded bits for error detection coding and forward error correction, the code rate can represent the ratio of the number of information bits before coding to the number of coded bits after coding. The coded bits can refer to the information bits (also called systematic bits) plus the coded bits.

[0100] Communication signaling may include and / or represent and / or be implemented as data signaling and / or user plane signaling. Communication signaling may be associated with a data channel (e.g., a physical downlink channel or a physical uplink channel or a physical sidelink channel, particularly a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH)). Typically, a data channel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. Data signaling may be signaling associated with and / or on a data channel.

[0101] The indication may generally indicate the information it represents and / or indicates explicitly and / or implicitly. The implicit indication may be based, for example, on the location and / or resources used for transmission. The explicit indication may be based, for example, on parameterization of one or more bit patterns or bit fields with one or more parameters and / or one or more indexes and / or indicating information. In particular, it may be considered that the control signaling as described herein implicitly indicates the control signaling type based on the sequence of resources utilized.

[0102] A resource element may generally describe the smallest individually available and / or coded and / or decodable and / or modulatable and / or demodulatable time-frequency resource, and / or may describe a time-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and a subcarrier in frequency. A signal may be assignable to and / or assigned to a resource element. A subcarrier may be, for example, a subband of a carrier as defined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and / or frequency band for transmission and / or reception. In some variants, a signal (jointly coded / modulated) may cover multiple resource elements. Resource elements may generally be as defined by the corresponding standard (e.g., NR or LTE). Since the symbol time length and / or subcarrier spacing (and / or parameter sets) may be different between different symbols and / or subcarriers, different resource elements may have different extensions (length / width) in the time domain and / or frequency domain, in particular resource elements involving different carriers.

[0103] Resources may generally represent time-frequency and / or code resources on which signaling according to a particular format may be transmitted (eg, sent and / or received) and / or intended for sending and / or receiving.

[0104] Boundary symbols may generally represent a start symbol or an end symbol for transmission and / or reception. The start symbol may be, in particular, a start symbol of an uplink or sidelink signaling (e.g., control signaling or data signaling). Such signaling may be on a data channel or a control channel (e.g., a physical channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel (e.g., PUSCH) or a sidelink data or shared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (e.g., PUCCH) or a sidelink control channel). If the start symbol is associated with control signaling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signaling may be in response to the received signaling (on a sidelink or downlink), for example, indicating confirmation signaling associated with the control signaling, which may be HARQ or ARQ signaling. The end symbol may represent an end symbol (in time) of a downlink or sidelink transmission or signaling, which may be intended for or scheduled for a radio node or user equipment. Such downlink signaling may be, in particular, data signaling on a physical downlink channel such as a shared channel (e.g., a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)). The starting symbol may be determined based on and / or relative to such an ending symbol.

[0105] Configuring a radio node (particularly a terminal or user equipment) may refer to the radio node being adapted, caused to be set and / or instructed to operate according to the configuration. The configuration may be performed by another device (e.g., a network node (e.g., a radio node of a network such as a base station or eNodeB)) or a network, in which case it may include sending configuration data to the radio node to be configured. Such configuration data may represent the configuration to be configured and / or include one or more instructions related to the configuration (e.g., a configuration for sending and / or receiving on allocated resources, particularly frequency resources). The radio node may configure itself, for example, based on configuration data received from the network or network node. The network node may utilize and / or be adapted to utilize its circuitry for configuration. Allocation information may be considered as a form of configuration data. The configuration data may include and / or be represented by configuration information and / or one or more corresponding indications and / or messages.

[0106] Typically, configuration may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, for example, sending it to one or more other nodes (in parallel and / or sequentially), which may further send it to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively or additionally, configuring the radio node, for example by a network node or other device, may include, for example, receiving configuration data and / or data related to the configuration data from another node such as a network node (which may be a higher-level node of the network), and / or sending the received configuration data to the radio node. Thus, determining the configuration and sending the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which are capable of communicating via a suitable interface (e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR). Configuring the terminal may include scheduling downlink and / or uplink transmissions of the terminal (e.g., downlink data and / or downlink control signaling and / or DCI and / or uplink control or data or communication signaling, in particular confirmation signaling) and / or configuring resources and / or resource pools for this purpose.

[0107] If one resource structure shares a common boundary frequency with another resource structure, for example, one as an upper frequency boundary and the other as a lower frequency boundary, then the one resource structure can be considered to be adjacent to the other resource structure in the frequency domain. Such a boundary can be represented, for example, by the upper limit of the bandwidth allocated to subcarrier n, which also represents the lower limit of the bandwidth allocated to subcarrier n+1. If one resource structure shares a common boundary time with another resource structure, for example, one as an upper (or right side in the figure) boundary and the other as a lower (or left side in the figure) boundary, then the one resource structure can be considered to be adjacent to the other resource structure in the time domain. Such a boundary can be represented, for example, by the end of the symbol time interval allocated to symbol n, which also represents the beginning of the symbol time interval allocated to symbol n+1.

[0108] Generally, a resource structure that is adjacent to another resource structure in a domain may also be referred to as being adjacent to and / or neighboring the other resource structure in the domain.

[0109] A resource structure may generally represent a structure in the time domain and / or frequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and a frequency interval. A resource structure may include resource elements and / or consist of resource elements, and / or a time interval of a resource structure may include a symbol time interval and / or consist of a symbol time interval, and / or a frequency interval of a resource structure may include a subcarrier and / or consist of a subcarrier. Resource elements may be considered as examples of resource structures, and time slots or mini-slots or physical resource blocks (PRBs) or parts thereof may be considered as other resource structures. A resource structure may be associated with a specific channel (e.g., PUSCH or PUCCH, in particular a resource structure smaller than a time slot or PRB).

[0110] Examples of resource structures in the frequency domain include bandwidth or frequency band or bandwidth portion. A bandwidth portion may be a portion of a bandwidth available to a radio node for communication (e.g. due to circuits and / or configurations and / or regulations and / or standards). A bandwidth portion may be configured or configurable to a radio node. In some variants, a bandwidth portion may be a portion of a bandwidth used for communication (e.g., transmission and / or reception) by a radio node. A bandwidth portion may be smaller than a bandwidth (which may be a device bandwidth defined by the circuits / configuration of the device and / or a system bandwidth available to a RAN, for example). A bandwidth portion may be considered to include one or more resource blocks or resource block groups, in particular one or more PRBs or PRB groups. A bandwidth portion may relate to and / or include one or more carriers.

[0111] A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and / or may refer to a center frequency and an associated frequency interval. A carrier may be considered to include a plurality of subcarriers. A carrier may have a center frequency or center frequency interval assigned to it, for example, represented by one or more subcarriers (a frequency bandwidth or interval may generally be assigned to each subcarrier). Different carriers may be non-overlapping and / or may be adjacent in the frequency domain.

[0112] It should be noted that the term "radio" in this disclosure may be generally considered to relate to wireless communications, and may also include wireless communications utilizing microwave and / or millimeter and / or other frequencies (particularly between 100 MHz or 1 GHz and 100 GHz or 20 or 10 GHz). Such communications may utilize one or more carriers.

[0113] A radio node (in particular a network node or terminal) may generally be any device adapted to send and / or receive radio and / or wireless signals and / or data (in particular communication data), in particular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier may include a carrier accessed based on an LBT procedure (which may be referred to as an LBT carrier), such as an unlicensed carrier. The carrier may be considered to be part of a carrier aggregate. A radio node as a network node may be referred to as a radio network node.

[0114] Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving or transmitting using a frequency (frequency band) or spectrum associated with the cell or carrier. A cell may generally include and / or be defined by one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for UL communication / transmission (referred to as UL carrier) and at least one carrier for DL ​​communication / transmission (referred to as DL carrier). A cell may be considered to include different numbers of UL carriers and DL carriers. Alternatively or additionally, a cell may include at least one carrier for UL communication / transmission and DL communication / transmission, for example in a TDD-based approach.

[0115] A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. A channel may include and / or be arranged on one or more carriers, in particular multiple subcarriers. A channel that carries and / or is used to carry control signaling / control information may be considered a control channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and / or if it carries control plane information. Similarly, a channel that carries and / or is used to carry data signaling / user information may be considered a data channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and / or if it carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for a specific communication direction or two complementary communication directions (e.g., UL and DL, or a side link in two directions), in which case it may be considered to have two component channels, one in each direction. Examples of channels include channels for low-delay and / or high-reliability transmission, in particular channels for ultra-reliable low-delay communication (URLLC), which may be used for control and / or data.

[0116] In general, a symbol may represent and / or be associated with a symbol time length, which may depend on a carrier and / or a subcarrier spacing and / or a parameter set of an associated carrier. Thus, a symbol may be considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length relative to the frequency domain. The symbol time length may depend on the carrier frequency and / or bandwidth and / or a parameter set and / or a subcarrier spacing of the symbol or associated with the symbol. Thus, different symbols may have different symbol time lengths. In particular, parameter sets with different subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time lengths. In general, the symbol time length may be based on and / or include a guard time interval or a cyclic extension (e.g., a prefix or suffix).

[0117] A side link can generally represent a communication channel (or channel structure) between two UEs and / or terminals, wherein data is sent between participants (UEs and / or terminals) via the communication channel, for example, directly sent and / or not relayed via a network node. A side link can be established only via and / or directly via the air interface of the participant, which can be directly linked via a side link communication channel. In some variants, side link communication can be performed without the interaction of a network node, for example, on fixed defined resources and / or resources negotiated between participants. Alternatively or additionally, it can be considered that a network node provides some control functions, for example, by configuring resources (particularly one or more resource pools), for side link communication and / or monitoring side links, for example, for billing purposes.

[0118] The sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D) communication, and / or in some cases (e.g., in the context of LTE) as ProSe (Proximity Services) communication. The sidelink may be implemented in the context of V2x communication (vehicle communication), such as V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle), V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure), and / or V2P (vehicle-to-person). Any device suitable for sidelink communication may be considered a user equipment or terminal.

[0119] The sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more (e.g. physical or logical) channels, such as a PSCCH (physical sidelink control channel, which may, for example, carry control information such as an acknowledgement position indication) and / or a PSSCH (physical sidelink shared channel, which may, for example, carry data and / or acknowledgement signaling). The sidelink communication channel (or structure) may be considered to involve and / or use one or more carriers and / or frequency ranges, which are associated with and / or used by cellular communications, for example according to specific licenses and / or standards. Participants may share (physical) channels and / or resources, in particular in the frequency domain and / or associated with frequency resources (such as carriers) of the sidelink, so that two or more participants transmit thereon, for example simultaneously and / or time-shifted, and / or may have specific channels and / or resources associated with specific participants, so that, for example, only one participant transmits on a specific channel or on one or more specific resources, for example in the frequency domain and / or associated with one or more carriers or subcarriers.

[0120] The side link may comply with a specific standard (e.g., a standard based on LTE and / or NR) and / or be implemented according to the specific standard. The side link may utilize TDD (time division duplex) and / or FDD (frequency division duplex) technology, for example, as configured by a network node, and / or preconfigured and / or negotiated between participants. If, in particular according to a specific standard, the user equipment and / or its radio circuits and / or processing circuits are suitable for utilizing the side link, for example, on one or more frequency ranges and / or carriers and / or in one or more formats, the user equipment may be considered to be suitable for side link communication. It can generally be considered that the radio access network is defined by two participants in the side link communication. Alternatively or additionally, the radio access network may be represented and / or defined using a network node and / or communications with such a node, and / or is related to a network node and / or communications with such a node.

[0121] Communication or transmission may generally include sending and / or receiving signaling. Communication on a side link (or side link signaling) may include communicating using the side link (correspondingly, for signaling). Side link transmission and / or transmission on a side link may be considered to include transmission using a side link (e.g., associated resources and / or transmission format and / or circuit and / or air interface). Side link reception and / or reception on a side link may be considered to include reception using a side link (e.g., associated resources and / or transmission format and / or circuit and / or air interface). Side link control information (e.g., SCI) may generally be considered to include control information transmitted using a side link.

[0122] In general, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radio connection and / or communication link between a wireless and / or cellular communication network and / or a network node and a terminal or on a secondary link (which includes multiple carriers for at least one transmission direction (e.g., DL and / or UL)), and to an aggregation of carriers. The corresponding communication link may be referred to as a carrier aggregation communication link or a CA communication link; the carriers in the carrier aggregation may be referred to as component carriers (CCs). In such a link, data may be sent on multiple carriers and / or all carriers of the carrier aggregation (carrier aggregation). The carrier aggregation may include one (or more) dedicated control carriers and / or primary carriers (which may be referred to as primary component carriers or PCCs, for example), on which control information may be sent, wherein the control information may involve the primary carrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondary carriers (or secondary component carriers SCCs). However, in some methods, the control information may be sent on multiple carriers of the aggregation (e.g., one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs).

[0123] A transmission may typically involve a specific channel and / or specific resources, in particular having a start symbol and an end symbol in time, thereby covering the interval between them. A scheduled transmission may be a transmission that is scheduled and / or expected and / or for which resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, it is not necessary to implement each scheduled transmission. For example, a scheduled downlink transmission may not be received or a scheduled uplink transmission may not be sent due to power limitations or other effects (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier is occupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timing substructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and / or covering only a portion of a transmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structure such as a time slot. A boundary symbol may indicate a symbol in a transmission timing structure at which a transmission begins or ends.

[0124] In the context of the present disclosure, predefined may refer to relevant information defined, for example, in a standard, and / or relevant information available without specific configuration from a network or network node (e.g., stored in a memory independently of being configured). Configured or configurable may be considered to relate to corresponding information set / configured, for example, by a network or network node.

[0125] Configurations or scheduling such as mini-slot configurations and / or structural configurations may schedule transmissions, e.g., for a time / transmission that is effective, and / or transmissions may be scheduled by separate signaling or separate configurations (e.g., separate RRC signaling and / or downlink control information signaling). The scheduled transmission may represent signaling to be sent by a device for which the signaling is scheduled, or signaling to be received by a device for which the signaling is scheduled, depending on which side of the communication the device is on. It should be noted that downlink control information, or specifically DCI signaling, may be considered physical layer signaling compared to higher layer signaling such as media access control (MAC) signaling or RRC layer signaling. The higher the signaling layer, the lower the frequency / time / resource consumption may be considered, at least in part because the information contained in such signaling must be passed through several layers, each of which requires processing and handling.

[0126] The scheduled transmissions and / or transmission timing structures such as mini-slots or time slots may relate to specific channels, in particular physical uplink shared channels, physical uplink control channels or physical downlink shared channels, such as PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and / or may relate to specific cells and / or carrier aggregation. The corresponding configuration (e.g. scheduling configuration or symbol configuration) may relate to such channels, cells and / or carrier aggregation. The scheduled transmissions may be considered to represent transmissions on physical channels, in particular shared physical channels, such as physical uplink shared channels or physical downlink shared channels. For such channels, semi-persistent configurations may be particularly suitable.

[0127] Typically, the configuration may be a configuration indicating timing, and / or represented or configured by corresponding configuration data. The configuration may be embedded and / or included in a message or configuration or corresponding data, which may in particular indicate and / or schedule resources semi-persistently and / or semi-statically.

[0128] The control region of the transmission timing structure may be an expected or scheduled or reserved time interval for control signaling (particularly downlink control signaling) and / or for a specific control channel (e.g., a physical downlink control channel, such as a PDCCH). The interval may include and / or consist of multiple symbols in time, which may be configured or configurable, for example, by (UE-specific) dedicated signaling on the PDCCH (which may be unicast, e.g., addressed to or intended for a specific UE) or RRC signaling or on a multicast or broadcast channel. Typically, the transmission timing structure may include a control region covering a configurable number of symbols. It may be assumed that typically the boundary symbols are configured to follow the control region in time.

[0129] The duration of the symbols of the transmission timing structure (symbol time length or interval) may generally depend on a parameter set and / or a carrier, where the parameter set and / or the carrier may be configurable.The parameter set may be a parameter set to be used for the scheduled transmission.

[0130] Scheduling a device or scheduling for a device and / or related transmission or signaling may be considered to include configuring resources for the device and / or indicating resources to the device, or a form of configuring resources for the device and / or indicating resource examples to the device, for example for communication. Scheduling may particularly relate to a transmission timing structure or a substructure thereof (e.g., a time slot or a small slot, which may be considered a substructure of a time slot). It may be considered that even for a scheduled substructure, for example, if the basic timing grid is defined based on the transmission timing structure, the boundary symbol may be identified and / or determined relative to the transmission timing structure. The signaling indicating the scheduling may include corresponding scheduling information and / or be considered to represent or contain configuration data indicating the scheduled transmission and / or including scheduling information. Such configuration data or signaling may be considered to be resource configuration or scheduling configuration. It should be noted that such a configuration (particularly as a single message) may not be complete in some cases if there is no other configuration data (e.g., configured with other signaling such as high-level signaling). In particular, in addition to the scheduling / resource configuration, a symbol configuration may also be provided to accurately identify which symbols are allocated to the scheduled transmission. The scheduling (or resource) configuration may indicate a transmission timing structure and / or an amount of resources (eg, in number of symbols or time length) to be used for the scheduled transmissions.

[0131] The scheduled transmission may be, for example, a transmission scheduled by a network or a network node. In this case, the transmission may be an uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) or sidelink (SL) transmission. The device (e.g., user equipment) for which the scheduled transmission is scheduled may be scheduled accordingly to receive (e.g., in DL or SL) or send (e.g., in UL or SL) the scheduled transmission. Scheduling transmission may be considered to include configuring resources for the transmission for the scheduled device, and / or notifying the device that the transmission is intended for and / or scheduled for certain resources. The transmission may be scheduled to cover a time interval (in particular, a continuous number of symbols), which may form a continuous time interval between (and including) a start symbol and an end symbol. The start symbol and the end symbol of the (e.g., scheduled) transmission may be within the same transmission timing structure (e.g., the same time slot). However, in some cases, the end symbol may be in a transmission timing structure (in particular, a structure that is later in time) than the start symbol. For the scheduled transmission, a duration may be associated with it, and / or the duration may be indicated, for example, in terms of the number of symbols or associated time intervals. In some variants, different transmissions may be scheduled in the same transmission timing structure.The scheduled transmissions may be considered to be associated with a specific channel (eg, a shared channel such as PUSCH or PDSCH).

[0132] In the context of the present disclosure, a distinction may be made between dynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmissions and / or configurations and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmissions and / or configurations. The term "dynamic" or similar terms may generally relate to a configuration / transmission that is effective and / or scheduled and / or configured for a (relatively) short timescale and / or (e.g., predefined and / or configured and / or limited and / or determined) number of occurrences and / or transmission timing structures, such as one or more transmission timing structures (such as time slots or time slot aggregations) and / or one or more (e.g., a specific number) of transmissions / occurrences. The dynamic configuration may be based on low-level signaling, such as control signaling on the physical layer and / or MAC layer, specifically in the form of DCI or SCI. Periodicity / semi-staticity may involve longer timescales, such as several time slots and / or more than one frame and / or an undefined number of occurrences, for example, until the dynamic configuration contradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. The periodic or semi-static configuration may be based on and / or configured by high-layer signaling, particularly RCL layer signaling and / or RRC signaling and / or MAC signaling.

[0133] A transmission timing structure may include multiple symbols, and / or define an interval including multiple symbols (respectively, their associated time intervals). In the context of the present disclosure, it should be noted that, for ease of reference, references to symbols may be interpreted as referring to a time domain projection of a symbol or a time interval or a time component or a duration or a time length, unless it is clear from the context that a frequency domain component must also be considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include time slots, subframes, mini-slots (which may also be considered as substructures of time slots), time slot aggregations (which may include multiple time slots and may be considered as superstructures of time slots), and their time domain components respectively. A transmission timing structure may typically include multiple symbols that define a time domain extension (e.g., an interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure and are arranged adjacent to each other in a numbered order. A timing structure (which may also be considered or implemented as a synchronization structure) may be defined by a series of such transmission timing structures, which may, for example, define a timing grid having symbols representing a minimum grid structure. The transmission timing structure and / or boundary symbols or scheduled transmissions may be determined or scheduled relative to such a timing grid. The received transmission timing structure may be a transmission timing structure in which, for example, scheduling control signaling is received with respect to a timing grid.The transmission timing structure may specifically be a time slot or a subframe, or in some cases a mini-slot.

[0134] Feedback signaling may be considered as a form of control signaling, such as uplink or sidelink control signaling, such as UCI (uplink control information) signaling or SCI (sidelink control information) signaling. Feedback signaling may in particular include and / or represent confirmation signaling and / or confirmation information and / or measurement reports.

[0135] The confirmation information may include an indication of a specific value or state for a confirmation signaling process, such as ACK or NACK or DTX. Such an indication may, for example, represent a bit or a bit value or a bit pattern or an information switch. Different levels of confirmation information (e.g., providing differentiated information about the reception quality and / or error location in the received data element) may be considered as control signaling and / or represented by control signaling. Confirmation information may generally indicate confirmation or non-confirmation or non-reception or different levels thereof, such as indicating ACK or NACK or DTX. Confirmation information may relate to a confirmation signaling process. Confirmation signaling may include confirmation information involving one or more confirmation signaling processes (in particular, one or more HARQ or ARQ processes). It can be considered that for each confirmation signaling process involved in the confirmation information, a specific number of bits of the information size of the control signaling is allocated. Measurement report signaling may include measurement information.

[0136] Signaling may generally include one or more symbols and / or signals and / or messages. A signal may include and / or represent one or more bits, which may be modulated into a common modulation signal. An indication may represent signaling, and / or may be implemented as one signal or multiple signals. One or more signals may be included in a message and / or represented by a message. Signaling (particularly control signaling) may include multiple signals and / or messages, which may be sent on different carriers and / or associated with different confirmation signaling processes, such as indicating and / or involving one or more such processes. An indication may include signaling and / or multiple signals and / or messages, and / or may be included in signaling and / or multiple signals and / or messages, which may be sent on different carriers and / or associated with different confirmation signaling processes, such as indicating and / or involving one or more such processes.

[0137] Signaling using a resource or resource structure and / or on a resource or resource structure and / or associated with a resource or resource structure may be signaling covering the resource or structure, signaling on an associated frequency and / or within an associated time interval. It may be considered that a signaling resource structure includes and / or covers one or more substructures, which may be associated with one or more different channels and / or signaling types and / or include one or more holes (resource elements that are not scheduled for transmission or reception of transmission). A resource substructure (e.g., a feedback resource structure) may generally be continuous in time and / or frequency within an associated interval. It may be considered that a substructure (particularly a feedback resource structure) represents a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements in a time / frequency space. However, in some cases, a resource structure or substructure (particularly a frequency resource range) may represent a discontinuous pattern of resources in one or more domains (e.g., time and / or frequency). The resource elements of a substructure may be scheduled for associated signaling.

[0138] It should generally be noted that the number of bits or bit rate associated with a particular signaling that can be carried on a resource element may be based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS). Thus, the bits or bit rate may be viewed as a form of resource representing a resource structure or a frequency and / or time range, which may depend, for example, on the MCS. The MCS may be configured or configurable, for example, by control signaling, such as DCI or MAC (Media Access Control) or RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling.

[0139] Different formats for control information may be considered, for example different formats for control channels such as the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). The PUCCH may carry control information or corresponding control signaling, such as uplink control information (UCI). The UCI may include feedback signaling and / or confirmation signaling such as HARQ feedback (ACK / NACK) and / or measurement information signaling such as including channel quality information (CQI) and / or scheduling request (SR) signaling. One of the supported PUCCH formats may be short and may, for example, appear at the end of a timeslot interval and / or be multiplexed and / or adjacent to the PUSCH. Similar control information may be provided on a sidelink, in particular on a (physical) sidelink control channel such as the (P)SCCH, for example as sidelink control information (SCI).

[0140] A code block may be considered as a sub-element of a data element similar to a transport block, e.g. a transport block may include one or more code blocks.

[0141] Scheduling allocations may be configured with control signaling, such as downlink control signaling or sidelink control signaling. Such control signaling may be considered to represent and / or include scheduling signaling, which may indicate scheduling information. Scheduling allocations may be considered to be scheduling information, which indicates the transmission of scheduling / signaling of signaling, particularly involving signaling received or to be received by a device configured with scheduling allocations. Scheduling allocations may be considered to indicate resources on which data (e.g., data blocks or elements and / or channels and / or data streams) and / or (associated) confirmation signaling processes and / or data (or reference signaling in some cases) are to be received, and / or indicate resources for associated feedback signaling and / or feedback resource ranges on which associated feedback signaling is to be sent. Transmissions associated with confirmation signaling processes and / or associated resources or resource structures may be configured and / or scheduled, for example, by scheduling allocations. Different scheduling allocations may be associated with different confirmation signaling processes. A scheduling assignment may be considered an example of downlink control information or signaling, e.g. if the scheduling assignment is sent by a network node and / or provided on the downlink (or secondary link control information if sent using a secondary link and / or sent by a user equipment).

[0142] Scheduling grants (e.g., uplink grants) may represent control signaling (e.g., downlink control information / signaling). Scheduling grants may be considered to configure signaling resource ranges and / or resources for uplink (or sidelink) signaling, particularly uplink control signaling and / or feedback signaling, such as confirmation signaling. Configuring signaling resource ranges and / or resources may include configuring or scheduling them for transmission by the configured radio node. Scheduling grants may indicate channels and / or possible channels to be used / available for feedback signaling, particularly whether shared channels such as PUSCH may be used / will be used. Scheduling grants may typically indicate one or more uplink resources and / or uplink channels and / or formats for control information related to associated scheduling allocations. Both grants and allocations may be considered (downlink or sidelink) control information, and / or may be associated with different messages and / or may be sent together with different messages.

[0143] The resource structure in the frequency domain (which may be referred to as a frequency interval and / or range) may be represented by a subcarrier grouping. A subcarrier grouping may include one or more subcarriers, each of which may represent a specific frequency interval and / or bandwidth. The bandwidth of the subcarrier, the length of the interval in the frequency domain, may be determined by the subcarrier spacing and / or parameter set. The subcarriers may be arranged so that each subcarrier is adjacent to at least one other subcarrier of the grouping in frequency space (for a grouping size greater than 1). The subcarriers of a grouping may be associated with the same carrier, such as configurable or configured or predefined. A physical resource block may be considered to represent a grouping (in the frequency domain). A subcarrier grouping may be considered to be associated with a specific channel and / or signaling type, for which transmission of the channel or signaling is scheduled and / or sent and / or intended and / or configured for at least one, multiple, or all subcarriers in the grouping. Such an association may be time-dependent, such as configured or configurable or predefined, and / or dynamic or semi-static. The association may be different for different devices, e.g. configured or configurable or predefined, and / or dynamic or semi-static. Patterns of subcarrier groupings may be considered which may include one or more subcarrier groupings (one or more subcarrier groupings may be associated with the same or different signaling / channels), and / or include one or more groups without associated signaling (e.g. as seen from a particular device). An example of a pattern is a comb, for which one or more groups associated with one or more different channels and / or signaling types are arranged between pairs of groups associated with the same signaling / channel, and / or one or more groups without associated channels / signaling.

[0144] Example types of signaling include signaling for specific communication directions, in particular uplink signaling, downlink signaling, sidelink signaling, and reference signaling (e.g., SRS or CRS or CSI-RS), communication signaling, control signaling and / or signaling associated with specific channels (e.g., PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).

[0145] In the present disclosure, for the purpose of explanation rather than limitation, specific details (such as specific network functions, processes and signaling steps) are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the technology presented herein. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts and aspects may be practiced with other variations and variations that depart from these specific details.

[0146] For example, concepts and variants are partially described in the context of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Advanced LTE (LTE-A) or new radio mobile or wireless communication technologies; however, this does not exclude the use of these concepts and aspects in combination with additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). Although the described variants may relate to certain technical specifications (TS) of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), it should be understood that these methods, concepts and aspects may also be implemented in combination with different performance management (PM) specifications.

[0147] In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services, functions, and steps described herein may be implemented using software working in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor or using an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or a general purpose computer. It should also be understood that although the variations described herein are illustrated in the context of methods and apparatus, the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in program products and in systems including, for example, a computer processor and control circuitry coupled to a memory of the processor, wherein the memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products that perform the services, functions, and steps disclosed herein.

[0148] It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variations presented herein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made to the form, construction and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof without departing from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein or without sacrificing all of their beneficial effects. The aspects presented herein may be varied in many ways.

[0149] Some useful abbreviations include:

[0150] abbreviation illustrate

[0151] ACK / NACK Acknowledgement / Negative Acknowledgement

[0152] ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

[0153] CAZAC Constant Amplitude Zero Cross Correlation

[0154] CB Code Block

[0155] CBG Code Block Group

[0156] CDM Code Division Multiplexing

[0157] CM Cubic Metric

[0158] CQI Channel Quality Information

[0159] CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

[0160] CRS Common Reference Signal

[0161] CSI Channel State Information

[0162] CSI-RS Channel State Information Reference Signal

[0163] DAI Downlink Allocation Indicator

[0164] DCI Downlink Control Information

[0165] DFT Discrete Fourier Transform

[0166] DM(-)RS Demodulation Reference Signal (DM)

[0167] FDD Frequency Division Duplex

[0168] FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing

[0169] HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

[0170] IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transform

[0171] MBB Mobile Broadband

[0172] MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme

[0173] MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output

[0174] MRC Maximum Ratio Combining

[0175] MRT Maximum Ratio Transmission

[0176] MU-MIMO Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output

[0177] OFDM / A Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing / Multiple Access

[0178] PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio

[0179] PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0180] PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0181] PRACH Physical Random Access Channel

[0182] PRB Physical Resource Block

[0183] PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

[0184] PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0185] (P)SCCH (Physical) Secondary Link Control Channel

[0186] (P)SSCH (Physical) Secondary Link Shared Channel

[0187] RAN Radio Access Network

[0188] RAT Radio Access Technology

[0189] RB Resource Block

[0190] RRC Radio Resource Control

[0191] SA Scheduling Allocation

[0192] SC-FDM / A Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplexing / Multiple Access

[0193] SCI Sublink Control Information

[0194] SINR Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio

[0195] SIR Signal-to-Interference Ratio

[0196] SNR Signal to Noise Ratio

[0197] SR Scheduling Request

[0198] SRS Sounding Reference Signal (Signaling)

[0199] SVD Singular Value Decomposition

[0200] TB Transfer Block

[0201] TDD Time Division Duplex

[0202] TDM Time Division Multiplexing

[0203] UCI Uplink Control Information

[0204] UE User Equipment

[0205] URLLC Ultra-Low Latency High Reliability Communications

[0206] VL-MIMO Very Large Multiple Input Multiple Output

[0207] ZF Force Zero

[0208] Where applicable, abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage.

Claims

1. A method of operating a network node (100) in a radio access network, the method comprising: scheduling a guard period based on a received BS-to-BS interference indication, the received BS-to-BS interference indication comprising an indication of a distance from an interfering node to the network node; performing one or more measurements during the guard period for determining an identity associated with the interfering node; determining the identity based on the received BS-to-BS interference indication and the one or more measurements; as well as Operating on a carrier based on the received BS-to-BS interference indication, the guard period, and the determined identity.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes adapting timing and / or scheduling on the carrier.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The BS-to-BS interference indication is carried by radio signaling.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The BS-to-BS interference indication is carried by an indication message.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes utilizing dynamic TDD on the carrier.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes determining interference timing.

7. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes muting transmissions on the carrier during a muting period in which interference signaling is expected based on the BS-to-BS interference indication.

8. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes scheduling DL operations during a period in which interference signaling is expected based on the BS-to-BS interference indication.

9. A network node (100) for a radio access network, the network node (100) being adapted to: scheduling a guard period based on a received BS-to-BS interference indication, the received BS-to-BS interference indication comprising an indication of a distance from an interfering node to the network node; performing one or more measurements during the guard period for determining an identity associated with the interfering node; determining the identity based on the received BS-to-BS interference indication and the one or more measurements; as well as Operating on a carrier based on the received BS-to-BS interference indication, the guard period, and the determined identity.

10. The network node according to claim 9, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes adapting timing and / or scheduling on the carrier.

11. The network node according to claim 9 or 10, wherein: The BS-to-BS interference indication is carried by radio signaling.

12. The network node according to claim 9 or 10, wherein: The BS-to-BS interference indication is carried by an indication message.

13. The network node according to claim 9 or 10, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes utilizing dynamic TDD on the carrier.

14. The network node according to claim 9 or 10, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes determining interference timing.

15. The network node according to claim 9 or 10, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes muting transmissions on the carrier during a muting period in which interference signaling is expected based on the BS-to-BS interference indication.

16. The network node according to claim 9 or 10, wherein: Operating on the carrier includes scheduling DL operations during a period in which interference signaling is expected based on the BS-to-BS interference indication.

17. A computer program product comprising instructions adapted to cause a processing circuit to control and / or perform the method according to one of claims 1 to 8.

18. A storage medium storing a computer program product comprising instructions adapted to cause a processing circuit to control and / or perform the method according to one of claims 1 to 8.

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