System and method for channel occupancy time (COT) sharing in unlicensed spectrum

Abstract

Some embodiments of the present disclosure include systems, devices, methods, and computer-readable media for performing a shared channel occupancy time (COT) process in a wireless channel of an unlicensed spectrum. The shared COT can be utilized between one or more user equipment (UE) and a 5G Node B (gNB). The UE competes for access to the channel to obtain the COT and transmits in the uplink (UL) according to the time domain configuration of the UE. When the UL transmission does not utilize the entire COT, the UE may signal the gNB that the COT can be shared. Specifically, the UE transmits an indication of a COT boundary that the gNB can use to determine when to transmit DL data in the shared COT. In addition to the gNB, the COT may also be shared between two or more UEs.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 806,199, filed on February 15, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] Various embodiments may generally relate to the field of wireless communications. Summary of the invention

[0004] Some embodiments of the present disclosure include systems, apparatus, methods, and computer-readable media for use in a wireless network to perform a shared channel occupancy time (COT) procedure in a wireless channel of an unlicensed spectrum.

[0005] Some embodiments relate to a user equipment (UE) including a radio front end circuit and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front end circuit. Some embodiments include the processor circuit contending for access to a channel in an unlicensed spectrum, acquiring a shared channel occupancy time (COT), transmitting data in the shared COT using the radio front end circuit, and transmitting an indication of a COT sharing boundary using the radio front end circuit. The COT sharing boundary may indicate to a 5G Node B (gNB) that the shared COT is available and that the gNB may perform a listen before talk (LBT) point before acquiring the shared COT.

[0006] In some embodiments, the shared COT includes a plurality of uplink (UL) downlink (DL) switching points, and the processor circuit uses the radio front end circuit to transmit an allowed length of a portion of the shared COT that a 5G Node B (gNB) can utilize, or an indication of a UL DL switching pattern. In some embodiments, the processor circuit uses the radio front end circuit to receive a length of a transmission within the allowed length from the gNB, determine that a gap between the allowed length and the length of the transmission is less than a threshold, and use the radio front end circuit to transmit additional data in the shared COT without performing LBT.

[0007] In some embodiments, the processor circuit receives configuration information including: a maximum number of UL-DL switching points and DL-UL switching points, or a duration allowed for downlink transmission in the shared COT. The configuration information may be received in a radio resource configuration (RRC) signal or a downlink control information (DCI) signal. In some embodiments, two or more UEs (including the UE that acquires the shared COT) may utilize the shared COT. After transmitting the data, the processor circuit monitors the channel for a downlink control information (DCI) signal and receives the DCI signal, which includes a first set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) opportunities of a common search space (CSS), wherein the CSS notifies the two or more UEs of a structure of a downlink (DL) transmission. The structure of the DL transmission includes a time slot format for the gNB transmission on the shared COT. The DCI signal may include a time slot format for downlink (DL) transmission and uplink (UL) transmission based on the indication of the COT shared boundary and a second indication of the COT shared boundary of a second UE of the two or more UEs. The DCI signal may also include a slot format indication (SFI).

[0008] In some embodiments, the indication comprises N bits, and the transmission is via an uplink control information (UCI) signal. In some embodiments, the N bits identify a slot offset X from an initial slot to the COT shared boundary, and the processor circuit transmits the slot offset X in each subsequent slot by counting down until the COT shared boundary is reached. The processor circuit may use the radio front end circuit to transmit a start and length indicator value (SLIV) of the final slot via the UCI signal indicating the COT shared boundary.

[0009] Some embodiments relate to a gNB including a radio front-end circuit and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front-end circuit. In some embodiments, the gNB receives an indication of a COT sharing boundary from a first UE, performs listen-before-talk (LBT) after receiving the COT sharing boundary, and transmits data in the shared COT based on the LBT, wherein the shared COT occurs in a channel of an unlicensed spectrum. The gNB may receive a second indication of a second COT sharing boundary from a second UE, and determine a time slot format for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) transmissions based on the first indication and the second indication. To notify the first UE and the second UE sharing the shared COT of the time slot format, the gNB may transmit a first set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) opportunities of a common search space (CSS). The shared COT may include multiple uplink (UL) downlink (DL) switching points, and the gNB may receive a first time slot format from the first UE and a second time slot format from the second UE, wherein the first time slot format and the second time slot format are different. The gNB may select one of the time slot formats to transmit the data in the shared COT. When the shared COT includes multiple uplink (UL) downlink (DL) switching points, the gNB may receive an allowed length of a portion of the shared COT that the gNB can use to transmit data on the shared COT. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] Figure 1 Depicted is an example of a user equipment (UE) channel occupation time (COT) sharing procedure using a 3-bit uplink control information (UCI) offset indication in accordance with some embodiments.

[0011] Figure 2 Depicted are two UEs sharing a COT at different times according to some embodiments, and a 5G Node B (gNB) selecting a first common time.

[0012] Figure 3 Depicted are two UEs sharing a COT with the same timing according to some embodiments.

[0013] Figure 4 Depicted is a COT shared with a gNB and two UEs according to some embodiments.

[0014] Figure 5 Depicted is the architecture of a system of networks according to some embodiments.

[0015] Figure 6 Depicted are examples of infrastructure equipment according to some embodiments.

[0016] Figure 7Depicted are exemplary components of a computer platform according to various embodiments.

[0017] Figure 8 Depicted are exemplary components of baseband circuitry and radio frequency circuitry according to various embodiments.

[0018] Fig. 9 is a diagram of various protocol functions that may be used in various protocol stacks according to various embodiments.

[0019] Fig.10 Depicted are block diagrams showing components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and capable of performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to various embodiments.

[0020] Fig.11 Exemplary methods for practicing various embodiments discussed herein, such as operation of a UE for COT sharing in an unlicensed spectrum, are depicted.

[0021] Fig.12 Depicted are exemplary methods for practicing various embodiments discussed herein, e.g., operation of a gNB for COT sharing in unlicensed spectrum.

[0022] Fig.13 Another exemplary system architecture is depicted in accordance with various embodiments.

[0023] Fig.14 Another exemplary system architecture is depicted in accordance with various embodiments.

[0024] Features and advantages of the embodiments will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals identify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like reference numerals generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and / or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit in the corresponding reference numeral. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The following specific embodiments relate to the accompanying drawings. The same figure numbers may be used to identify the same or similar elements in different drawings. In the following description, for the purpose of illustration and not limitation, specific details, such as specific structures, architectures, interfaces, technologies, etc., are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art who benefit from the present disclosure that various aspects of various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that deviate from these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so that the description of various embodiments will not be obscured by unnecessary details. For the purposes of this document, the phrase "A or B" refers to (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0026] Every year, the number of mobile devices connecting to wireless networks increases significantly. In order to keep up with the demand for mobile data traffic, necessary changes must be made to system requirements to be able to meet these demands. The three key areas that require enhancements to achieve this traffic increase are greater bandwidth, lower latency, and higher data rates.

[0027] One of the major limiting factors in wireless innovation is the availability of spectrum. To mitigate this, unlicensed spectrum has been an area of ​​high interest to extend the availability of LTE. “In this context, one of the major enhancements to Long Term Evolution (LTE) in 3GPP Release 13 is to enable it to operate in unlicensed spectrum via Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), which extends the system bandwidth by leveraging the flexible carrier aggregation (CA) framework introduced by LTE-Advanced systems.

[0028] Since the main building blocks of the NR framework have been established, a natural enhancement is to allow it to operate on unlicensed spectrum as well (i.e. NR-U). Work on introducing shared / unlicensed spectrum in 5G NR has been initiated and a new work item "NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum" was recently approved in the TSG RAN meeting. Among other things, one of the goals of this new WI is as follows:

[0029] - Physical layer aspects including [RAN1]:

[0030] o Frame structure including single and multiple DL-to-UL and UL-to-DL switching points within a shared COT with associated identified LBT requirements (TR Section 7.2.1.3.1).

[0031] ○UL data channel, which includes an extension of PUSCH to support PRB-based frequency block interleaved transmission; it should be understood that the end position is indicated by the UL grant, and multiple PUSCH start positions in one or more time slots are supported according to the LBT result; the UE is not required to change the design of the authorized TBS for PUSCH transmission according to the LBT result. The necessary PUSCH enhancement is based on CP-OFDM. The applicability of sub-PRB frequency block interleaved transmission for 60kHz is determined by RAN1.

[0032] - Physical layer procedures including [RAN1, RAN2]:

[0033] ○ For LBE, the channel access mechanism complies with the agreement of the NR-U study project (TR

[0034] 38.889, section 7.2.1.3.1). Specification work performed by RAN1.

[0035] ○ HARQ Operation: NR HARQ feedback mechanism is baseline NR-U operation with extensions consistent with the protocol during the study phase (NR-U TR Section 7.2.1.3.3), including immediate transmission of HARQ A / N for corresponding data in the same shared COT and transmission of HARQ A / N in subsequent COTs. Mechanisms to provide multiple and / or complementary time and / or frequency domain transmission opportunities are potentially supported. (RAN1)

[0036] ○ Scheduling of PUSCH in accordance with the study protocol (TR 38.889, Section 7.2.1.3.3) for multiple TTIs. (RAN1)

[0037] ○ Configuration Authorization Operation: The NR Type 1 and Type 2 Configuration Authorization mechanisms are the baseline for NR-U operation with modifications as agreed during the study phase (NR-U TR Section 7.2.1.3.4). (RAN1)

[0038] ○ Data multiplexing aspects considering LBT and channel access priority (for both UL and DL). (RAN1 / RAN2)

[0039] One of the challenges of NR-U is that the system must maintain fair coexistence with other existing technologies, and to this end, some general limitations may be taken into account when designing the system, depending on the specific frequency band it may operate in. For example, if operating in the 5 GHz band, a listen-before-talk (LBT) process may need to be performed in some parts of the world to acquire the medium before transmission can occur.

[0040] One of the basic operations for configuration grants in NR-U is the UE-acquired COT sharing operation, where the UE acquires a COT and, upon completion of its PUSCH transmission, may share the COT with the gNB. In LAA, this procedure is limited to the COT sharing offset X configured by higher layers, and the UE shall indicate COT sharing using a single bit in subframe n such that the COT sharing boundary occurs at the start of subframe n+X. The UE must blank the final symbol in the last subframe of the PUSCH transmission to allow the gNB to perform CCA. If the gNB acquires the COT upon successful LBT, it may transmit only up to 2 symbols of PDCCH containing only the HARQ feedback and scheduling information for the UE initiating the COT.

[0041] For NR unlicensed operation based on Configuration Grant (CG), a more robust approach is required. Given the different numerology and slot formats, the CG UE must be able to accurately indicate to the gNB where the end symbol of the final PUSCH transmission occurs, and therefore indicate the COT sharing boundary. This becomes very important given that NR unlicensed operation allows COT sharing with different category levels for LBT, thereby allowing the gNB to simplify the contention part of the COT sharing process if the gNB can sufficiently reduce the UL to DL gap. Therefore, the NR-U Configuration Grant COT sharing indication must be robust enough to allow the UE and gNB to take advantage of the flexibility and functionality of NR operation.

[0042] Establish the development of a baseline structure and process for COT sharing with CG UEs using NR configurations licensed resources in unlicensed spectrum.

[0043] When operating on unlicensed spectrum, the CG UE must contend for access to the channel in order to acquire the Channel Occupancy Time (COT). In this case, the CG UE will transmit in the uplink according to its time domain configuration. However, since the CG UE may not be configured to transmit in the uplink during the entire length of the Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT), the CG UE may indicate to the gNB a COT sharing point that coincides with a time slot for which the UE's time domain allocation configuration indicates that uplink transmission is not configured. However, additional signaling to the gNB in ​​the Uplink Control Information (UCI) is necessary so that the gNB knows exactly in which time slot and symbol the CG UE is sharing the COT. Therefore, this document designs and provides a mechanism and associated signaling for a UE-initiated COT sharing process.

[0044] COT shared instruction design

[0045] The following embodiments describe COT sharing operation for a single UE, and the UE may be allocated full or partial BW.

[0046] When a CG UE initiates COT using CAT-4 LBT, it will do so on the timeslots allocated to the CG UE for UL transmissions by higher layers. The CG UE will also know the number of consecutive timeslots it has allocated for UL transmissions by higher layers and will therefore transmit PUSCH bursts of length no longer than consecutive timeslots. The UCI will be transmitted along the PUSCH and will contain information about the number of timeslots remaining before the COT sharing boundary. Therefore, based on the signaling in the UCI, the gNB will know exactly which timeslot contains the last PUSCH transmission and therefore when the COT sharing boundary occurs.

[0047] In one solution, the GC-UCI of the UE contains an N-bit field for the COT sharing offset indication for X timeslots, e.g., N=3, where the offset is indicated in each timeslot containing the UCI and indicates the number of remaining timeslots for PUSCH transmission before the COT sharing boundary. For example, the maximum timeslot offset that can be indicated is 2 N -1, and the minimum number of timeslots indicated is 1. A bit indication of "000" indicates that COT sharing is disabled during the current timeslot. For the initial indication of COT sharing during an UL burst, the minimum offset is 2 timeslots to allow the gNB sufficient processing time to prepare its DL transmission. The following table summarizes the offsets and their associated bit indications.

[0048]

[0049]

[0050] Table 1: COT shared slot offset and associated bit indication in UCI

[0051] The UE shall use the table above and use the slot offset to indicate the remaining slots for PUSCH transmission. In subsequent slots after the initial COT sharing indication, the UE shall use Table 1 to indicate the remaining number of slots before the final slot containing the PUSCH transmission. In the last slot of the PUSCH transmission, the UE shall indicate an offset of “001”. In the final slot of the final subframe for the UE PUSCH transmission burst, the UE shall use the Start Length Indicator Value (SLIV) configuration to determine the length of the last slot and indicate this in the UCI of the final slot using the UCI indication. The gNB will know the exact COT sharing boundary by knowing the final symbol in the final slot, allowing the gNB to know exactly when it can start the Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) to obtain the COT from the UE. Figure 1 This behavior is shown with an initial time slot 102 , intervening time slots 104 , a final time slot (before the shared boundary) 106 , and a COT shared boundary 108 .

[0052] Assume that X consecutive slots are allocated to a UE for UL transmission via higher layer configuration. Once the COT sharing boundary is reached, the gNB can immediately start performing CCA to obtain the COT from the UE and decide whether to transmit to the UE initiating the COT. Since the gNB also knows the SLIV configuration of the UE, it will know the remaining length of the final slot and can therefore prepare for mini-slot DL transmission if enough symbols are available in the slot.

[0053] In another solution, the CG UE may indicate the COT shared offset value once using the UCI format indicated in Table 1. The offset value X is indicated in slot n so that the gNB will know that in slot n+X-1, the final PUSCH transmission will be as follows: Figure 1 As shown in the figure. Therefore, the gNB will know the timeslot containing the COT sharing boundary and thus determine the earliest opportunity to obtain the COT from the UE. However, the UE will not signal any COT sharing offset indication value in any other timeslot, because the gNB can already determine the timeslot containing the COT sharing boundary using the given information. Therefore, the COT sharing indication field in all other subframes is set to "000".

[0054] In another embodiment, the CG UE may set a timeslot offset indication to the gNB using parameter X, which will indicate to the gNB when the UE will monitor the timeslot of the PDCCH containing deep flow monitoring (DFI) for the current transmission.

[0055] The UE shall indicate an offset X in slot n, for example using the indications in Table 1 or any other signaling method, which shall inform the gNB that the UE shall search for a DFI in slot n in relation to slot n+X.

[0056] In some embodiments, the UE's CG-UCI contains a 1-bit field for COT sharing, where "1" means that in X time slots from this signaling, the gNB will be allowed to transmit in a shared COT, and "0" means that the COT is not shared. In some embodiments, this bit field can be interpreted in a recoverable manner: "1" means no COT sharing, and "0" is used to indicate COT sharing starting X time slots from the indication of this bit in the UCI. In some embodiments, X can be RRC configured or it can be fixed.

[0057] In the final slot of the UE PUSCH transmission burst, the UE will use the SLIV configuration to determine the length of the last slot and indicate this in the UCI of the final slot using the UCI indication. The gNB will know the exact COT sharing boundary by knowing the final symbol in the final slot, allowing the gNB to know exactly when it can start CCA to obtain the COT from the UE. Figure 1 shows this behavior.

[0058] In some embodiments, multiple UL-DL switching points are allowed within the UE's acquired COT. In this case, the UE indicates in the UCI information about the start of the COT that can be used by the gNB. This can be done with a one-bit field, as in the above embodiments, or using an N-bit indication with an interpretation similar to Table I. In some embodiments, the length of each portion of the shared COT used by the gNB is at least OFDM symbols long: for example, Y can be 2 or 3.

[0059] In some embodiments, the number of shared symbols depends on the subcarrier spacing and can scale linearly with it. In some embodiments, considering that in 11ax, the duration of the UL burst within the DL shared COT is limited to 584us, Y is limited to at most 0.5ms (8 OFDM for 15KHz, 16 OFDM for 30KHz, and 32 OFDM for 60KHz).

[0060] In some embodiments, the gNB provides an indication within one of the DCIs about the length of its transmissions within the shared portion of the COT so that if the gap between transmissions is less than a configurable threshold (e.g., 16us), the UE knows when it can acquire the channel and / or start transmitting again without performing LBT.

[0061] In some embodiments, a UE may be configured with a maximum number of UL-DL and DL-UL total switching points in its CG configuration, and a duration allowed for each DL transmission in a COT shared by the UE. The duration of each DL transmission may be specified, for example, in a number of slots, and the duration may be from a set of predefined durations or UL / DL patterns (e.g., with slot granularity). If the duration is from a set of predefined values, the value configured for the UE may be set via RRC configuration, or specified in an activation DCI, or randomly selected by the UE.

[0062] The COT acquired by gNB and CG UE is shared

[0063] In some embodiments, the CG UE is allowed to perform transmissions within the COT indicated by the gNB to the gNB's acquired COT in UL and / or flexible (F) time domain resources in the shared COT, but only if the COT is acquired using the maximum priority level value, or for any priority level value.

[0064] In some embodiments, in a newly defined DCI format for single TTI scheduling or multi-TTI scheduling, and / or in a DFI or activation / deactivation DCI, a one-bit field is included to indicate whether COT sharing with a CG UE is enabled.

[0065] If the gNB indicates that sharing with the CG UE is allowed, the CG UE may send data corresponding to any priority level during the UL and / or F time domain resources indicated by the gNB during the shared COT.

[0066] In some embodiments, the UE is only allowed continuous transmissions without gaps between UL transmissions within the UL and / or F time domain resources indicated by the gNB during the shared COT.

[0067] In some embodiments, if there is no PDSCH transmission in the COT, CG transmission within the shared COT of the gNB is not allowed.

[0068] In some implementations, all transmissions belonging to UL resources indicated by the gNB during the shared COT are counted in the gNB's COT, regardless of whether the resources are used for actual UL transmissions or gaps.

[0069] In another embodiment, the gap is not actually counted towards the COT of the gNB.

[0070] In some embodiments, the gap between DL and UL may be F symbols, and the UE may use some of the F symbols to perform LBT. If the gap is less than 25us, CAT-2 LBT is performed by the CG UE, otherwise CAT-4 LBT is used.

[0071] In another embodiment, the gap between DL and UL can be F symbols, and the UE performs LBT just before the gap so that the UL transmission can start at the boundary of the UL time domain resources indicated by the gNB during the shared COT. In this case, CAT-4 or CAT-2 LBT is used.

[0072] In another embodiment, the CG UE performs CAT-2 LBT at the boundary of the shared UL available resources.

[0073] In some embodiments, CG UE transmissions within the shared COT of the gNB do not extend over the length of the acquired COT.

[0074] Design of UE-initiated COT sharing indication

[0075] For a group of frequency division multiplexed (FDMed) UEs that simultaneously acquire a COT such that the UE is configured by higher layers to transmit in the current timeslot n, they may have different numbers of consecutive configured timeslots for PUSCH transmissions. In addition, the UEs may have different numbers of PUSCH transmissions to make. Therefore, the UEs will typically end their PUSCH transmissions during different timeslots. For time division multiplexed (TDMed) UEs, the UE may share its COT with the gNB in ​​the same or different timeslots. To achieve COT sharing operation with multiple simultaneous UEs, the process for the UEs may follow a similar process to the case of a single UE, such that the UEs will indicate their COT sharing boundaries in the same manner as if they had initiated a COT individually. However, once their COT sharing boundary is reached, the UEs will immediately begin monitoring the channel for downlink transmissions from the gNB. The gNB may receive all uplink transmissions until the nearest COT sharing boundary is reached, at which point the gNB is free to acquire the COT.

[0076] In some implementations, in order for the gNB to inform the group of UEs about the structure of downlink transmissions, the UEs are configured with a common CORESET search space (CSS). This may be Figure 2 204, where the UEs (UE 202 and UE 204) have different uplink burst lengths and one UE 202 starts monitoring the channel for DCI at the end of its configuration grant transmission. After the second UE 204 ends its configuration grant transmission, the gNB may acquire the COT and send the DCI to the UE in the first group of PDCCH opportunities in the CSS. The group may be configured to contain one or more PDCCH opportunities. In another embodiment, as Figure 3 As shown, the two UEs (UE 302 and UE 304) sharing the COT have the same timing.

[0077] In another embodiment, the UE is configured with a UE-specific SS (USS) and the gNB will select the first common PDCCH opportunity of the USS between the UEs to transmit DCI. The group can be configured to contain one or more PDCCH opportunities. The UE will monitor the channel until a common point is reached.

[0078] In another embodiment, in order to share the COT obtained by the UE with the gNB, the search space is configured in the configuration signaling of the PUSCH based on the configuration grant. In addition, the CORESET used by the search space can also be configured in the configuration signaling of the PUSCH based on the configuration grant. In other words, the search space and / or CORESET are configured separately from other CORESETs and search spaces configured for DL / UL scheduling. The configured search space can carry information about the time slot format of the shared gNB transmission. The configured search space can also be used to schedule DL transmissions as well as UL transmissions. In addition to the configured search space, the UE can also monitor other search spaces configured for DL / UL scheduling.

[0079] In some embodiments, multiple UEs performing CG PUSCH transmissions over CAT-4 may share their COTs with the gNB. After subtracting the period of the transmitted CG PUSCH, the remaining duration of the COTs of different UEs may be different. The indicated shared COTs from different UEs may overlap completely or partially. From the gNB side, after receiving COT sharing information from multiple UEs, the gNB may coordinate the shared COTs from the UEs and decide on the time slot format for DL ​​and UL transmissions. For example, the gNB may use DCI2_0 to indicate an SFI with a time resource of length L. L may be derived by the gNB based on the shared COTs from multiple UEs. Figure 4 As shown, the expected shared COT from the two UEs (402 and 404) partially overlap. Although not shown in the figure, the expected DL / UL timeslot formats from the two UEs may also be different. However, the gNB may transmit or receive based on a single timeslot format. Therefore, based on the shared COT of the two UEs, the gNB may decide on the timeslot format 406 and indicate it to the UEs via, for example, DCI 2_0. For example, in Figure 4 In the DCI 2_0, the mode selected by the gNB may include both DL resources and UL resources. The gNB may also schedule GB PUSCH on UL resources. If indicated by DCI 2_0, CG PUSCH on UL resources may also be allowed.

[0080] In some embodiments, Figures 5 to 10 The electronic device, network, system, chip or component or part thereof or specific implementation in some other figures of this document may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques or methods described herein or part thereof. Fig.11 One such process is depicted in . Fig.11 Depicted are exemplary methods for practicing various embodiments discussed herein, for example, operation of a UE for COT sharing in unlicensed spectrum. By way of example and not limitation, features of the flow chart may be Figure 5 UE 501a or 501b or Fig.10 The one or more processors 1010 of the hardware resource 1000 execute.

[0081] At 1110, the UE contends for access to a channel in an unlicensed spectrum. For example, the UE may contend for access to a channel in an unlicensed spectrum, acquire a shared COT, and transmit data in the shared COT using the radio front end circuit. After transmitting the data, the network controller circuit 835 may monitor the channel for a downlink control information (DCI) signal.

[0082] At 1120, the UE transmits an indication of a COT sharing boundary, an allowed length of a downlink (DL) portion that a 5G Node B (gNB) can use to access the shared COT, and / or an indication of a UL / DL switching mode.

[0083] At 1130, the UE receives a transmission length within the allowed length, determines that the gap between the allowed length and the transmission length is less than a configurable threshold, and transmits additional data in the shared COT without performing listen-before-talk (LBT). In some examples, the configurable threshold may be 16 μs.

[0084] At 1140, the UE receives configuration information from the gNB via a radio resource configuration (RRC) signal or a DCI signal.

[0085] At 1150, the network controller circuit 835 receives a DCI signal including a first set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) opportunities of a common search space (CSS), wherein the CSS notifies two or more UEs including a first UE accessing a shared COT (e.g., including the network controller circuit 835) of a structure of downlink (DL) transmissions. For example, when two or more UEs and a gNB access the same shared COT, the gNB may notify the two or more UEs of DL and / or uplink (UL) transmissions.

[0086] In some embodiments, Figures 5 to 10 The electronic device, network, system, chip or component or part thereof or specific implementation in some other figures of this document may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques or methods described herein or part thereof. Fig.12 Such a process is depicted in . Fig.12 Depicted are exemplary methods for practicing various embodiments discussed herein, such as operation of a gNB for COT sharing in unlicensed spectrum. By way of example and not limitation, features of the flow chart may be Figure 5 gNB 511a or 511b or Fig.10 The one or more processors 1010 of the hardware resource 1000 execute.

[0087] At 1210, one or more processors 1010 receive an indication of a COT sharing boundary from a first user equipment (UE), wherein the shared COT occurs in a channel in an unlicensed spectrum. The one or more processors 1010 perform listen before talk (LBT) after receiving the COT sharing boundary, and based on the LBT, transmit data in the shared COT using a radio front end circuit.

[0088] At 1220, the one or more processors 1010 receive a second indication of a second COT sharing boundary from a second UE in the same channel and determine a time slot format for downlink (DL) transmission and uplink (UL) transmission based on the first and / or second indication.

[0089] At 1230, the one or more processors 1010 transmit a first set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) opportunities of a common search space (CSS), wherein the CSS informs a first UE and a second UE accessing the shared COT of a slot format of the shared COT.

[0090] At 1240, the one or more processors 1010 receive a first slot format from a first UE and a second slot format from a second UE, wherein the first slot format and the second slot format are different, and transmit data in a shared COT based on one of the slot formats.

[0091] In an embodiment, the steps in flowcharts 1100 - 1200 may be performed at least in part by application circuitry 605 or 705 , baseband circuitry 610 or 710 , and / or processor 1014 .

[0092] System and implementation

[0093] Figure 5 An exemplary architecture of a system 500 of a network according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an exemplary system 500 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this regard, and the embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WLAN, WiMAX, etc.), and the like.

[0094] like Figure 5As shown, system 500 includes UE 501a and UE 501b (collectively referred to as "multiple UEs 501" or "UE 501"). In this example, UE 501 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a consumer electronic device, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a feature phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless handheld device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), an in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) device, a dashboard, a head-up display (HUD) device, an on-board diagnostic (OBD) device, a dashtop mobile equipment (DME), a mobile data terminal (MDT), an electronic engine management system (EEMS), an electronic / engine electronic control unit (ECU), an electronic / engine electronic control module (ECM), an embedded system, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system (EMS), a networked or "smart" appliance, an MTC device, an M2M, an IoT device, etc.

[0095] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 501 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. M2M or MTC data exchanges may be machine-initiated data exchanges. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0096] UE 501 may be configured, for example, to be communicatively coupled to RAN 510. In an embodiment, RAN 510 may be an NGRAN or 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to RAN 510 operating in an NR or 5G system 500, while the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 510 operating in an LTE or 4G system 500. UE 501 utilizes connections (or channels) 503 and 504, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0097] In this example, connections 503 and 504 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE 501 may directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 505. The ProSe interface 505 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface, and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0098] UE 501b is shown as being configured to access AP 506 (also referred to as "WLAN node 506", "WLAN 506", "WLAN terminal 506", "WT 506", etc.) via connection 507. Connection 507 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 506 will include wireless fidelity Router. In this example, the AP 506 shown is connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 501b, the RAN 510, and the AP 506 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE 501b in the RRC_CONNECTED state being configured by the RAN nodes 511a-b to utilize the radio resources of LTE and WLAN. The LWIP operation may involve the UE 501b using the WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 507) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through the connection 507. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0099] The RAN 510 includes one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 511a and 511b (collectively referred to as "multiple RAN nodes 511" or "RAN node 511") that enable connections 503 and 504. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functions for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP or TRP, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms "NG RAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 511 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 500, while the terms "E-UTRAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 511 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 500. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 511 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0100] In some embodiments, all or part of the multiple RAN nodes 511 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional partitioning such as PDCP partitioning, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 511; MAC / PHY partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 511; or "lower PHY" partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layer, and upper portions of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portions of the PHY layer are operated by individual RAN nodes 511. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of multiple RAN nodes 511 to execute other virtualized applications. In some specific implementations, separate RAN nodes 511 may represent a single RAN node 511 connected to the network via a separate F1 interface ( Figure 5 In these embodiments, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 6), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 510 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 511 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a next generation eNB that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to the UE 501 and is connected to the 5GC (e.g., Fig.14 CN 1420) RAN node.

[0101] In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 511 may be an RSU or act as an RSU. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" may refer to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, wherein an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side that provides connectivity support to a passing vehicle UE 501 (vUE 501). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications as well as other cellular communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Some or all of the computing device and the RSU's RF circuitry may be packaged in a weather-resistant enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or backhaul network.

[0102] Any of the multiple RAN nodes 511 may serve as an endpoint for the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for multiple UEs 501. In some embodiments, any of the multiple RAN nodes 511 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 510, including but not limited to the functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0103] In an embodiment, UE 501 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any AN node in RAN node 511 using OFDM communication signals on a multi-carrier communication channel according to various communication techniques, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), but the scope of the embodiment is not limited in this respect. OFDM signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0104] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 511 to the UE 501, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice, which makes wireless resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0105] According to various embodiments, UE 501 and RAN node 511 communicate data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) through a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed frequency band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed frequency band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz frequency band.

[0106] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 501 and the RAN node 511 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 501 and the RAN node 511 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0107] LBT is a mechanism by which equipment (e.g., UE 501, RAN node 511, etc.) senses a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include a CCA that utilizes at least an ED to determine whether other signals are present on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy over a period of time on an expected transmission band and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0108] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs use a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 501, AP 506, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. In addition, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid conflicts. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS that increases exponentially when a conflict occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA / CA of WLAN. In some specific implementations, the LBT process for a DL or UL transmission burst (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmission) may have a LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the CWS of LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmissions may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (eg, transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0109] The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL ​​and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth from other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0110] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell may provide the PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle activities related to RRC and NAS. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell may provide individual SCCs for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, and changing PCCs may require the UE 501 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in an unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by the PCells operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0111] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to multiple UEs 501. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about the transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It can also inform the UE 501 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 501b within a cell) can be performed on any of the RAN nodes 511 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 501. Downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the multiple UEs 501.

[0112] PDCCH uses CCE to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, respectively, called REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0113] Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may utilize EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as EREG. In some cases, ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0114] RAN nodes 511 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 512. In embodiments where system 500 is an LTE system (eg, when CN 520 is a Fig.13 1320 in the EPC 1320), the interface 512 may be an X2 interface 512. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 511 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 520, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 520. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information about the successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 501 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 501; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0115] When system 500 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN 520 is Fig.14In an implementation scheme of the 5GC 1420 in the 5GC 520, the interface 512 may be an Xn interface 512. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 511 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 520, between a RAN node 511 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5GC 520, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 520. In some specific implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for the UE 501 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 511. The mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 511 to the new (target) serving RAN node 511; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 511 and the new (target) serving RAN node 511. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and / or IP layer for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0116] RAN 510 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 520. CN 520 may include a plurality of network elements 522 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / users (e.g., users of UE 501) connected to CN 520 via RAN 510. The components of CN 520 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN 520 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 520 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0117] Generally speaking, the application server 530 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 530 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for the UE 501 via the EPC 520 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0118] In an embodiment, CN 520 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 520" or the like), and RAN 510 may be connected to CN 520 via an NG interface 513. In an embodiment, NG interface 513 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 514, which carries traffic data between RAN node 511 and UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 515, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 511 and AMF. Fig.14 An implementation of CN 520 as 5GC 520 is discussed in more detail.

[0119] In an embodiment, CN 520 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 520", etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 520 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 520 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 520", etc.), RAN 510 may be connected to CN 520 via an NG interface 513. In an embodiment, NG interface 513 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 514, which carries traffic data between RAN node 511 and S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 515, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 511 and MME.

[0120] Fig.13 FIG. 1 shows an exemplary architecture of a system 1300 including a first CN 1320 according to various embodiments. In this example, the system 1300 may implement the LTE standard, where the CN 1320 is a Figure 5 The EPC 1320 corresponding to the CN 520 of the UE 1301 may also be Figure 5 UE 501 is the same as or similar to UE 501, and E-UTRAN 1310 may be Figure 5 The CN 1320 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 510 of the mobile station, and may include the RAN node 511 discussed previously. The CN 1320 may include an MME 1321, an S-GW 1322, a P-GW 1323, an HSS 1324, and an SGSN 1325.

[0121] MME 1321 may be similar in function to the control plane of a traditional SGSN, and may implement MM functions to track the current location of UE 1301. MME 1321 may perform various MM procedures to manage mobility aspects in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as "EPS MM" or "EMM" in E-UTRAN systems) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc. for maintaining knowledge of the current location of UE 1301, providing user identity confidentiality, and / or performing other similar services to users / subscribers. Each UE 1301 and MME 1321 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and when the attachment procedure is successfully completed, an MM context may be established in UE 1301 and MME 1321. An MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of UE 1301. The MME 1321 may be coupled to the HSS 1324 via an S6a reference point, to the SGSN 1325 via an S3 reference point, and to the S-GW 1322 via an S11 reference point.

[0122] SGSN 1325 may be a node that serves UE 1301 by tracking the location of individual UE 1301 and performing security functions. In addition, SGSN 1325 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G / 3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 1321; handling of UE 1301 time zone functions as specified by MME 1321; and MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between MME 1321 and SGSN 1325 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in an idle state and / or an active state.

[0123] The HSS 1324 may include a database for network users, which includes subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. The EPC 1320 may include one or several HSSs 1324, depending on the number of mobile users, the capacity of the equipment, the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 1324 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / address resolution, location dependency, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 1324 and the MME 1321 may enable the transmission of subscription data and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to the EPC 1320 between the HSS 1324 and the MME 1321.

[0124] The S-GW 1322 may terminate the S1 interface 514 towards the RAN 1310 (at Fig.13 1321) and routes data packets between RAN 1310 and EPC 1320. In addition, S-GW 1322 can be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and can also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and enforcement of certain policies. The S11 reference point between S-GW 1322 and MME 1321 can provide a control plane between MME 1321 and S-GW 1322. S-GW 1322 can be coupled to P-GW 1323 via an S5 reference point.

[0125] The P-GW 1323 may terminate the SGi interface toward the PDN 1330. The P-GW 1323 may communicate with the PDN 1330 via the IP interface 525 (see, e.g., Figure 5 ) routes data packets between EPC 1320 and external networks such as a network including an application server 530 (alternatively referred to as an "AF"). In an embodiment, P-GW 1323 can communicate with the EPC 1320 via IP communication interface 525 (see, e.g., Figure 5 ) is communicatively coupled to an application server ( Figure 5Application server 530 or Fig.13 The S5 reference point between the P-GW 1323 and the S-GW 1322 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 1323 and the S-GW 1322. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 1322 relocation due to UE 1301 mobility and if the S-GW 1322 needs to connect to a non-co-located P-GW 1323 for required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 1323 may also include nodes for policy implementation and charging data collection, such as a PCEF (not shown). In addition, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 1323 and the packet data network (PDN) 1330 may be an operator-external public, private PDN, or an internal operator packet data network, such as for providing IMS services. The P-GW 1323 may be coupled to the PCRF 1326 via a Gx reference point.

[0126] PCRF 1326 is a policy and charging control element of EPC 1320. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 1326 in a domestic public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of UE 1301. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of UE 1301: a domestic PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). PCRF 1326 may be communicatively coupled to application server 1330 via P-GW 1323. Application server 1330 may signal PCRF 1326 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate QoS and charging parameters. PCRF 1326 may configure the rule to a PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which initiates QoS and charging specified by application server 1330. The Gx reference point between PCRF 1326 and P-GW 1323 may allow QoS policies and charging rules to be transferred from PCRF 1326 to the PCEF in P-GW 1323. The Rx reference point may reside between PDN 1330 (or "AF 1330") and PCRF 1326.

[0127] Fig.14The architecture of a system 1400 including a second CN 1420 according to various embodiments is shown. The system 1400 is shown to include a UE 1401, which may be the same or similar to the UE 501 and UE 1301 discussed previously; a (R) AN 1410, which may be the same or similar to the RAN 510 and RAN 1310 discussed previously, and which may include the RAN node 511 discussed previously; and a DN 1403, which may be, for example, an operator service, Internet access, or a 3rd party service; and a 5GC 1420. The 5GC 1420 may include an AUSF 1422; an AMF 1421; an SMF 1424; an NEF 1423; a PCF 1426; an NRF 1425; an UDM 1427; an AF 1428; an UPF 1402; and an NSSF 1429.

[0128] The UPF 1402 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with the DN 1403, and a branch point to support multi-host PDU sessions. The UPF 1402 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform the user plane portion of policy rules, lawful interception of packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing on the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 1402 may include an uplink classifier for supporting routing of traffic to a data network. The DN 1403 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The DN 1403 may include or be similar to the application server 530 discussed previously. UPF 1402 may interact with SMF 1424 via the N4 reference point between SMF 1424 and UPF 1402.

[0129] AUSF 1422 may store data for authenticating UE 1401 and handle authentication-related functions. AUSF 1422 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. AUSF 1422 may communicate with AMF 1421 via the N12 reference point between AMF 1421 and AUSF 1422; and may communicate with UDM 1427 via the N13 reference point between UDM 1427 and AUSF 1422. In addition, AUSF 1422 may present an interface based on Nausf services.

[0130] AMF 1421 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., responsible for registering UE 1401, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. AMF 1421 may be the termination point of the N11 reference point between AMF 1421 and SMF 1424. AMF 1421 may provide transport for SM messages between UE 1401 and SMF 1424, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 1421 may also provide a transport for UE 1401 and SMSF ( Fig.14 401). The AMF 1421 may provide transport for SMS messages between the (R)AN 1410 and the AMF 1421 (not shown). The AMF 1421 may act as a SEAF, which may include interaction with the AUSF 1422 and the UE 1401, receiving intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 1401 authentication process. In the case of using USIM-based authentication, the AMF 1421 may retrieve security material from the AUSF 1422. The AMF 1421 may also include an SCM function that receives keys from the SEA for deriving access network-specific keys. In addition, the AMF 1421 may be a termination point for the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between the (R)AN 1410 and the AMF 1421; and the AMF 1421 may be a termination point for NAS (N1) signaling, and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0131] The AMF 1421 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1401 over the N3 IWF interface. The N3 IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3 IWF may be the termination point for the N2 interface between the (R) AN 1410 and the AMF 1421 for the control plane, and may be the termination point for the N3 reference point between the (R) AN 1410 and the UPF 1402 for the user plane. Thus, the AMF 1421 may process N2 signaling for PDU sessions and QoS from the SMF 1424 and the AMF 1421, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnels, mark N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and perform QoS corresponding to N3 packet markings, taking into account QoS requirements associated with such markings received over N2. The N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 1401 and the AMF 1421 via the N1 reference point between the UE 1401 and the AMF 1421, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 1401 and the UPF 1402. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE 1401. The AMF 1421 may present an interface based on the Namf service and may be an N14 reference point between the two AMFs 1421 and the AMF 1421 and the 5G-EIR ( Fig.14 The termination point of the N17 reference point between the two (not shown).

[0132] UE 1401 may need to register with AMF 1421 in order to receive network services. RM is used to register or deregister UE 1401 with the network (e.g., AMF 1421) and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 1421). UE 1401 may operate in the RM-REGISTERED state or the RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, UE 1401 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 1421 does not maintain valid location or routing information for UE 1401, so UE 1401 is not accessible by AMF 1421. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 1401 is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 1421 may maintain valid location or routing information for UE 1401, so UE 1401 is accessible by AMF 1421. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 1401 can perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by the expiration of a periodic update timer (for example, to notify the network that UE 1401 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

[0133] AMF 1421 may store one or more RM contexts for UE 1401, each RM context being associated with a specific access right of the network. An RM context may be a data structure, a database object, etc., which indicates or stores, among other things, the registration status and periodic update timer for each access type. AMF 1421 may also store a 5GC MM context which may be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. In various embodiments, AMF 1421 may store CE mode B restriction parameters for UE 1401 in an associated MM context or RM context. AMF 1421 may also derive values ​​from the UE's usage setting parameters already stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context) when necessary.

[0134] The CM may be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 1401 and the AMF 1421 over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to implement NAS signaling exchanges between the UE 1401 and the CN 1420, and includes both a signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., an RRC connection or a UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPP access) and an N2 connection of the UE 1401 between the AN (e.g., the RAN 1410) and the AMF 1421. The UE 1401 may operate in one of two CM states (i.e., a CM-idle mode or a CM-connected mode). When the UE 1401 is operating in the CM-idle state / mode, the UE 1401 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 1421 over the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 1410 signaling connection (e.g., an N2 and / or N3 connection) for the UE 1401. When the UE 1401 is operating in the CM-connected state / mode, the UE 1401 can have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 1421 through the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 1410 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connection) for the UE 1401. The establishment of the N2 connection between the (R)AN 1410 and the AMF 1421 may cause the UE 1401 to transition from the CM-idle mode to the CM-connected mode, and when the N2 signaling between the (R)AN 1410 and the AMF 1421 is released, the UE 1401 may transition from the CM-connected mode to the CM-idle mode.

[0135] SMF 1424 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between UPF and AN nodes); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring traffic steering of UPF to route traffic to the correct destination; terminating the interface toward the policy control function; control portion of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface with LI system); terminating the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information sent to AN via AMF over N2; and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connection service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between a UE 1401 and a data network (DN) 1403 identified by a data network name (DNN). The PDU session may be established at the request of UE 1401, modified at the request of UE 1401 and 5GC 1420, and released at the request of UE 1401 and 5GC 1420 using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1 reference point between UE 1401 and SMF 1424. Upon request by the application server, 5GC 1420 may trigger a specific application in UE 1401. In response to receiving the trigger message, UE 1401 may pass the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in UE 1401. The identified application in UE 1401 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. SMF 1424 may check whether the UE 1401 request complies with the user subscription information associated with UE 1401. In this regard, SMF 1424 may retrieve and / or request to receive update notifications about SMF 1424 level subscription data from UDM 1427.

[0136] SMF 1424 may include the following roaming functions: handling local execution to apply QoS SLA (VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful interception (for SM events and interface with LI system, in VPLMN); and support interaction with external DN to transmit signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication through external DN. In a roaming scenario, an N16 reference point between two SMFs 1424 may be included in the system 1400, which may be located between another SMF 1424 in the visited network and the SMF 1424 in the home network. In addition, SMF 1424 may present an interface based on Nsmf services.

[0137] NEF 1423 may provide components for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 1428), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, NEF 1423 may authenticate, authorize and / or restrict AF. NEF 1423 may also convert information exchanged with AF 1428 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF 1423 may convert between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF 1423 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on the exposure capabilities of other network functions. The information may be stored at NEF 1423 as structured data, or stored at a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be re-exposed to other NFs and AFs by NEF 1423, and / or used for other purposes such as analysis. In addition, NEF 1423 may present an interface based on Nnef services.

[0138] NRF 1425 may support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 1425 also maintains information of available NF instances and the services they support. As used herein, the term "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to the specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of a program code. In addition, NRF 1425 may present an interface based on Nnrf services.

[0139] The PCF 1426 may provide for control plane functions to enforce their policy rules, and may also support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. The PCF 1426 may also implement a FE to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM 1427. The PCF 1426 may communicate with the AMF 1421 via the N15 reference point between the PCF 1426 and the AMF 1421, which may include the PCF 1426 in the visited network and the AMF 1421 in the case of a roaming scenario. The PCF 1426 may communicate with the AF 1428 via the N5 reference point between the PCF 1426 and the AF 1428; and communicate with the SMF 1424 via the N7 reference point between the PCF 1426 and the SMF 1424. The system 1400 and / or the CN 1420 may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 1426 (in the home network) and the PCF 1426 in the visited network. Additionally, PCF 1426 may present an interface based on Npcf services.

[0140] UDM 1427 may process subscription-related information to support the handling of communication sessions by network entities, and may store subscription data of UE 1401. For example, subscription data may be transmitted between UDM 1427 and AMF via an N8 reference point between UDM 1427 and AMF 1421. UDM 1427 may include two parts: application FE and UDR ( Fig.14 FE and UDR are not shown). UDR can store subscription data and policy data of UDM 1427 and PCF 1426, and / or structured data for exposure and application data of NEF 1423 (including PFD for application detection, application request information of multiple UEs 1401). Nudr service-based interfaces can be presented by UDR 221 to allow UDM 1427, PCF 1426 and NEF 1423 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete and subscribe to notifications of related data changes in UDR. UDM may include UDM-FE, which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. In different transactions, several different front ends may serve the same user. UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in UDR, and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management and subscription management. UDR can interact with SMF 1424 via the N10 reference point between UDM 1427 and SMF 1424. UDM 1427 may also support SMS management, where SMS-FE implements similar application logic as described above. In addition, UDM 1427 may present an interface based on Nudm services.

[0141] AF 1428 can provide the influence of applications on traffic routing, provide access to NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. NCE can be a mechanism that allows 5GC 1420 and AF 1428 to provide information to each other via NEF 1423, which can be used for edge computing implementation. In such implementations, network operators and third-party services can be hosted near the UE 1401 access point of the attachment to achieve effective service delivery through reduced end-to-end delay and load on the transmission network. For edge computing implementation, 5GC can select UPF 1402 near UE 1401 and perform traffic steering from UPF 1402 to DN 1403 via the N6 interface. This can be based on UE subscription data, UE location and information provided by AF 1428. In this way, AF 1428 can affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 1428 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow AF 1428 to interact directly with the relevant NF. In addition, AF 1428 can present an interface based on Naf services.

[0142] NSSF 1429 may select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 1401. If necessary, NSSF 1429 may also determine the allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAI. NSSF 1429 may also determine the AMF set, or a list of candidate AMFs 1421, to serve UE 1401 based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying NRF 1425. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 1401 may be triggered by AMF 1421, where UE 1401 registers by interacting with NSSF 1429, which may result in changes to AMF 1421. NSSF 1429 may interact with AMF 1421 via the N22 reference point between AMF 1421 and NSSF 1429; and may communicate via the N31 reference point ( Fig.14 The NSSF 1429 may communicate with another NSSF 1429 in the visited network (not shown). In addition, the NSSF 1429 may present an interface based on the Nnssf service.

[0143] As previously described, CN 1420 may include SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages to / from other entities, such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS-Router, to / from UE 1401. SMS may also interact with AMF 1421 and UDM 1427 for notification procedures so that UE 1401 is available for SMS transmission (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 1427 when UE 1401 is available for SMS).

[0144] CN 120 may also include Fig.14 Other elements not shown, such as data storage system / architecture, 5G-EIR, SEPP, etc. The data storage system may include SDSF, UDSF, etc. Any NF may communicate with any NF and UDSF ( Fig.14 The N18 reference point between the NF and the NF (not shown) stores or retrieves unstructured data in or from the UDSF (e.g., UE context). Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing their respective unstructured data, or individual NFs may each have their own UDSF located at or near a single NF. In addition, the UDSF may present an interface based on the Nudsf service ( Fig.14 (not shown). The 5G-EIR may be a NF that checks the status of the PEI to determine whether to blacklist a specific equipment / entity from the network; and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

[0145] Additionally, there may be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between NF services in a NF; however, for clarity, Fig.14 These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one example, CN 1420 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 1321) and AMF 1421 to enable interworking between CN 1420 and CN 1320. Other example interfaces / reference points may include an interface based on N5g-EIR services presented by 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between an NRF in a visited network and an NRF in a home network; and an N31 reference point between an NSSF in a visited network and an NSSF in a home network.

[0146] Figure 6 An example of infrastructure equipment 600 is shown according to various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 600 (or 'system'") can be implemented as a base station, a radio headquarters, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 511 and / or AP 506 previously shown and described), an application server 530, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, the infrastructure equipment 600 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0147] The infrastructure equipment 600 includes application circuits 605, baseband circuits 610, one or more radio front-end modules (RFEM) 615, memory circuits 620, power management integrated circuits (PMIC) 625, power three-way circuits 630, network controller circuits 635, network interface connectors 640, satellite positioning circuits 645, and user interface circuits 650. In some embodiments, the infrastructure equipment 600 may include additional elements, such as, for example, memory / storage devices, displays, cameras, sensors, or input / output (I / O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the following components may be included in more than one device. For example, the circuits may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other similar implementations.

[0148] The application circuit 605 includes the following circuits such as, but not limited to: one or more processors (processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of the following: a low dropout regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, I 2C or general programmable serial interface module, real-time clock (RTC), timer-counter including interval timer and watchdog timer, general input / output (I / O or IO), memory card controller such as secure digital (SD) multimedia card (MMC) or similar products, universal serial bus (USB) interface, mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interface and joint test access group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of application circuit 605 can be coupled with memory / storage element or can include memory / storage element, and can be configured to execute instructions stored in memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on infrastructure equipment 600. In some embodiments, the memory / storage element can be an on-chip memory circuit, which can include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0149] The processor of the application circuit 605 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 605 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 605 may include one or more Intel or Processor: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor, Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) or Processor; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium (TM), Inc. and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPSWarrior P-class processor; etc. In some embodiments, the infrastructure equipment 600 may not utilize the application circuit 605, and instead may include a dedicated processor / controller to process IP data received, for example, from the EPC or 5GC.

[0150] In some implementations, the application circuit 605 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such implementations, the circuits of the application circuit 605 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such an embodiment, the circuitry of the application circuit 605 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in a lookup table (LUT), etc.

[0151] Baseband circuit 610 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 8 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 610 are discussed.

[0152] The user interface circuit 650 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the infrastructure equipment 600, or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the infrastructure equipment 600. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio transmitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0153] The radio front end module (RFEM) 615 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Figure 8 Antenna array 811), and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative implementation, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 615 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0154] The memory circuit 620 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory including a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as a "flash memory"), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with and The memory circuit 620 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0155] The PMIC 625 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 630 may provide power extracted from a network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 600 using a single cable.

[0156] The network controller circuit 635 may provide connectivity to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. A physical connection may be used to provide a network connection to / from the infrastructure equipment 600 via a network interface connector 640, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 635 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 635 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0157] The positioning circuit 645 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by a positioning network of a global satellite navigation system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., using the Indian constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbit Chart and Satellite Integrated Radio Positioning (DORIS), etc. for navigation), etc. The positioning circuit 645 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 645 may include a micro technology (micro PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and timing that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 645 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 610 and / or RFEM 615 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 645 may also provide location data and / or time data to the application circuit 605, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 511, etc.), etc.

[0158] Figure 6 The components shown may communicate with each other using interface circuitry that may include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended ISA (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus / IX systems may be included, such as I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface and power bus, etc.

[0159] Figure 7 An example of a platform 700 (or 'device') according to various embodiments is shown. In an embodiment, the platform 700 may be suitable for use as a UE 501, 1301, 1401, an application server 530, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform 700 may include any combination of components shown in the example. The components of the platform 700 may be implemented as an integrated circuit (IC), a portion thereof, a discrete electronic device, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof suitable for the platform 700, or implemented as components otherwise incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. Figure 7The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of platform 700. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

[0160] Application circuit 705 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and LDO, interrupt controller, serial interface (such as SPI), I 2 C or general programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer (including interval timer and watchdog timer), general I / O, memory card controller (such as SD MMC or similar controller), USB interface, MIPI interface and JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 705 can be coupled with or can include a memory / storage element, and can be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage element to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the platform 700. In some embodiments, the memory / storage element can be an on-chip memory circuit that can include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0161] The processor of the application circuit 605 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 605 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein.

[0162] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 705 may include a processor based on Architecture Core TM Processors such as Quark TM 、Atom TM , i3, i5, i7 or MCU class processors, or available from Santa Clara, CA The processor of application circuit 705 may also be one or more of the following: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Inc.'s A5-A9 processors, Snapdragon by Technologies, Inc. TM Processor, Texas Instruments, Open Multimedia Applications Platform(OMAP) TM processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some implementations, the application circuit 705 can be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which the application circuit 705 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as company( Edison Corporation TM or Galileo TM SoC board.

[0163] Additionally or alternatively, the application circuit 705 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 705 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 705 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data, etc. in lookup tables (LUTs), etc.

[0164] Baseband circuit 710 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 8 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 710 are discussed.

[0165] The RFEM 715 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Figure 8 Antenna array 811), and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative implementation, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 715 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0166] The memory circuit 720 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a fixed amount of system memory. For example, the memory circuit 720 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory, including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 720 may be developed according to the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) based low power double data rate (LPDDR) design such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 720 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a single die package (SDP), a dual die package (DDP) or a quad die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, and / or soldered to a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 720 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 705. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 720 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, among others, a solid-state disk drive (SSDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive change memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory. For example, the platform 700 may be combined with and Three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory.

[0167] Removable memory circuitry 723 may include devices, circuitry, housings / casings, ports or receptacles, etc., for coupling portable data storage devices to platform 700. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD picture cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical disks, external HDDs, etc.

[0168] The platform 700 may further include an interface circuit (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 700. External devices connected to the platform 700 via the interface circuit include a sensor circuit 721 and an electromechanical component (EMC) 722, and a removable memory device coupled to a removable memory circuit 723.

[0169] Sensor circuitry 721 comprises a device, module, or subsystem that is intended to detect events or changes in its environment, and to send information about the detected events (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; etc.

[0170] The EMC 722 includes devices, modules or subsystems that are intended to enable the platform 700 to change its state, position and / or orientation or to move or control a mechanism or (sub) system. In addition, the EMC 722 may be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of the platform 700 to indicate the current state of the EMC 722. Examples of the EMC 722 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and / or solid-state relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks and / or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, the platform 700 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 722 based on one or more capture events and / or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and / or various clients.

[0171] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 700 to the positioning circuit 745. The positioning circuit 745 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by the positioning network of the GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the GPS of the United States, the GLONASS of Russia, the Galileo system of the European Union, the Beidou navigation satellite system of China, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, QZSS of Japan, DORIS of France, etc.), etc. The positioning circuit 745 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communication) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 745 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 745 may also be part of the baseband circuit 610 and / or the RFEM 715 or interact with it to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. Positioning circuitry 745 may also provide position data and / or time data to application circuitry 705, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio base stations) for use in turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0172] In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 700 with a near field communication (NFC) circuit 740. The NFC circuit 740 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, where a magnetic field is sensed to enable communication between the NFC circuit 740 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 700. The NFC circuit 740 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 740 by executing an NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit a short-range RF signal. The RF signal may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 740, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 740 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) close to the platform 700.

[0173] The driver circuit 746 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 700. The driver circuit 746 may include various drivers to allow other components of the platform 700 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 700. For example, the driver circuit 746 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touch screen interface of the platform 700, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 721 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 721, an EMC driver for obtaining an actuator position of the EMC 722 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 722, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0174] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 725 (also referred to as “power management circuit 725”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 700. Specifically, the PMIC 725 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion relative to the baseband circuit 710. When the platform 700 is capable of being powered by a battery 730, for example, when the device is included in a UE 501, 1301, 1401, the PMIC 725 may be generally included.

[0175] In some embodiments, the PMIC 725 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 700. For example, if the platform 700 is in the RRC_Connected state, where the device is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic immediately, then after a period of inactivity, the device may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 700 may be powered off for short time intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the platform 700 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, where the device is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. are performed. The platform 700 enters a very low power state and performs paging, where the device wakes up periodically again to listen to the network and then powers off again. The platform 700 may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may prevent the device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this time will be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0176] The battery 730 can power the platform 700, but in some examples, the platform 700 can be mounted in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to a power grid. The battery 730 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 730 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0177] In some implementations, the battery 730 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 700 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 730. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 730, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 730 to provide fault prediction. The BMS may transmit information about the battery 730 to the application circuit 705 or other components of the platform 700. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 705 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 730 or the current from the battery 730. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 700 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0178] A power block or other power source coupled to the grid may be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 730. In some examples, the PMIC 725 may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to wirelessly obtain power, for example, through a loop antenna in the platform 700. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected may depend on the size of the battery 730 and, therefore, the current required. Charging may be performed using the aviation fuel standard published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance.

[0179] The user interface circuit 750 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 700, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform 700 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to enable peripheral components to interact with the platform 700. The user interface circuit 750 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, in particular, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information). The output device circuitry may include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, including, in particular, one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs, such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where outputs of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. are generated or produced by the operation of the platform 700. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, etc. In some embodiments, the sensor circuitry 721 may be used as an input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing tactile feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuitry including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0180] Although not shown, the components of platform 700 may communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, a time-triggered protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus / IX, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus / IX systems, such as I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface and power bus, etc.

[0181] Figure 8 8 shows exemplary components of a baseband circuit 810 and a radio front end module (RFEM) 815 according to various embodiments. The baseband circuit 810 corresponds to Figure 6 The baseband circuit 610 and Figure 7 Baseband circuit 710. RFEM 815 corresponds to Figure 6 RFEM 615 and Figure 7 RFEM 715. As shown, RFEM 815 may include radio frequency (RF) circuitry 806, front end module (FEM) circuitry 808, and at least an antenna array 811 coupled together as shown.

[0182] The baseband circuit 810 includes circuits and / or control logic components that are configured to execute various radio / network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 806. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit 810 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 810 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. The implementation of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions is not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments. The baseband circuit 810 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 806 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 806. The baseband circuit 810 is configured to communicate with the application circuit 605 / 705 (see Figure 6 and Figure 7 ) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of RF circuit 806. Baseband circuit 810 may handle various radio control functions.

[0183] The aforementioned circuits and / or control logic components of the baseband circuit 810 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 804A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 804B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 804C, or some other baseband processors 804D for other existing generations, generations under development or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., the sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 804A to 804D may be included in a module stored in the memory 804G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 804E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 804A-D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA, ASIC, etc.) loaded with an appropriate bitstream or logic block stored in a corresponding memory unit. In various embodiments, the memory 804G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which, when executed by the CPU 804E (or other baseband processor), will enable the CPU 804E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuit 810, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of RTOS may include: Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided TM , by Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided TM , by Mentor Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Express Provided by ThreadX TM ,Depend on FreeRTOS and REX OS provided by OpenKernel (OK) OKL4 provided, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuit 810 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 804F. The audio DSP 804F includes elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.

[0184] In some embodiments, each of processors 804A to 804E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to / receive data from memory 804G. Baseband circuit 810 may also include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling to other circuits / devices, such as an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to baseband circuit 810; an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuit; Figure 6 to Figure 7An application circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from the application circuit 605 / 705; Figure 8 RF circuit 806 to send data / receive data from the RF circuit RF circuit interface; for receiving data from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, Low power consumption components, components, etc.) to send data / receive data from these wireless hardware elements; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to / receiving power or control signals from the PMIC 725.

[0185] In an alternative embodiment (which can be combined with the above embodiment), the baseband circuit 810 includes one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, the audio subsystem and the interface subsystem via an interconnection subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem can also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem via another interconnection subsystem. Each of the interconnection subsystems may include a bus system, a point-to-point connector, a network on chip (NOC) structure and / or some other suitable bus or interconnection technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include a DSP circuit, a buffer memory, a program memory, a voice processing accelerator circuit, a data converter circuit such as an analog-to-digital converter circuit and a digital-to-analog converter circuit, an analog circuit including one or more of an amplifier and a filter, and / or other similar components. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the baseband circuit 810 may include a protocol processing circuit with one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuit and / or the radio frequency circuit (e.g., the radio front end module 815).

[0186] although Figure 8Not shown, but in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 810 includes various processing devices (e.g., a "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") to operate one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices to implement PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuit operates or implements various protocol layers / entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, when the baseband circuit 810 and / or the RF circuit 806 are part of a millimeter wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuit may operate LTE protocol entities and / or 5G / NR protocol entities. In the first example, the protocol processing circuit will operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, when the baseband circuit 810 and / or the RF circuit 806 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuit may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In the second example, the protocol processing circuit will operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 804G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing program code and performing various operations using data. The baseband circuitry 810 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

[0187] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 810 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuit 810 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 810 and the RF circuit 806 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system on a chip (SOC) or a system-level package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 810 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 806 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 806). In yet another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 810 and the application circuit 605 / 705 may be implemented together as a separate SoC mounted to the same circuit board (e.g., a "multi-chip package").

[0188] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 810 can provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 810 can support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMANs, WLANs, WPANs. Embodiments in which the baseband circuit 810 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0189] The RF circuit 806 can communicate with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 806 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuit 806 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuits for down-converting RF signals received from the FEM circuit 808 and providing baseband signals to the baseband circuit 810. The RF circuit 806 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuits for up-converting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuit 810 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to the FEM circuit 808.

[0190] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 806 may include a mixer circuit 806a, an amplifier circuit 806b, and a filter circuit 806c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 806 may include a filter circuit 806c and a mixer circuit 806a. The RF circuit 806 may also include a synthesizer circuit 806d for synthesizing the frequencies used by the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 808 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 806d. The amplifier circuit 806b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 806c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 810 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not required.In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0191] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 806d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 808. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuit 810 and may be filtered by filter circuit 806c.

[0192] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0193] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 806 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 810 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 806.

[0194] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0195] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 806d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 806d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0196] Synthesizer circuit 806d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by mixer circuit 806a of RF circuit 806. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 806d may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0197] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuit 810 or the application circuit 605 / 705 according to the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application circuit 605 / 705.

[0198] The synthesizer circuit 806d of the RF circuit 806 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a cascaded, tunable, delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay element may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0199] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 806d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals with multiple different phases relative to each other at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 806 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0200] The FEM circuitry 808 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the antenna array 811, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 806 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 808 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by the RF circuitry 806 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in the antenna array 811. In various embodiments, amplification by the transmit or receive signal path may be accomplished only in the RF circuitry 806, only in the FEM circuitry 808, or in both the RF circuitry 806 and the FEM circuitry 808.

[0201] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 808 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit 808 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 808 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 806). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 808 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 806), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 811.

[0202] The antenna array 811 includes one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured to convert an electrical signal into a radio wave to travel through the air and convert the received radio wave into an electrical signal. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 810 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which is amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array 811 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed into a variety of arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 811 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 811 may be formed as a patch of metal foil of various shapes (e.g., a patch antenna) and may be coupled to the RF circuit 806 and / or the FEM circuit 808 using a metal transmission line or the like.

[0203] The processor of the application circuit 605 / 705 and the processor of the baseband circuit 810 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 810 can be used alone or in combination to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuit 605 / 705 can utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a PHY layer of a UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0204] Fig. 9 Various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device according to some embodiments are shown. Specifically, Fig. 9 An arrangement 900 is included to show the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. Various protocol layers / entities operating in conjunction with 5G / NR system standards and LTE system standards are provided. Fig. 9The following description, but Fig. 9 Some or all aspects of the invention may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0205] The protocol layers of arrangement 900 may include one or more of PHY 910, MAC 920, RLC 930, PDCP 940, SDAP 947, RRC 955, and NAS layer 957, in addition to other higher layer functions not shown. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Fig. 9 Items 959, 956, 950, 949, 945, 935, 925 and 915), the one or more service access points can provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

[0206] PHY 910 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 905, which can be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 905 may include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 910 may also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and switching purposes) and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 955). PHY 910 may also further perform error detection on transmission channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transmission channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels and MIMO antenna processing. In an embodiment, an instance of PHY 910 may process a request from an instance of MAC 920 via one or more PHY-SAP 915, and provide an indication thereto. According to some embodiments, the request and indication transmitted via PHY-SAP 915 may include one or more transmission channels.

[0207] An instance of MAC 920 may process requests from an instance of RLC 930 via one or more MAC-SAPs 925 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via MAC-SAP 925 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 920 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY 910 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 910 via transport channels to one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0208] An instance of RLC 930 may process requests from an instance of PDCP 940 via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 935 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via RLC-SAPs 935 may include one or more RLC channels. RLC 930 may operate in a variety of operating modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 930 may perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 930 may also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0209] An instance of PDCP 940 may process requests from an instance of RRC 955 and / or an instance of SDAP 947 via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Points (PDCP-SAP) 945 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via PDCP-SAP 945 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 940 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-order delivery of upper layer PDUs when lower layers are reestablished, eliminate duplication of lower layer SDUs when lower layers are reestablished for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0210] An instance of SDAP 947 may process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAP 949 and provide instructions thereto. These requests and instructions transmitted via SDAP-SAP 949 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 947 may map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL packets and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 947 may be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 510 may control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflective mapping or explicit mapping). For reflective mapping, SDAP 947 of UE 501 may monitor the QFI of the DL packets of each DRB, and may apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For DRBs, SDAP 947 of UE 501 may map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow corresponding to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of the DRB. To implement reflective mapping, the NG-RAN 1410 may mark the DL packets with a QoS flow ID over the Uu interface. The explicit mapping may involve the RRC 955 configuring the SDAP 947 with explicit mapping rules of QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by the SDAP 947. In an embodiment, the SDAP 947 may be used only in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

[0211] The RRC 955 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 910, MAC 920, RLC 930, PDCP 940, and SDAP 947, via one or more Management Service Access Points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, an instance of the RRC 955 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 957 and provide instructions thereto via one or more RRC-SAPs 956. The main services and functions of the RRC 955 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a MIB or SIB related to NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of an RRC connection between the UE 501 and the RAN 510 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. These MIBs and SIBs may include one or more IEs, each of which may include a separate data field or data structure.

[0212] NNAS 957 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 501 and AMF 1421. NAS 957 may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 501 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 501 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0213] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 900 may be implemented in UE 501, RAN node 511, AMF 1421 in NR implementation or MME 1321 in LTE implementation, UPF 1402 in NR implementation or S-GW 1322 and P-GW 1323 in LTE implementation, etc., for control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 501, gNB 511, AMF 1421, etc. may communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities that may be implemented in or on another device (using services of corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of gNB511 may host the RRC 955, SDAP 947, and PDCP 940 of the gNB that control the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of gNB 511 may each host the RLC 930, MAC 920, and PHY 910 of gNB 511.

[0214] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 957, RRC 955, PDCP 940, RLC 930, MAC 920, and PHY 910. In this example, an upper layer 960 may be built on top of NAS 957, which includes an IP layer 961, SCTP 962, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 963.

[0215] In a NR specific implementation, AP 963 can be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 963 for the NG interface 513 defined between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 1421, or AP 963 can be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 963 for the Xn interface 512 defined between two or more RAN nodes 511.

[0216] The NG-AP 963 may support the functionality of the NG interface 513 and may include an elementary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 1421. The NG-AP 963 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 501) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 1421). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 511 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 1421 to establish, modify and / or release the UE context in the AMF 1421 and the NG-RAN node 511; a mobility function for the UE 501 in ECM-CONNECTED mode, for intra-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transport function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 501 and the AMF 1421; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 1421 and the UE 501; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message sending function for providing a means to transmit a warning message via the NG interface or to cancel an ongoing warning message broadcast; a NAS signaling transport function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 501 and the AMF 1421; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 1421 and the UE 501; a ... 520 Configuration transmission function of requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (eg, SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 511; and / or other similar functions.

[0217] The XnAP 963 may support the functions of the Xn interface 512 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 511 (or E-UTRAN 1310), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures that are not related to a specific UE 501, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0218] In an LTE specific implementation, the AP 963 may be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 963 for the NG interface 513 defined between the E-UTRAN node 511 and the MME, or the AP 963 may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 963 for the X2 interface 512 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 511.

[0219] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 963 may support the functionality of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 511 and the MME 1321 within the LTE CN 520. The S1-AP 963 services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0220] The X2AP 963 may support the functions of the X2 interface 512 and may include an X2AP basic mobility procedure and an X2AP global procedure. The X2AP basic mobility procedure may include a procedure for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 520, such as a handover preparation and cancellation procedure, an SN state transfer procedure, a UE context retrieval and a UE context release procedure, a RAN paging procedure, a procedure related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedure may include a procedure that is not related to a specific UE 501, such as an X2 interface setup and reset procedure, a load indication procedure, an error indication procedure, a cell activation procedure, etc.

[0221] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 962 may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). The SCTP 962 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 511 and the AMF 1421 / MME 1321 based in part on the IP protocol supported by the IP 961. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 961 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 961 may deliver and transmit PDUs using point-to-point transport. In this regard, the RAN node 511 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0222] In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include SDAP 947, PDCP 940, RLC 930, MAC 920, and PHY 910 in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 501, RAN node 511, and UPF 1402 in NR implementation, or communication between S-GW 1322 and P-GW 1323 in LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 951 may be built on top of SDAP 947 and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP / IP) 952, a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol layer (GTP-U) 953 for the user plane, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 963.

[0223] The transport network layer 954 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of the IP transport, and the GTP-U 953 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 952 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry the user plane PDU (UP-PDU). The IP layer (also referred to as the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets in any of the formats, for example, IPv4, IPv6, or PPP.

[0224] GTP-U 953 can be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the transmitted user data can be a packet in any of the IPv4, IPv6 or PPP formats. UDP / IP 952 can provide a checksum for data integrity, a port number for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data flows. The RAN node 511 and the S-GW 1322 can exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY910), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 920, RLC 930, PDCP 940 and / or SDAP 947), a UDP / IP layer 952, and a GTP-U 953 using an S1-U interface. The S-GW 1322 and the P-GW 1323 can exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 952, and a GTP-U 953 using an S5 / S8a interface. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support mobility of UE 501 and session management procedures to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 501 and P-GW 1323 .

[0225] In addition, despite Fig. 9Not shown, but an application layer may exist above the AP 963 and / or transport network layer 954. The application layer may be a layer where a user of the UE 501, RAN node 511, or other network element interacts with a software application, for example, executed by the application circuitry 605 or the application circuitry 705, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with the communication system (such as the baseband circuitry 810) of the UE 501 or RAN node 511. In some implementations, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide the same or similar functionality as layers 5 to 7 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, or portions thereof (e.g., OSI layer 7—application layer, OSI layer 6—presentation layer, and OSI layer 5—session layer).

[0226] Fig.10 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Specifically, Fig.10 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 1000 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1010, one or more memory / storage devices 1020, and one or more communication resources 1030, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1040. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1002 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1000.

[0227] Processor 1010 may include, for example, processor 1012 and processor 1014. Processor 1010 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0228] The memory / storage device 1020 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1020 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0229] The communication resources 1030 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1004 or one or more databases 1006 via the network 1008. For example, the communication resources 1030 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power consumption) components, components and other communication components.

[0230] The instructions 1050 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 1010 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1050 may reside completely or partially in at least one of the processors 1010 (e.g., in a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1020, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 1050 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 1000 from any combination of the peripheral device 1004 or the database 1006. Therefore, the memory of the processor 1010, the memory / storage device 1020, the peripheral device 1004, and the database 1006 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0231] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes and / or methods described in the following example section. For example, the baseband circuit described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the following embodiments. For another example, the circuits associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the embodiments shown in the example section below.

[0232] Example

[0233] Embodiment 1 may include a method for sharing a channel occupation time (COT) for a configuration grant (CG) in unlicensed operation of NR.

[0234] Embodiment 2 may include a method according to embodiment 1 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the COT is a UE-initiated COT shared with the gNB.

[0235] Embodiment 3 may include the method according to embodiment 2 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the UE provides an indication of the COT sharing boundary using N bits via UCI.

[0236] Embodiment 4 may include a method as in embodiment 3 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the N bits initially indicate an X-slot offset from a current slot to a COT sharing boundary.

[0237] Embodiment 5 may include a method according to embodiment 4 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the X-slot offset is indicated by a countdown method in each subsequent time slot until a COT sharing boundary is reached.

[0238] Embodiment 6 may include a method according to embodiment 4 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the COT sharing boundary is indicated in only one time slot and no COT sharing indication is signaled in any other time slot.

[0239] Embodiment 7 may include a method according to embodiment 3 or some other embodiment herein, wherein N=1, and the offset X is configured via higher layer or DCI activation information.

[0240] Embodiment 8 may include the method according to embodiment 2 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the UE starts searching for the PDCCH after the COT sharing boundary is reached.

[0241] Embodiment 9 may include a method according to embodiment 2 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the UE-initiated COT includes multiple UL / DL switching points.

[0242] Embodiment 10 may include the method described in embodiment 9 or some other embodiment herein, where the UE provides an indication of the UL / DL switching mode to the gNB.

[0243] Embodiment 11 may include a method according to embodiment 10, wherein the duration of the separate DL portion of the COT is at least Y symbols long, and the gNB indicates the total duration of the DL unit transmission to the UE via DCI.

[0244] Embodiment 12 may include a method according to embodiment 2 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the DL resource has a duration indicated by the UE, or a duration configured for the UE via RRC or DCI activation in its CG information.

[0245] Embodiment 13 may include a method according to embodiment 2 or some other embodiment herein, wherein multiple UEs multiplexed on the set of resources are sharing the COT with the gNB.

[0246] Embodiment 14 may include a method according to embodiment 13 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the UE individually indicates the COT sharing boundary.

[0247] Embodiment 15 may include a method according to embodiment 14 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the gNB acquires the COT after the most recently occurring COT sharing boundary.

[0248] Embodiment 16 may include a method according to embodiment 15 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the UE searches for a DCI of the CSS for information containing information related to DL transmission.

[0249] Embodiment 17 may include a method according to embodiment 16 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the gNB selects a first common CORESET opportunity among all multiplexed UEs to transmit the DCI to the UE.

[0250] Embodiment 18 may include a method according to embodiment 13 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the multiplexing UEs are configured with a common CSS.

[0251] Embodiment 19 may include a method according to embodiment 13 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the UE may be time multiplexed or frequency multiplexed.

[0252] Embodiment 20 may include a method according to embodiment 13 or some other embodiment herein, wherein multiple UEs each indicate a COT shared DL duration to the gNB.

[0253] Embodiment 21 may include a method according to embodiment 20 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the multiple COTs sharing the DL duration do not completely overlap in time.

[0254] Embodiment 22 may include a method according to embodiment 21 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the gNB derives the DL duration based on multiple durations indicated by the UE.

[0255] Embodiment 23 may include a method according to embodiment 22 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the gNB specifies the timeslot format for the entire DL duration, which may be accomplished via the SFI.

[0256] Embodiment 24 may include a method according to embodiment 23 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the gNB provides a scheduling grant to the UE for GB transmission during a timing indicated by U and / or F.

[0257] Embodiment 25 may include a method according to embodiment 1 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the COT is a gNB-initiated COT shared with the CG UE.

[0258] Embodiment 26 may include a method according to embodiment 25 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the CGUE is allowed to acquire a gNB-initiated COT during a timing indicated by the gNB via U and / or F.

[0259] Embodiment 27 may include a method according to embodiment 25 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the gNB indicates in the DCI whether the CG UE is allowed to obtain the gNB-initiated COT.

[0260] Embodiment 28 may include a method according to embodiment 26 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the CG UE transmissions must be continuous in time without any gaps.

[0261] Embodiment 29 may include a method according to embodiment 26 or some other embodiment herein, wherein if the gNB does not transmit any PDSCH during the COT, CG transmission is not allowed.

[0262] Embodiment 30 may include a method according to embodiment 26 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the time resources available for UL transmission are all counted toward the gNB COT.

[0263] Embodiment 31 may include a method according to embodiment 26 or some other embodiment, wherein the CG UE may use CAT-2 LBT to acquire the gap COT for gaps less than 25 us during the timing indicated by the gNB through F, and otherwise use CAT-4 LBT.

[0264] Embodiment 32 may include a method according to embodiment 26 or some other embodiment herein, wherein the CG transmission does not extend beyond the MCOT length of the gNB.

[0265] Embodiment Z01 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of Embodiments 1 to 32, or any other method or process described herein.

[0266] Embodiment Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, which include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method according to or related to any of Embodiments 1 to 32 or any other method or process described herein.

[0267] Embodiment Z03 may include a device comprising logic components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of a method described or related to any of Embodiments 1 to 32, or any other method or process described herein.

[0268] Embodiment Z04 may include a method, technique or process described or related to any one of embodiments 1 to 32, or a portion or component thereof.

[0269] Embodiment Z05 may include a device comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, wherein the one or more computer-readable media include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, process, or portion thereof described in or related to any one of Embodiments 1 to 32.

[0270] Embodiment Z06 may include a signal according to or related to any one of embodiments 1 to 32, or a portion or component thereof.

[0271] Embodiment Z07 may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0272] Embodiment Z08 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0273] Embodiment Z09 may include a system for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0274] Embodiment Z10 may include an apparatus for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0275] Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any of the above embodiments may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings or may be acquired from the practice of the various embodiments.

[0276] abbreviation

[0277] For the purposes of this document, the following abbreviations may be applied to the examples and embodiments discussed herein but are not meant to be limiting.

[0278] 3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project

[0279] 4G Fourth Generation

[0280] 5G Fifth Generation

[0281] 5GC 5G Core Network

[0282] ACK

[0283] AF Application Function

[0284] AM Confirmation Mode

[0285] AMBR Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate

[0286] AMF Access and Mobility Management Function

[0287] AN Access Network

[0288] ANR Automatic Neighbor Relation

[0289] AP application protocol, antenna port, access point

[0290] API Application Programming Interface

[0291] APN Access Point Name

[0292] ARP Assignment Reserve Priority

[0293] ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

[0294] AS Access Layer

[0295] ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation

[0296] AUSF authentication server function

[0297] AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

[0298] BCH Broadcast Channel

[0299] BER Bit Error Rate

[0300] BFD Beam Fault Detection

[0301] BLER Block Error Rate

[0302] BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying

[0303] BRAS Broadband Remote Access Server

[0304] BSS Business Support System

[0305] BS Base Station

[0306] BSR Buffer Status Report

[0307] BW Bandwidth

[0308] BWP Bandwidth Part

[0309] C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier

[0310] CA Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority

[0311] CAPEX Capital Expenditure

[0312] CBRA Contention-based random access

[0313] CC component carrier, country code, encryption checksum

[0314] CCA Clear Channel Assessment

[0315] CCE Control Channel Element

[0316] CCCH Common Control Channel

[0317] CE Coverage Enhancement

[0318] CDM Content Delivery Network

[0319] CDMA Code Division Multiple Access

[0320] CFRA Contention-free random access

[0321] CG Cell Group

[0322] CI Cell ID

[0323] CID Cell ID (eg, positioning method)

[0324] CIM Common Information Model

[0325] CIR Carrier to Interference Ratio

[0326] CK Cryptographic Key

[0327] CM Connection Management, Conditionally Mandatory

[0328] CMAS Commercial Mobile Alert Service

[0329] CMD command

[0330] CMS Cloud Management System

[0331] CO Conditional optional

[0332] CoMP Coordinated Multipoint

[0333] CORESET Control Resource Set

[0334] COTS Commercial Off-the-Shelf

[0335] CP Control Plane, Cyclic Prefix, Attachment Point

[0336] CPD Connection Point Descriptor

[0337] CPE user terminal equipment

[0338] CPICH Common Pilot Channel

[0339] CQI Channel Quality Indicator

[0340] CPU CSI processing unit, central processing unit

[0341] C / R Command / Response field bit

[0342] CRAN Cloud Radio Access Network, Cloud RAN

[0343] CRB Common Resource Block

[0344] CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

[0345] CRI Channel State Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS Resource Indicator

[0346] C-RNTI Cell RNTI

[0347] CS Circuit Switched

[0348] CSAR Cloud Service Archive

[0349] CSI Channel State Information

[0350] CSI-IM CSI interference measurement

[0351] CSI-RS CSI reference signal

[0352] CSI-RSRP CSI reference signal received power

[0353] CSI-RSRQ CSI reference signal reception quality

[0354] CSI-SINR CSI signal to interference plus noise ratio

[0355] CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access

[0356] CSMA / CA CSMA with collision avoidance

[0357] CSS Common Search Space, Cell Specific Search Space

[0358] CTS Clear to Send

[0359] CW codeword

[0360] CWS Contention Window Size

[0361] D2D Device to Device

[0362] DC Dual Connection, Direct Current

[0363] DCI Downlink Control Information

[0364] DF deployment preferences

[0365] DL Downlink

[0366] DMTF Distributed Management Task Force

[0367] DPDK Data Plane Development Kit

[0368] DM-RS, DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal

[0369] DN Data Network

[0370] DRB Data Radio Bearer

[0371] DRS Discovery Reference Signal

[0372] DRX Discontinuous Reception

[0373] DSL Domain Specific Language Digital Subscriber Line

[0374] DSLAM DSL Access Multiplexer

[0375] DwPTS Downlink Pilot Time Slot

[0376] E-LAN ​​Ethernet Local Area Network

[0377] E2E End-to-End

[0378] ECCA Extended Clear Channel Assessment, Extended CCA

[0379] ECCE Enhanced Control Channel Element, Enhanced CCE

[0380] ED Energy Detection

[0381] EDGE Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (GSM Evolution)

[0382] EGMF exposes governance management functions

[0383] EGPRS Enhanced GPRS

[0384] EIR Equipment Identity Register

[0385] eLAA Enhanced License Assisted Access, enhanced LAA

[0386] EM Element Manager

[0387] eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband

[0388] EMS Element Management System

[0389] eNB Evolved Node B, E-UTRAN Node B

[0390] EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

[0391] EPC Evolved Packet Core

[0392] EPDCCH Enhanced PDCCH, Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0393] EPRE Energy per resource element

[0394] EPS Evolved Packet System

[0395] EREG Enhanced REG, enhanced resource element group

[0396] ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

[0397] ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System

[0398] eUICC embedded UICC, embedded universal integrated circuit card

[0399] E-UTRA Evolved UTRA

[0400] E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN

[0401] EV2X Enhanced V2X

[0402] F1AP F1 Application Protocol

[0403] F1-C F1 control plane interface

[0404] F1-U F1 User Plane Interface

[0405] FACCH Fast Associated Control Channel

[0406] FACCH / F Fast Associated Control Channel / Full Rate FACCH / H Fast Associated Control Channel / Half Rate

[0407] FACH Forward Access Channel

[0408] FAUSCH Fast Uplink Signalling Channel

[0409] FB Function Block

[0410] FBI Feedback

[0411] FCC Federal Communications Commission

[0412] FCCH Frequency Correction Channel

[0413] FDD Frequency Division Duplex

[0414] FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing

[0415] FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access

[0416] FE Front End

[0417] FEC Forward Error Correction

[0418] FFS for further study

[0419] FFT Fast Fourier Transform

[0420] feLAA Further Enhanced License Assisted Access, further enhanced LAA FN Frame Number

[0421] FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array

[0422] FR Frequency Range

[0423] G-RNTI GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

[0424] GERAN GSM EDGE RAN, GSM EDGE Radio Access Network GGSM Gateway GPRS Support Node

[0425] GLONASS GLObal'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (Chinese: Global Navigation Satellite System)

[0426] gNB Next Generation Node B

[0427] gNB-CU gNB centralized unit, next generation Node B centralized unit gNB-DU gNB distributed unit, next generation Node B distributed unit GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System

[0428] GPRS General Packet Radio Service

[0429] GSM Global System for Mobile Communications, Mobile Experts Group

[0430] GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol

[0431] GTP-U GPRS Tunneling Protocol for the User Plane

[0432] GTS Go to sleep signal (related to WUS)

[0433] GUMMEI Globally Unique MME Identifier

[0434] GUTI Globally Unique Temporary UE Identifier

[0435] HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

[0436] HANDO, HO switch

[0437] HFN Superframe Number

[0438] HHO Hard Handover

[0439] HLR Home Location Register

[0440] HN Home Network

[0441] HO Handover

[0442] HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network

[0443] HSDPA High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access

[0444] HSN Hopping Sequence Number

[0445] HSPA High Speed ​​Packet Access

[0446] HSS Home Subscriber Server

[0447] HSUPA High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access

[0448] HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol

[0449] HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (https is http / 1.1 over SSL (i.e. port 443))

[0450] I-Block Information Block

[0451] ICCID Integrated Circuit Card Identifier

[0452] ICIC Inter-cell Interference Coordination

[0453] ID

[0454] IDFT Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform

[0455] IE Information Elements

[0456] IBE In-Band Emission

[0457] IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

[0458] IEI Information Element Identifier

[0459] IEIDL Information Element Identifier Data Length

[0460] IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

[0461] IF Infrastructure

[0462] IM Interference Measurement, Intermodulation, IP Multimedia

[0463] IMC IMS credentials

[0464] IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity

[0465] IMGI International Mobile Group Identity

[0466] IMPI IP Multimedia Privacy Identity

[0467] IMPU IP Multimedia Public Identity

[0468] IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem

[0469] IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity

[0470] IoT

[0471] IP Internet Protocol

[0472] IPsec IP security, Internet Protocol security

[0473] IP-CAN IP connection access network

[0474] IP-M IP Multicast

[0475] IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4

[0476] IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6

[0477] IR

[0478] IS Synchronization

[0479] IRP Integration Reference Point

[0480] ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

[0481] ISIM IM Service Identity Module

[0482] ISO International Organization for Standardization

[0483] ISP Internet Service Provider

[0484] IWF interworking function

[0485] I-WLAN Intercommunication WLAN K is the constraint length of the convolutional code, USIM individual key kB kilobyte (1000 bytes)

[0486] kbps kilobits per second

[0487] Kc Cryptographic key

[0488] Ki Individual user authentication key

[0489] KPI Key Performance Indicator

[0490] KQI Key Quality Indicator

[0491] KSI Key Set Identifier

[0492] ksps kilosymbols per second

[0493] KVM Kernel Virtual Machine

[0494] L1 Layer 1 (physical layer)

[0495] L1-RSRP Layer 1 reference signal received power

[0496] L2 Layer 2 (Data Link Layer)

[0497] L3 Layer 3 (Network Layer)

[0498] LAA License Assisted Access

[0499] LAN Local Area Network

[0500] LBT Listen before you speak

[0501] LCM Lifecycle Management

[0502] LCR Low Chip Rate

[0503] LCS Location Services

[0504] LCID Logical Channel ID

[0505] LI layer indicator

[0506] LLC Logical Link Control, Low Layer Compatibility

[0507] LPLMN Local PLMN LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

[0508] LSB Least Significant Bit

[0509] LTE Long Term Evolution

[0510] LWA LTE-WLAN Aggregation

[0511] LWIP LTE / WLAN radio level integration with IPsec tunneling LTE Long Term Evolution

[0512] M2M Machine to Machine

[0513] MAC Medium Access Control (Protocol Layer Context)

[0514] MAC Message Authentication Code (Security / Cryptography Context)

[0515] MAC-A MAC for authentication and key agreement (TSG T WG3 context) MAC-I MAC for data integrity of signalling messages (TSG T WG3 context)

[0516] MANO Management and Orchestration

[0517] MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service

[0518] MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Single Frequency Network

[0519] MCC Mobile Country Code

[0520] MCG Master Cell Group

[0521] MCOT Maximum Channel Occupancy Time

[0522] MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme

[0523] MDAF Management Data Analysis Function

[0524] MDAS Management Data Analysis Service

[0525] Minimization of MDT-driven testing

[0526] ME Mobile Equipment

[0527] MeNB Master eNB

[0528] MER message error rate

[0529] MGL Measurement Gap Length

[0530] MGRP measurement gap repetition period

[0531] MIB Master Information Block, Management Information Base

[0532] MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output

[0533] MLC Mobile Location Center

[0534] MM Mobility Management

[0535] MME Mobility Management Entity

[0536] MN Master Node

[0537] MO measurement object, mobile station calling

[0538] MPBCH MTC Physical Broadcast Channel

[0539] MPDCCH MTC Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0540] MPDSCH MTC Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0541] MPRACH MTC Physical Random Access Channel

[0542] MPUSCH MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0543] MPLS Multi-Protocol Label Switching

[0544] MS Mobile Station

[0545] MSB Most Significant Bit

[0546] MSC Mobile Switching Center

[0547] MSI minimum system information, MCH scheduling information

[0548] MSID Mobile Station Identifier

[0549] MSIN Mobile Station Identification Number

[0550] MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number

[0551] MT mobile station called, mobile terminal

[0552] MTC Machine Type Communication

[0553] mMTC Massive MTC, massive machine type communication

[0554] MU-MIMO Multi-User MIMO

[0555] MWUS MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS

[0556] NACK Negative Acknowledgement

[0557] NAI Network Access Identifier

[0558] NAS Non-Access Stratum, Non-Access Stratum

[0559] NCT Network Connection Topology

[0560] NEC network capabilities exposed

[0561] NE-DC NR-E-UTRA dual connectivity

[0562] NEF Network Exposure Function

[0563] NF Network Function

[0564] NFP Network Forwarding Path

[0565] NFPD Network Forwarding Path Descriptor NFV Network Function Virtualization NFVI NFV Infrastructure NFVO NFV Orchestrator NG Next generation, next generation NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity NM Network Manager NMS Network Management System N-PoP Network Point of Presence NMIB, N-MIB Narrowband MIB

[0566] NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access Channel NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel NPSS Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal NSSS Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal NR New Radio, Neighbor Relations NRF NF Repository Functionality NRS Narrowband Reference Signal NS Network Services

[0567] NSA Non-standalone operation mode NSD Network Service Descriptor NSR Network Service Record NSSAI Network Slice Selection Assistance Information S-NNSAI Single NSSAI NSSF network slice selection function NW Network

[0568] NWUS Narrowband wake-up signal, narrowband WUS NZP Non Zero Power

[0569] O&M Operation and Maintenance ODU2 Optical Channel Data Unit - Type 2 OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access OOB Out of Band

[0570] OOS Out of Sync

[0571] OPEX Operational Expenses

[0572] OSI Other System Information OSS Operation Support System OTA Air

[0573] PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio PAR Peak to Average Ratio

[0574] PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel PC Power Control, Personal Computer

[0575] PCC primary component carrier, primary CC

[0576] PCell Primary Cell

[0577] PCI Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity

[0578] PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

[0579] PCF Policy Control Function

[0580] PCRF Policy Control and Charging Rules Function

[0581] PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Packet Data Convergence Protocol Layer

[0582] PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0583] PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

[0584] PDN Packet Data Network, Public Data Network

[0585] PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0586] PDU Protocol Data Unit

[0587] PEI Permanent Equipment Identifier

[0588] PFD Packet Flow Description

[0589] P-GW PDN Gateway

[0590] PHICH Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel

[0591] PHY Physical Layer

[0592] PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

[0593] PIN Personal Identification Number

[0594] PM performance measurement

[0595] PMI Precoding matrix indicator

[0596] PNF Physical Network Function

[0597] PNFD Physical Network Functional Descriptor

[0598] PNFR Physical Network Function Record

[0599] POC PTT over Cellular

[0600] PP, PTP Point to Point

[0601] PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

[0602] PRACH Physical RACH

[0603] PRB Physical Resource Block

[0604] PRG Physical Resource Group

[0605] ProSe Proximity-based services

[0606] PRS Positioning Reference Signal

[0607] PRR Packet Receive Radio

[0608] PS Packet Service

[0609] PSBCH Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel

[0610] PSDCH Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel

[0611] PSCCH Physical Sidelink Control Channel

[0612] PSSCH Physical Sidelink Shared Channel

[0613] PSCell Primary SCell

[0614] PSS Primary Synchronization Signal

[0615] PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

[0616] PT-RS Phase Tracking Reference Signal

[0617] PTT Push to Talk

[0618] PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

[0619] PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0620] QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

[0621] QCI QoS Class Identifier

[0622] QCL Quasi-Co-sited

[0623] QFI QoS flow ID, QoS flow identifier

[0624] QoS Quality of Service

[0625] QPSK Quadrature (Quaternary) Phase Shift Keying

[0626] QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite System

[0627] RA-RNTI Random Access RNTI

[0628] RAB Radio Access Bearer, Random Access Burst

[0629] RACH Random Access Channel

[0630] RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service

[0631] RAN Radio Access Network

[0632] RAND random number (for authentication)

[0633] RAR Random Access Response

[0634] RAT Radio Access Technology

[0635] RAU Routing Area Update

[0636] RB Resource Block, Radio Bearer

[0637] RBG Resource Block Group

[0638] REG Resource Element Group

[0639] Rel Release

[0640] REQ Request

[0641] RF

[0642] RI Rank Indicator

[0643] RIV Resource Indicator Value

[0644] RL Radio Link

[0645] RLC Radio Link Control, Radio Link Control Layer

[0646] RLC AM RLC Acknowledgement Mode

[0647] RLC UM RLC Unacknowledged Mode

[0648] RLF Radio Link Failure

[0649] RLM Radio Link Monitoring

[0650] RLM-RS Reference signal for RLM

[0651] RM Registration Management

[0652] RMC Reference Measurement Channel

[0653] RMSI Remaining MSI, Remaining Minimum System Information

[0654] RN Relay Node

[0655] RNC Radio Network Controller

[0656] RNL Radio Network Layer

[0657] RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

[0658] ROHC Robust Header Compression

[0659] RRC Radio Resource Control, Radio Resource Control Layer

[0660] RRM Radio Resource Management

[0661] RS reference signal

[0662] RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

[0663] RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality

[0664] RSSI Reference Signal Strength Indicator

[0665] RSU Road Side Unit

[0666] RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference

[0667] RTP Real Time Protocol

[0668] RTS Ready to Send

[0669] RTT Round Trip Time

[0670] Rx receive, receive, receiver

[0671] S1AP S1 Application Protocol

[0672] S1-MME is used for S1 control plane

[0673] S1-U S1 for user plane

[0674] S-GW Service Gateway

[0675] S-RNTI SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identifier

[0676] S-TMSI SAE temporary mobile station identifier

[0677] SA Standalone Operation Mode

[0678] SAE system architecture evolution

[0679] SAP Service Access Point

[0680] SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor

[0681] SAPI Service Access Point Identifier

[0682] SCC Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC SCell Secondary Cell

[0683] SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

[0684] SCG Secondary Cell Group

[0685] SCM Security Context Management

[0686] SCS Subcarrier Spacing

[0687] SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol

[0688] SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol, Service Data Adaptation Protocol Layer SDL Supplemental Downlink

[0689] SDNF Structured Data Storage Network Function

[0690] SDP Session Description Protocol

[0691] SDSF structured data storage function

[0692] SDU Service Data Unit

[0693] SEAF Security Anchoring Function

[0694] SeNB Assisted eNB SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy

[0695] SFI Slot Format Indicator

[0696] SFTD Space Frequency Time Diversity, SFN and Frame Timing Difference SFN System Frame Number

[0697] SgNB SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

[0698] S-GW Service Gateway

[0699] SI System Information

[0700] SI-RNTI System Information RNTI

[0701] SIB System Information Block

[0702] SIM Subscriber Identity Module

[0703] SIP Session Initiation Protocol

[0704] SiP System in Package

[0705] SL Side Link

[0706] SLA Service Level Agreement

[0707] SM Session Management

[0708] SMF session management functions

[0709] SMS Short Message Service

[0710] SMSF SMS Function

[0711] SMTC SSB-based measurement timing configuration

[0712] SN Secondary node, serial number

[0713] SoC System on Chip

[0714] SON Self-Organizing Network

[0715] SpCell Special Cell

[0716] SP-CSI-RNTI Semi-persistent CSI RNTI

[0717] SPS Semi-persistent Scheduling

[0718] SQN Serial Number

[0719] SR Scheduling Request

[0720] SRB Signalling Radio Bearer

[0721] SRS Sounding Reference Signal

[0722] SS Sync Signal

[0723] SSB Synchronization Signal Block, SS / PBCH Block

[0724] SSBRI SS / PBCH block resource indicator, synchronization signal block resource indicator

[0725] SSC Session and Service Continuity

[0726] SS-RSRP Reference signal received power based on synchronization signal

[0727] SS-RSRQ Reference signal reception quality based on synchronization signal

[0728] SS-SINR Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio based on synchronization signal

[0729] SSS Secondary synchronization signal

[0730] SSSG Search Space Group

[0731] SSSIF Search Space Set Indicator

[0732] SST Slice / Service Type

[0733] SU-MIMO Single User MIMO

[0734] SUL Supplementary Uplink

[0735] TA timing advance, tracking area

[0736] TAC Tracking Area Code

[0737] TAG Timing Advance Group

[0738] TAU Tracking Area Updates

[0739] TB Transfer Block

[0740] TBS Transport Block Size

[0741] TBD To be defined

[0742] TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator

[0743] TCP transport communication protocol

[0744] TDD Time Division Duplex

[0745] TDM Time Division Multiplexing

[0746] TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

[0747] TE Terminal Equipment

[0748] TEID Tunnel Endpoint Identifier

[0749] TFT Business Flow Template

[0750] TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

[0751] TNL Transport Network Layer

[0752] TPC Transmit Power Control

[0753] TPMI Transmitted Precoding Matrix Indicator

[0754] TR Technical Report

[0755] TRP,TRxP Transmission Receive Point

[0756] TRS Tracking Reference Signal

[0757] TRx Transceiver

[0758] TS Technical Specification, Technical Standard

[0759] TTI Transmission Time Interval

[0760] Tx transmission, transmission, transmitter

[0761] U-RNTI UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

[0762] UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter

[0763] UCI Uplink Control Information

[0764] UE User Equipment

[0765] UDM Unified Data Management

[0766] UDP User Datagram Protocol

[0767] UDSF Unstructured Data Storage Network Function

[0768] UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card

[0769] UL Uplink

[0770] UM Unconfirmed Mode

[0771] UML Unified Modeling Language

[0772] UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

[0773] UP User Plane

[0774] UPF User Plane Function

[0775] URI Uniform Resource Identifier

[0776] URL Uniform Resource Locator

[0777] URLLC Ultra-Reliable Low Latency

[0778] USB Universal Serial Bus

[0779] USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

[0780] USS UE-specific search space

[0781] UTRA UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access

[0782] UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

[0783] UwPTS Uplink Pilot Time Slot

[0784] V2I Vehicle to Infrastructure V2P Vehicle to Pedestrian

[0785] V2V Vehicle to Vehicle

[0786] V2X vehicle to the outside world

[0787] VIM Virtualization Infrastructure Manager

[0788] VL Virtual Link

[0789] VLAN virtual LAN, virtual local area network

[0790] VM Virtual Machine

[0791] VNF Virtualized Network Function

[0792] VNFFG VNF forwarding graph

[0793] VNFFGD VNF Forwarding Graph Descriptor

[0794] VNFM VNF Manager

[0795] VoIP Voice over IP, Voice over Internet Protocol

[0796] VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network

[0797] VPN Virtual Private Network

[0798] VRB Virtual Resource Block

[0799] WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

[0800] WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

[0801] WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

[0802] WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network

[0803] X2-C X2 control plane

[0804] X2-U X2 user plane

[0805] XML Extensible Markup Language

[0806] XRES Expected User Response

[0807] XOR

[0808] ZC Zadoff-Chu

[0809] ZP Zero Power

[0810] the term

[0811] For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply to the examples and implementations discussed herein but are not intended to be limiting.

[0812] As used herein, the term "circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes a hardware component such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and / or a memory (shared, dedicated, or group) configured to provide the described functions, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), a digital signal processor (DSP), etc. In some embodiments, the circuit may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functions. The term "circuit" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements and a program code for performing the functions of the program code (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system). In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a specific type of circuit.

[0813] As used herein, the term "processor circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes a circuit capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations or recording, storing, and / or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions (such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes). The terms "application circuit" and / or "baseband circuit" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuit" and may be referred to as "processor circuit".

[0814] As used herein, the term "interface circuit" refers to a circuit that enables, is a part of, or includes information exchange between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, etc.

[0815] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device that has radio communication capabilities and can describe a remote user of network resources in a communication network. In addition, the terms "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous and may be referred to as a client, mobile phone, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. In addition, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0816] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure for providing wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN equipment, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

[0817] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to one another. Furthermore, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computer devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to one another and configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0818] As used herein, the terms "appliance", "computer appliance", etc. refer to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a device equipped with a hypervisor that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or is otherwise dedicated to providing specific computing resources.

[0819] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component within a specific device, such as a computer device, a mechanical device, a memory space, a processor / CPU time and / or a processor / CPU usage rate, a processor and accelerator load, a hardware time or usage rate, a power supply, an input / output operation, a port or a network socket, a channel / link allocation, throughput, memory usage rate, storage, a network, a database and an application, a unit of work, etc. "Hardware resources" may refer to computing, storage and / or network resources provided by physical hardware elements. "Virtualized resources" may refer to computing, storage and / or network resources provided by a virtualized infrastructure to an application, a device, a system, etc. The term "network resources" or "communication resources" may refer to resources that a computer device / system can access via a communication network. The term "system resources" may refer to any kind of shared entity that provides a service, and may include computing resources and / or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services that can be accessed through a server, wherein such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and can be clearly identified.

[0820] As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium for transmitting data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous and / or equivalent to "communication channel", "data communication channel", "transmission channel", "data transmission channel", "access channel", "data access channel", "link", "data link", "carrier", "radio frequency carrier" and / or any other similar terms representing a path or medium through which data is transmitted. In addition, the term "link" as used herein refers to a connection between two devices for transmitting and receiving information over a RAT.

[0821] As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instantiate," and the like refer to the creation of an instance. "Instance" also refers to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0822] The terms "coupled," "communicatively coupled," and their derivatives are used herein. The term "coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, may mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements said to be coupled to each other. The term "directly coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with each other by means of communication, including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, etc.

[0823] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains the contents.

[0824] The term "SMTC" refers to the SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0825] The term "SSB" refers to SS / PBCH block.

[0826] The term "primary cell" refers to an MCG cell operating on a primary frequency, where the UE either performs an initial connection establishment procedure or initiates a connection re-establishment procedure.

[0827] The term "primary SCG cell" refers to an SCG cell in which a UE performs random access when reconfiguration is performed using a synchronization procedure for DC operation.

[0828] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources on top of a special cell for a UE configured with CA.

[0829] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells including a PSCell for a UE configured with DC and zero or more secondary cells.

[0830] The term "serving cell" refers to a primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED without CA / DC configured, where there is only one serving cell including the primary cell.

[0831] The term "serving cell" refers to a cell group including a special cell for a UE configured with CA and in RRC_CONNECTED and all secondary cells.

[0832] The term "special cell" refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to the Pcell.

[0833] As described above, various aspects of the present technology may include collecting and using data available from various sources, thereby (for example) improving or enhancing functionality. The present disclosure contemplates that, in some instances, these collected data may include personal information data that uniquely identifies or can be used to contact or locate a specific person. Such personal information data may include demographic data, location-based data, phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter IDs, home addresses, data or records related to the user's health or fitness level (e.g., vital sign measurements, medication information, exercise information), date of birth, or any other identifying information or personal information. The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personal information data in the present technology can be used to benefit users.

[0834] The present disclosure envisions that entities responsible for collecting, analyzing, disclosing, transmitting, storing or otherwise using such personal information data will comply with established privacy policies and / or privacy practices. Specifically, such entities should implement and adhere to privacy policies and practices that are recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or government requirements for maintaining the privacy and security of personal information data. Such policies should be easily accessible to users and should be updated as the collection and / or use of data changes. Personal information from users should be collected for the legitimate and reasonable purposes of the entity and not shared or sold outside of these legitimate uses. In addition, such collection / sharing should only be done after receiving the user's informed consent. In addition, such entities should consider taking any necessary steps to defend and safeguard access to such personal information data and ensure that others who have access to personal information data comply with their privacy policies and processes. In addition, such entities may subject themselves to third-party assessments to demonstrate their compliance with widely accepted privacy policies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should be adjusted to specific types of personal information data collected and / or accessed, and to applicable laws and standards that include specific considerations of jurisdiction. For example, in the United States, the collection or access of certain health data may be governed by federal and / or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), while health data in other countries may be subject to other regulations and policies and should be handled accordingly. Therefore, different privacy practices should be maintained in each country for different types of personal data.

[0835] Regardless of the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplates implementation schemes in which users selectively block the use or access of personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplates providing hardware elements and / or software elements to prevent or block access to such personal information data. For example, the present technology may be configured to allow users to selectively participate in "opt-in" or "opt-out" of collecting personal information data at any time during (for example) registration for a service or thereafter. In addition to providing "opt-in" and "opt-out" options, the present disclosure contemplates providing notifications related to access or use of personal information. For example, a user may be notified that their personal information data will be accessed when downloading an application, and then reminded again just before the personal information data is accessed by the application.

[0836] In addition, it is an object of the present disclosure that personal information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risks can be minimized by limiting data collection and deleting data once it is no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including in certain health-related applications, data de-identification can be used to protect the privacy of users. De-identification can be facilitated by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth, etc.), controlling the amount or specificity of stored data (e.g., collecting location data at the city level rather than at the address level), controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data between users), and / or other methods when appropriate.

[0837] Thus, while the present disclosure may broadly cover the use of personal information data to implement one or more of the various disclosed embodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that various embodiments may also be implemented without access to such personal information data. That is, various embodiments of the present technology will not fail to function properly due to the lack of all or part of such personal information data.

Claims

1. A user equipment UE, comprising: Radio front-end circuits; and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front end circuit and configured to: Compete for access to channels in the unlicensed spectrum; Get the shared channel occupation time COT; transmitting data in the shared COT using the radio front end circuit; transmitting, using the radio front end circuitry, an indication of a COT sharing boundary; as well as A downlink control information DCI signal is received, the DCI signal comprising a first set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) opportunities in a common CORESET search space (CSS), wherein the common CSS informs the UE and the second UE of a structure of a downlink DL transmission based at least on the COT shared boundary and a second COT shared boundary of the second UE.

2. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the shared COT comprises a plurality of uplink (UL) and (DL) switching points, and the processor circuit is further configured to: The radio front end circuitry is used to transmit: an allowed length of a portion of the shared COT that a base station can utilize, or an indication of a UL / DL switching pattern.

3. The UE according to claim 2, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to: using the radio front end circuitry to receive a length of transmission within the allowed length; determining that a gap between the allowed length and the length of the transmission is less than a threshold; and Additional data is transmitted in the shared COT using the radio front end circuit without performing listen-before-talk (LBT).

4. The UE according to claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to: receiving, using the radio front end circuit, configuration information, the configuration information comprising: The maximum number of UL-DL switching points and DL-UL switching points, or duration allowed for downlink transmission in the shared COT. 5 . The UE according to claim 4 , wherein the configuration information is received in a radio resource configuration (RRC) signal or a downlink control information (DCI) signal.

6. The UE of claim 1, wherein the structure of the DL transmission comprises a time slot format of base station transmissions on the shared COT.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the DCI signal further comprises a slot format for DL ​​transmission and uplink (UL) transmission based on the indication of the COT sharing boundary and a second indication of the second COT sharing boundary of the second UE. The UE according to claim 1 , wherein the DCI signal includes slot format information (SFI).

9. The UE of claim 1, wherein the indication comprises N bits, and wherein the transmission comprises an uplink control information (UCI) signal.

10. The UE of claim 9, wherein the N bits identify a slot offset X from an initial slot to the COT shared boundary.

11. The UE of claim 10, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to: The time slot offset X is transmitted by countdown in each subsequent time slot using the radio front end circuit until the COT sharing boundary is reached.

12. The UE of claim 9, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to: A final timeslot start and length indicator value SLIV is transmitted via the UCI signal using the radio front end circuitry.

13. A base station, comprising: Radio front-end circuits; and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front end circuit and configured to: receiving, using the radio front end circuitry, a first indication of a first channel occupancy time (COT) sharing boundary from a first user equipment (UE); receiving, using the radio front end circuitry, a second indication of a second COT sharing boundary from a second UE; determining a structure including a time slot format based on the first indication and the second indication, the time slot format including a downlink transmission and an uplink (UL) transmission; Performing the listen-before-talk LBT after the latest occurrence of the first COT shared boundary and the second COT shared boundary; as well as transmitting data in a shared COT using the radio front end circuitry based at least on the LBT, wherein the shared COT occurs in a channel in an unlicensed spectrum; as well as Transmitting a downlink control information DCI signal, the DCI signal comprising a first set of physical downlink control channel PDCCH opportunities of a common CORESET search space CSS, wherein the common CSS informs the first UE and the second UE of a structure of a DL transmission based at least on the first COT shared boundary and the second COT shared boundary, wherein the first UE and the second UE are associated with a shared COT.

14. The base station of claim 13, wherein the shared COT comprises a plurality of UL DL switching points, the processor circuit being further configured to: receiving, using the radio front end circuitry: a first time slot format from the first UE and a second time slot format from the second UE, wherein the first time slot format and the second time slot format are different; and The data is transmitted in the shared COT using the radio front end circuit based on the first time slot format.

15. The base station of claim 13, wherein the shared COT comprises a plurality of uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) switching points, and the processor circuit is further configured to: An allowed length of a portion of the shared COT that the base station can utilize is received using the radio front end circuitry.

16. A method for a user equipment UE, comprising: Compete for access to channels in the unlicensed spectrum; Get the shared channel occupation time COT; Transmitting an indication of the COT shared boundary; transmitting data via the shared COT; After transmitting the data, monitoring a downlink control information DCI signal of the channel; as well as A DCI signal is received, the DCI signal comprising a first set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) opportunities in a common CORESET search space (CSS), wherein the common CSS informs the UE and the second UE of a structure of downlink (DL) transmission based at least on the COT shared boundary and a second COT shared boundary of the second UE.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the DCI signal further comprises a time slot format for downlink (DL) transmission and uplink (UL) transmission based on the indication of the COT sharing boundary and a second indication of the second COT sharing boundary of the second UE.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the indication comprises N bits, wherein the transmission comprises an uplink control information (UCI) signal, and wherein the N bits identify a slot offset X from an initial slot to the COT sharing boundary.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising: The slot offset X is transmitted in each subsequent slot by counting down until the COT sharing boundary is reached.

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