Two-cell scheduling for NR operations

Abstract

This application relates to two-cell scheduling for novel radio operations. An apparatus for use in a user equipment (UE) includes a radio frequency (RF) interface and processor circuitry coupled to the RF interface, the processor circuitry: receiving downlink control information (DCI) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) via the RF interface, wherein the DCI is configured to schedule a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on two cells; and, based on the DCI, receiving downlink information on the PDSCH or transmitting uplink information on the PUSCH on both cells via the RF interface.

Description

[0001] Priority requirements

[0002] This application is based on and claims priority to PCT application PCT / CN2020 / 082442, filed on March 31, 2020, and PCT / CN2020 / 082339, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Technical Field

[0003] Embodiments of this disclosure generally relate to the field of wireless communication, and more particularly to two-cell scheduling for novel radio (NR) operation. Background Technology

[0004] With the development of fourth-generation (4G) / Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) introduced fifth-generation (5G) New Radio (NR) networks to provide wider bandwidth, support higher throughput, extremely high reliability, and low latency. While 5G networks are expected to eventually replace 4G networks, a period of coexistence between 5G and 4G systems is expected. 5G carriers can be neighbors of 4G carriers. 5G carriers can also partially or completely overlap with 4G carriers in the frequency domain. Therefore, efficiently supporting the coexistence of 5G and 4G systems, i.e., Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), is crucial during 5G system deployment. Attached Figure Description

[0005] Embodiments of this disclosure will be illustrated in the accompanying drawings by way of example rather than limitation, wherein similar reference numerals refer to similar elements.

[0006] Figure 1 A flowchart of a method used in a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.

[0007] Figure 2 The diagram shows the RBG size for single-cell scheduling and the RBG size for two-cell scheduling.

[0008] Figure 3 This diagram illustrates the scheduling of identical time resources on two cells using a two-cell scheduling method.

[0009] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the allocation table for TDRA used for scheduling two cells via a 2-cell scheduling method is shown.

[0010] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of the allocation table for TDRA used for scheduling two cells via a 2-cell scheduling method is shown.

[0011] Figure 6This diagram illustrates the dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook in the case where the TB is mapped to two cells scheduled via a 2-cell scheduling method.

[0012] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of a semi-dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook is shown in the case where the TB is mapped to two cells scheduled via a 2-cell scheduling method.

[0013] Figure 8 A schematic diagram is shown of the individual HARQ-ACK mapping for each cell scheduled using a 2-cell scheduling method.

[0014] Figure 9 A schematic diagram of consecutive HARQ-ACK mapping based on the reference serving cell index is shown.

[0015] Figure 10 A schematic diagram of consecutive HARQ-ACK mapping based on the reference serving cell index is shown.

[0016] Figure 11 A schematic diagram of a network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.

[0017] Figure 12 A schematic diagram of a wireless network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.

[0018] Figure 13 A block diagram is shown of components according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure that are capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein. Detailed Implementation

[0019] Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terminology commonly used by those skilled in the art to convey the essence of this disclosure to them. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many alternative embodiments can be implemented using portions of the described aspects. Specific figures, materials, and configurations are given for illustrative purposes to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that alternative embodiments can be implemented without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features may be omitted or simplified to avoid obscuring the illustrative embodiments.

[0020] Furthermore, the various operations are described sequentially as a plurality of discrete operations in a manner most conducive to understanding the illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description should not be construed as implying that these operations are necessarily sequentially related. In particular, these operations do not need to be performed in the order presented.

[0021] The phrases “in an embodiment,” “in one embodiment,” and “in some embodiments” are used repeatedly throughout this document. These phrases do not typically refer to the same embodiment; however, they may refer to the same embodiment. Unless the context otherwise requires, the terms “comprising,” “having,” and “including” are synonyms. The phrases “A or B” and “A / B” mean “(A), (B), or (A and B).”

[0022] DSS has been considered since the NR public release (Rel-15). For example, a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) can be configured for NR user equipment (UE) to enable rate matching of downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions on NR carriers around resource elements (REs) potentially used by LTE CRS, thereby mitigating the impact on LTE channel estimation and improving LTE downlink (DL) performance. In another example, NR transmissions on REs used by the LTE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) should be avoided. Considerations regarding LTE CRS / PDCCH limit NR PDCCH transmissions. Therefore, it is recommended to utilize downlink control information (DCI) for 2-cell scheduling to schedule either the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on both cells for NR operation.

[0023] Figure 1 A flowchart of a method 100 used in a UE according to some embodiments of this disclosure is shown. Figure 1 As shown, method 100 includes: S102, receiving a DCI for two-cell scheduling on the PDCCH, wherein the DCI for two-cell scheduling is configured to schedule the PDSCH or PUSCH on two cells; and S104, based on the DCI for two-cell scheduling, receiving downlink information on the PDSCH or sending uplink information on the PUSCH on the two cells scheduled by the DCI for two-cell scheduling.

[0024] In method 100, since the PDSCH or PUSCH on the two cells is scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, DSS can be implemented efficiently on the two cells.

[0025] In NR systems, a UE can be configured with up to four DL or UL bandwidth portions (BWPs) within the carrier bandwidth. At any given time, there can be at most one active DL-BWP and one active UL-BWP. For each DL-BWP, up to three control resource sets (CORESETs) for PDCCH transmission can be configured in NR Rel-15, and up to ten search space sets can be configured. Search space sets are associated with CORESETs. For self-scheduling of the serving cell, the CORESET and search space sets are configured on that serving cell. On the other hand, for cross-carrier scheduling, the CORESET and search space sets of the scheduled cell reside on the scheduling cell. Therefore, only a limited number of parameters specific to the scheduled cell need to be configured. Efficient DCI design is a key issue to consider for DSS enhancements.

[0026] The following describes the information fields included in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling and the details of the processing of the information fields in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling.

[0027] Processing information fields in DCI used for 2-cell scheduling

[0028] The size of the information fields in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can be determined based on a reference configuration or based on the configuration of the active BWP of one of the two cells scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. In one example, all information fields in the DCI used for single-cell scheduling are copied in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, which provides the most flexible control over the PDSCH or PUSCH on both cells. In the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, some information fields need to be sent independently for each cell, while other information fields for the two cells can be correlated, which can be used to reduce the overhead of the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. Therefore, different processing can be applied to different information fields.

[0029] In some embodiments of this disclosure, one or more information fields may be indicated only once in a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. In other words, some common fields may be used in a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling.

[0030] In one option, for DL ​​scheduling, one or more of the following information fields (if available) can be indicated only once in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling:

[0031] -DCI format identifier;

[0032] - Carrier index symbol (CIF);

[0033] - Transmit power control (TPC) commands used for scheduled PUCCHs;

[0034] - One-time Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) - Acknowledgment (ACK) request;

[0035] -PDSCH group index;

[0036] - New feedback indicator;

[0037] - The number of PDSCH groups requested;

[0038] - Switch to Send Request (SRS) request; and

[0039] -Support cell (Scell) hibernation indicator.

[0040] In another option, for uplink (UL) scheduling, one or more of the following information fields (if available) can be indicated only once in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling:

[0041] -DCI format identifier;

[0042] - Carrier Indicator (CIF);

[0043] -SRS request;

[0044] - Channel State Information (CSI) request; and

[0045] -Seldom-sleeping indicator for secondary cells (Scell).

[0046] If the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling cannot trigger only aperiodic CSI (A-CSI) transmissions, then the uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) indicator field is not included in the DCI.

[0047] The options above provide some information fields that are shared in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. However, this does not preclude the possibility that some other information fields in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling may also be shared by the two cells scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling.

[0048] In some embodiments of this disclosure, one or more information fields can be indicated individually for each of the two PDSCHs or PUSCHs in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, to achieve full flexibility. For such information fields, although they are indicated individually for both PDSCHs or PUSCHs, it is possible to apply some compression scheme to each field to reduce the overhead of the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling.

[0049] In some embodiments of this disclosure, certain information from two PDSCHs or PUSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be jointly encoded and mapped to a single information field.

[0050] In one option, the value of the information field can be repeatedly applied to two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling. In this case, the overhead of the information field is not increased compared to single-cell scheduling.

[0051] In one option, as shown in Table 1, the value of the information field can be expanded to indicate the same or different information for two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. The number of bits in the jointly encoded information field can be greater than the corresponding field in single-cell scheduling. However, by jointly encoding, the overhead of the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can be reduced compared to indicating the information of the two cells separately.

[0052] Table 1: Information fields for joint coding of two cells

[0053]

[0054] In some embodiments of this disclosure, one or more of the following information fields can be indicated for each TB in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling to achieve full flexibility:

[0055] - New Data Indicator (NDI), which indicates whether the TB is a retransmission or the first transmission;

[0056] - Redundant Version (RV), which indicates a redundant version of the encoding format used for TB.

[0057] Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) field

[0058] In a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two MCS fields can be indicated and applied separately to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single MCS field can be indicated and repeatedly applied to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single MCS field can be included in the DCI, and each value of this field jointly indicates the MCS information on the two cells scheduled by the DCI. For each value of the MCS field, the MCS information on the two cells can be configured via higher-layer signaling.

[0059] In some embodiments of this disclosure, a first MCS field can be indicated for a PDSCH or PUSCH scheduled by a DCI for 2-cell scheduling, and then a second MCS field, which may use the same number of bits or fewer than the first MCS field, can be used to obtain MCS information for another PDSCH or PUSCH scheduled by the same DCI. For example, the second MCS field can act as a difference value relative to the value of the first MCS field. If a 3-bit difference value is used, the total number of bits carrying the MCS information is 8 bits. Special processing can be considered for special MCS entries indicating the modulation order. If the modulation order is as high as 6 (i.e., supporting 64QAM), the special MCS entry is I. MCS =29, 30, or 31. If the modulation order is as high as 8 (i.e., supports 256QAM), then the special MCS entry is I. MCS =28, 29, 30, or 31.

[0060] In one option, the second MCS field, used as the difference value, is always applied to derive the MCS of the second PDSCH or PUSCH. The MCS of the first PDSCH or PUSCH is represented as I. MCS , 0≤I MCS ≤31, the MCS of the second PDSCH or PUSCH is represented as I MCS，2 =mod(I MCS +d, 32), where d is the differential value. In this way, one PDSCH or PUSCH can use a special MCS that indicates the modulation order, while another PDSCH or PUSCH can use an MCS that indicates the transport block size (TBS).

[0061] In one option, if the MCS entry I is used for the first PDSCH or PUSCH MCS If a TBS is specified for a given PDSCH or PUSCH, then an MCS entry I indicating the TBS is determined for the second PDSCH or PUSCH. MCS，2 The MCS of the second PDSCH or PUSCH can be and These are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the MCS entries for TBS, respectively. In one example, If using a 64-QAM MCS table, then If using the 256-QAM MCS table, then In another example, the UE does not expect to receive I MCS And the value of d, so when using the 64-QAM MCS table And when using the 256-QAM MCS table

[0062] In one option, if the first MCS field indicates the modulation order, the same modulation order is used for both PDSCHs or PUSCHs scheduled by that DCI. In this case, the second MCS field is reserved.

[0063] In one option, if the first MCS field indicates the modulation order, that modulation order is applied to one of the two PDSCHs or PUSCHs. The second MCS field indicates a second modulation order applied to the other PDSCH or PUSCH. Alternatively, the second MCS field, as a differential value, is applied to the modulation order indicated by the first MCS field to derive a second modulation order applied to the other PDSCH or PUSCH.

[0064] HARQ process digital segment

[0065] Two cells scheduled by a DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be configured with the same maximum number of HARQ processes. Alternatively, different maximum number of HARQ processes can be configured for the two cells. In the DCI for 2-cell scheduling, two HARQ process number fields can be indicated, and these two fields can be applied to the two PDSCHs or PUSCHs scheduled by that DCI, respectively.

[0066] Alternatively, a single HARQ process number field can be specified, and this field can be repeatedly applied to two PDSCHs or PUSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single HARQ process number field with a value of h can be specified, and this field can be applied to one of the two PDSCHs or PUSCHs scheduled by the DCI, then a differential value d can be specified to obtain the number of HARQ processes for the other PDSCH or PUSCH scheduled by the DCI. This is the maximum number of HARQ processes. The value h represents the number of HARQ processes indicated for a certain cell. If the DCI schedules multiple PDSCHs or PUSCHs with multiple transport blocks (TBs) on that cell, the number of HARQ processes h, h+1, etc., can be allocated to different TBs.

[0067] Block Group Transmission Information (CBGTI) field

[0068] If a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can schedule multiple PDSCHs or PUSCHs with multiple TBs on a single cell, the overhead in the DCI can be significant if the CBGTI field is indicated for multiple TBs. Therefore, for each of the two cells scheduled by this DCI, if only one PDSCH or PUSCH is scheduled on a single cell, the CBGTI field can be indicated for that PDSCH or PUSCH. On the other hand, if more than one PDSCH or PUSCH is scheduled on that cell, the CBGTI field is not indicated for these PDSCHs or PUSCHs. Since some other fields such as NDI and RV can be indicated for each TB, redundant bits are generated when only one PDSCH or PUSCH is scheduled on a single cell. Therefore, bits in the DCI can be shared for the NDI / RV and CBGTI fields, which helps reduce the overhead of the DCI.

[0069] For two cells scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, if one cell is configured for code block group (CBG) based transmission and the other cell is configured for TB based transmission, the CBGTI field can be included only for the cell that operates using CBG-based transmission.

[0070] Launch Configuration Index (TCI) field

[0071] In existing NR systems, the presence of the TCI field in the DCI format is configured by tci-PresentInDCI or tci-PresentInDCI-ForFormat1_2 for DCI formats 1_1 and 1_2, respectively. For DCIs used for 2-cell scheduling, the presence of the TCI field in the DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be controlled using existing parameters, namely tci-PresentInDCI and / or tci-PresentInDCI-ForFormat1_2, or one or two new parameters. The presence of TCI status information in the DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be configured simultaneously or not simultaneously for both cells. Alternatively, if the TCI status information is configured only for one of the two cells, the TCI field in the DCI applies only to that cell.

[0072] In some embodiments of this disclosure, in a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two TCI fields can be indicated, and these two TCI fields can be applied to the two cells scheduled by the DCI respectively. For the value of each TCI field, one or two TCI states can be configured by higher-layer signaling. For example, if multiple transmit / receive point (M-TRP) transmission is to be supported on a cell, two TCI states are configured for the value of the TCI field of that cell.

[0073] In some embodiments of this disclosure, in a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, a single TCI field can be indicated and this field can be repeatedly applied to both cells scheduled by the DCI. A single TCI state is configured for the value of the TCI field via higher-layer signaling, and this TCI state is applied to two PDSCHs on the two cells.

[0074] In some embodiments of this disclosure, a single TCI field may be included in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. For each value of the TCI field, one or two TCI states can be configured via higher-layer signaling. If a single TCI state is configured for a value, that TCI state is repeatedly applied to all PDSCHs on both cells scheduled by that DCI. If two TCI states are configured for a value, these two TCI states are applied separately to the two cells scheduled by that DCI. Alternatively, if two TCI states are configured for a value, these two TCI states are applied to the PDSCH of one of the two cells, and also to the PDSCH of the other cell. In this way, M-TRP transmission can be supported on each of the two cells.

[0075] In some embodiments of this disclosure, a single TCI field may be included in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. For each value of the TCI field, up to four TCI states can be configured via higher-layer signaling.

[0076] • If a single TCI state is configured for the first value, that TCI state is repeatedly applied to all PDSCHs on the two cells scheduled by that DCI.

[0077] • If two TCI states are configured for the second value, then these two TCI states are applied to the two cells scheduled by that DCI, respectively.

[0078] If three TCI states are configured for the third value, a rule is defined to divide these three TCI states for the two cells. For example, the first cell uses only one TCI state, meaning that M-TRP transmission is not supported on the first cell. On the other hand, the other two TCI states are applied to the PDSCH on the second cell, which can support M-TRP transmission.

[0079] • If four TCI states are configured for the fourth value, two TCI states are applied to the PDSCH of one of the two cells, and the other two TCI states are applied to the PDSCH of the other of the two cells.

[0080] In some embodiments of this disclosure, in a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, a default TCI state or quasi-co-address (QCL) assumption for the PDSCH can be determined when the offset between the DCI and the reception of the PDSCH on one of the two cells scheduled by the DCI is less than a threshold (e.g., timeDurationForQCL), or when the DCI does not include a TCI field.

[0081] In one option, for a PDSCH on a cell scheduled by the DCI, the UE obtains its QCL assumption for the scheduled PDSCH from the active TCI state with the lowest ID in the active BWP applicable to that cell.

[0082] In one option, for PDSCHs on two cells scheduled by DCI, the UE obtains its QCL assumptions for the scheduled PDSCH from the active TCI state with the lowest ID in the active BWP that can be applied to the reference serving cell.

[0083] In one option, the UE may assume that the demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) port of the PDSCH of a cell is quasi-co-located with one or more RS quasi-co-located relative to one or more QCL parameters used for PDCCH quasi-co-location indication with respect to a CORESET associated with the monitored search space, the control resource set having the lowest control resource set ID in the most recent slot of one or more CORESETs in the active BWPs of the cell monitored by the UE.

[0084] In one option, the UE may assume that the DM-RS ports of the PDSCH of two cells scheduled by the DCI are quasi-co-located with one or more QCL parameters relative to one or more QCL parameters used for quasi-co-location indication of the PDCCH of the CORESET associated with the monitored search space, the control resource set having the lowest control resource set ID in the most recent slot of one or more CORESETs in the active BWP of the UE monitoring reference cell.

[0085] In one option, for a PDSCH on a scheduled cell scheduled by DCI, the UE obtains its QCL assumptions for the scheduled PDSCH from the active TCI state with the lowest ID of the PDSCH in the active BWP available for scheduling the cell. Alternatively, for a PDSCH on a scheduled cell scheduled by DCI, the UE may assume that the DM-RS port of the cell's PDSCH is quasi-co-located with one or more RS quasi-co-located parameters relative to one or more QCL parameters used for quasi-co-location indication of the PDCCH of a CORESET associated with the monitored search space, the CORESET having the lowest control resource set ID in the latest slot of one or more CORESETs in the active BWP of the scheduled cell monitored by the UE.

[0086] In the above options, the reference serving cell can be configured via higher-layer signaling, or it can be one of two cells scheduled by DCI, such as the cell with the lowest cell index, or the cell on which DCI is transmitted (i.e., the scheduling cell).

[0087] Bandwidth Part (BWP) Indicator Field

[0088] Two cells that can be scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be configured with the same or different numbers of BWPs. Activated BWPs on the two cells can have different BWP indices. If multiple BWPs are configured in only one of the two cells scheduled by DCI, the BWP indicator field in DCI only indicates the BWP index of the cell with the multiple BWPs configured.

[0089] In one option, in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two BWP indicator fields can be specified and applied to the two cells scheduled by the DCI respectively.

[0090] In one option, the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can specify a single BWP indicator field and apply this field repeatedly to both cells scheduled by that DCI. This way, the active BWPs on both cells scheduled by that DCI have the same BWP index.

[0091] In one option, the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling may include a single BWP indicator field, and each value of this field jointly indicates the active BWPs of the two cells scheduled by the DCI. For each value of the BWP indicator field, the indexing of the BWPs on the two cells can be configured via higher-layer signaling. The BWP indicator field in the DCI may not need to indicate all combinations of BWP indexes on the two cells, which reduces the overhead of the BWP indicator field. In one example, a dormant BWP on one cell cannot be indicated together with a non-dormant BWP on another cell. In another example, a default BWP on one cell cannot be indicated together with a non-default BWP on another cell. In yet another example, two BWPs on two cells that can be indicated by the value of the BWP indicator field will use the same subcarrier spacing (SCS).

[0092] In one option, the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling does not include a BWP indicator field. That is, the PDSCH or PUSCH on a cell scheduled by this DCI is sent on the active BWP of that cell, and this DCI does not have BWP handover functionality.

[0093] Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) field

[0094] Channel conditions on the two cells are typically independent, therefore the appropriate frequency resources for the UE on the two cells are usually in different Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs). Furthermore, the active BWPs on the two cells scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can be configured with the same or different numbers of PRBs. The DCI's allocation of frequency resources on the two cells needs to balance overhead and link performance. The size of a cell's FDRA field can be derived based on a reference BWP configuration or the active BWP configuration of that cell. If the size of the FDRA field in the DCI differs from the FDRA size of an active BWP in a certain cell, zero-padding or truncation can be applied to align the sizes.

[0095] In some embodiments of this disclosure, in a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two FDRA fields can be indicated, and these two fields can be applied to the two cells scheduled by the DCI respectively.

[0096] In one option, both FDRA fields can be configured with the same FDRA type. For example, both FDRA fields can use FDRA type 0, which indicates the bitmap of the resource block group (RBG) allocated to the scheduled UE. Alternatively, both FDRA fields can use FDRA type 1, which corresponds to the starting virtual resource block RB. start The resource indicator value (RIV) and the length L of the contiguously allocated resource blocks. RBs .

[0097] In one option, the two FDRA fields for two cells can be configured with different FDRA types. For example, one FDRA field can use FDRA type 0, while the other FDRA field can use FDRA type 1.

[0098] In the above options, the RBG size for a specific cell can reuse the configuration for the RBG size used for single-cell scheduling. Alternatively, the RBG size for a specific cell can be configured separately from the RBG size used for single-cell scheduling. In one example, a larger RBG size can be configured to reduce FDRA overhead. Figure 2 As shown, the number of RBGs is reduced, thus a shorter bitmap for FDRA is available. In another example, since 2-cell scheduling is suitable for high-throughput scenarios, a large number of PRBs can typically be allocated on each of the two cells. In this case, the FDRA field in the DCI does not need to indicate a small number of allocated RBGs; therefore, FDRA type 0 can be improved to reduce FDRA overhead. In one example, FDRA field compression can be achieved by scaling the RBG size defined in the Rel-15NR specification up to a positive integer (e.g., 2, 4, etc.).

[0099] In the options described above, if FDRA type 1 is used, the overhead of the FDRA field can be reduced through one or more methods. In one example, the granularity of the number of allocated PRBs can increase from 1 PRB to k PRBs; for example, the number of indicable PRBs for PDSCH or PUSCH could be k·[1,2,3,…]. In another variation of this example, the granularity of resource allocation is configured via a determined higher layer that specifies the length and starting PRB index for each allocation. In these examples, it is assumed that the FDRA field in the DCI may not need to indicate a small number of allocated PRBs for the intended use case of this feature, and this assumption is used to reduce FDRA overhead.

[0100] In some embodiments of this disclosure, in a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, a single FDRA field can be indicated, and this field can be repeatedly applied to both cells scheduled by the DCI. In this way, the same frequency resources are allocated on the active BWPs of both cells.

[0101] In some embodiments of this disclosure, a single FDRA field may be included in the DCI used for two-cell scheduling, and each value of this field indicates the frequency resources on the active BWPs of the two cells scheduled by the DCI. Utilizing a joint indication of the frequency resources on both cells can reduce overhead. For example, assuming FDRA type 1 is used and both cells have 100 PRBs on their BWPs, the size of the FDRA field for the two cells using a separate indication would be... On the other hand, if a union indicator is used, the size of the FDRA field is reduced to [a smaller value]. One bit was saved.

[0102] Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field

[0103] In NR systems, the value of the TDRA field provides a row index to the allocation table. For PDSCH scheduling, the indexed row defines the slot offset K0, the start and length indicators SLIV, or directly defines the start symbol S and allocation length L, and the PDSCH mapping type assumed in PDSCH reception. For PUSCH scheduling, the indexed row defines the slot offset K2, the start and length indicators SLIV, or directly defines the start symbol S and allocation length L, and the PUSCH mapping type to be applied in PUSCH transmission. The allocation table for each BWP of a cell can be configured separately. If a multi-row TDRA allocation table is configured only for one of two cells, the TDRA field in the DCI is applied to the cell with the multi-row TDRA allocation table.

[0104] In some embodiments of this disclosure, in a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two TDRA fields can be indicated and applied to the two cells scheduled by the DCI respectively. The allocation table for a specific cell used in a DCI for 2-cell scheduling can reuse the configuration of the allocation table used for single-cell scheduling. Alternatively, the allocation table for a specific cell used in a DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be configured separately from the configuration of the allocation table used for single-cell scheduling.

[0105] Furthermore, when the subcarrier spacing (SCS) values ​​of the two cells used for scheduling PDSCH or PUSCH are different, the K0 / K2 values ​​for each PDSCH / PUSCH are determined by parsing the values ​​indicated in the corresponding TDRA field according to the SCS of the BWP of the corresponding PDSCH / PUSCH in the corresponding scheduled cell.

[0106] Certain restrictions can be applied to the values ​​of the two TDRA fields indicated by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. For example, the size of the TDRA table for the DCI format used for 2-cell scheduling can be limited to less than 16 entries or 64 entries (the latter restriction is used if Rel-16 type A or type B PUSCHs are repeatedly configured and applied to the DCI format used for 2-cell scheduling), thereby reducing the bit width of the two TDRA fields. As another example, the start symbols S of the two PDSCHs or PUSCHs on the two indicated cells should be the same, or the PDSCH mapping type or PUSCH mapping type on the two indicated cells should be the same, or K0 or K2 on the two indicated cells should be the same. Similarly, for the above option, where the subcarrier spacing (SCS) values ​​of the two cells whose PDSCHs or PUSCHs are scheduled are different, the K0 / K2 values ​​for each PDSCH / PUSCH are determined separately by parsing the K0 / K2 values ​​indicated in a single TDRA field according to the SCS of the BWP of each PDSCH / PUSCH in the scheduled cells.

[0107] In some embodiments of this disclosure, in a DCI used for two-cell scheduling, a single TDRA field can be indicated, and this field can be repeatedly applied to two cells scheduled by the DCI. In this way, as... Figure 3 As shown, the same time resources are allocated on the active BWPs in both cells. The allocation table used by the TDRA field can reuse the configuration of the allocation table for the reference serving cell used for single-cell scheduling. The aforementioned reference serving cell can be configured by higher-layer signaling, or it can be one of the two cells scheduled by the DCI (e.g., the cell with the lowest cell index), or it can be the cell on which the DCI is transmitted (e.g., the scheduling cell). Alternatively, the allocation table used by the TDRA field can be configured separately from the allocation table used for single-cell scheduling.

[0108] In some embodiments of this disclosure, a single TDRA field may be included in the DCI for 2-cell scheduling, and each value of this field indicates the time resources on the active BWPs of the two cells scheduled by the DCI. For this option and the example below, where the SCS values ​​of the two cells whose PDSCH or PUSCH are scheduled differ, the K0 / K2 value for each PDSCH / PUSCH is determined separately by parsing the specific K0 / K2 value derived from the value indicated by the single TDRA field based on the SCS of the BWP of the corresponding PDSCH / PUSCH in the respective scheduled cells.

[0109] In one option, for each value of the TDRA field of the DCI used for DL ​​scheduling, the time resources of PDSCH on both cells (including the K0, S, L, and PDSCH mapping types of the two cells) are configured by higher-layer signaling. For each value of the TDRA field of the DCI used for UL scheduling, the time resources of PUSCH on both cells (including the K2, S, L, and PUSCH mapping types) are configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0110] Certain restrictions can be applied to the time resource allocation of two PDSCHs or PUSCHs configured for the TDRA field value. For example, the size of the allocation table for the DCI format used for 2-cell scheduling can be limited to less than 16 entries or 64 entries (the latter restriction applies if a Rel-16 type A or type B PUSCH is repeatedly configured and applied to the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling), thereby reducing the bit width of the TDRA field. For example, the start symbol S of the two PDSCHs or PUSCHs on the two indicated cells should be the same, or the PDSCH mapping type or PUSCH mapping type on the two indicated cells should be the same, or K0 on the two indicated cells should be the same.

[0111] like Figure 4 As shown, in the TDRA allocation table for the two cells, the K0, S, L, and PDSCH mapping types for the two cells are configured separately.

[0112] In one option, each value of the DCI's TDRA field can be configured with two indexes, each index pointing to a row in one of the two allocation tables configured for the two cells. The mapping between the TDRA field values ​​and the two row indices can be configured by higher-layer signaling. These two allocation tables can reuse the configuration of the allocation table used for single-cell scheduling of the two cells. Alternatively, the two allocation tables can be configured separately from the allocation table used for single-cell scheduling.

[0113] Certain restrictions can be applied to the two row indices of the two allocation tables configured for the TDRA field value. For example, the number of available combinations of the two row indices of the two allocation tables can be limited to less than 16 entries or 64 entries (the latter restriction applies if Rel-16 type A or type B PUSCH is repeatedly configured and applied to the DCI format for 2-cell scheduling), thereby reducing the bit width of the TDRA field. For example, the start symbol S of the two PDSCHs or PUSCHs on the two indicated cells should be the same, or the PDSCH mapping type or PUSCH mapping type on the two indicated cells should be the same, or K0 on the two indicated cells should be the same.

[0114] like Figure 5As shown, the value of the TDRA field in DCI represents two row indexes, which are used to index two rows in the TDRA allocation table of the two cells respectively.

[0115] Rate Matching Indicator Field

[0116] In a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two rate matching indicator fields can be indicated and applied separately to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single rate matching indicator field can be indicated and repeatedly applied to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single rate matching indicator field can be included in the DCI, where each value of this field jointly indicates the rate matching mode on the two cells scheduled by the DCI. For each value of the rate matching indicator field, the rate matching mode on the two cells can be configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0117] Zero Power (ZP) CSI-RS Trigger Field

[0118] In a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two ZP CSI-RS trigger fields can be indicated, and these two fields can be applied to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI, respectively. Alternatively, a single ZP CSI-RS trigger field can be indicated, and this field can be repeatedly applied to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single ZP CSI-RS trigger field can be included in the DCI, where each value of this field jointly indicates a set of ZP CSI-RS resources on the two cells scheduled by the DCI. For each value of the ZP CSI-RS trigger field, the set of ZP CSI-RS resources on the two cells can be configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0119] Antenna port field

[0120] In a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two antenna port fields can be indicated and applied separately to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single antenna port field can be indicated and repeatedly applied to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single antenna port field can be included in the DCI, where each value of the field jointly indicates the antenna port information of the two cells scheduled by the DCI. For each value of the antenna port field, the antenna port information on the two cells can be configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0121] PUCCH resource indicator field

[0122] In a DCI used for two-cell scheduling, two PUCCH resource indicator fields can be indicated and applied to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI, respectively. Alternatively, a single PUCCH resource indicator field can be indicated and applied repeatedly to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. Alternatively, a single PUCCH resource indicator field can be included in the DCI, where each value of this field jointly indicates the PUCCH resource indicator information for the two cells scheduled by the DCI. For each value of the PUCCH resource indicator field, the PUCCH resource indicator information on the two cells can be configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0123] PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator (K1) field

[0124] In DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, the value of one or two PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator fields can be defined with reference to the time slot used for PUCCH transmission.

[0125] In some embodiments of this disclosure, for a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, time slots for HARQ-ACK transmissions for two PDSCHs are determined, and these time slots may be the same or different.

[0126] In one option, two PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator fields can be specified in the DCI, and these two fields can be applied separately to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. The values ​​for the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing for the two cells can reuse the configuration for the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing used for single-cell scheduling of the two cells. Alternatively, the values ​​for the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing for the two cells can be configured separately from the configuration for the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing used for single-cell scheduling of the two cells.

[0127] In one option, a single PDSCH can be indicated in the DCI to the HARQ_feedback timing indicator field, and this field can be repeatedly applied to two PDSCHs scheduled by that DCI.

[0128] In one option, the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling may include a single PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field, where each value of the field jointly indicates the two PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timings for the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. For each value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field, the two PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timings for the two PDSCHs can be configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0129] In some embodiments of this disclosure, for DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, a single time slot is determined for HARQ-ACK transmission of two PDSCHs.

[0130] In one option, the value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field can be defined relative to the time slot of the last symbol of the next ending PDSCH (i.e., the next ending PDSCH of the two scheduled PDSCHs scheduled by DCI).

[0131] In one option, referencing the time slots used for PUCCH transmission, the time slots used for HARQ-ACK transmission for the two PDSCHs are temporarily determined by the corresponding PDSCH-to-HARQ_ feedback timing. Then, the latter time slot is used as the time slot for HARQ-ACK transmission for both PDSCHs.

[0132] In the above options, the values ​​of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing for the two cells can reuse the configuration of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing for single-cell scheduling of the two cells. Alternatively, the values ​​of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing for the two cells can be configured separately from the configuration of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing for single-cell scheduling of the two cells. Alternatively, the values ​​of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing for the two cells can be configured together with the configuration of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing. Alternatively, the values ​​of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing for the two cells can be determined based on the configuration of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing of the reference serving cell. The aforementioned reference serving cell can be configured by higher-layer signaling, or by one of the two cells scheduled by DCI (e.g., the cell with the lowest cell index), or by the cell on which DCI is transmitted (e.g., the scheduling cell).

[0133] UL-SCH indicator field

[0134] In a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, two UL-SCH indicator fields can be indicated, and these two fields can be applied to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI respectively. To support aperiodic CSI transmissions on at most one of the two PUSCHs, at most one of the two UL-SCH indicator fields can be 0. Alternatively, a single UL-SCH indicator field can be indicated by a fixed rule, applying to one of the two PUSCHs. For example, the UL-SCH indicator field is applied to the PUSCH on the reference serving cell, while a value of "1" in the UL-SCH indicator field is assumed to be used for the PUSCH on the other cell. The aforementioned reference serving cell can be configured by higher-layer signaling, or it can be one of the two cells scheduled by the DCI (e.g., the cell with the lowest cell index), or it can be the cell on which the DCI is transmitted (e.g., the scheduling cell). Alternatively, a single UL-SCH indicator field can be included in the DCI, where each value of this field jointly indicates the UL-SCH indicator information for the two cells scheduled by the DCI. For each value in the UL-SCH indicator field, the UL-SCH indicator information on the two cells can be configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0135] UL / Supplemental Uplink (SUL) Indicator Field

[0136] The UL / SUL indicator field can exist in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, but is only used for one cell scheduled by that DCI. That is, for the other cell scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, if the UE is not configured with supplementary uplink in the Serving Cell Configuration in that cell, or if the UE is configured with supplementary uplink in the Serving Cell Configuration but only one carrier in that cell is configured for PUSCH transmission, then there is no UL / SUL indicator field for that cell. If both cells require UL / SUL indicators, one of the following schemes can be used.

[0137] In one option, two UL / SUL indicator fields can be specified in the DCI, and these two fields can be applied to the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI respectively. In this way, the UL carrier or SUL carrier scheduled for the cell can be flexibly controlled.

[0138] In one option, a single UL / SUL indicator field can be specified in the DCI, and this field can be repeatedly applied to both PUSCHs scheduled by that DCI. That is, both PDSCHs are scheduled either on a UL carrier or on a SUL carrier.

[0139] In one option, a single UL / SUL indicator field can be included in the DCI, where each value of the field jointly indicates the UL / SUL indicator information for two cells scheduled by the DCI. For each value of the UL / SUL indicator field, the UL / SUL indicator information on the two cells can be configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0140] Returning to method 100, when receiving downlink information on the PDSCH of two cells scheduled by DCI for two-cell scheduling, method 100 may further include: S106, sending HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH of the two cells based on the transmission mode of the PDSCH of the two cells, wherein the PDSCH of the two cells is transmitted via TB-based transmission or CBG-based transmission. Furthermore, when sending HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH of this cell, method 100 may further include: determining the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH of the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook. The details regarding the transmission mode of the PDSCH of the two cells and the determination of the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH of the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook are described below.

[0141] In NR systems, DL-DCI only schedules the PDSCH on the active DL-BWP of the cell. In the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook (i.e., the dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook), the following information fields in the DL DCI are used to control HARQ-ACK transmission.

[0142] -PDSCH- to -HARQ_ feedback timing indicator, i.e., K1;

[0143] -PUCCH resource indicator (PRI), which indicates the PUCCH resource in the time slot determined by K1;

[0144] - Counter Downlink Allocation Index (C-DAI), which is used to sort the HARQ-ACK bits of the scheduled PDSCH sent in the same PUCCH for its HARQ-ACK;

[0145] - Total DAI (T-DAI), which indicates the total number of PDCCHs sent by the 5G Node B (gNB) up to the current PDCCH, to help the UE know the correct codebook size.

[0146] When CBG-based transmissions are configured, the HARQ-ACK codebook comprises two sub-codebooks. One sub-codebook is used for all TB-based HARQ-ACK feedback, including HARQ-ACKs for cells configured for TB-based PDSCH transmissions and HARQ-ACKs for PDSCHs on cells configured for CBG-based transmissions, scheduled by a fallback DCI (e.g., DCI format 1_0). The other sub-codebook is used for CBG-based HARQ-ACK feedback, including HARQ-ACKs for PDSCHs on cells configured for CBG-based transmissions, scheduled by other configurable DCI formats (e.g., DCI formats 1_1 / 1_2). C-DAI and T-DAI are applied to the sub-codebook associated with the current PDCCH. The current PDCCH is the PDCCH on which DCIs for 2-cell scheduling are transmitted.

[0147] A single TB is mapped to two cells

[0148] Using a DCI for 2-cell scheduling, DL transmissions on two cells can be scheduled by a single DCI. A TB scheduled by the DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be mapped to time / frequency resources on both cells (i.e., a TB can be jointly carried on PDSCH or PUSCH on both cells). If available, a single C-DAI field can be included in the DCI, which is used to form the dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook. The DCI can schedule one TB. Alternatively, for MIMO transmissions with multiple layers, two TBs can be scheduled by the DCI. Each TB is mapped to a subset of these layers indicated by the DCI.

[0149] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the PDSCH scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling may use only TB-based transmissions. For HARQ-ACK transmissions, the HARQ-ACK associated with the PDSCH belongs to a TB-based subcodebook.

[0150] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the PDSCH scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling may use only CBG-based transmissions. For HARQ-ACK transmissions, the HARQ-ACK associated with the PDSCH belongs to a CBG-based subcodebook.

[0151] In some embodiments of this disclosure, whether CBG-based transmissions are applied to PDSCHs scheduled by DCI is configured by higher-layer signaling. Furthermore, the maximum number of CBGs in a TB can be configured by higher-layer signaling. For HARQ-ACK transmissions, if CBG-based transmissions are configured, the HARQ-ACK associated with the PDSCH belongs to a CBG-based subcodebook; otherwise, it belongs to a TB-based subcodebook.

[0152] In some embodiments of this disclosure, for a PDSCH scheduled by a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, a reference serving cell index is used to determine the position of the HARQ-ACK for that PDSCH in the HARQ-ACK codebook. The two cells scheduled by the DCI for 2-cell scheduling are represented as cell A and cell B. Assuming the DCI is transmitted on cell A, the reference serving cell is cell A. Alternatively, the reference serving cell can be one of cell A and cell B; for example, the cell with the lower serving cell index is determined as the reference serving cell. Alternatively, the reference serving cell for 2-cell scheduling of cell A and cell B can be configured by higher-layer signaling. The configured value can be one of the serving cell indices of cell A or cell B, or the configured value can be any valid serving cell index. Alternatively, if a scheduled cell is the same as the scheduling cell, the reference serving cell can be the scheduling cell. Alternatively, the reference serving cell can be the cell carrying the next ending PDSCH based on the Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field in the DCI. If the two PDSCHs have aligned end symbols, the cell with the lower serving cell index can be the reference serving cell.

[0153] In some embodiments of this disclosure, a common configuration of the number of TBs is applied to both 2-cell scheduling and single-cell scheduling of the reference serving cell associated with the DL BWP of the reference serving cell. Alternatively, the number of TBs associated with the DL BWP of the reference serving cell and scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be configured separately relative to the number of TBs scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling of the reference serving cell. Alternatively, the number of TBs associated with the reference serving cell and scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be configured in a UE-specific or cell-specific manner.

[0154] From the perspective of HARQ transmission, if no CBG-based transmission is configured for the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, then the HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH scheduled by that DCI is included in the TB-based sub-codebook. On the other hand, if CBG-based transmission is configured for the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, then the HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH scheduled by that DCI is included in the CBG-based sub-codebook.

[0155] In some embodiments of this disclosure, a common configuration of the maximum number of CBGs for the TB is applied to both 2-cell scheduling and single-cell scheduling of the reference serving cell. From the perspective of HARQ-ACK transmission, the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling is the same as the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI used for single-cell scheduling, except that the reference serving cell index is used to determine the position of the HARQ-ACK for that PDSCH in the HARQ-ACK codebook.

[0156] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the maximum number N of CBGs associated with the reference serving cell and scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling is... CBG，2 The maximum number of CBGs for TBs in DCI scheduling relative to single-cell scheduling used for the reference serving cell can be configured separately. For 2-cell scheduling, the maximum configured number of TBs is denoted as N. TB，2 Then the maximum number of CBGs per PDSCH is In HARQ-ACK transmission, for a subcodebook carrying CBG-based HARQ-ACK feedback, the number of HARQ-ACK bits corresponding to each PDCCH can be determined by the maximum number across all cells. and It is concluded that, This is the maximum number of CBGs for each PDSCH scheduled by DCI used for single-cell scheduling. The reference serving cell index is used to determine the position of the HARQ-ACK in the HARQ-ACK codebook for the PDSCH scheduled by DCI used for two-cell scheduling.

[0157] In this scenario, in one embodiment, the DL DCI used for two-cell scheduling can indicate a single K1 slot offset and PUCCH resource indicator (PRI) value for transmitting HARQ-ACK feedback, and the K1 slot offset (PDSCH-to-HARQ-feedback timing indicator) indicates the slot offset relative to the slot carrying the latter-ending PDSCH across the two scheduled cells. Additionally, in one example, taking into account any effects from timing advance, the earliest symbol of the PUCCH or PUSCH carrying the corresponding HARQ-ACK feedback should not be earlier than T symbols starting from the end of the latter-ending PDSCH, where the duration of T symbols is determined based on the minimum available UE processing time for PDSCH processing according to the appropriate UE capabilities. If different UE capabilities regarding PDSCH processing time are configured on the two cells, the UE capability with the longer processing time can be applied.

[0158] HARQ-ACK codebook in the case of a single TB mapping to two cells

[0159] To support HARQ-ACK transmissions for TBs scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, HARQ-ACKs for TBs scheduled by the DCI are mapped according to the reference cell index.

[0160] In one example, for a semi-static (Type 1) HARQ-ACK codebook (CB), the HARQ-ACK bit position can be determined based on the K1 slot offset and start and length indication (SLIV) values ​​indicated by the Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field for the following end PDSCH in the scheduling DCI. If the two PDSCHs have aligned end symbols, the cell with the lower serving cell index can be used.

[0161] Alternatively, for a semi-static (Type 1) HARQ-ACK codebook, the HARQ-ACK bit position can be determined based on the K1 slot offset and start and length indication (SLIV) values ​​indicated by the Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field of the PDSCH scheduled on the reference serving cell in the scheduling DCI, where the reference serving cell can be determined by the UE based on implicit rules or via higher-layer configuration.

[0162] In one embodiment, for a dynamic (Type 2) HARQ-ACK codebook, the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can indicate individual values ​​of C-DAI and T-DAI to indicate the position of the corresponding HARQ-ACK bit in the HARQ-ACK codebook. The position of the HARQ-ACK bit can be determined based on the K1 slot offset and the subsequent PDSCH. If the two PDSCHs have aligned end symbols, the cell with the lower serving cell index can be used. Alternatively, the position of the HARQ-ACK bit can be determined based on the K1 slot offset and the PDSCH scheduled on the reference serving cell, where the reference serving cell can be determined by the UE based on implicit rules or via higher-level configuration.

[0163] For example, such as Figure 6 As shown, the same TB is transmitted on two cells scheduled by a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, and these two cells have non-contiguous cell indices #0 and #2. The DCI includes a single C-DAI field for forming the HARQ-ACK codebook. Figure 6 The C-DAI value transmitted using the signal is 1. On the other hand, the C-DAI used for PDSCH on cell #1, scheduled via single-cell scheduling, is equal to 2. The HARQ-ACK for TB transmitted on cells #0 and #2 is placed at the first position in the HARQ-ACK codebook, corresponding to the reference serving cell (i.e., ...). Figure 1 The location of cell #0 is followed by the HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH on cell #1.

[0164] like Figure 7 As shown, the same TB is transmitted on two cells scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, and these two cells have non-contiguous cell indices #0 and #2. Furthermore, one PDSCH is transmitted on cell #1 using single-cell scheduling, and another PDSCH is transmitted on cell #2 using single-cell scheduling. If a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook (also known as a Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook) is used, the HARQ-ACK for the TB transmitted on cells #0 and #2 is placed in the codebook for reference to the serving cell (i.e., Figure 7 The location of cell #0 in the reference serving cell is determined by the temporal resource allocation of the PDSCH. For cells #1 and #2 scheduled using single-cell scheduling, the HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH is placed in the codebook at the locations of cells #1 and #2, respectively.

[0165] TB is mapped to only one of the two cells.

[0166] Using a DCI for 2-cell scheduling, DL transmissions on two cells can be scheduled by a single DCI. A TB scheduled by the DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be mapped to time / frequency resources on only one of the two cells (i.e., a TB scheduled by this DCI is carried on a PDSCH or PUSCH on one of the two cells). In other words, PDSCHs on different cells are considered different PDSCHs carrying different TBs. For each PDSCH, one or two TBs can be scheduled.

[0167] In one embodiment, the DL DCI for 2-cell scheduling can indicate two values: the K1 slot offset and the PUCCH resource indicator (PRI) for transmitting the HARQ-ACK feedback corresponding to each scheduled PDSCH. The K1 slot offset (PDSCH-to-HARQ-feedback timing indicator) indicates the slot offset relative to the slot carrying the corresponding PDSCH in each scheduled cell. In another embodiment, the DL DCI for 2-cell scheduling can indicate a single value: the K1 slot offset and the PRI for transmitting the HARQ-ACK feedback corresponding to both scheduled PDSCHs.

[0168] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the PDSCH on a cell scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling may use only TB-based transmissions. For HARQ-ACK transmissions, the HARQ-ACK associated with the PDSCH belongs to a TB-based subcodebook.

[0169] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the PDSCH on a cell scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling can use only CBG-based transmissions. For HARQ-ACK transmissions, the HARQ-ACK associated with the PDSCH belongs to a CBG-based subcodebook.

[0170] In some embodiments of this disclosure, whether CBG-based transmissions are applied to PDSCHs on cells scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling is configured by higher-layer signaling. This configuration can be a common configuration for all cells scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling. Alternatively, the configuration can be a common configuration for a pair of cells (i.e., two cells) scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling; however, different cell pairs can be configured differently regarding whether CBG-based transmissions are used. Alternatively, the configuration can be configured individually relative to each cell that can be scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, thus allowing one cell to have CBG-based transmissions while another cell has TB-based transmissions. Furthermore, the maximum number of CBGs for TBs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling can be configured by higher-layer signaling. For HARQ-ACK transmissions, if CBG-based transmissions are configured for a PDSCH, the HARQ-ACK associated with that PDSCH belongs to a CBG-based subcodebook; otherwise, it belongs to a TB-based subcodebook.

[0171] In some embodiments of this disclosure, for a PDSCH of a cell scheduled by a DCI for 2-cell scheduling, the serving cell index of that cell is used to determine the position of the HARQ-ACK for that PDSCH in the HARQ-ACK codebook. Thus, if two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI are on cells with discontinuous cell indices, the HARQ-ACKs for these two PDSCHs can be mapped to discontinuous bits in the HARQ-ACK codebook.

[0172] In some embodiments of this disclosure, for two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, a reference serving cell index is used to determine the position of the HARQ-ACK for these two PDSCHs in the HARQ-ACK codebook. The HARQ-ACK for both PDSCHs occupies consecutive HARQ-ACK bits at the position determined by the reference serving cell index. Let the two cells scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling be represented as cell A and cell B. Assuming the DCI is transmitted on cell A, the reference serving cell can be cell A. Specifically, if cross-carrier scheduling is configured, cell A can be the scheduling cell. Alternatively, the reference serving cell can be one of cell A and cell B; for example, the cell with the lower serving cell index is determined as the reference serving cell. Alternatively, the reference serving cell for 2-cell scheduling of cell A and cell B can be configured by higher-layer signaling. The configured value can be one of the serving cell indices of cell A or cell B, or the configured value can be any valid serving cell index. Alternatively, if one of the scheduled cells is the same as the scheduling cell, the reference serving cell can be the scheduling cell. Alternatively, the reference serving cell can be the cell whose PDSCH ends based on the Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field in the DCI. If the two PDSCHs have aligned end symbols, the cell with the lower serving cell index can be the reference serving cell.

[0173] In some embodiments of this disclosure, a common configuration of the number of TBs is applied to both 2-cell scheduling and single-cell scheduling of the DL-BWP for a given cell. Alternatively, the number of TBs scheduled by the DCI for 2-cell scheduling for the DL-BWP of a given cell can be configured separately relative to the number of TBs scheduled by the DCI for single-cell scheduling of that cell. Alternatively, the number of TBs scheduled by the DCI for 2-cell scheduling for a given cell can be configured for each UE or each serving cell.

[0174] In one option, for HARQ-ACK transmissions, if no CBG-based transmission is configured for the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, then the HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH scheduled by that DCI is included in the TB-based subcodebook.

[0175] In one option, for HARQ-ACK transmission, if no CBG-based transmission is configured for the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, the decision to use a TB-based subcodebook to include HARQ-ACK for the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI is based on the number of TBs scheduled by that DCI. For example, if only two TBs are carried by two PDSCHs, a TB-based subcodebook is used; otherwise, a CBG-based subcodebook is used.

[0176] In one option, for HARQ-ACK transmission, if no CBG-based transmission is configured for DCI used for 2-cell scheduling, whether to use a TB-based subcodebook to include HARQ-ACK for the two PDSCHs scheduled by that DCI is configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0177] In some embodiments of this disclosure, CBG-based transmission can be configured for two cells that can be scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling. The number of HARQ-ACK bits for the two PDSCHs on the two cells scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling is equal to the total number of CBGs configured for the two PDSCHs. Alternatively, CBG-based transmission can be configured for one of the two cells that can be scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, while TB-based transmission is configured for the other cell. The number of CBGs for the first of the two configured cells is denoted as N. CBG And let N represent the number of TB in the second cell of these two cells. TB The total number of HARQ-ACK bits used for the two PDSCHs on the two cells scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling is N. CBG +N TB .

[0178] In one option, if CBG-based HARQ-ACK feedback is configured, the maximum number of CBGs for a cell scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can be configured by higher-layer signaling for that cell. A common configuration for the maximum number of CBGs for a TB is applied to both single-cell and 2-cell scheduling for a given cell. Alternatively, the maximum number of CBGs for a TB scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling for a given cell can be configured separately from the maximum number of CBGs for a TB scheduled by the DCI used for single-cell scheduling for that cell.

[0179] In one option, if CBG-based HARQ-ACK feedback is configured for two PDSCHs, the maximum total number of CBGs for the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling is equal to the maximum number of CBGs configured for each PDSCH used for single-cell scheduling across all cells. Alternatively, the maximum total number of CBGs for the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can be configured by higher-layer signaling. The configured maximum number of CBGs can then be equally divided and applied to the PDSCHs scheduled by that DCI. Alternatively, the maximum total number of CBGs for the two TBs on the two cells scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can be configured by higher-layer signaling. The configured maximum number of CBGs can then be equally divided and applied to the TBs of the cells scheduled by that DCI.

[0180] HARQ-ACK codebook in the case where TB is mapped to only one of two cells

[0181] In some embodiments of this disclosure, in order to support dynamic HARQ-ACK transmission of two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, HARQ-ACK for the two PDSCHs is mapped separately according to the serving cell index of the two cells.

[0182] In one example, for a semi-static (type 1) HARQ-ACK codebook, the position of the HARQ-ACK bit for each PDSCH can be determined based on the K1 slot offset and start and length indication (SLIV) values ​​indicated by the Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field for the corresponding PDSCH via the scheduling DCI.

[0183] In one embodiment, for a dynamic (Type 2) HARQ-ACK codebook, the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can indicate two values, C-DAI and T-DAI, to indicate the corresponding position of the HARQ-ACK bit in the HARQ-ACK codebook. Furthermore, note that in this case, the HARQ-ACK bits are not necessarily mapped to the same HARQ-ACK codebook. That is, based on the K1 slot offset value, the relative numbers of the DL serving cell and the PUCCH cell, and the Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field of each PDSCH, the HARQ-ACK bits can be carried in different PUCCHs.

[0184] In one option, DCI can also indicate C-DAI / T-DAI for the two PDSCHs respectively.

[0185] If two PDSCHs can use CBG-based transmissions, then the HARQ-ACKs for both PDSCHs are included in the CBG-based subcodebook. If two PDSCHs can use TB-based transmissions, then the HARQ-ACKs for both PDSCHs are included in the TB-based subcodebook. If one PDSCH uses a TB-based transmission and the other uses a CBG-based transmission, then the HARQ-ACKs for both PDSCHs are included in the CBG-based subcodebook. In this case, it can be effectively assumed that one CBG for each TB is used for the TB-based PDSCH transmission. Alternatively, the HARQ-ACKs for PDSCHs using TB-based transmissions are included in the TB-based subcodebook, while the HARQ-ACKs for PDSCHs using CBG-based transmissions are included in the CBG-based subcodebook.

[0186] In one option, C-DAI can be indicated separately for two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI, while a single T-DAI is transmitted in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. The T-DAI can be increased by 2 corresponding to the DCI transmission.

[0187] For example, such as Figure 8 As shown, two cells with discontinuous cell indices #0 and #2 are scheduled by a DCI used for two-cell scheduling. A separate C-DAI is instructed to the PDSCH on both cells; otherwise, the UE might not be aware that there is another PDSCH on cell #1, which is scheduled by another DCI. Figure 8 In this configuration, the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI used for cell-2 scheduling use C-DAI 1 and 3 respectively, while the PDSCH on cell #1 uses C-DAI 2. The HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH on cell #0 is placed in the first position of the HARQ-ACK codebook, followed by the HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH on cell #1. The HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH on cell #2 is placed in the last position of the HARQ-ACK codebook.

[0188] In some embodiments of this disclosure, to support semi-static HARQ-ACK transmission of two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, HARQ-ACK for the two PDSCHs is mapped separately according to the serving cell indices of the two cells. The temporal resource allocation of the two PDSCHs is used separately to determine the HARQ-ACK location. The number of HARQ-ACK bits for each PDSCH can be determined separately for each serving cell. In a cell, if no CBG-based transmission is configured, the number of HARQ-ACK bits is determined to be the maximum configured TB number for each PDSCH used for single-cell and 2-cell scheduling. On the other hand, if CBG-based transmission is configured, the number of HARQ-ACK bits is determined to be the maximum configured CBG number for each PDSCH used for single-cell and 2-cell scheduling. Except for omitting C-DAI, semi-static HARQ-ACK generation can be performed by... Figure 7 illustrate.

[0189] In some embodiments of this disclosure, to support HARQ-ACK transmissions of two PDSCHs scheduled by a DCI for 2-cell scheduling, the HARQ-ACKs of these two PDSCHs are mapped to consecutive HARQ-ACK bits at locations determined by a reference serving cell index. In this scheme, the DCI includes a single C-DAI field and / or a T-DAI field.

[0190] In this scenario, the DL DCI used for 2-cell scheduling can indicate the single K1 slot offset and PRI value for transmitting HARQ-ACK feedback. Furthermore, in one example, taking into account any effects from timing advance, the earliest symbol of the PUCCH or PUSCH carrying the corresponding HARQ-ACK feedback should not be earlier than the last T symbols of the subsequent terminating PDSCH, where the duration of the T symbols is determined based on the minimum available UE processing time for PDSCH processing according to the appropriate UE processing time capability. If different UE capabilities regarding PDSCH processing time are configured on the two cells, the UE capability with the longer processing time can be applied.

[0191] In one option, the number of HARQ-ACK bits reported by the two PDSCHs for DCI scheduling used for 2-cell scheduling is equal to the number of HARQ-ACK bits reported by the PDSCHs for DCI scheduling used for single-cell scheduling.

[0192] If TB-based HARQ-ACK feedback is used for two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, then the number of HARQ-ACK bits is... Equal to all communities and The maximum number in, where the total number of TBs configured by the two PDSCHs for DCI scheduling used for 2-cell scheduling is the maximum number of TBs. The maximum number of TBs for PDSCH in DCI scheduling used for single-cell scheduling is Therefore, for a PDSCH scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling or two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for two-cell scheduling, the number of reported HARQ-ACK bits is Bit.

[0193] If CBG-based HARQ-ACK feedback is used for at least one of the two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, then the number of HARQ-ACK bits is [number missing]. Equal to all communities and The maximum number in, where the total number of CBGs is determined by the maximum configuration of the two PDSCHs used for DCI scheduling in 2-cell scheduling. The maximum number of CBGs for PDSCH used in single-cell scheduling by DCI scheduling is Therefore, for a PDSCH scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling or two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for two-cell scheduling, the number of reported HARQ-ACK bits is Bits. For 2-cell scheduling, if a PDSCH uses TB-based transmission, it can be effectively assumed that one CBG per TB is used for TB-based PDSCH transmission.

[0194] For example, such as Figure 9 As shown, two cells with discontinuous cell indices #0 and #2 are scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling. A C-DAI is indicated for each of the two PDSCHs scheduled by the 2-cell scheduling, i.e., C-DAI = 1. Conversely, a C-DAI equal to 2 is assigned to another PDSCH on cell #1. To generate the HARQ-ACK codebook, the HARQ-ACKs for the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI for 2-cell scheduling are concatenated and mapped to a position in the HARQ-ACK codebook, following the reference serving cell index (e.g., #0 of cell #0), and this position is followed by the HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH on cell #1.

[0195] In another option, the number of HARQ-ACK bits reported by the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling is twice the number of HARQ-ACK bits reported by the PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI used for single-cell scheduling. In this scheme, a single C-DAI value x is included in the DCI used for 2-cell scheduling; however, two C-DAI values ​​x and x+1 are effectively used by the two PDSCHs scheduled by that DCI. The next DCI sent by the gNB can indicate the C-DAI value x+2.

[0196] If TB-based HARQ-ACK feedback is used for two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, then the number of HARQ-ACK bits is... Equal to all communities and The maximum value in, where the maximum number of TBs configured by the DCI scheduling for 2-cell scheduling is The maximum number of TBs for PDSCH in DCI scheduling used for single-cell scheduling is Therefore, for PDSCH scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling, the number of reported HARQ-ACK bits is Bits. On the other hand, for two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, the total number of reported HARQ-ACK bits is Bit.

[0197] If CBG-based HARQ-ACK feedback is used for at least one of the two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, then the number of HARQ-ACK bits is [number missing]. Equal to all communities and The maximum value in, where the maximum number of CBGs configured by the DCI scheduling for 2-cell scheduling is The maximum number of CBGs for PDSCH used in single-cell scheduling by DCI scheduling is Therefore, for the PDSCH scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling, the number of reported HARQ-ACK bits is Bits. On the other hand, for two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, the total number of reported HARQ-ACK bits is Bits. For 2-cell scheduling, if a PDSCH uses TB of transmission, it can be effectively assumed that one CBG per TB is used for TB-based PDSCH transmission.

[0198] For example, such as Figure 10 As shown, two cells with discontinuous cell indices #0 and #2 are scheduled by a DCI used for 2-cell scheduling. This DCI indicates a single C-DAI, i.e., C-DAI = 1. A C-DAI is applied to the PDSCH on cell #0, and a valid C-DAI = 2 is applied to the PDSCH on cell #2. Conversely, a C-DAI equal to 3 is assigned to another PDSCH on cell #1. To generate the HARQ-ACK codebook, the HARQ-ACKs for the two PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI for 2-cell scheduling are concatenated and mapped to a position in the HARQ-ACK codebook following the HARQ-ACK for the PDSCH on cell #1, based on the reference serving cell index (e.g., #0 of cell #0).

[0199] In some embodiments of this disclosure, to support semi-static HARQ-ACK transmission for two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling, the HARQ-ACK for the two PDSCHs is mapped to consecutive HARQ-ACK bits in a location determined by a reference serving cell index. In the reference serving cell, the maximum number between the number of HARQ-ACK bits reported for the two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling and the number of HARQ-ACK bits reported for the PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling is taken. Then, for both PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling and the PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling, the maximum number of HARQ-ACK bits is included in the HARQ-ACK codebook. Semi-static HARQ-ACK generation can be performed by… Figure 7Note that, except for the fact that the maximum number of HARQ-ACK bits for the two PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for 2-cell scheduling and the PDSCHs scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling can be different.

[0200] The same TB is mapped to each cell in the two cells.

[0201] As a specific example of a case where a TB can be mapped to only one of two cells, instead of scheduling two different TBs on two serving cells, in one embodiment, the same one or two TBs can be mapped to each of two PDSCHs or PUSCHs scheduled in the two serving cells, and are scheduled using DCI for 2-cell scheduling. Furthermore, in one example of an embodiment, the UE can be configured by dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling whether to map the same TB to each of the two cells scheduled by a DCI for 2-cell scheduling received by the UE in the serving cell. In another example, the UE can be configured by dedicated RRC signaling that a two-cell scheduling DCI format can be used to schedule the same or different TBs on the two scheduled cells, and bit fields in the two-cell scheduling DCI format further indicate whether the same or different TBs are scheduled on each cell.

[0202] For PDSCH reception, this instruction to the UE helps to achieve the combination of the log-likelihood ratio (LLR) of the received channel, thereby improving reception reliability. For PUSCH transmission, this instruction to the UE enables the transmission of one or two TB of redundant copies via each PUSCH sent on two serving cells scheduled by the 2-cell scheduling DCI format.

[0203] HARQ-ACK codebook in the case where the same TB is mapped to each of two cells

[0204] For ease of explanation, the following description assumes that the PDSCH in the serving cell carries a single codeword (CW) or TB. The embodiments and examples can be directly extended to cases where the PDSCH can carry multiple (e.g., two) CWs (or TBs).

[0205] In one embodiment, for the same TB carried by PDSCHs scheduled on two cells by a DCI for 2-cell scheduling, the UE can report an ACK (positive acknowledgment) if it can successfully decode either of the scheduled PDSCHs (i.e., using a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) procedure), otherwise it reports a NACK (negative acknowledgment). The UE can attempt to decode each PDSCH separately based on the HARQ combination of the soft bits of the PDSCHs received on the two cells. In this case, in one embodiment, the 2-cell scheduling DCI format carrying the DL allocation can indicate a single K1 slot offset and PRI value for transmitting HARQ-ACK feedback. Furthermore, in one example, taking into account any effects from timing advance, the earliest symbol of the PUCCH or PUSCH carrying the corresponding HARQ-ACK feedback should not be earlier than T symbols starting from the end position of the latter-ending PDSCH, where the duration of T symbols is determined based on the minimum available UE processing time for PDSCH processing according to the appropriate UE processing time capability. If different UE capabilities regarding PDSCH processing time are configured on the two cells, the UE capability with the longer processing time can be applied. In another embodiment, the minimum interval between the start of the last symbol of the next ending PDSCH is defined as T+d. margin 1 symbol, where d margin This corresponds to an additional number of symbols (considering the extra processing required for soft combining of PDSCH received on two serving cells), and as an example, d margin It can be one of {0, 1, 2}, and can be fixed (specified) or reported by the UE through the UE capability report.

[0206] In another example, for a semi-static (Type 1) HARQ-ACK codebook, the HARQ-ACK bit position can be determined based on the K1 slot offset and start and length indication (SLIV) values ​​indicated in the scheduling DCI via the Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field for the next ending PDSCH. In another example, for a dynamic (Type 2) HARQ-ACK codebook, the 2-cell scheduling DCI format can indicate individual values ​​of C-DAI and T-DAI to indicate the position of the corresponding HARQ-ACK bit within the HARQ-ACK codebook.

[0207] Note that although all the above embodiments in this disclosure are described for 2-cell scheduling, they can be directly extended to cases where a single PDCCH is used to schedule PDSCH and / or PUSCH transmissions in more than 2 cells.

[0208] In addition, to implement method 100 used in the UE, a method used in the access node (AN) can be provided, including: generating a DCI for scheduling PDSCH or PUSCH on two cells; and sending the DCI.

[0209] System and Implementation

[0210] Figure 11-12 Various systems, apparatuses, and components are shown that can implement multiple aspects of the disclosed embodiments.

[0211] Figure 11 A schematic diagram of a network 1100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is shown. The network 1100 can operate in a manner consistent with the 3GPP technical specifications of LTE or 5G / NR systems. However, exemplary embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the described embodiments can be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, etc.

[0212] Network 1100 may include UE 1102, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with Radio Access Network (RAN) 1104 via an over-the-air connection. UE 1102 may be, but is not limited to, smartphones, tablets, wearable computing devices, desktop computers, laptops, in-vehicle infotainment devices, in-vehicle entertainment devices, dashboards, head-up displays, in-vehicle diagnostic devices, dashboard mobile devices, mobile data terminals, electronic engine management systems, electronic / engine control units, electronic / engine control modules, embedded systems, sensors, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems, network devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) or device-to-device (D2D) devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc.

[0213] In some embodiments, network 1100 may include multiple UEs that are directly coupled to each other via a secondary link interface. The UE may be an M2M / D2D device that communicates using physical secondary link channels (e.g., but not limited to physical secondary link broadcast channel (PSBCH), physical secondary link discovery channel (PSDCH), physical secondary link shared channel (PSSCH), physical secondary link control channel (PSCCH), physical secondary link basic channel (PSFCH), etc.).

[0214] In some embodiments, UE 1102 can also communicate with access point (AP) 1106 via an over-the-air connection. AP 1106 can manage WLAN connections and can be used to offload some / all network traffic from RAN 1104. The connection between UE 1102 and AP 1106 can be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 1106 can be Wireless Fibre Channel. Router. In some embodiments, UE 1102, RAN 1104, and AP 1106 may utilize cellular wireless local area network (WLAN) aggregation (e.g., LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) / Lightweight IP (LWIP)). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve UE 1102, configured by RAN 1104, utilizing both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0215] RAN 1104 may include one or more access nodes, such as AN 1108. AN 1108 can terminate the air interface protocol of UE 1102 by providing access layer protocols including Radio Resource Control (RRC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), Radio Link Control (RLC), Media Access Control (MAC), and L1 protocol. In this way, AN 1108 enables data / voice connectivity between core network (CN) 1120 and UE 1102. In some embodiments, AN 1108 may be implemented in discrete devices or as one or more software entities running on a server computer (as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a distributed RAN (CRAN) or a virtual baseband unit pool). AN 1108 may be referred to as a base station (BS), next-generation base station (gNB), RAN node, evolved Node B (eNB), next-generation eNB (ngeNB), Node B (NodeB), roadside unit (RSU), TRxP, transmit / receive point (TRP), etc. AN 1108 can be a macro cell base station or a low-power base station, used to provide micro cells, pico cells, or other similar cells with smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macro cells.

[0216] In embodiments where RAN 1104 includes multiple ANs, they can be coupled to each other via an X2 interface (if RAN 1104 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if RAN 1104 is a 5G RAN). In some embodiments, the X2 / Xn interfaces, which can be separated into control / user plane interfaces, can allow ANs to transmit and handover, data / context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, and other related information.

[0217] The AN of RAN 1104 can manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc., to provide an air interface for network access to UE 1102. UE 1102 can simultaneously connect to multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of RAN 1104. For example, UE 1102 and RAN 1104 can use carrier aggregation to allow UE 1102 to connect to multiple component carriers, each component carrier corresponding to a primary cell (Pcell) or a secondary cell (Scell). In a dual-connectivity scenario, the first AN can be the master node providing the primary cell group (MCG), and the second AN can be the auxiliary node providing the secondary cell group (SCG). The first / second AN can be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng eNB, etc.

[0218] RAN 1104 can provide an air interface on both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. To operate in unlicensed spectrum, nodes can use Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), and / or further enhanced LAA (feLAA) mechanisms based on PCell / Scell ​​carrier aggregation (CA) technology. Before accessing unlicensed spectrum, nodes can perform medium / carrier sensing operations based on, for example, a Listen-Before-Speak (LBT) protocol.

[0219] In a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenario, UE 1102 or AN 1108 can be or act as a roadside unit (RSU), which can refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU can be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE can be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by an eNB can be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by a next-generation NodeB (gNB) can be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU," and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to radio frequency circuitry located on the roadside, providing connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. 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 can provide very low-latency communication required for high-speed events such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. Alternatively or additionally, the RSU can provide other cellular / WLAN communication services. RSU components can be enclosed in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide wired connectivity (e.g., Ethernet) to traffic signal controllers or backhaul networks.

[0220] In some embodiments, RAN 1104 may be LTE RAN 1110, which includes an evolved Node B (eNB), such as eNB 1112. LTE RAN 1110 can provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: a 15kHz SCS; SC-FDMA waveforms for UL and CP-OFDM waveforms for DL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; rely on PDSCH / PDCCH demodulation reference signals (DMRS) for PDSCH / PDCCH demodulation; and rely on CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurement, and channel estimation, and rely on channel estimation for coherent demodulation / detection at the UE. The LTE air interface can operate on a sub-6GHz band.

[0221] In some embodiments, RAN 1104 may be a next-generation (NG)-RAN 1114 with a gNB (e.g., gNB 1116) or a gn-eNB (e.g., ng-eNB 1118). gNB 1116 can connect to a 5G-enabled UE using a 5G NR interface. gNB 1116 can connect to the 5G core via an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. ng-eNB 1118 can also connect to the 5G core via an NG interface, but can connect to the UE via an LTE air interface. gNB 1116 and ng-eNB 1118 can connect to each other via an Xn interface.

[0222] In some embodiments, the NG interface can be divided into two parts: the NG user plane (NG-U) interface and the NG control plane (NG-C) interface. The former carries traffic data between the nodes of UPF 1148 and NG-RAN 1114 (e.g., the N3 interface), while the latter is the signaling interface between the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 1144 and the nodes of NG-RAN 1114 (e.g., the N2 interface).

[0223] NG-RAN 1114 can provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following features: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polarity, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Müller codes for control, and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface can rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH / PDCCHDMRS similar to those of the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use CRS, but can use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for PDSCH phase tracking; and a tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface can operate on the FR1 band including the sub-6GHz band or the FR2 band including the 24.25GHz to 52.6GHz band. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB, which is an area of ​​the downlink resource grid including PSS / SSS / PBCH.

[0224] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface can use BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWPs can be used for dynamic adaptation of SCS. For instance, UE 1102 can be configured with multiple BWPs, each configured with a different SCS. When a BWP is indicated to UE 1102 for a change, the transmitted SCS also changes. Another use case for BWPs relates to power saving. Specifically, multiple BWPs with different numbers of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) can be configured for UE 1102 to support data transmission under different traffic load scenarios. A BWP containing fewer PRBs can be used for data transmission with lower traffic loads, while allowing power saving at UE 1102 and, in some cases, at gNB 1116. A BWP containing more PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic loads.

[0225] RAN 1104 is communicatively coupled to CN 1120, which includes network elements, to provide various functions supporting data and telecommunications services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 1102). Components of CN 1120 can be implemented in a single physical node or in different physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV can be used to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of CN 1120 onto physical computing / storage resources such as servers, switches, etc. A logical instance of CN 1120 can be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 1120 can be referred to as a network subslice.

[0226] In some embodiments, CN 1120 may be LTE CN 1122, or may be referred to as EPC. LTE CN 1122 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 1124, a Serving Gateway (SGW) 1126, a Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) 1128, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 1130, a Proxy Gateway (PGW) 1132, and a Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 1134, as shown in the figure. These components are coupled to each other through interfaces (or "reference points"). The functions of the elements of LTE CN 1122 can be briefly described below.

[0227] MME 1124 enables mobility management functions to track the current location of UE 1102, thereby facilitating paging, bearer activation / deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, and other functions.

[0228] The SGW 1126 can terminate the S1 interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1122. The SGW 1126 can serve as a local mobility anchor for handover between RAN nodes and can also provide anchoring for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0229] SGSN 1128 can track the location of UE 1102 and perform security functions and access control. Additionally, SGSN 1128 can perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection specified by MME 1124; MME selection for handover, etc. The S3 reference point between MME 1124 and SGSN 1128 enables the exchange of user and bearer information for 3GPP indirect network access mobility in idle / active states.

[0230] The HSS 1130 may include a database for network users, containing subscription-related information that supports network entities in handling communication sessions. The HSS 1130 can provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 1130 and the MME 1124 enables the transmission of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to the LTE CN 1120.

[0231] PGW 1132 can terminate the SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 1136, which may include an application / content server 1138. PGW 1132 can route data packets between the LTE CN 1122 and the data network 1136. PGW 1132 can be coupled to SGW 1126 via an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. PGW 1132 may also include nodes for policy enforcement and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between PGW 1132 and the data network 1136 can be, for example, an external public or private PDN or an internal packet data network for providing IMS services. PGW 1132 can be coupled to PCRF 1134 via a Gx reference point.

[0232] PCRF 1134 is the policy and charging control element of LTE CN 1122. PCRF 1134 can be communicatively coupled to application / content server 1138 to determine appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters for service flows. PCRF 1132 can provide relevant rules to PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate Service Flow Template (TFT) and QoS Class Identifier (QCI).

[0233] In some embodiments, CN 1120 may be a 5G core network (5GC) 1140. 5GC 1140 may include Authentication Server Function (AUSF) 1142, Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 1144, Session Management Function (SMF) 1146, User Plane Function (UPF) 1148, Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) 1150, Network Open Function (NEF) 1152, NF Storage Function (NRF) 1154, Policy Control Function (PCF) 1156, Unified Data Management (UDM) 1158, and Application Function (AF) 1160, as shown in the figure. These functions are coupled to each other through interfaces (or "reference points"). The functions of the components of 5GC 1140 can be briefly described below.

[0234] The AUSF 1142 can store data for UE 1102 authentication and handle authentication-related functions. The AUSF 1142 facilitates a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other components of the 5GC 1140 via a reference point, as shown in the figure, the AUSF 1142 can also demonstrate an interface based on Nausf services.

[0235] AMF 1144 allows other functions of 5GC 1140 to communicate with UE 1102 and RAN 1104 and subscribe to notifications of mobility events for UE 1102. AMF 1144 can handle registration management (e.g., registering UE 1102), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. AMF 1144 can provide the transmission of Session Management (SM) messages between UE 1102 and SMF 1146 and acts as a transparent broker for routing SM messages. AMF 1144 can also provide the transmission of SMS messages between UE 1102 and the SMSF. AMF 1144 can interact with AUSF 1142 and UE 1102 to perform various security anchoring and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 1144 can be the termination point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between RAN 1104 and AMF 1144; AMF 1144 can serve as the termination point for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection. AMF 1144 can also support NAS signaling with UE 1102 via the N3IWF interface.

[0236] SMF 1146 can be responsible for SM (e.g., tunnel management and session establishment between UPF 1148 and AN 1108); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring flow control at UPF 1148 to route traffic to appropriate destinations; termination of interfaces to policy control functions; control of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS as a part; lawful interception (for SM events and interfaces to the LI system); termination of the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information (sent to AN 1108 on N2 via AMF 1144); and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM can refer to the management of PDU sessions, and a PDU session or "session" can refer to the PDU connectivity service that provides or enables PDU exchange between UE 1102 and data network 1136.

[0237] UPF 1148 can be used as an anchor point for mobility within and between RATs, an external PDU session point interconnecting with data network 1136, and a branch point supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. UPF 1148 can also perform packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane portion of policy rules, lawful packet interception (IP collection), traffic usage reporting, QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), uplink traffic authentication (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport-level packet marking in uplink and downlink, and downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 1148 may include an uplink classifier to support traffic flow routing to the data network.

[0238] NSSF 1150 can select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 1102. If needed, NSSF 1150 can also determine the allowed network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and the mapping to the subscribed individual NSSAI (S-NSSAI). NSSF 1150 can also determine the set of AMFs to be used to serve UE 1102 based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying NRF 1154, or determine a list of candidate AMFs. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 1102 can be triggered by AMF 1144 (to which UE 1102 registers by interacting with NSSF 1150), resulting in a change of AMF. NSSF 1150 can interact with AMF 1144 via reference point N22; and can communicate with another NSSF in the access network via reference point N31 (not shown). Furthermore, NSSF 1150 can expose an interface based on NNSSF services.

[0239] The NEF 1152 can securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions to third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 1160), edge computing, or fog computing systems. In these embodiments, the NEF 1152 can authenticate, authorize, or restrict AFs. The NEF 1152 can also translate information exchanged with the AF 1160 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1152 can translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 1152 can also receive information from other NFs based on their exposed capabilities. This information can be stored as structured data at the NEF 1152 or stored at a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The NEF 1152 can then re-expose the stored information to other NFs and AFs, or use it for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 1152 can expose interfaces based on Nnef services.

[0240] NRF 1154 supports service discovery, receiving NF discovery requests from NF instances and providing information about discovered NF instances to those instances. NRF 1154 also maintains information about available NF instances and the services they support. As used herein, the terms "instantiation," "instance," etc., can refer to the creation of an instance, and an "instance" can refer to the concrete occurrence of an object, such as during program code execution. Furthermore, NRF 1154 can demonstrate interfaces based on NRF services.

[0241] The PCF 1156 can provide policy rules to control plane functions to execute them, and can also support a unified policy framework to manage network behavior. The PCF 1156 can also implement a frontend to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM 1158. In addition to communicating with functions via reference points as shown in the figure, the PCF 1156 also demonstrates an interface based on Npcf services.

[0242] UDM 1158 can process subscription-related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions and can store subscription data for UE 1102. For example, subscription data can be transmitted via the N8 reference point between UDM 1158 and AMF 1144. UDM 1158 may include two parts: an application front-end and a User Data Record (UDR). The UDR may store policy data and subscription data for UDM 1158 and PCF 1156, and / or structured data and application data for exposure (including PFD for application detection and application request information for multiple UEs 1102) for NEF 1152. UDR 221 may expose a Nudr service-based interface to allow UDM 1158, PCF 1156, and NEF 1152 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and receive notifications of relevant data changes in the subscription UDR. UDM may include UDM-FE (UDM front-end), which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. Several different front-ends can provide services to the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs via reference points as shown in the figure, the UDM 1158 can also demonstrate interfaces based on Nudm services.

[0243] The AF 1160 can provide application impact on service routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0244] In some embodiments, 5GC 1140 can enable edge computing by selecting an operator / third-party service that is geographically close to the point where UE 1102 connects to the network. This can reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge computing implementation, 5GC 1140 can select a UPF 1148 close to UE 1102 and perform traffic routing from UPF 1148 to data network 1136 via the N6 interface. This can be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by AF 1160. In this way, AF 1160 can influence UPF (re)selection and service routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 1160 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow AF 1160 to interact directly with the relevant NF. In addition, AF 1160 can expose an interface based on Naf services.

[0245] Data network 1136 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services that may be provided by one or more servers (including, for example, application / content server 1138).

[0246] Figure 12 A wireless network 1200 according to various embodiments is schematically illustrated. The wireless network 1200 may include a UE 1202 that communicates wirelessly with an AN 1204. The UE 1202 and the AN 1204 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with components of the same name described elsewhere herein.

[0247] UE 1202 can be communicatively coupled to AN 1204 via connection 1206. Connection 1206 is shown as an air interface to enable communication coupling and can be consistent with cellular communication protocols operating in millimeter wave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, such as LTE or 5G NR protocols.

[0248] UE 1202 may include a host platform 1208 coupled to a modem platform 1210. Host platform 1208 may include application processing circuitry 1212, which may be coupled to protocol processing circuitry 1214 of modem platform 1210. Application processing circuitry 1212 may run various applications for UE 1202 to process source / receive application data. Application processing circuitry 1212 may also implement one or more layer operations to send / receive application data to / from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and Internet (e.g., IP) operations.

[0249] Protocol processing circuitry 1214 can implement one or more layer operations to facilitate the transmission or reception of data via connection 1206. Layer operations implemented by protocol processing circuitry 1214 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

[0250] The modem platform 1210 may further include a digital baseband circuit 1216 that can implement one or more layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuit 1214 in the network protocol stack, which are "below" layer operations. These operations may include, for example, one or more of the following PHY operations: HARQ-ACK function, scrambling / descrambling, encoding / decoding, layer mapping / demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol / bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding / decoding. These functions may include one or more of the following: space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding, reference signal generation / detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation / detection, blind decoding of control channel signals, and other related functions.

[0251] The modem platform 1210 may further include transmitting circuitry 1218, receiving circuitry 1220, RF circuitry 1222, and RF front-end (RFFE) circuitry 1224, which may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 1226. In short, transmitting circuitry 1218 may include a digital-to-analog converter, a mixer, an intermediate frequency (IF) component, etc.; receiving circuitry 1220 may include an analog-to-digital converter, a mixer, an IF component, etc.; RF circuitry 1222 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, a power tracking component, etc.; and RFFE circuitry 1224 may include filters (e.g., surface acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of components such as the transmitting circuit 1218, the receiving circuit 1220, the RF circuit 1222, the RFFE circuit 1224, and the antenna panel 1226 (collectively referred to as the "transmit / receive assembly") can be specific to the details of a particular implementation, such as whether the communication is time division multiplexing (TDM) or frequency division multiplexing (FDM), at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit / receive assembly can be arranged in multiple parallel transmit / receive chains and can be arranged in the same or different chips / modules, etc.

[0252] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuit 1214 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmitting / receiving components.

[0253] UE reception can be established via and through antenna panel 1226, RFFE circuit 1224, RF circuit 1222, receiving circuit 1220, digital baseband circuit 1216, and protocol processing circuit 1214. In some embodiments, antenna panel 1226 can receive transmissions from AN 1204 by receiving beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas / antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 1226.

[0254] UE transmission can be established via and through protocol processing circuitry 1214, digital baseband circuitry 1216, transmission circuitry 1218, RF circuitry 1222, RFFE circuitry 1224, and antenna panel 1226. In some embodiments, the transmission component of UE 1204 can apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmission beam transmitted by the antenna elements of antenna panel 1226.

[0255] Similar to UE 1202, AN 1204 may include a host platform 1228 coupled to modem platform 1230. Host platform 1228 may include application processing circuitry 1232 coupled to protocol processing circuitry 1234 of modem platform 1230. Modem platform may also include digital baseband circuitry 1236, transmit circuitry 1238, receive circuitry 1240, RF circuitry 1242, RFFE circuitry 1244, and antenna panel 1246. Components of AN 1204 may be similar to their namesake components in UE 1202 and are substantially interchangeable with those in UE 1202. In addition to performing data transmission / reception as described above, components of AN 1208 may also perform various logical functions, including, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[0256] Figure 13 This is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any or more methods discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. Specifically, Figure 13 A schematic diagram of hardware resource 1300 is shown, which includes one or more processors (or processor cores) 1310, one or more memory / storage devices 1320, and one or more communication resources 1330, wherein each of these processors, memory / storage devices, and communication resources can be communicatively coupled via bus 1340 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)), a hypervisor 1302 can be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / subslices to utilize hardware resource 1300.

[0257] Processor 1310 may include, for example, processor 1312 and processor 1314. Processor 1310 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 digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0258] The memory / storage device 1320 may include main memory, disk storage devices, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1320 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-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 memory, etc.

[0259] Communication resource 1330 may include an interconnect or network interface controller, component, or other suitable device for communicating with one or more peripheral devices 1304 or one or more databases 1306 or other network elements via network 1308. For example, communication resource 1330 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, near field communication (NFC) components, etc. (or Low-energy components Components and other communication components.

[0260] Instruction 1350 may include software, a program, application program, applet, or other executable code for causing at least any one of processors 1310 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. Instruction 1350 may reside wholly or partially within processor 1310 (e.g., in the processor's cache), memory / storage device 1320, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of instruction 1350 may be transferred from any combination of peripheral device 1304 or database 1306 to hardware resource 1300. Therefore, the memory of processor 1310, memory / storage device 1320, peripheral device 1304, and database 1306 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0261] The following paragraphs describe examples of various embodiments.

[0262] Example 1 includes an apparatus for use in a UE, comprising: a radio frequency (RF) interface; and processor circuitry coupled to the RF interface, the processor circuitry: receiving downlink control information (DCI) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) via the RF interface, wherein the DCI is configured to schedule a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on two cells, and, based on the DCI, receiving downlink information on the PDSCH or transmitting uplink information on the PUSCH via the RF interface on the two cells.

[0263] Example 2 includes the apparatus described in Example 1, wherein the DCI includes one or more information fields that are indicated only once for the two cells.

[0264] Example 3 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein, when the DCI is configured to schedule PDSCHs on the two cells, the DCI includes a PDSCH-to-HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request)_feedback timing indicator field indicating the time for sending HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCHs on the two cells, and the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field is defined relative to the last symbol of the latter terminating PDSCH on the two cells.

[0265] Example 4 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the DCI includes a New Data Indicator (NDI) field and a Redundancy Version (RV) field, both of which are indicated for each Transport Block (TB). The NDI field indicates whether the TB is being retransmitted or being transmitted for the first time, and the RV field indicates a redundant version of the encoding format used for the TB.

[0266] Example 5 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the DCI includes a modulation coding scheme (MCS) field indicating the modulation order for the PDSCH or PUSCH on the two cells.

[0267] Example 6 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the DCI includes a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field and a differential value field, the MCS field indicating the modulation order of the PDSCH or PUSCH for one of the two cells, and the differential value field indicating a differential value, wherein the MCS information for the other of the two cells is derived based on the differential value and in combination with the MCS field.

[0268] Example 7 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the DCI includes a Transmission Configuration Index (TCI) field indicating the transmit configuration state for the two cells, wherein: when a single TCI state is configured for a first value of the TCI field, the TCI state is applied to the two cells; when two TCI states are configured for a second value of the TCI field, the two TCI states are respectively applied to the two cells; when three TCI states are configured for a third value of the TCI field, one of the three TCI states is applied to one of the two cells, and the other two of the three TCI states are applied to the other of the two cells; when four TCI states are configured for a fourth value of the TCI field, two of the four TCI states are applied to one of the two cells, and the other two of the four TCI states are applied to the other of the two cells.

[0269] Example 8 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the DCI includes a BWP indicator field that indicates the active bandwidth portion (BWP) on the two cells according to one or more of the following limitations: a dormant BWP on one of the two cells is indicated together with a non-dormant BWP on the other of the two cells; a default BWP on one of the two cells is indicated together with a non-default BWP on the other of the two cells; and the BWPs on the two cells use the same subcarrier spacing.

[0270] Example 9 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the DCI includes two Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) fields, each FDRA field indicating frequency resources on the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of one of the two cells, and the two FDRA fields are configured to be the same FDRA type or two different FDRA types.

[0271] Example 10 includes the apparatus described in Example 9, wherein the two different FDRA types include FDRA type 0 and FDRA type 1, wherein FDRA type 1 indicates a larger number of physical resource libraries (PRBs) than FDRA 0.

[0272] Example 11 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the DCI includes a Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field indicating time domain resources on the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of the two cells.

[0273] Example 12 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the DCI includes two Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) fields, each TDRA field indicating time domain resources on the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of one of the two cells.

[0274] Example 13 includes the apparatus of Example 2, wherein, when the deviation between the DCI and the reception of PDSCH on one of the two cells is less than a threshold duration, or when the DCI does not include a Transmission Configuration Index (TCI) field indicating one or more transmit configuration states for the cell, the default TCI state for the PDSCH on the cell is determined to be one of the following states: an active TCI state with the minimum ID that can be used for the PDSCH in the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of the cell; an active TCI state with the minimum ID that can be used for the PDSCH in the active BWP of the reference serving cell; or one or more reference signals (RSs) for one or more quasi-co-address (QCL) parameters for a PDCCH quasi-co-address indication associated with a control resource set associated with a monitored search space, the control resource set being monitored by the UE in the latest time slot of one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the cell. A control resource set with a minimum control resource set ID; one or more reference signals (RSs) for one or more quasi-co-address (QCL) parameters of a control resource set for a control resource set associated with a monitored search space, wherein the control resource set is the control resource set with the minimum control resource set ID in the latest timeslot of one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the UE monitoring the reference serving cell; and for a PDSCH on a scheduling cell transmitting the DCI, an active TCI state with the minimum ID that can be used for a PDSCH in the active BWP of the scheduling cell, or for a PDSCH on a scheduled cell, one or more RSs for one or more QCL parameters of a control resource set for a control resource set associated with a monitored search, wherein the control resource set is the control resource set with the minimum control resource set ID in the latest timeslot of one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the cell monitored by the UE.

[0275] Example 14 includes the apparatus described in Example 2, wherein the processor circuitry further: transmits HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells via the RF interface, based on the transmission mode of the PDSCH on the two cells, wherein the PDSCH on the two cells is transmitted by transmission based on transport block (TB) or transmission based on code block group (CBG).

[0276] Example 15 includes the apparatus described in Example 14, wherein, for a PDSCH on one of the two cells, a higher-layer signaling configuration is used to apply either the TB-based transmission or the CBG-based transmission to that PDSCH.

[0277] Example 16 includes the apparatus described in Example 14, wherein a transport block (TB) scheduled by the DCI is jointly carried on the PDSCH or PUSCH of the two cells.

[0278] Example 17 includes the apparatus described in Example 16, wherein the DCI includes a counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) field indicating the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of the HARQ feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for the other scheduled PDSCH.

[0279] Example 18 includes the apparatus described in Example 16, wherein the processor circuitry further: determines, based on a reference serving cell index, the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback on the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook.

[0280] Example 19 includes the apparatus described in Example 18, wherein the reference serving cell index is the lower of the two cell indices, or the index of the scheduling cell that sends the DCI, or is configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0281] Example 20 includes the apparatus described in Example 14, wherein a transport block (TB) scheduled by the DCI is carried on a PDSCH or PUSCH in one of the two cells.

[0282] Example 21 includes the apparatus described in Example 20, wherein the DCI includes a counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) field that indicates the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of the HARQ feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for the other scheduled PDSCH.

[0283] Example 22 includes the apparatus described in Example 20, wherein the DCI includes a Total Downlink Allocation Index (T-DAI) field that indicates the total number of PDCCHs sent by the scheduling cell that sent the DCI up to the PDCCH that sent the DCI.

[0284] Example 23 includes the apparatus described in Example 20, wherein the DCI includes two counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) fields, each C-DAI field indicating the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of the HARQ feedback for the PDSCH on one of the two cells relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for the other scheduled PDSCH.

[0285] Example 24 includes the apparatus described in Example 20, wherein the DCI includes two Total Downlink Allocation Index (T-DAI) fields, each T-DAI field indicating the total number of PDCCHs sent by the scheduling cell that sent the DCI up to the PDCCH that sent the DCI.

[0286] Example 25 includes the apparatus described in Example 20, wherein the processor circuitry further: for a PDSCH on one of the two cells, based on a reference serving cell index, determines the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for that PDSCH in the HARQ-ACK codebook.

[0287] Example 26 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the processor circuitry further: determines, based on a serving cell index, the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook, wherein consecutive HARQ-ACK bits indicating the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells are located at the position determined based on the reference serving cell index.

[0288] Example 27 includes the apparatus described in Example 25 or 26, wherein the reference serving cell index is the lower of the two cell indices, the index of the scheduling cell that sends the DCI, or is configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0289] Example 28 includes the apparatus described in Example 25 or 26, wherein the number of HARQ-ACK bits for PDSCH on the two cells is equal to the number of HARQ-ACK bits for PDSCH scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling.

[0290] Example 29 includes the apparatus described in Example 25 or 26, wherein the number of HARQ-ACK bits for PDSCH on the two cells is twice the number of HARQ-ACK bits for PDSCH scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling.

[0291] Example 30 includes the apparatus described in Example 14, wherein the same TB or CBG number configuration is applied to the PDSCH or PUSCH on the two cells.

[0292] Example 31 includes the apparatus described in Example 14, wherein different TB or CBG number configurations are applied to the PDSCH or PUSCH on the two cells.

[0293] Example 32 includes the apparatus described in Example 14, wherein a transport block (TB) scheduled by the DCI is carried on each PDSCH or PUSCH of the two cells.

[0294] Example 33 includes the apparatus described in Example 32, wherein the same TB configured by dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling is carried on each PDSCH or PUSCH of the two cells.

[0295] Example 34 includes the apparatus described in Example 31, wherein the processor circuitry further: when either of the two cells' PDSCHs is successfully received, sends an affirmative HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCHs on both cells; and when neither of the two cells' PDSCHs is successfully received, sends a negative HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCHs on both cells.

[0296] Example 35 includes the apparatus of Example 31, wherein the DCI indicates K1-slot offset and start and length indication value (SLIV) via the Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field of the DCI for the last PDSCH of the two cells.

[0297] Example 36 includes the apparatus described in Example 35, wherein the earliest symbol of the PUCCH or PUSCH carrying HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells is not earlier than T symbols starting from the end of the latter PDSCH on the two cells, wherein the duration of the T symbols is determined based on the minimum time for the UE to process the PDSCH on one of the two cells.

[0298] Example 37 includes the apparatus described in Example 35, wherein the processor circuitry further: for a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook (CB), based on the K1-slot offset and SLIV indicated by the TDRA field of the PDSCH or the PDSCH on the reference serving cell in the DCI for the latter of the two cells, wherein the reference serving cell is one of the two cells with a lower index or configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0299] Example 38 includes the apparatus described in Example 32, wherein the DCI includes a Counter Downlink Allocation (C-DAI) field and a Total DAI (T-DAI) field, the C-DAI field indicating the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of HARQ feedback for PDSCHs on the two cells relative to HARQ-ACK feedback for other scheduled PDSCHs, and the T-DAI field indicating the total number of PDCCHs sent by the scheduling cell that sent the DCI up to the PDCCH that sent the DCI.

[0300] Example 39 includes the apparatus described in Example 38, wherein the processor circuitry further: for a dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook (CB), based on the C-DAI field and the T-DAI field, determines the location of HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells.

[0301] Example 40 includes a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive downlink control information (DCI) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) via an RF interface, wherein the DCI is configured to schedule a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on two cells; and, based on the DCI, receive downlink information on the PDSCH or transmit uplink information on the PUSCH on the two cells via the RF interface.

[0302] Example 41 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 40, wherein the DCI includes one or more information fields that are indicated only once for the two cells.

[0303] Example 42 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein, when the DCI is configured to schedule PDSCHs on the two cells, the DCI includes a PDSCH-to-HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) feedback timing indicator field indicating the time for sending HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCHs on the two cells, and the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator field is defined relative to the last symbol of the latter terminating PDSCH on the two cells.

[0304] Example 43 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 41, wherein the DCI includes a New Data Indicator (NDI) field and a Redundancy Version (RV) field, both of which are indicated for each Transport Block (TB), the NDI field indicating whether the TB is being retransmitted or being transmitted for the first time, and the RV field indicating a redundant version of the encoding format used for the TB.

[0305] Example 44 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein the DCI includes a modulation coding scheme (MCS) field indicating the modulation order for the PDSCH or PUSCH on the two cells.

[0306] Example 45 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein the DCI includes a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field and a differential value field, the MCS field indicating the modulation order of the PDSCH or PUSCH for one of the two cells, and the differential value field indicating a differential value, wherein the MCS information for the other of the two cells is derived based on the differential value and in combination with the MCS field.

[0307] Example 46 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein the DCI includes a Transmission Configuration Index (TCI) field indicating a transmit configuration state for the two cells, wherein: when a single TCI state is configured for a first value of the TCI field, the TCI state is applied to the two cells; when two TCI states are configured for a second value of the TCI field, the two TCI states are respectively applied to the two cells; when three TCI states are configured for a third value of the TCI field, one of the three TCI states is applied to one of the two cells, and the other two of the three TCI states are applied to the other of the two cells; when four TCI states are configured for a fourth value of the TCI field, two of the four TCI states are applied to one of the two cells, and the other two of the four TCI states are applied to the other of the two cells.

[0308] Example 47 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein the DCI includes a BWP indicator field that indicates the active bandwidth portion (BWP) on the two cells according to one or more of the following limitations: a dormant BWP on one of the two cells is indicated together with a non-dormant BWP on the other of the two cells; a default BWP on one of the two cells is indicated together with a non-default BWP on the other of the two cells; and the BWPs on the two cells use the same subcarrier spacing.

[0309] Example 48 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein the DCI includes two Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) fields, each FDRA field indicating frequency resources on the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of one of the two cells, and the two FDRA fields are configured to be the same FDRA type or two different FDRA types.

[0310] Example 49 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 48, wherein the two different FDRA types include FDRA type 0 and FDRA type 1, wherein FDRA type 1 indicates a larger number of physical resource libraries (PRBs) than FDRA 0.

[0311] Example 50 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein the DCI includes a Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field indicating time domain resources on the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of the two cells.

[0312] Example 51 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein the DCI includes two Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) fields, each TDRA field indicating time domain resources on the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of one of the two cells.

[0313] Example 52 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein, when the deviation between the DCI and the reception of PDSCH on one of the two cells is less than a threshold duration, or when the DCI does not include a Transmission Configuration Index (TCI) field indicating one or more transmit configuration states for the cell, the default TCI state for the PDSCH on the cell is determined to be one of the following states: an active TCI state with the smallest ID that can be used for the PDSCH in the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of the cell; an active TCI state with the smallest ID that can be used for the PDSCH in the active BWP of the reference serving cell; or one or more reference signals (RSs) for one or more quasi-co-address (QCL) parameters for a control resource set associated with a monitored search space, the control resource set being the latest one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the cell monitored by the UE. The control resource set with the lowest control resource set ID in the time slot; one or more reference signals (RS) for one or more quasi-co-address (QCL) parameters of the PDCCH quasi-co-address indication for the control resource set associated with the monitored search space, the control resource set being the control resource set with the lowest control resource set ID in the latest time slot of one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the reference serving cell monitored by the UE; and for the PDSCH on the scheduling cell transmitting the DCI, the active TCI state with the lowest ID that can be used for the PDSCH in the active BWP of the scheduling cell, or for the PDSCH on a scheduled cell, one or more RS for one or more QCL parameters of the PDCCH quasi-co-address indication for the control resource set associated with the monitored search, the control resource set being the control resource set with the lowest control resource set ID in the latest time slot of one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the cell monitored by the UE.

[0314] Example 53 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 41, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the one or more processors to further: transmit HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells via the RF interface, based on the transmission mode of the PDSCH on the two cells, wherein the PDSCH on the two cells is transmitted by transmission based on transport block (TB) or transmission based on code block group (CBG).

[0315] Example 54 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 53, wherein, for a PDSCH on one of the two cells, a higher-layer signaling configuration is used to apply either the TB-based transmission or the CBG-based transmission to that PDSCH.

[0316] Example 55 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 54, wherein a transport block (TB) scheduled by the DCI is jointly carried on the PDSCH or PUSCH of the two cells.

[0317] Example 56 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 55, wherein the DCI includes a counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) field indicating the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of the HARQ feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for the other scheduled PDSCH.

[0318] Example 57 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 54, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the one or more processors to further: determine, based on a reference serving cell index, the location of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook.

[0319] Example 58 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 57, wherein the reference serving cell index is the lower of the two cell indices, or the index of the scheduling cell that sends the DCI, or is configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0320] Example 59 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 53, wherein a transport block (TB) scheduled by the DCI is carried on a PDSCH or PUSCH in one of the two cells.

[0321] Example 60 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 59, wherein the DCI includes a counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) field that indicates the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of the HARQ feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for the other scheduled PDSCH.

[0322] Example 61 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 59, wherein the DCI includes a Total Downlink Allocation Index (T-DAI) field that indicates the total number of PDCCHs sent by the scheduling cell that sent the DCI up to the PDCCH that sent the DCI.

[0323] Example 62 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 59, wherein the DCI includes two counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) fields, each C-DAI field indicating the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of the HARQ feedback for the PDSCH on one of the two cells relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for the other scheduled PDSCH.

[0324] Example 63 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 59, wherein the DCI includes two Total Downlink Allocation Index (T-DAI) fields, each T-DAI field indicating the total number of PDCCHs sent by the scheduling cell that sent the DCI up to the PDCCH that sent the DCI.

[0325] Example 64 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 59, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to further: for a PDSCH on one of the two cells, determine the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for that PDSCH in the HARQ-ACK codebook based on a reference serving cell index.

[0326] Example 65 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 59, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the one or more processors to further: determine, based on a serving cell index, the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook, wherein consecutive HARQ-ACK bits indicating the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells are located at the position determined based on the reference serving cell index.

[0327] Example 66 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 64 or 65, wherein the reference serving cell index is the lower of the two cell indices, the index of the scheduling cell that sends the DCI, or is configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0328] Example 67 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 64 or 65, wherein the number of HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH on the two cells is equal to the number of HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI for single-cell scheduling.

[0329] Example 68 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 64 or 65, wherein the number of HARQ-ACK bits for PDSCH on the two cells is twice the number of HARQ-ACK bits for PDSCH scheduled by DCI for single-cell scheduling.

[0330] Example 69 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 53, wherein the same TB or CBG number configuration is applied to the PDSCH or PUSCH on the two cells.

[0331] Example 70 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 53, wherein different TB or CBG number configurations are applied to the PDSCH or PUSCH on the two cells.

[0332] Example 71 includes the computer-readable storage medium described in Example 53, wherein a transport block (TB) scheduled by the DCI is carried on each PDSCH or PUSCH of the two cells.

[0333] Example 72 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 71, wherein the same TB configured by dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling is carried on each PDSCH or PUSCH of the two cells.

[0334] Example 73 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 72, wherein, when the instructions are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more processors further: when either of the two PDSCHs is successfully received, send a positive HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCHs of the two cells; and when neither of the two PDSCHs is successfully received, send a negative HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCHs of the two cells.

[0335] Example 74 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 72, wherein the DCI indicates K1-slot offset and start and length indication value (SLIV) via the time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field of the DCI for the latter end of the two cells.

[0336] Example 75 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 74, wherein the earliest symbol of the PUCCH or PUSCH carrying HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells is not earlier than T symbols starting from the end of the latter PDSCH on the two cells, wherein the duration of the T symbols is determined based on the minimum time for the UE to process the PDSCH on one of the two cells.

[0337] Example 76 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 74, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the one or more processors to further: for a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook (CB), determine the location of HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells based on the K1-slot offset and SLIV indicated by the TDRA field of the PDSCH on the latter of the two cells or the PDSCH on the reference serving cell, wherein the reference serving cell is one of the two cells with a lower index or configured by higher-layer signaling.

[0338] Example 77 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 74, wherein the DCI includes a Counter Downlink Allocation (C-DAI) field and a Total DAI (T-DAI) field, the C-DAI field indicating the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of HARQ feedback for PDSCHs on the two cells relative to HARQ-ACK feedback for other scheduled PDSCHs, and the T-DAI field indicating the total number of PDCCHs sent by the scheduling cell that sent the DCI up to the PDCCH that sent the DCI.

[0339] Example 78 includes the computer-readable storage medium of Example 71, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the one or more processors to further: for a dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook (CB), determine the location of HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells based on the C-DAI field and the T-DAI field.

[0340] While certain embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description, various alternative and / or equivalent embodiments or implementations that achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the illustrated and described embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein. Therefore, the embodiments described herein are clearly limited only by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An apparatus for use in a user equipment (UE), comprising: Radio frequency (RF) interface; as well as A processor circuit coupled to the RF interface, the processor circuit being used for: Downlink control information (DCI) is received on the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) via the RF interface, wherein the DCI is configured to schedule the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on two cells. Based on the DCI, in the two cells, downlink information is received on the PDSCH via the RF interface, or uplink information is sent on the PUSCH. Wherein, when the DCI is configured to schedule PDSCH on the two cells, the DCI includes a PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field, the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field indicating the time for sending HARQ feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells, and the value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field is defined relative to the last symbol of the last PDSCH that ends on the two cells.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, The DCI includes a New Data Indicator (NDI) field and a Redundancy Version (RV) field, which are indicated for each Transport Block (TB). The NDI field indicates whether the TB is being retransmitted or being transmitted for the first time, and the RV field indicates a redundant version of the encoding format used for the TB.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, The DCI includes a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field and a differential value field. The MCS field indicates the modulation order of the PDSCH or PUSCH for one of the two cells, and the differential value field indicates the differential value. The MCS information for the PDSCH or PUSCH for the other of the two cells is derived based on the differential value and in combination with the MCS field.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, The DCI includes a Transmission Configuration Index (TCI) field that indicates one or more transmit configuration states for the two cells, wherein: When a single TCI state is configured for the first value of the TCI field, the TCI state is applied to the two cells. When two TCI states are configured for the second value of the TCI field, the two TCI states are applied to the two cells respectively. When three TCI states are configured for the third value of the TCI field, one of the three TCI states is applied to one of the two cells, and the other two of the three TCI states are applied to the other of the two cells. When four TCI states are configured for the fourth value of the TCI field, two of the four TCI states are applied to one of the two cells, and the other two of the four TCI states are applied to the other of the two cells.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, The DCI includes a Bandwidth Part (BWP) indicator field, which indicates the active BWP on the two cells according to one or more of the following limitations: The dormant BWP on one of the two cells is indicated together with the non-dormant BWP on the other of the two cells. The default BWP on one of the two cells is indicated together with the non-default BWP on the other of the two cells, and The BWPs on the two cells use the same subcarrier spacing.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, The DCI includes two Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) fields, each FDRA field indicating the frequency resources on the Active Bandwidth Part (BWP) of one of the two cells, and the two FDRA fields are configured to be the same FDRA type or two different FDRA types.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, The DCI includes a Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field that indicates the time domain resources on the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of the two cells.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, When the deviation between the DCI and the reception of PDSCH on one of the two cells is less than a threshold duration, or when the DCI does not include a Transmission Configuration Index (TCI) field indicating one or more transmit configuration states for the cell, the default TCI state for PDSCH on the cell is determined to be one of the following states: The active TCI state with the smallest ID that can be used in the PDSCH of the active bandwidth portion (BWP) of the cell. The activation TCI state with the smallest ID that can be used in the activation BWP of the reference serving cell. One or more reference signals (RS) for one or more quasi-co-address (QCL) parameters used for the PDCCH quasi-co-address indication of a control resource set associated with a monitored search space, wherein the control resource set is the control resource set with the lowest control resource set ID in the latest time slot of one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the cell monitored by the UE. One or more reference signals (RS) for one or more quasi-co-address (QCL) parameters used for the PDCCH quasi-co-address indication of a control resource set associated with the monitored search space, wherein the control resource set is the control resource set with the lowest control resource set ID in the latest time slot of one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the UE monitoring reference serving cell, and For the PDSCH on the scheduling cell that transmits the DCI, the active TCI state with the lowest ID that can be used in the active BWP of the scheduling cell, or for the PDSCH on a scheduled cell, one or more RSs for one or more QCL parameters for the PDCCH quasi-co-address indication of the control resource set associated with the monitored search space, the control resource set being the control resource set with the lowest control resource set ID in the latest slot of one or more control resource sets in the active BWP of the UE monitoring the serving cell.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, The processor circuit is also used for: HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells is sent via the RF interface based on the transmission mode of the PDSCH on the two cells, wherein the PDSCH on the two cells is transmitted by transmission based on transport block (TB) or transmission based on code block group (CBG).

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein, For the PDSCH on one of the two cells, configure the higher-layer signaling to apply either the TB-based transmission or the CBG-based transmission to that PDSCH.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein, A transport block (TB) scheduled by the DCI is jointly carried on the PDSCH or PUSCH of the two cells.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein, The DCI includes a counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) field to indicate the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for other scheduled PDSCHs.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein, The processor circuit is also used for: Based on the reference serving cell index, the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells is determined in the HARQ-ACK codebook.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein, A transport block (TB) scheduled by the DCI is carried on the PDSCH or PUSCH of one of the two cells.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein, The DCI includes a counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) field to indicate the position of the HARQ feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for other scheduled PDSCHs.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein, The DCI includes a Total Downlink Allocation Index (T-DAI) field to indicate the total number of PDCCHs sent by the scheduling cell that sent the DCI up to the PDCCH that sent the DCI.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein, The DCI includes two counter downlink allocation index (C-DAI) fields, each C-DAI field indicating the position in the HARQ-ACK codebook of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on one of the two cells relative to the HARQ-ACK feedback for the other scheduled PDSCH.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein, The processor circuit is also used for: For the PDSCH on one of the two cells, the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for that PDSCH in the HARQ-ACK codebook is determined based on the reference serving cell index.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein, The processor circuit is also used for: Based on the reference serving cell index, the position of the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells in the HARQ-ACK codebook is determined, wherein consecutive HARQ-ACK bits indicating the HARQ-ACK feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells are located at the position determined based on the reference serving cell index.

20. The apparatus of any one of claims 13, 18, and 19, wherein, The reference serving cell index is the lower of the two cell indices, the index of the scheduling cell that sent the DCI, or configured by higher-layer signaling.

21. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein, The same configuration regarding the number of TBs or CBGs is applied to the PDSCH or PUSCH on both cells.

22. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: Downlink control information (DCI) is received on the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) via the RF interface, whereby... The DCI is configured to schedule either the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) or the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on two cells; and Based on the DCI, in the two cells, downlink information is received on the PDSCH via the RF interface, or uplink information is sent on the PUSCH. Wherein, when the DCI is configured to schedule PDSCH on the two cells, the DCI includes a PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field indicating the time for sending Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback for the PDSCH on the two cells, and the value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field is defined relative to the last symbol of the latter terminating PDSCH on the two cells.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein, The DCI includes a New Data Indicator (NDI) field and a Redundancy Version (RV) field, which are indicated for each Transport Block (TB). The NDI field indicates whether the TB is being retransmitted or being transmitted for the first time, and the RV field indicates a redundant version of the encoding format used for the TB.

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