Enhancements to the frequency domain resource allocation scheme for the physical uplink shared channel in NR unlicensed

Abstract

The present invention discloses an apparatus, system and method for providing a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use in an unlicensed spectrum. A wireless device may determine a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use in uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum. The wireless device may receive information indicating frequency domain resource allocation for uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum according to the frequency domain resource allocation scheme. The wireless device may perform uplink communications using the indicated frequency domain resource allocation.

Description

[0001] Priority information

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62 / 842,432, filed on May 2, 2019, entitled “ENHANCEMENTS OF FREQUENCY DOMAIN RESOURCE ALLOCATION SCHEMES FOR PHYSICAL UPLINK SHARED CHANNEL IN NR-UNLICENSED,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully and completely set forth herein. Technical Field

[0003] The present application relates to wireless devices, and more particularly to apparatus, systems and methods for providing a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use in an unlicensed spectrum in a wireless communication system.

[0004] Related technical description

[0005] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In recent years, wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers have become increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting phone calls, many mobile devices now also provide access to the Internet, email, text messaging, and navigation using the Global Positioning System (GPS), and are capable of operating sophisticated applications that utilize these capabilities. In addition, there are many different wireless communication technologies and wireless communication standards. Some examples of wireless communication standards include GSM, UMTS (e.g., associated with WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, Advanced LTE (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN or Wi-Fi), BLUETOOTH (Broadband Wi-Fi), and LTE-A. TM wait.

[0006] The introduction of an ever-increasing number of features and functions in wireless communication devices also requires continuous improvements in wireless communications and improvements in wireless communication devices. In order to increase coverage and better serve the increased demand and range of intended uses of wireless communications, in addition to the above-mentioned communication standards, there are wireless communication technologies being developed, including fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) communications. Therefore, there is a need for improvements in the field of supporting such development and design. Summary of the invention

[0007] Embodiments are directed to apparatus, systems, and methods for providing a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use in an unlicensed spectrum in a wireless communication system.

[0008] According to the techniques described herein, a wireless device (e.g., a cellular base station or a user equipment device) may determine a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum, which frequency domain resource allocation scheme may be from a plurality of possible frequency domain resource allocation schemes, such as a bitmap-based scheme or a resource indication value-based scheme. The wireless device may determine which scheme is being used and various parameters of the scheme based on higher layer signaling received from the cellular network to which it is attached and / or based on any of a variety of other possible considerations.

[0009] Once the wireless device has determined a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for uplink communication in an unlicensed spectrum, the wireless device may receive information indicating frequency domain resource allocation for uplink communication in the unlicensed spectrum according to the determined frequency domain resource allocation scheme. Based on the information, the wireless device may be able to determine which frequency domain resources are allocated to the wireless device for uplink transmission in the unlicensed spectrum, and may be able to use the allocated frequency domain resources to perform uplink transmission.

[0010] The techniques described herein may be implemented in and / or used with a number of different types of devices, including, but not limited to, any of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned air controllers (UACs), cellular telephones, tablet computers, wearable computing devices, portable media players, automobiles and / or motor vehicles, and various other computing devices.

[0011] This disclosure is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the topics described in this document. Therefore, it should be understood that the above features are only examples and should not be construed as narrowing the scope or essence of the topics described herein in any way. Other features, aspects and advantages of the topics described herein will become apparent through the following detailed description, drawings and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] A better understanding of the present subject matter may be obtained when the following detailed description of various embodiments is considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

[0013] Figure 1 illustrating an exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments;

[0014] Figure 2 illustrates a base station (BS) in communication with a user equipment (UE) device according to some embodiments;

[0015] Figure 3 An exemplary block diagram of a UE according to some embodiments is shown;

[0016] Figure 4illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a BS according to some embodiments;

[0017] Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a cellular communication circuit according to some embodiments;

[0018] Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a network element according to some embodiments;

[0019] Figure 7 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of an exemplary frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use in an unlicensed spectrum in a wireless communication system according to some embodiments;

[0020] Figure 8 is a table illustrating a set of possible interleaving allocation configurations according to some embodiments;

[0021] Fig. 9 is a table illustrating a possible set of resource indication values ​​that may be configured to indicate a staggered allocation according to some embodiments;

[0022] Fig.10 shows an example of possible frequency domain resource allocation for staggered based PUSCH transmission according to some embodiments;

[0023] Fig.11 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a wireless communication system according to some embodiments;

[0024] Fig.12 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a system including a first cellular core network according to some embodiments;

[0025] Fig.13 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a system including a second cellular core network according to some embodiments;

[0026] Fig.14 illustrates examples of infrastructure equipment according to some embodiments;

[0027] Fig.15 illustrates an example of a platform or device according to some embodiments;

[0028] Fig.16 illustrates exemplary components of a baseband circuit and a radio front end module according to some embodiments;

[0029] Fig.17 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device according to some embodiments;

[0030] Fig.18 illustrates components of a core network according to some embodiments;

[0031] Fig.19 is a block diagram illustrating components that may support network virtualization functionality of a system according to some embodiments; and

[0032] Fig. 20 is a block diagram illustrating components that may be capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium and performing any one or more of the methods described herein, according to some embodiments.

[0033] Although the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereof are not intended to limit this document to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, their purpose is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives that fall within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] Acronyms

[0035] Various acronyms are used throughout this disclosure. The definitions of the most prominent acronyms used that may appear throughout this disclosure are as follows:

[0036] 3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Project

[0037] 4G: Fourth Generation

[0038] 5G: Fifth Generation

[0039] Rel: version

[0040] NW:Network

[0041] RF: Radio Frequency

[0042] UE: User Equipment

[0043] BS: Base Station

[0044] gNB: Next Generation Node B

[0045] GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

[0046] UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

[0047] LTE: Long Term Evolution

[0048] NR: New Radio

[0049] NR-U: NR unlicensed

[0050] RAT: Radio Access Technology

[0051] TX: Transmit / Transmit

[0052] RX: Receive / Receive

[0053] UL: Uplink

[0054] DL: Downlink

[0055] CORESET: Control resource set

[0056] LBT: Listen before speaking

[0057] MCOT: Maximum Channel Occupancy Time

[0058] CWS: Contention Window Size

[0059] HARQ: Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

[0060] ACK: Acknowledgement

[0061] NACK: Negative Acknowledgement

[0062] the term

[0063] The following is a glossary of terms used in this disclosure:

[0064] Memory medium - any of various types of non-transitory memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory medium" is intended to include installation media, such as CD-ROM, floppy disk or tape devices; computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory such as flash memory, magnetic media, for example, hard disk drive or optical storage device; registers or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium may also include other types of non-transitory memory or their combination. In addition, the memory medium may be located in the first computer system executing the program, or may be located in a different second computer system connected to the first computer system through a network such as the Internet. In the latter case, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer for execution. The term "memory medium" may include two or more memory media that may reside in different locations in different computer systems connected, for example, through a network. The memory medium may store program instructions (e.g., expressed as a computer program) that can be executed by one or more processors.

[0065] Carrier Medium—storage media as described above, and physical transmission media such as a bus, network, and / or other physical transmission media that transport signals such as electrical, electromagnetic or digital signals.

[0066] Programmable hardware element - includes various hardware devices that include multiple programmable function blocks connected via programmable interconnects. Examples include FPGA (field programmable gate array), PLD (programmable logic device), FPOA (field programmable object array), and CPLD (complex PLD). Programmable function blocks can vary from fine-grained (combinational logic unit or lookup table) to coarse-grained (arithmetic logic unit or processor core). Programmable hardware elements may also be referred to as "configurable logic units".

[0067] Computer System - Any of various types of computing or processing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), a mainframe computer system, a workstation, a network appliance, an Internet appliance, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a television system, a grid computing system, or other devices or combinations of devices. In general, the term "computer system" can be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combination of devices) having at least one processor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

[0068] User Equipment (UE) (or "UE device") - any of various types of computer systems or devices that are mobile or portable and that perform wireless communications. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smart phones (e.g., iPhone TM , based on Android TM phones), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS TM , PlayStation Portable TM 、Gameboy Advance TM , iPhone TM ), laptops, wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses), PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, other handheld devices, automobiles and / or motor vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (e.g., drones), UAV controllers (UACs), etc. In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" can be broadly defined to cover any electronic device, computing device, and / or telecommunication device (or combination of these devices) that is easily transportable by a user and capable of wireless communication.

[0069] Wireless Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform wireless communications. A wireless device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed at a certain location. A UE is an example of a wireless device.

[0070] Communication device - any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communication, where the communication may be wired or wireless. A communication device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed at a location. A wireless device is an example of a communication device. A UE is another example of a communication device.

[0071] Base Station—The term “base station” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station that is installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone system or radio system.

[0072] Processing element (or processor) - refers to various elements or combinations of elements that are capable of performing functions in a device such as user equipment or cellular network equipment. Processing elements may include, for example, processors and associated memory, portions or circuits of individual processor cores, entire processor cores, separate processors, processor arrays, circuits such as ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), programmable hardware elements such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and any of the above combinations.

[0073] Channel - a medium used to transmit information from a sender (transmitter) to a receiver. It should be noted that since the characteristics of the term "channel" may vary according to different wireless protocols, the term "channel" used in the present invention may be considered to be used in a manner that conforms to the standards of the type of device to which the term is used. In some standards, the channel width may be variable (e.g., depending on device capabilities, frequency band conditions, etc.). For example, LTE may support scalable channel bandwidths of 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz. In contrast, a WLAN channel may be 22 MHz wide, while a Bluetooth channel may be 1 MHz wide. Other protocols and standards may include different definitions of channels. In addition, some standards may define and use multiple types of channels, such as different channels for uplink or downlink and / or different channels for different purposes such as data, control information, etc.

[0074] Frequency band—The term “frequency band” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a segment of the spectrum (eg, radio frequency spectrum) in which channels are used or set aside for the same purpose.

[0075] Automatic—refers to an action or operation performed by a computer system (e.g., software executed by a computer system) or a device (e.g., a circuit, a programmable hardware element, an ASIC, etc.) without the need for user input to directly specify or perform the action or operation. Thus, the term "automatic" is in contrast to a user manually performing or specifying an action, where the user provides input to directly perform the action. An automatic process may be initiated by input provided by a user, but subsequent actions performed "automatically" are not specified by the user, i.e., are not performed "manually," where the user specifies each action to be performed. For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typing in information, selecting checkboxes, radio selections, etc.) is manually filling out the form, even though the computer system must update the form in response to the user action. The form may be automatically filled out by a computer system, where the computer system (e.g., software executed on the computer system) analyzes the fields of the form and fills out the form without any user input specifying the answers to the fields. As indicated above, a user may invoke automatic filling out of a form, but not participate in the actual filling out of the form (e.g., the user does not manually specify the answers to the fields but rather they are automatically completed). This specification provides various examples of operations that are automatically performed in response to actions taken by a user.

[0076] Approximately - refers to a value that is close to a correct or exact value. For example, approximately can refer to a value that is within 1% to 10% of an exact (or desired) value. However, it should be noted that the actual threshold value (or tolerance) may depend on the application. For example, in some embodiments, "approximately" may mean within 0.1% of some specified or desired value, while in various other embodiments, the threshold value may be, for example, 2%, 3%, 5%, etc., depending on the expectations or requirements of a particular application.

[0077] Concurrency - refers to parallel execution or implementation, where tasks, processes, or programs are executed in an at least partially overlapping manner. For example, concurrency can be achieved using "strong" or strict parallelism, where tasks are executed (at least partially) in parallel on respective computing elements, or using "weak parallelism", where tasks are executed in an interleaved manner (e.g., by time multiplexing of execution threads).

[0078] Configured to - Various components may be described as being "configured to" perform one or more tasks. In such environments, "configured to" is a broad statement that generally means "having a structure" that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently performing the task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors can be configured to electrically connect a module to another module even when the two modules are not connected). In some contexts, "configured to" can be a broad statement that generally means "having a structure" that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, the component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently turned on. Typically, the circuitry that forms the structure corresponding to "configured to" may include hardware circuitry.

[0079] For ease of description, various components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such descriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase "configured to". The statement that a component is configured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35 USC § 112 (f) interpretation of that component.

[0080] Figure 1 and Figure 2 —Communications system

[0081] Figure 1 A simplified exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments is shown. Note that Figure 1 The system is only one example of possible systems, and features of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of systems as desired.

[0082] As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a base station 102A, which communicates with one or more user equipment 106A, user equipment 106B to user equipment 106N, etc. through a transmission medium. Each user equipment may be referred to as a "user equipment" (UE) in this article. Therefore, user equipment 106 is referred to as UE or UE device.

[0083] Base station (BS) 102A may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site (cellular base station) and may include hardware to enable wireless communications with UEs 106A through 106N.

[0084] The communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a "cell". The base station 102A and the UE 106 may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using any of a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), which are also referred to as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, Advanced LTE (LTE-A), 5G New Radio (5G NR), HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), and the like. Note that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of LTE, it may alternatively be referred to as an "eNodeB" or "eNB". Note that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of 5G NR, it may alternatively be referred to as a "gNodeB" or "gNB".

[0085] As shown, base station 102A may also be configured to communicate with network 100 (e.g., a cellular service provider's core network, a telecommunications network such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, among other possibilities). Thus, base station 102A may facilitate communications between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. In particular, cellular base station 102A may provide UE 106 with various communication capabilities, such as voice, SMS, and / or data services.

[0086] Base station 102A and other similar base stations (such as base stations 102B...102N) operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards can therefore be provided as a network of cells that can provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UE 106A-N and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0087] Thus, although base station 102A may function as Figure 1 106A-N, but each UE 106 may also be able to receive signals from (and possibly be within communication range of) one or more other cells (which may be provided by base stations 102B-N and / or any other base stations), which may be referred to as "neighboring cells." Such cells may also be able to facilitate communications between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. Such cells may include "macro" cells, "micro" cells, "pico" cells, and / or cells of any various other granularity of service area size. For example, in Figure 1 The base stations 102A-B shown in FIG. 1 may be macro cells, while the base station 102N may be a micro cell. Other configurations are also possible.

[0088] In some embodiments, base station 102A may be a next generation base station, such as a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station or "gNB". In some embodiments, the gNB may be connected to a legacy evolved packet core (EPC) network and / or to an NR core (NRC) / 5G core (5GC) network. In addition, a gNB cell may include one or more transition and reception points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating in accordance with 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs within one or more gNBs. For example, base station 102A and one or more other base stations 102 may support joint transmissions such that UE 106 may be able to receive transmissions from multiple base stations (and / or multiple TRPs provided by the same base station).

[0089] It should be noted that the UE 106 is capable of communicating using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, in addition to at least one cellular communication protocol (e.g., GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interface), LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc.), the UE 106 can be configured to communicate using wireless networking (e.g., Wi-Fi) and / or peer-to-peer wireless communication protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi peer-to-peer, etc.). If desired, the UE 106 can also or alternatively be configured to communicate using one or more global navigation satellite systems (GNSS, such as GPS or GLONASS), one or more mobile television broadcast standards (e.g., Advanced Television Systems Committee—Mobile / Handheld (ATSC-M / H)), and / or any other wireless communication protocol. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including more than two wireless communication standards) are also possible.

[0090] Figure 2 A user equipment 106 (e.g., one of devices 106A-106N) is shown in communication with a base station 102 according to some embodiments. The UE 106 may be a device with cellular communication capabilities, such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, a computer, a laptop, a tablet, a smart watch or other wearable device, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an unmanned air controller (UAC), an automobile, or virtually any type of wireless device.

[0091] UE 106 may include a processor (processing element) configured to execute program instructions stored in a memory. UE 106 may perform any of the method embodiments described in the present invention by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or in addition, UE 106 may include a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), an integrated circuit, and / or any of various other possible hardware components configured to perform (e.g., individually or in combination) any of the method embodiments described herein or any part of any of the method embodiments described herein.

[0092] UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols or technologies. In some embodiments, UE 106 may be configured to communicate using, for example, NR or LTE using at least some shared radio components. As an additional possibility, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using CDMA2000 (1xRTT / 1xEV-DO / HRPD / eHRPD) or LTE using a single shared radio component and / or GSM or LTE using a single shared radio component. The shared radio may be coupled to a single antenna, or may be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) for performing wireless communications. Typically, the radio component may include any combination of a baseband processor, an analog radio frequency (RF) signal processing circuit (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.) or a digital processing circuit (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, the radio component may use the aforementioned hardware to implement one or more receive chains and transmit chains. For example, UE 106 may share one or more portions of a receive chain and / or transmit chain between multiple wireless communication technologies such as those discussed above.

[0093] In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include a separate transmit chain and / or receive chain (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol with which it is configured to communicate. As another possibility, the UE 106 may include one or more radio components shared between multiple wireless communication protocols, and one or more radio components used uniquely by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, the UE 106 may include a shared radio component for communicating using either LTE or 5GNR (or, in various possibilities, either LTE or 1xRTT, or either LTE or GSM), and an independent radio component for communicating using each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Other configurations are also possible.

[0094] Figure 3 —UE block diagram

[0095] Figure 3 An exemplary simplified block diagram of a communication device 106 according to some embodiments is shown. Note that Figure 3 The block diagram of the communication device is only an example of a possible communication device. According to the embodiment, in addition to other devices, the communication device 106 can be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or mobile station, a wireless device or wireless station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, a notebook or a portable computing device), a tablet computer and / or a combination of devices. As shown in the figure, the communication device 106 may include a group of components 300 configured to perform core functions. For example, the group of components may be implemented as a system on a chip (SOC), which may include parts for various purposes. Alternatively, the group of components 300 may be implemented as a separate component or a group of components for various purposes. This group of components 300 may be (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) coupled to various other circuits of the communication device 106.

[0096] For example, the communication device 106 may include various types of memory (e.g., including NAND flash memory 310), input / output interfaces such as connector I / F 320 (e.g., for connecting to a computer system; a docking station; a charging station; input devices such as a microphone, camera, keyboard; output devices such as speakers; etc.), a display 360 that may be integrated with the communication device 106 or external to it, and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR, UMTS, GSM, CDMA2000, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, etc.). In some embodiments, the communication device 106 may include wired communication circuitry (not shown), such as, for example, a network interface card for Ethernet.

[0097] Wireless communication circuitry 330 may be (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) coupled to one or more antennas, such as one or more antennas 335 as shown. Wireless communication circuitry 330 may include cellular communication circuitry and / or short- to medium-range wireless communication circuitry, and may include multiple receive chains and / or multiple transmit chains for receiving and / or transmitting multiple spatial streams, such as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) configuration.

[0098] In some embodiments, as further described below, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include one or more receive chains (including and / or coupled to (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) dedicated processors and / or radio components) for multiple RATs (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR). In addition, in some embodiments, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include a single transmit chain that can switch between radio components dedicated to specific RATs. For example, a first radio component may be dedicated to a first RAT (e.g., LTE) and may communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a transmit chain shared with a second radio component. A second radio component may be dedicated to a second RAT (e.g., 5G NR) and may communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a shared transmit chain.

[0099] The communication device 106 may also include and / or be configured for use with one or more user interface elements. The user interface elements may include various elements such as a display 360 (which may be a touch screen display), a keyboard (which may be a separate keyboard or may be implemented as part of a touch screen display), a mouse, a microphone and / or speakers, one or more cameras, one or more buttons, and / or any of a variety of other elements capable of providing information to a user and / or receiving or interpreting user input.

[0100] The communication device 106 may also include one or more smart cards 345 having SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) functionality, such as one or more UICC cards (one or more Universal Integrated Circuit Cards) 345 .

[0101] As shown, the SOC 300 may include a processor 302 that may execute program instructions for the communication device 106 and a display circuit 304 that may perform graphics processing and provide display signals to a display 360. The one or more processors 302 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 340 (which may be configured to receive addresses from the one or more processors 302 and convert those addresses to locations in a memory (e.g., memory 306, read-only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310)), and / or to other circuits or devices (such as display circuit 304, wireless communication circuit 330, connector I / F 320, and / or display 360). The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or setup. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as part of the processor 302.

[0102] As described above, the communication device 106 may be configured to communicate using wireless and / or wired communication circuits. As described herein, the communication device 106 may include hardware and software components for implementing any of the various features and techniques described herein. For example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transient computer-readable memory medium), the processor 302 of the communication device 106 may be configured to implement part or all of the features described in the present invention. Alternatively (or in addition thereto), the processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Alternatively (or in addition thereto), in combination with one or more components in other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 330, 340, 345, 350, 360, the processor 302 of the communication device 106 may be configured to implement part or all of the features described herein.

[0103] In addition, as described in the present invention, processor 302 may include one or more processing elements. Therefore, processor 302 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of processor 302. In addition, each integrated circuit may include circuits (e.g., first circuits, second circuits, etc.) configured to perform the functions of one or more processors 302.

[0104] In addition, as described herein, wireless communication circuit 330 may include one or more processing elements. In other words, one or more processing elements may be included in wireless communication circuit 330. Therefore, wireless communication circuit 330 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of wireless communication circuit 330. In addition, each integrated circuit may include circuits (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of wireless communication circuit 330.

[0105] Figure 4 —Block diagram of a base station

[0106] Figure 4 An exemplary block diagram of a base station 102 according to some embodiments is shown. Note that Figure 4 The base station of is only one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 or other circuit or device, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor 404 and convert these addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450).

[0107] Base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide access to the telephone network described above. Figure 1 and Figure 2 Multiple devices of the telephone network described in, such as UE device 106.

[0108] The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also or alternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, such as a core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to multiple devices, such as the UE device 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may be coupled to a telephone network via the core network, and / or the core network may provide a telephone network (e.g., in other UE devices served by the cellular service provider).

[0109] In some embodiments, base station 102 may be a next generation base station, e.g., a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station, or "gNB". In such embodiments, base station 102 may be connected to a legacy evolved packet core (EPC) network and / or to an NR core (NRC) / 5G core (5GC) network. Furthermore, base station 102 may be considered a 5G NR cell and may include one or more transition and reception points (TRPs). Furthermore, a UE capable of operating in accordance with 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs within one or more gNBs.

[0110] The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434 and possibly multiple antennas. The at least one antenna 434 may be configured to function as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate with the UE device 106 via the radio component 430. The antenna 434 communicates with the radio component 430 via a communication chain 432. The communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain, or both. The radio component 430 may be configured to communicate via various wireless communication standards, including but not limited to 5G NR, LTE, LTE-A, GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, Wi-Fi, etc.

[0111] Base station 102 may be configured to perform wireless communications using multiple wireless communication standards. In some cases, base station 102 may include multiple radios that enable base station 102 to communicate according to multiple wireless communication technologies. For example, as one possibility, base station 102 may include an LTE radio component for performing communications according to LTE and a 5G NR radio component for performing communications according to 5GNR. In this case, base station 102 may be able to operate as both an LTE base station and a 5G NR base station. As another possibility, base station 102 may include a multimode radio component capable of performing communications according to any one of multiple wireless communication technologies (e.g., 5GNR and LTE, 5G NR and Wi-Fi, LTE and Wi-Fi, LTE and UMTS, LTE and CDMA2000, UMTS and GSM, etc.).

[0112] As further described later herein, the base station 102 may include hardware and software components for implementing or supporting the implementation of the features described herein. The processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement or support a portion or all of the implementation of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) or a combination thereof. Alternatively (or in addition thereto), in combination with one or more of the other components 430, 432, 434, 440, 450, 460, 470, the processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement or support a portion or all of the implementation of the features described herein.

[0113] In addition, as described herein, the one or more processors 404 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processor 404 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor 404. In addition, each integrated circuit may include circuits (e.g., first circuits, second circuits, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the one or more processors 404.

[0114] In addition, as described herein, radio 430 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, radio 430 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of radio 430. In addition, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of radio 430.

[0115] Figure 5 —Block diagram of cellular communication circuit

[0116] Figure 5 An exemplary simplified block diagram of a cellular communication circuit according to some embodiments is shown. Note that Figure 5 The block diagram of cellular communication circuitry is merely one example of possible cellular communication circuitry; other circuitry, such as circuitry that includes or is coupled to sufficient antennas for different RATs to perform uplink activities using separate antennas, or circuitry that includes or is coupled to fewer antennas, such as circuitry that can be shared between multiple RATs, is also possible. According to some embodiments, cellular communication circuitry 330 may be included in a communication device such as communication device 106 described above. As described above, communication device 106 may be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or station, a wireless device or station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, or portable computing device), a tablet computer, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices.

[0117] Cellular communication circuitry 330 may be (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) coupled to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335a-b and 336 as shown. In some embodiments, cellular communication circuitry 330 may include dedicated receive chains (including and / or coupled to (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) dedicated processors and / or radio components) for multiple RATs (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR). For example, Figure 5 As shown, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include a first modem 510 and a second modem 520. The first modem 510 may be configured for communication according to a first RAT (e.g., such as LTE or LTE-A), and the second modem 520 may be configured for communication according to a second RAT (e.g., such as 5G NR).

[0118] As shown, the first modem 510 may include one or more processors 512 and a memory 516 in communication with the processor 512. The modem 510 may communicate with a radio frequency (RF) front end 530. The RF front end 530 may include circuits for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 530 may include a receiving circuit (RX) 532 and a transmitting circuit (TX) 534. In some embodiments, the receiving circuit 532 may communicate with a downlink (DL) front end 550, which may include circuits for receiving radio signals via an antenna 335a.

[0119] Similarly, the second modem 520 may include one or more processors 522 and a memory 526 in communication with the processor 522. The modem 520 may communicate with the RF front end 540. The RF front end 540 may include circuits for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 540 may include a receiving circuit 542 and a transmitting circuit 544. In some embodiments, the receiving circuit 542 may communicate with the DL front end 560, which may include circuits for receiving radio signals via the antenna 335b.

[0120] In some embodiments, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuit 534 to an uplink (UL) front end 572. In addition, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuit 544 to the UL front end 572. The UL front end 572 may include circuitry for transmitting radio signals via the antenna 336. Thus, when the cellular communication circuit 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuit 534 and the UL front end 572) supported by the first modem 510, the switch 570 may be switched to a first state that allows the first modem 510 to transmit signals according to the first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuit 534 and the UL front end 572). Similarly, when the cellular communication circuit 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuit 544 and the UL front end 572) supported by the second modem 520, the switch 570 may be switched to a second state that allows the second modem 520 to transmit signals according to the second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuit 544 and the UL front end 572).

[0121] As described herein, the first modem 510 and / or the second modem 520 may include hardware and software components for implementing any of the various features and techniques described herein. For example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium), the processors 512, 522 may be configured to implement part or all of the features described herein. Alternatively (or in addition), the processors 512, 522 may be configured as programmable hardware elements, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Alternatively (or in addition), in combination with one or more of the other components 530, 532, 534, 540, 542, 544, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336, the processors 512, 522 may be configured to implement part or all of the features described herein.

[0122] In addition, as described herein, the processors 512, 522 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processors 512, 522 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processors 512, 522. In addition, each integrated circuit may include circuits (e.g., first circuits, second circuits, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processors 512, 522.

[0123] In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include only one transmit / receive chain. For example, the cellular communication circuit 330 may not include the modem 520, the RF front end 540, the DL front end 560, and / or the antenna 335b. As another example, the cellular communication circuit 330 may not include the modem 510, the RF front end 530, the DL front end 550, and / or the antenna 335a. In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuit 330 may also not include the switch 570, and the RF front end 530 or the RF front end 540 may communicate with the UL front end 572, for example, directly.

[0124] Figure 6 —Exemplary block diagram of network elements

[0125] Figure 6 An exemplary block diagram of a network element 600 according to some embodiments is shown. According to some embodiments, the network element 600 may implement one or more logical functions / entities of a cellular core network, such as a mobility management entity (MME), a serving gateway (S-GW), an access and management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), etc. It should be noted that Figure 6 The network element 600 is only one example of a possible network element 600. As shown, the core network element 600 may include one or more processors 604 that may execute program instructions of the core network element 600. The processor 604 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 640 (which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor 604 and translate these addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 660 and read-only memory (ROM) 650)), or to other circuits or devices.

[0126] The network element 600 may include at least one network port 670. The network port 670 may be configured to couple to one or more base stations and / or other cellular network entities and / or devices. The network element 600 may communicate with a base station (e.g., eNB / gNB) and / or other network entities / devices by means of any of a variety of communication protocols and / or interfaces.

[0127] As further described later herein, network element 600 may include hardware and software components for implementing or supporting implementations of the features described herein. Processor 604 of core network element 600 may be configured to implement or support implementations of part or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, processor 604 may be configured as a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) or a combination thereof.

[0128] Figure 7 — Frequency domain resource allocation for uplink communications in unlicensed spectrum

[0129] New cellular communication technologies are continually being developed to increase coverage, better meet various needs and use cases, and for a variety of other reasons. As new cellular communication technologies are developed and deployed, certain features may be included that are new or different from previously developed and deployed cellular communication technologies.

[0130] The use of unlicensed spectrum is an actively developed area of ​​cellular communication technology. The characteristics of cellular communication technology employed in the unlicensed spectrum may differ from the characteristics of cellular communication technology employed in the licensed spectrum, e.g., differ at least in part. For example, to ensure fair coexistence with other users of the unlicensed spectrum (e.g., that may not exist in the licensed spectrum), certain techniques (e.g., such as using a listen-before-talk process prior to transmission, implementing maximum channel occupancy time limits, etc.) may be employed to reduce the likelihood of conflicts and / or increase the likelihood that various users of the spectrum can obtain fair access to the wireless communication medium.

[0131] In at least some embodiments, such techniques may in turn affect other aspects of the cellular communication system, such as how uplink resource allocation is performed.It may therefore be useful to provide techniques for performing uplink resource allocation in an unlicensed spectrum in a cellular communication system.

[0132] Figure 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example of such a method for providing frequency-domain resource allocation for uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum in a wireless communication system, according to at least some embodiments. Figure 7 Various aspects of the method of can be implemented by a wireless device such as UE 106 shown in the various figures herein, a base station such as BS 102 shown in the various figures herein, and / or more generally, can be implemented as needed in combination with any of the computer circuits, systems, devices, elements or components shown in the above figures, etc. For example, a processor (and / or other hardware) of such a device can be configured to cause the device to perform any combination of the method elements shown and / or other method elements.

[0133] In various embodiments, some of the method elements shown may be performed simultaneously in an order different from that shown, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additional elements may also be performed as needed. As shown in the figure, Figure 7 The method can be operated as follows.

[0134] In 702, the wireless device may determine a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use for uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum, for example in conjunction with a 5G NR wireless cellular network with which the wireless device forms a cellular link. Among various possibilities, the frequency domain resource allocation scheme may be bitmap-based or resource indication value (RIV)-based.

[0135] For bitmap-based solutions, at least as a possibility, a certain number (N RBG ), each resource block group may correspond to a set of frequency domain resources. For example, each RBG may include a (possibly virtual / non-contiguous in the frequency domain) set of physical resource blocks (PRBs), which may correspond to one or more interlaces according to an interlace-based structure. In addition, a table (or other data structure) may be configured to associate various interlace indices with these frequency domain resource sets; for example, a pre-configured table (e.g., with N RBG Each row of the N-th column may correspond to a specified frequency domain resource set (eg, RBG). RBG A bitmap of bits may be used to indicate frequency domain resource allocation to a wireless device, in which each bit may be toggled to indicate whether an interlace index (and thus an RBG associated with the interlace index according to a pre-configured table) is allocated to the wireless device.

[0136] For a RIV-based scheme, the information indicating the frequency domain resource allocation may include the RIV, which may indicate a starting PRB for the frequency domain resource allocation and a number of frequency domain resource interlaces allocated to the wireless device. For example, the wireless device may be able to determine the starting PRB for the frequency domain resource allocation and the frequency domain resource interlaces allocated to the wireless device from the RIV using a formula configured to determine a set of resource blocks allocated from the RIV.

[0137] It is noted that any number of various possible parameters may be configured in conjunction with such frequency domain resource allocation schemes. According to various embodiments, such parameters may be indicated by higher layer signaling, may be fixed according to a standard specification document, may be implicitly determined based on certain other configured parameters (e.g., subcarrier spacing of a cellular communication system, etc.), and / or may be determined in any of a variety of other ways. It is also noted that any of a variety of possible combinations of such techniques for dynamically or statically configuring various possible parameters may be used, for example, so that certain parameters may be configured differently from other parameters if desired. Such parameters may include whether to use a uniform or non-uniform interleaving configuration, a starting PRB index, a nominal number of PRBs per interleaving, and / or one or more allocated interleaving indices, as well as various other possible parameters. In some cases, the type of frequency domain resource allocation scheme used (e.g., bitmap-based or RIV-based) may be signaled by higher layer signaling and / or otherwise configured according to any of a variety of other possible configuration mechanisms.

[0138] At 704, the wireless device may receive information indicating frequency domain resource allocation for uplink communication in an unlicensed spectrum. The information may be received according to the determined frequency domain resource allocation scheme. Thus, for example, if a bitmap-based scheme is configured, the wireless device may receive a bitmap indicating which interlace indexes are allocated to the wireless device and may determine the frequency domain resource allocation accordingly. As another example, if a RIV-based scheme is configured, the wireless device may receive the RIV and may convert the RIV into a set of interlace indices allocated to the wireless device.

[0139] Note that in some cases, the active uplink bandwidth portion used for uplink communications may have a larger bandwidth than the LBT bandwidth used for unlicensed spectrum. In such scenarios, various possible approaches may be taken to extend the frequency domain resource allocation scheme to the full bandwidth of the active uplink bandwidth portion.

[0140] As one such possibility, the information indicating the frequency domain resource allocation for uplink communication may indicate the frequency domain resource allocation associated with the primary LBT subband of the active uplink bandwidth portion. The information may also indicate one or more LBT subbands of the active uplink bandwidth portion (e.g., using a bitmap of a size equal to the number of LBT subbands in the active uplink bandwidth portion, or using a signaling mechanism for indicating adjacent LBT subband blocks, among other options), each of which has the same frequency domain resource allocation as the primary LBT subband of the active uplink bandwidth portion. In such a scenario, at least according to some embodiments, the wireless device may perform an LBT process on each of the LBT subbands to which the frequency domain resources are allocated to the wireless device, and perform transmission using those allocated frequency domain resources in the LBT subbands in which the LBT process was successful.

[0141] As another possibility, the information indicating the frequency domain resource allocation for uplink communication may indicate the frequency domain resource allocation across the entire active uplink bandwidth portion, for example, using a bitmap or RIV-based scheme. In such a scenario, at least according to some embodiments, the wireless device may perform an LBT process on each of the LBT subbands in the active bandwidth portion, and if the LBT process for all LBT subbands is successful, use those allocated frequency domain resources to perform transmission. In addition, at least in some cases, according to such a scenario, it may be the case that if LBT is not successful on any LBT subband, the wireless device does not perform uplink transmission.

[0142] Note that in such a scenario (and potentially in one or more other scenarios where the active uplink bandwidth portion has a bandwidth greater than the LBT bandwidth of the unlicensed spectrum), it may be the case that the frequency domain resource allocation includes one or more physical resource blocks mapped to one or more guard bands between adjacent LBT subbands within the active uplink bandwidth portion.

[0143] In 706, the wireless device may perform uplink communications using the indicated frequency domain resource allocation. This may include, for example, transmitting uplink signals including a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and / or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), such as in accordance with 5G NR, at least according to some embodiments.

[0144] Thus, at least according to some embodiments, using Figure 7 The technology may be able to provide a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use with uplink communications in unlicensed spectrum.

[0145] Figures 8 to 20 and additional information

[0146] Figures 8 to 20Show if necessary can be combined Figure 7 However, it should be noted that in Figures 8 to 20 The exemplary details shown and described herein are not intended to limit the disclosure as a whole: many variations and alternatives to the details provided below are possible and are to be considered within the scope of the disclosure.

[0147] Mobile communications have made significant progress in the past two decades: from the early days of voice systems, and transformed into today's highly complex integrated communications platforms. The next generation of wireless communication systems, 5G or New Radio (NR), will provide ubiquitous connectivity and access to information, as well as the ability to share data, around the world. NR is expected to be a unified framework that will target meeting common and sometimes conflicting performance standards and provide services to extremely heterogeneous application areas ranging from enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) to massive machine type communications (mMTC) and ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), to name a few.

[0148] One of the major enhancements to LTE in Rel-13 was the ability to operate cellular networks in unlicensed spectrum via Licensed Assisted Access (LAA). Since then, 3GPP has viewed the use of such access to unlicensed spectrum as a promising approach to address the growing volume of wireless data traffic. Important considerations for enabling LTE to operate in unlicensed spectrum may include ensuring fair coexistence with existing systems, such as wireless local area networks (WLANs), which has been the focus of LAA standardization work since Rel.13.

[0149] Following the trend of LTE enhancements, work on NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum (NR-unlicensed) has been started in 3GPP Rel-16. The goals of such work may include the development of additional functionality required to enable the physical (PHY) layer design of NR to operate in unlicensed spectrum. It is possible that the coexistence methods already defined for LTE-based LAA contexts can be assumed to be the baseline for the operation of NR-unlicensed systems, with enhancements to these existing methods also considered. As a possible goal, NR-based operation in unlicensed spectrum should not have a greater impact on deployed Wi-Fi services (data, video, and voice services) than additional Wi-Fi networks on the same carrier.

[0150] Aspects of channel access mechanisms may be one of the basic building blocks for NR unlicensed. In addition to meeting regulatory requirements, the adoption of listen-before-talk (LBT) in LTE-based LAA systems helps support fair coexistence with neighboring systems that share unlicensed spectrum. In order to meet regulatory requirements and provide a global solution with a unified framework, it is possible that NR-based unlicensed access will also use a channel access mechanism based on LBT. Due to LBT, the performance of uplink (UL) transmissions, including transmissions on the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), may be affected when operating in an unlicensed spectrum. For example, it may be possible that LBT needs to be performed on the user equipment (UE) side before uplink data and / or uplink control information (UCI) can be transmitted on the PUSCH. For scheduled UL transmissions, it may also be possible that multiple rounds of contention are imposed because LBT may also need to be performed on the base station side, for example, before sending a UL grant for PUSCH transmission. Therefore, reusing the resource allocation scheme for PUSCH transmission in NR licensed systems which may not need to cope with such channel access related contention may not be sufficient for PUSCH transmission in unlicensed spectrum.

[0151] Therefore, this disclosure describes various possible NR-PUSCCH resource allocation schemes, for example, to cope with LBT and meet regulatory requirements in unlicensed spectrum.

[0152] In LTE enhanced Licensed Assisted Access (eLAA), a block interleaved frequency division multiple access (B-IFDMA) based interleaving structure is used to design the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The baseline interleaving structure may include using 10 physical resource blocks (PRBs) per interleaving for 15KHz and 30KHz subcarrier spacing (SCS) and 20MHz bandwidth (BW), for example, to meet occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirements and take advantage of power spectral density (PSD) limits imposed by regulations.

[0153] Based on such a structure, uplink resource allocation type 3 (based on resource indication value (RIV)) can be used for frequency domain resource allocation based on staggered PUSCH, while in the time domain, multiple starting and ending positions in the subframe can be enabled, for example, via three operating modes using additional configurations of starting partial subframes and ending partial subframes.

[0154] At least according to some embodiments, NR may support various parameters (e.g., BW-SCS combinations exceeding 20MHz-15 / 30KHz), and therefore, the interleaving design for NR-U PUSCH may be more complex than the interleaving design adopted for LTE (e.g., non-uniform interleaving, and potential partial interleaving for wideband operation). Therefore, the RIV-based type 3 UL resource allocation type may not be sufficient for NR-U, especially when NR-U supports wideband operation with more than one LBT subband. In addition, NR-PUSCH may have greater scheduling flexibility (mini-slot-based scheduling, where the starting symbol candidate position may be any symbol within the slot (depending on the mapping type (A / B)). Therefore, it may be beneficial to enable NR-U to support similar scheduling flexibility as NR, so that further enhancements to the scheduling flexibility of LAA (e.g., in terms of partial starting subframes and ending subframes) may be useful.

[0155] Thus, the present disclosure describes embodiments involving possible frequency domain PUSCH resource allocation schemes, for example, for enhancing reliability to cope with LBT. In addition, the present disclosure describes embodiments involving possible details of signaling related to such PUSCH resource allocation for NR-U.

[0156] Such embodiments may enhance the flexibility and reliability of the NR PUSCH resource allocation scheme to enable it to operate on unlicensed spectrum and / or may provide new signaling mechanisms for enhancing NR PUSCH resource allocation for use on unlicensed spectrum in at least some cases.

[0157] One set of embodiments may involve scheduled PUSCH transmissions with bandwidth ≤ LBT bandwidth (e.g., 20 MHz). In one embodiment of the present disclosure, uplink resource allocation type 0 (bitmap-based) for NR may be enhanced to support frequency domain resource allocation for PUSCH transmission on an allocated set of physical resource blocks (PRBs). Resource block allocation information may include a bitmap indicating resource block groups (RBGs) allocated to a UE, where an RBG is a set of virtual resource blocks. As an example, for an interlace-based structure, an RBG refers to a set of non-contiguous PRBs corresponding to one or more interlaces.

[0158] In one option, the size is N RBG The bitmap indication includes N RBG One or more rows of a preconfigured table of rows, each row corresponding to a frequency domain resource corresponding to an interlace that the UE may be able to use to implicitly derive the PRB index assigned to the scheduled interlace. The interlaces may be indexed in order of increasing frequency of the PUSCH bandwidth portion, starting with the lowest frequency. The order of the interlace bitmap may be such that interlace index (0) to interlace index (NRBG -1) from the MSB to the LSB of the bitmap. Alternatively, the mapping may be LSB to MSB. As one possibility, an interlace index may be assigned to a UE if the corresponding bit value in the bitmap is 1, otherwise it may not be assigned to the UE (i.e., when the corresponding bit value is 0). Thus, in such a scenario, if there are L bits with a value of "1" in the bitmap, L interlaces are assigned to the UE.

[0159] In another option, the nominal RBG or interlace size (N) may be different for each interlace index, and a higher layer parameter may indicate to the UE which configuration to use. As an example, the nominal RBG size P table defined in NR uplink resource allocation type 0 may be modified / enhanced to support Figure 8 Uniform and non-uniform staggered configurations are shown.

[0160] Figure 8 is a table showing one example of configuring two different configurations for interleaving allocation, namely uniform interleaving (configuration 1) and non-uniform interleaving (configuration 2). START ) and the PRB spacing (M) corresponding to each interlace may be indicated to the UE by a higher layer or may be preconfigured in the specification (e.g., in Figure 8 The interleaved index and (RB START ) can exist between one-to-one mapping, and based on the bitmap value together with RB START and M, the UE may be able to implicitly derive the PRB allocation corresponding to a particular interlace.

[0161] In another option, Figure 8 The RBG size (or number of PRBs (N)) configuration in may be independent of uniform or non-uniform interleaving allocation, and based on higher layer signaling, the UE may be able to implicitly derive N for non-uniform interleaving (if indicated) based on the assigned interleaving index.

[0162] In another embodiment, uplink resource allocation type 1 (based on resource indication value or RIV) for NR may be enhanced to support frequency domain resource allocation for PUSCH transmission on a set of physical resource blocks. The resource allocation information may indicate the allocated resource block set to the scheduled UE:

[0163] RB START +l+i⊙N RBG

[0164] in:

[0165]

[0166] 0≤RB START <N RBG -1,

[0167] i = [0, 1, .., N-1],

[0168] l = 0, 1, .., L-1; and

[0169] 1≤L≤N RBG -RB START

[0170] N nominal can be the nominal number of PRBs per interlace (i.e., for uniform interlace), and N ≥ N nominal N may be fixed or may depend on a 1-bit indication in higher layer signaling or DCI as to whether uniform or non-uniform interleaving is assigned. If uniform interleaving is indicated, then N = N nominal , and if non-uniform interleaving is indicated,

[0171] Then N=(N nominal +1) If

[0172] Then N = N nominal otherwise

[0173] As an example, for 20MHz BW and 15KHz SCS, (the number of PRBs available in the scheduled ULBWP), N nominal =10 and therefore, =10. In this example, if higher layer signaling indicates non-uniform interleaving, then for RB START +l<6 (corresponding to the first 6 interlaces, where the interlace index is 0, 1, ..., 5), N=N nominal +1, and otherwise, N=N nominal , assuming that the interleaving is indexed in order of increasing frequency of the PUSCH bandwidth portion, starting from the lowest frequency. As another example, for 20MHz BW and 30KHz SCS, N nominal =10, and therefore, In this example, if higher layer signaling indicates non-uniform interleaving, then for RB START +l<1 (corresponding to the first interleave with interleave index 0), N=N nominal +1, otherwise, N = N nominal .

[0174] The resource allocation field in the scheduling grant may include (e.g., consist of) a resource indication value (RIV). RBG (N RBG +1) / 2, the resource indication value may correspond to the starting resource block (RBSTART ) and the number of interleavings allocated, L, and can be defined as follows:

[0175] if but

[0176] RIV=N RBG (L-1)+RB START

[0177] otherwise

[0178] RIV=N RBG (N RBG -L+1)+(N RBG -1-RB START )

[0179] For RIV>N RBG (N RBG +1) / 2, the resource indication value may correspond to the starting resource block (RB START ) and a set of values ​​l. For a given N RBG , The ones digit is required to indicate N via RIV RBG N consecutive interleaved indices RBG (N RBG +1) / 2 possible combinations, and thus 2 M -N RBG (N RBG +1) / 2 residual values ​​can be used to indicate a few combinations of non-contiguous interleaving indices. As an example, for 20MHz BW and 15KHz SCS, the residual 2 6 –55=9 status can be used to indicate Fig. 9 Nine different combinations of contiguous and / or non-contiguous interleaving are shown.

[0180] Fig.10 An example of frequency domain resource allocation for interlace-based PUSCH transmission at 15 KHz SCS and 20 MHz SCS is shown, where the non-uniform interlace allocation is signaled by higher layers. Fig.10 The allocated interlaces and corresponding PRB indices are shown in FIG. 1. When the bitmap-based method is used, the bits “1110000000” will indicate the Fig.10 The assignment of interlace indices 0, 1, 2 is shown (where the lowest interlace index is mapped to the MSB), and RIV = 20 (or RIV = "010100" if expressed using 6 bits) (where RB START =0,L–1=2,N RBG =10) will also indicate the resource block allocation set shown (ie, interlace 0, 1, 2).

[0181] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection between bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation and RIV-based frequency domain resource allocation may depend on higher layer (RRC) signaling.

[0182] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection between bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation and RIV-based frequency domain resource allocation may depend on the subcarrier spacing. For example, the RIV-based method (requiring M bits) may be used for smaller SCSs, where M < N RBG (bitmap length), while bitmap-based methods can be used for higher SCS, where M ≈ N RBG ,This is because, for example, the bitmap-based approach may provide greater scheduling flexibility than the RIV-based approach.

[0183] In another option, both the bitmap-based method or the RIV-based method may be dynamically indicated to the UE and may not depend on the subcarrier spacing used. Specifically, when the higher layers in pusch-Config enable dynamic switching, one field in the DCI providing the UL grant may be used to dynamically switch between the bitmap-based and RIV-based frequency domain resource allocation methods. If such a mechanism is disabled, it is possible that the UE will use the bitmap-based or RIV-based method that has been configured by the higher layers in pusch-Config.

[0184] In yet another option, either of the two methods can be used for PUSCH frequency domain resource allocation in NR unlicensed, i.e., the supported resource allocation type can be either the bitmap-based method or the RIV-based method.

[0185] Another set of implementations may involve scheduled PUSCH transmissions with bandwidth > LBT bandwidth (eg, 20 MHz), such as may occur in wideband operation in at least some cases.

[0186] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the active UL BWP may be larger than the LBT bandwidth, for example, 20 MHz for the 5 GHz band (single wideband carrier or via carrier aggregation (CA)), and the scheduled PUSCH transmission bandwidth within the UL BWP may include a number n of contiguous or non-contiguous LBT bandwidths.

[0187] In one option, in accordance with any of the above embodiments (wherein the scheduled PUSCH transmission has a bandwidth less than the bandwidth), the UE may receive (e.g., using higher layer signaling) an indication of frequency domain resource allocation within one primary LBT subband, and in combination, n LBT A bitmap of 10 bits can indicate the total available n LBT Which of the n LBT subbands among the subbands are available for PUSCH transmission within the scheduled bandwidth.

[0188] As an example, if PUSCH transmission is scheduled within the gNB’s acquired channel occupation time (COT), then n may be less than n LBT , where the available number n of LBT subbands for UL transmission may be less than the total number n of LBT subbands within the DL BWP due to LBT failure of the gNB on some LBT subbands within the downlink bandwidth part LBT According to various embodiments, the scheduled n LBT subbands may be contiguous or non-contiguous. LBT The bitmap of n bits may contain n number of 1s, which indicate the LBT subbands (contiguous or non-contiguous) scheduled for PUSCH transmission, and the UE may use the same frequency allocation indicated for the primary LBT subband on each scheduled LBT subband.

[0189] In one option, in accordance with any of the above embodiments (wherein the scheduled PUSCH transmission has a bandwidth less than the bandwidth), the UE may receive (e.g., using higher layer signaling) an indication of frequency domain resource allocation within one primary LBT subband, and in conjunction with, bits may be used to indicate (via RRC signaling or DCI) any n consecutive LBT subbands scheduled for PUSCH transmission. The first LBT subband in a block of n contiguous LBT subbands may be signaled separately by higher layers.

[0190] As an example, a 60MHz UL BWP contains 3 LBT subbands, of which the 2nd and 3rd LBT subbands (where the LBT subbands are indexed from lower frequency to higher frequency) can be scheduled for PUSCH transmission. The subband index of the first scheduled subband is SB START and the number of subbands (L SB ) may be indicated to the UE by higher layer signaling. In this case, the UE may use the same frequency allocation indicated for the primary LBT subband on each scheduled LBT subband.

[0191] In another option, any of the above embodiments, where the scheduled PUSCH transmission has a bandwidth less than the bandwidth, may be extended to the active UL BWP over which the PUSCH transmission is scheduled. In this case, additional indication of the LBT subband may not be required. The UE may select all n subbands within the active UL BWP. LBT LBT is performed on the subbands, and if LBT is successful on all LBT subbands, PUSCH transmission can be performed using only the indicated frequency-domain resources spanning the active UL BWP.

[0192] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, having n LBTFrequency domain resource allocation on a set of physical resource blocks within a single wideband carrier with n subbands may include PRBs mapped on guard bands between adjacent LBT subbands. A UE may be scheduled using one or more wideband interlaces spanning n contiguous or non-contiguous LBT subbands. Based on n=n LBT Or n<n LBT , either wideband interleaving or a truncated version of wideband interleaving (which may alternatively be referred to as "partial interleaving") may be used for frequency allocation, where for partial interleaving, the allocated physical resource blocks at the edges of the partial interleaving within the guard band are punctured. In this case, when LBT succeeds on all n scheduled LBT subbands, the UE may perform PUSCH transmission only on the allocated set of frequency-domain resource blocks.

[0193] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, having n LBT The frequency domain resource allocation on a set of physical resource blocks within a single wideband carrier of subbands may include PRBs mapped on guard bands between LBT subbands. Here, the guard band may be applied to all LBT subbands within the scheduled resources.

[0194] In another option, the guard band may be applied only to LBT subbands adjacent to unused LBT subbands, where the unused LBT subbands may include any LBT subbands that are not scheduled and any LBT subbands that are not used due to LBT failure.

[0195] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes and / or methods described in the following example section. For example, the baseband circuit described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the following embodiments. For another example, the circuits associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the embodiments shown in the example section below.

[0196] A first embodiment may include a wireless communication method for a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) system operating in an unlicensed spectrum (NR unlicensed), the method comprising: determining, by a UE, a resource allocation rule for a physical uplink control channel (PUSCH) in a frequency domain; and transmitting or causing transmission of one or more uplink (UL) signals by the UE using the resource allocation scheme in the frequency domain.

[0197] A second embodiment may include the method of embodiment 1 or some other embodiments herein, wherein uplink resource allocation type 0 (bitmap based) for NR is enhanced to support frequency domain resource allocation for PUSCH transmission on an allocated set of physical resource blocks (PRBs). The resource block allocation information includes a bitmap indicating a resource block group (RBG) allocated to the UE, wherein an RBG is a set of virtual resource blocks.

[0198] A third embodiment may include the method of embodiment 2 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the size is N RBG The bitmap indication includes N RBG One or more rows of a preconfigured table of rows, each row corresponding to a frequency domain resource corresponding to an interlace that the UE uses to implicitly derive the PRB index assigned to the scheduled interlace. The interlaces are indexed in order of increasing frequency of the PUSCH bandwidth portion, starting with the lowest frequency. The order of the interlace bitmap is such that interlace index (0) to interlace index (N RBG -1) is mapped from the MSB to the LSB of the bitmap. Alternatively, the mapping is LSB to MSB. If the corresponding bit value in the bitmap is 1, the interlace index is assigned to the UE, otherwise it is not assigned to the UE (i.e., when the corresponding bit value is 0). If there are L bits with a value of "1" in the bitmap, L interlaces are allocated to the UE.

[0199] A fourth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 2 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the UE may implicitly derive the number of PRBs for each allocated interlace based on higher layer signaling, for example, whether to use uniform interlace or non-uniform interlace, while other parameters associated with resource allocation such as the starting PRB index (RBSTART), the nominal number of PRBs for each interlace, and the allocated interlace index are signaled by the higher layer.

[0200] A fifth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 1 or some other embodiments herein, wherein uplink resource allocation type 1 (based on resource indication value or RIV) for NR is enhanced to support frequency domain resource allocation for PUSCH transmission on a set of physical resource blocks. The resource allocation information indicates the allocated resource block set to the scheduled UE:

[0201] RB START +l+i⊙N RBG

[0202] in, 0≤RB START <N RBG -1, i = [0, 1, .., N-1], l = 0, 1, .., L-1 and 1 ≤ L ≤ N RBG -RB START . N nominalis the nominal number of PRBs per interlace (i.e., for uniform interlace), and N ≥ N nominal N is either fixed or depends on a 1-bit indication in higher layer signaling or DCI as to whether uniform or non-uniform interleaving is assigned. If uniform interleaving is indicated, then N = N nominal , and if non-uniform interleaving is indicated,

[0203] N=(N nominal +1) If

[0204] Then N = N nominal otherwise

[0205] The resource allocation field in the scheduling grant consists of a resource indication value (RIV). The resource indicator value corresponds to the starting resource block (RB START ) and the number of interleavings assigned, L, and are defined as follows:

[0206] if but

[0207] RIV=N RBG (L-1)+RB START

[0208] otherwise

[0209] RIV=N RBG (N RBG -L+1)+(N RBG -1-RB START )

[0210] For RIV>N RBG (N RBG +1) / 2, the resource indicator value corresponds to the starting resource block (RB START ) and a set of values ​​l. For a given N RBG , The ones digit is required to indicate N via RIV RBG N consecutive interleaved indices RBG (N RBG +1) / 2 possible combinations, and thus 2 M -N RBG (N RBG +1) / 2 residual values ​​are used to indicate a small number of combinations of non-contiguous interlace indices to the UE.

[0211] The sixth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 1 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the selection between bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation (e.g., according to embodiments 3 and 4) and RIV-based frequency domain resource allocation (e.g., according to embodiment 5) depends on higher layer (RRC) signaling.

[0212] The seventh embodiment may include the method of embodiment 6 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the selection between the bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation and the RIV-based frequency domain resource allocation depends on the subcarrier spacing. For example, the RIV-based method (requiring M bits) is used for a smaller SCS, where M < N RBG (bitmap length), while bitmap-based methods are used for higher SCS, where M ≈ N RBG ,This is because the bitmap based approach may provide greater ,scheduling flexibility than the RIV based approach.

[0213] The eighth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 6 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the bitmap-based method or the RIV-based method is dynamically indicated to the UE and does not depend on the subcarrier spacing used. Specifically, when the higher layer in pusch-Config enables dynamic switching, a field in the DCI for UL grant is used to dynamically switch between the bitmap-based and RIV-based frequency domain resource allocation methods. If disabled, the UE will use the bitmap-based or RIV-based method configured by the higher layer in pusch-Config.

[0214] The ninth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 6 or some other embodiments of the present invention, wherein either of the two methods is used for PUSCH frequency domain resource allocation in NR unlicensed, that is, the supported resource allocation type is based on a bitmap method or a RIV-based method.

[0215] The tenth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 1 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the active UL BWP is larger than the LBT bandwidth, for example, 20 MHz for the 5 GHz band (single wideband carrier or via carrier aggregation (CA)), and the scheduled PUSCH transmission bandwidth within the UL BWP includes a number n of contiguous or non-contiguous LBT bandwidths.

[0216] The eleventh embodiment may include the method of embodiment 10 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the frequency domain resource allocation within a primary LBT subband is indicated to the UE (by a higher layer) according to the embodiments in embodiments 2 to 10, and in combination, n LBT The bitmap indicates the total available n LBT Which of the n LBT subbands among the subbands are available for PUSCH transmission within the scheduled bandwidth.

[0217] The twelfth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 10 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the frequency domain resource allocation within a primary LBT subband is indicated to the UE (by a higher layer) according to the embodiments in embodiments 2 to 10, and combined, The first bit is used to indicate (via RRC signaling or DCI) any n consecutive LBT subbands scheduled for PUSCH transmission. The subband index of the first scheduled subband is SB START and the number of subbands (L SB ) is indicated to the UE by higher layer signaling. In this case, the UE uses the same frequency allocation indicated by the primary LBT subband on each subsequently scheduled LBT subband.

[0218] The thirteenth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 10 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the frequency domain resource allocation method mentioned in embodiments 2 to 10 is extended to the active UL BWP on which PUSCH transmission is scheduled. In this case, no additional indication of the LBT subband is required. All n subbands of the UE within the active UL BWP LBT LBT is performed on the subbands and if LBT is successful on all LBT subbands, only the indicated frequency-domain resources spanning the active UL BWP are used to transmit PUSCH.

[0219] A fourteenth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 13 or some other embodiment herein, wherein n LBT The frequency domain resource allocation on a set of physical resource blocks within a single wideband carrier of n subbands includes PRBs mapped on guard bands between adjacent LBT subbands. The UE is scheduled using one or more wideband interlaces spanning n contiguous or non-contiguous LBT subbands. Based on n=n LBT Or n<n LBT , either wideband interleaving or a truncated version of wideband interleaving (which may alternatively be referred to as "partial interleaving") may be used for frequency allocation, where for partial interleaving, the allocated physical resource blocks at the edges of the partial interleaving within the guard band are punctured. In this case, the UE transmits PUSCH only on the allocated set of frequency-domain resource blocks when LBT succeeds on all n scheduled LBT subbands.

[0220] A fifteenth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 13 or some other embodiment herein, wherein n LBT The frequency domain resource allocation on a set of physical resource blocks within a single wideband carrier of 100 subbands includes PRBs mapped on guard bands between LBT subbands. Here, the guard band applies to all LBT subbands within the scheduled resources.

[0221] The sixteenth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 15 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the protection band is applied only to LBT subbands adjacent to unused LBT subbands, wherein the unused LBT subbands may include unscheduled LBT subbands and LBT subbands that cannot be used due to LBT failure.

[0222] A seventeenth embodiment may include a method comprising: receiving a resource allocation comprising a bitmap, wherein respective bits of the bitmap indicate whether a corresponding resource block group (RBG) is allocated to a UE on an unlicensed spectrum in a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless cellular network, wherein the RBGs are separated in a frequency domain; and transmitting or causing transmission of one or more uplink (UL) signals based on the resource allocation.

[0223] An eighteenth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 17 or another embodiment herein, wherein an RBG is a virtual resource block set.

[0224] The nineteenth embodiment may include the methods of embodiments 17 to 18 or some other embodiments herein, the bits of the bitmap corresponding to respective interlaces each including one or more frequency domain resources.

[0225] A twentieth embodiment may include the method of embodiment 19 or another embodiment herein, further comprising accessing a table having a plurality of rows corresponding to respective interlaces, wherein respective rows indicate frequency domain resources of respective interlaces.

[0226] The twenty-first embodiment may include the method of embodiment 19 or some other embodiments herein, the method further comprising receiving configuration information for an interlace, the configuration information indicating one or more of a starting PRB index (RBSTART), a nominal number of PRBs per interlace, and / or an interlace index.

[0227] The twenty-second embodiment may include the method of embodiment 21 or another embodiment herein, wherein the configuration information is received via RRC signaling.

[0228] The twenty-third embodiment may include the method of embodiments 17 to 22 or another embodiment of the present invention, the method also including using bitmap-based resource allocation or resource indication value (RIV)-based resource allocation depending on the subcarrier spacing.

[0229] A twenty-fourth embodiment may include the method of embodiments 17 to 23 or another embodiment herein, wherein the one or more uplink signals include a PUCCH and / or a PUSCH.

[0230] The twenty-fifth embodiment may include the method of embodiments 17 to 24 or another embodiment herein, wherein the method is performed by the UE or a part thereof.

[0231] A twenty-sixth embodiment may include a method comprising: receiving a scheduling grant including a resource indication value (RIV) to indicate an allocated set of frequency resources allocated to a UE on an unlicensed spectrum in a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless cellular network, wherein RBGs are separated in the frequency domain; transmitting or causing transmission of one or more uplink (UL) signals based on the resource allocation.

[0232] A twenty-seventh embodiment may include the method of embodiment 26 or another embodiment herein, wherein the RIV corresponds to a starting resource block (RB START ) and the number of allocated interlaces for the allocated set of frequency resources.

[0233] The twenty-eighth embodiment may include the method of embodiments 26 to 27 or another embodiment herein, further comprising using RIV-based resource allocation or bitmap-based resource allocation depending on the subcarrier spacing.

[0234] A twenty-ninth embodiment may include the method of embodiments 26 to 28 or another embodiment herein, wherein the one or more uplink signals include a PUCCH and / or a PUSCH.

[0235] The thirtieth embodiment may include the method of embodiments 26 to 29 or another embodiment herein, wherein the method is performed by the UE or a part thereof.

[0236] A thirty-first embodiment may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of the method described in or related to any one of embodiments 1 to 30, or any other method or process described herein.

[0237] The thirty-second embodiment may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, which include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any one of Embodiments 1 to 30 or any other method or process described herein.

[0238] The thirty-third embodiment may include an apparatus comprising logic components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of Embodiments 1 to 30, or any other method or process described herein.

[0239] The thirty-fourth embodiment may include a method, technique or process as described or related to any one of embodiments 1 to 30, or a portion or component thereof.

[0240] The thirty-fifth embodiment may include a device comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, process, or portion thereof, as described or related to any one of Embodiments 1 to 30.

[0241] The thirty-sixth embodiment may include a signal according to or related to any one of embodiments 1 to 30, or a part or component thereof.

[0242] The thirty-seventh embodiment may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU) or message, or a portion or component thereof, as described or associated with any one of embodiments 1 to 30, or as otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0243] The thirty-eighth embodiment may include a signal encoded with data as described or associated with any one of embodiments 1 to 30, or a portion or component thereof, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0244] The thirty-ninth embodiment may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU) or message as described or associated with any one of embodiments 1 to 30, or a portion or component thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0245] A fortieth embodiment may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors will cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portion thereof, as described or related to any one of embodiments 1 to 30.

[0246] The forty-first embodiment may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element will cause the processing element to perform a method, technique or process, or part thereof, as described or related to any one of Embodiments 1 to 30.

[0247] The forty-second embodiment may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0248] A forty-third embodiment may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0249] A forty-fourth embodiment may include a system for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0250] The forty-fifth embodiment Z15 may include an apparatus for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0251] Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any of the above embodiments may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings or may be acquired from the practice of the various embodiments.

[0252] System and implementation

[0253] Fig.11 An exemplary architecture of a system 1100 of a network according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an example system 1100 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this regard, and the embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), and the like.

[0254] like Fig.11 As shown, system 1100 includes UE 1101a and UE 1101b (collectively referred to as "UE 1101"). In this example, multiple UE 1101 are shown as smart phones (e.g., handheld touch screen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing devices, such as consumer electronic devices, mobile phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument panels (ICs), head-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine electronic control units (ECUs), electronic / engine electronic control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, etc.

[0255] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 1101 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. M2M or MTC data exchanges may be machine-initiated data exchanges. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0256] UE 1101 may be configured to be connected, e.g., communicatively coupled, to RAN 1110. In an embodiment, RAN 1110 may be an NG RAN or 5G RAN, E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NGRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 1110 operating in NR or 5G system 1100, while the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 1110 operating in LTE or 4G system 1100. Multiple UEs 1101 utilize connections (or channels) 1103 and 1104, respectively, each connection comprising a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0257] In this example, connections 1103 and 1104 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, multiple UEs 1101 may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 1105. The ProSe interface 1105 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface 1105, and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0258] UE 1101b is shown as being configured to access AP 1106 (also referred to as "WLAN node 1106," "WLAN 1106," "WLAN terminal 1106," "WT 1106," etc.) via connection 1107. Connection 1107 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 1106 would include Wireless Fidelity. router. In this example, AP 1106 is shown connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, UE 1101b, RAN 1110, and AP 1106 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. LWA operation may involve UE 1101b in RRC_CONNECTED state being configured by RAN nodes 1111a-b to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve UE 1101b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 1107) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through connection 1107. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0259] The RAN 1110 may include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 1111a and 1111b (collectively referred to as "multiple RAN nodes 1111" or "RAN node 1111") that enable connections 1103 and 1104. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functions for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP or TRP, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms "NG RAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 1111 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 1100, while the terms "E-UTRAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 1111 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 1100. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 1111 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0260] In some embodiments, all or part of the RAN node 1111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional splits, such as PDCP splits, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 1111; MAC / PHY splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 1111; or "lower PHY" splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and upper portions of the PHY layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portions of the PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 1111. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the RAN node 1111 to execute other virtualized applications. In some specific implementations, separate RAN nodes 1111 may represent separate F1 interfaces ( Fig.11 In these embodiments, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Fig.14), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 1110 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 1111 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a next generation eNB that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to the UE 1101 and is connected to the 5GC (e.g., NG-eNB) via an NG interface (discussed below). Fig.13 CN 1320) RAN node.

[0261] In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 1111 may be an RSU or act as an RSU. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" may refer to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, wherein an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side that provides connectivity support to a passing vehicle UE 1101 (vUE 1101). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications as well as other cellular communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Some or all of the computing device and the RSU's RF circuitry may be packaged in a weather-resistant enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or backhaul network.

[0262] Any of the multiple RAN nodes 1111 may serve as the endpoint for the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for multiple UEs 1101. In some embodiments, any of the multiple RAN nodes 1111 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 1110, including but not limited to the functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0263] In an embodiment, multiple UEs 1101 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of multiple RAN nodes 1111 on a multi-carrier communication channel using OFDM communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0264] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of a plurality of RAN nodes 1111 to a plurality of UEs 1101, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is common practice, which makes wireless resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0265] According to various embodiments, UE 1101 and RAN node 1111 communicate data (e.g., send data and receive data) through a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed frequency band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed frequency band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz frequency band.

[0266] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 1101 and the RAN node 1111 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 1101 and the RAN node 1111 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0267] LBT is a mechanism by which equipment (e.g., UE 1101, RAN node 1111, etc.) senses a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include a CCA that utilizes at least an ED to determine whether other signals are present on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy over a period of time on an expected transmission band and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0268] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs use a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 1101, AP 1106, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. In addition, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid conflicts. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS that increases exponentially when a conflict occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA / CA of WLAN. In some specific implementations, the LBT process for a DL or UL transmission burst (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmission) may have a LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the CWS of LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmissions may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (eg, transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0269] The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL ​​and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth from other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0270] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell may provide the PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle activities related to RRC and NAS. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell may provide individual SCCs for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, and changing PCCs may require UE 1101 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in an unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by the PCells operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0271] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 1101. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about the transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It may also inform multiple UEs 1101 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 1101b within a cell) may be performed on any of the RAN nodes 1111 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 1101. Downlink resource allocation information may be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the multiple UEs 1101.

[0272] PDCCH uses CCE to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, respectively, called REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0273] Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may utilize EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as EREG. In some cases, ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0274] The plurality of RAN nodes 1111 may be configured to communicate with each other via the interface 1112. In an embodiment where the system 1100 is an LTE system (eg, when the CN 1120 is Fig.12 1101 in the EPC 1120), the interface 1112 may be an X2 interface 1112. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 1111 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 1120, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 1120. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information about the successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 1101 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 1101; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0275] When system 1100 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN 1120 is Fig.13 In an implementation scheme of the 5GC 1320 in the 5GC 1120, the interface 1112 may be an Xn interface 1112. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 1111 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 1120, between a RAN node 1111 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5GC 1120, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 1120. In some specific implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 1101 in a connected mode (e.g., a CM connection) includes functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 1111. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) service RAN node 1111 to the new (target) service RAN node 1111; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) service RAN node 1111 and the new (target) service RAN node 1111. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and / or IP layer for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0276] RAN 1110 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 1120. CN 1120 may include a plurality of network elements 1122 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 1101) connected to CN 1120 via RAN 1110. The components of CN 1120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN 1120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 1120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0277] Generally speaking, the application server 1130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). The application server 1130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for the UE 1101 via the EPC 1120 (e.g., VoIP session, PTT session, group communication session, social network service, etc.).

[0278] In an embodiment, CN 1120 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 1120" or the like), and RAN 1110 may be connected to CN 1120 via an NG interface 1113. In an embodiment, NG interface 1113 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 1114, which carries traffic data between RAN node 1111 and UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 1115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 1111 and AMF. Fig.13 An implementation of CN 1120 as 5GC 1120 is discussed in more detail.

[0279] In an embodiment, CN 1120 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 1120", etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 1120 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 1120 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 1120", etc.), RAN 1110 may be connected to CN 1120 via an S1 interface 1113. In an embodiment, S1 interface 1113 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 1114, which carries traffic data between RAN node 1111 and S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 1115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 1111 and MME.

[0280] Fig.12 FIG. 1 shows an exemplary architecture of a system 1200 including a first CN 1220 according to various embodiments. In this example, the system 1200 may implement the LTE standard, wherein the CN 1220 is associated with Fig.11 In addition, UE 1201 can communicate with Fig.11 1101 is the same as or similar to the UE 1101, and the E-UTRAN 1210 may be Fig.11 The CN 1220 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 1110 of the mobile station, and may include the RAN node 1111 discussed previously. The CN 1220 may include an MME 1221, an S-GW 1222, a P-GW 1223, an HSS 1224, and an SGSN 1225.

[0281] The MME 1221 may be similar in function to the control plane of a traditional SGSN, and may implement MM functions to track the current location of the UE 1201. The MME 1221 may perform various MM procedures to manage mobility aspects in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as "EPS MM" or "EMM" in an E-UTRAN system) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data stores, etc. for maintaining knowledge of the current location of the UE 1201, providing user identity confidentiality, and / or performing other similar services to users / subscribers. Each UE 1201 and MME 1221 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and when the attachment procedure is successfully completed, an MM context may be established in the UE 1201 and the MME 1221. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of the UE 1201. The MME 1221 may be coupled to the HSS 1224 via an S6a reference point, to the SGSN 1225 via an S3 reference point, and to the S-GW 1222 via an S11 reference point.

[0282] SGSN 1225 may be a node that serves UE 1201 by tracking the location of individual UE 1201 and performing security functions. In addition, SGSN 1225 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G / 3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 1221; handling of UE 1201 time zone functions as specified by MME 1221; and MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between MME 1221 and SGSN 1225 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in an idle state and / or an active state.

[0283] The HSS 1224 may include a database for network users, which includes subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. The EPC 1220 may include one or several HSSs 1224, depending on the number of mobile users, the capacity of the devices, the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 1224 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / address resolution, location dependency, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 1224 and the MME 1221 may enable the transmission of subscription data and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to the EPC 1220 between the HSS 1224 and the MME 1221.

[0284] The S-GW 1222 may terminate the S1 interface 1113 towards the RAN 1210 (at Fig.12 The S-GW 1222 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and enforcement of certain policies. The S11 reference point between the S-GW 1222 and the MME 1221 may provide a control plane between the MME 1221 and the S-GW 1222. The S-GW 1222 may be coupled to the P-GW 1223 via the S5 reference point.

[0285] P-GW 1223 may terminate the SGi interface toward PDN 1230. P-GW 1223 may communicate with PDN 1230 via IP interface 1125 (see, e.g., Fig.11 ) routes data packets between EPC 1220 and external networks such as a network including an application server 1130 (alternatively referred to as "AF"). In an embodiment, P-GW 1223 can communicate via IP communication interface 1125 (see, e.g. Fig.11 ) is communicatively coupled to an application server ( Fig.11Application server 1130 or Fig.12 The S5 reference point between the P-GW 1223 and the S-GW 1222 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 1223 and the S-GW 1222. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 1222 relocation due to UE 1201 mobility and if the S-GW 1222 needs to connect to a non-co-located P-GW 1223 for required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 1223 may also include nodes for policy implementation and charging data collection, such as a PCEF (not shown). In addition, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 1223 and the packet data network (PDN) 1230 may be an operator-external public, private PDN, or an internal operator packet data network, such as for providing IMS services. The P-GW 1223 may be coupled to the PCRF 1226 via a Gx reference point.

[0286] PCRF 1226 is a policy and charging control element of EPC 1220. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 1226 in a domestic public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of UE 1201. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of UE 1201: a domestic PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). PCRF 1226 may be communicatively coupled to application server 1230 via P-GW 1223. Application server 1230 may signal PCRF 1226 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate QoS and charging parameters. PCRF 1226 may configure the rule to a PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which initiates QoS and charging specified by application server 1230. The Gx reference point between PCRF 1226 and P-GW 1223 may allow QoS policies and charging rules to be transferred from PCRF 1226 to the PCEF in P-GW 1223. The Rx reference point may reside between PDN 1230 (or “AF 1230”) and PCRF 1226.

[0287] Fig.13The architecture of a system 1300 including a second CN 1320 according to various embodiments is shown. The system 1300 is shown to include: a UE 1301, which may be the same or similar to the previously discussed UE 1101 and UE 1201; a (R) AN 1310, which may be the same or similar to the previously discussed RAN 1110 and RAN 1210, and which may include the previously discussed RAN node 1111; and a DN 1303, which may be, for example, an operator service, Internet access, or a third-party service; and a 5GC 1320. The 5GC 1320 may include an AUSF 1322, an AMF 1321, an SMF 1324, an NEF 1323, a PCF 1326, an NRF 1325, an UDM 1327, an AF 1328, an UPF 1302, and an NSSF 1329.

[0288] The UPF 1302 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with the DN 1303, and a branch point to support multi-host PDU sessions. The UPF 1302 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform the user plane portion of policy rules, lawful interception of packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing on the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 1302 may include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network. The DN 1303 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The DN 1303 may include or be similar to the application server 1130 discussed previously. UPF 1302 may interact with SMF 1324 via the N4 reference point between SMF 1324 and UPF 1302.

[0289] AUSF 1322 may store data for authenticating UE 1301 and handle authentication-related functions. AUSF 1322 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. AUSF 1322 may communicate with AMF 1321 via the N12 reference point between AMF 1321 and AUSF 1322; and may communicate with UDM 1327 via the N13 reference point between UDM 1327 and AUSF 1322. In addition, AUSF 1322 may present an interface based on Nausf services.

[0290] AMF 1321 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., responsible for registering UE 1301, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. AMF 1321 may be the termination point of the N11 reference point between AMF 1321 and SMF 1324. AMF 1321 may provide transport for SM messages between UE 1301 and SMF 1324, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 1321 may also provide communication between UE 1301 and SMSF ( Fig.13 1301). The AMF 1321 may provide transport for SMS messages between the (R)AN 1310 and the UE 1301 (not shown). The AMF 1321 may act as a SEAF, which may include interaction with the AUSF 1322 and the UE 1301, receiving intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 1301 authentication process. In the case of using USIM-based authentication, the AMF 1321 may retrieve security material from the AUSF 1322. The AMF 1321 may also include an SCM function that receives keys from the SEA for deriving access network-specific keys. In addition, the AMF 1321 may be a termination point for the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between the (R)AN 1310 and the AMF 1321; and the AMF 1321 may be a termination point for NAS (N1) signaling, and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0291] AMF 1321 may also support NAS signaling with UE 1301 via the N3IWF interface. N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. N3IWF may be the termination point for the N2 interface between (R)AN 1310 and AMF 1321 for the control plane, and may be the termination point for the N3 reference point between (R)AN 1310 and UPF 1302 for the user plane. Thus, AMF 1321 may process N2 signaling for PDU sessions and QoS from SMF 1324 and AMF 1321, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnels, mark N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and perform QoS corresponding to N3 packet markings, taking into account QoS requirements associated with such markings received over N2. N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between UE 1301 and AMF 1321 via the N1 reference point between UE 1301 and AMF 1321, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between UE 1301 and UPF 1302. N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with UE 1301. AMF 1321 may present an interface based on Namf services, and may be an N14 reference point between two AMFs 1321 and an N14 reference point between AMF 1321 and 5G-EIR ( Fig.13 The termination point of the N17 reference point between the two (not shown).

[0292] UE 1301 may need to register with AMF 1321 in order to receive network services. RM is used to register UE 1301 with the network (e.g., AMF 1321) or deregister the UE, and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 1321). UE 1301 may operate in the RM-REGISTERED state or the RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM DEREGISTERED state, UE 1301 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 1321 does not maintain valid location or routing information for UE 1301, so UE 1301 is not accessible by AMF 1321. In the RM REGISTERED state, UE 1301 is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 1321 may maintain valid location or routing information for UE 1301, so UE 1301 is accessible by AMF 1321. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 1301 can perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by the expiration of a periodic update timer (for example, to notify the network that UE 1301 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

[0293] AMF 1321 may store one or more RM contexts for UE 1301, each RM context being associated with a specific access right of the network. An RM context may be a data structure, a database object, etc., which indicates or stores, among other things, the registration status and periodic update timer for each access type. AMF 1321 may also store a 5GC MM context which may be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. In various embodiments, AMF 1321 may store CE mode B restriction parameters for UE 1301 in an associated MM context or RM context. AMF 1321 may also derive values ​​from the UE's usage setting parameters already stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context) when necessary.

[0294] The CM may be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 1301 and the AMF 1321 through the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to implement NAS signaling exchanges between the UE 1301 and the CN 1320, and includes a signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., an RRC connection or a UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPP access) and an N2 connection of the UE 1301 between the AN (e.g., the RAN 1310) and the AMF 1321. The UE 1301 may operate in one of two CM states (CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode). When the UE 1301 is operating in the CM-IDLE state / mode, the UE 1301 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 1321 through the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 1310 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connection) for the UE 1301. When the UE 1301 is operating in the CM-CONNECTED state / mode, the UE 1301 may have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 1321 through the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 1310 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connection) for the UE 1301. The establishment of the N2 connection between the (R)AN 1310 and the AMF 1321 may cause the UE 1301 to transition from the CM-IDLE mode to the CM-CONNECTED mode, and when the N2 signaling between the (R)AN 1310 and the AMF 1321 is released, the UE 1301 may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode.

[0295] SMF 1324 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between UPF and AN nodes); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring traffic steering of UPF to route traffic to the correct destination; terminating the interface towards the policy control function; control portion of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface with LI system); terminating the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information sent to AN via AMF over N2; and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between a UE 1301 and a data network (DN) 1303 identified by a data network name (DNN). The PDU session may be established upon request by UE 1301, modified upon request by UE 1301 and 5GC 1320, and released upon request by UE 1301 and 5GC 1320 using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1 reference point between UE 1301 and SMF 1324. Upon request from an application server, 5GC 1320 may trigger a specific application in UE 1301. In response to receiving the trigger message, UE 1301 may deliver the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in UE 1301. The identified application in UE 1301 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. SMF 1324 may check whether the UE 1301 request complies with the user subscription information associated with UE 1301. In this regard, SMF 1324 may retrieve and / or request to receive update notifications about SMF 1324 level subscription data from UDM 1327.

[0296] SMF 1324 may include the following roaming functions: handling local execution to apply QoS SLA (VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful interception (for SM events and interface with LI system, in VPLMN); and support interaction with external DN to transmit signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication through external DN. In a roaming scenario, an N16 reference point between two SMFs 1324 may be included in the system 1300, which may be located between another SMF 1324 in the visited network and the SMF 1324 in the home network. In addition, SMF 1324 may present an interface based on Nsmf services.

[0297] NEF 1323 may provide a device for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 1328), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, NEF 1323 may authenticate, authorize and / or restrict AF. NEF 1323 may also convert information exchanged with AF 1328 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF 1323 may convert between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF 1323 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on the exposure capabilities of other network functions. The information may be stored at NEF 1323 as structured data, or stored at a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be re-exposed to other NFs and AFs by NEF 1323, and / or used for other purposes such as analysis. In addition, NEF 1323 may present an interface based on Nnef services.

[0298] NRF 1325 may support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 1325 also maintains information of available NF instances and the services they support. As used herein, the term "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to the specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of a program code. In addition, NRF 1325 may present an interface based on Nnrf services.

[0299] The PCF 1326 may provide for control plane functions to enforce their policy rules, and may also support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. The PCF 1326 may also implement a FE to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM 1327. The PCF 1326 may communicate with the AMF 1321 via the N15 reference point between the PCF 1326 and the AMF 1321, which may include the PCF 1326 in the visited network and the AMF 1321 in the case of a roaming scenario. The PCF 1326 may communicate with the AF 1328 via the N5 reference point between the PCF 1326 and the AF 1328; and communicate with the SMF 1324 via the N7 reference point between the PCF 1326 and the SMF 1324. The system 1300 and / or the CN 1320 may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 1326 (in the home network) and the PCF 1326 in the visited network. Additionally, PCF 1326 may present an interface based on Npcf services.

[0300] UDM 1327 may process subscription-related information to support the handling of communication sessions by network entities, and may store subscription data of UE 1301. For example, subscription data may be transmitted between UDM 1327 and AMF 1321 via an N8 reference point between UDM 1327 and AMF. UDM 1327 may include two parts: application FE and UDR ( Fig.13 FE and UDR are not shown). UDR can store subscription data and policy data of UDM 1327 and PCF 1326, and / or structured data for exposure and application data of NEF 1323 (including PFD for application detection, application request information of multiple UEs 1301). Nudr service-based interfaces can be presented by UDR to allow UDM 1327, PCF 1326 and NEF 1323 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete and subscribe to notifications of related data changes in UDR. UDM may include UDM-FE, which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. In different transactions, several different front ends may serve the same user. UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in UDR, and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management and subscription management. UDR can interact with SMF 1324 via the N10 reference point between UDM 1327 and SMF 1324. UDM 1327 may also support SMS management, where SMS-FE implements similar application logic discussed previously. In addition, UDM 1327 may present an interface based on Nudm services.

[0301] AF 1328 can provide the influence of applications on traffic routing, provide access to NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. NCE can be a mechanism that allows 5GC 1320 and AF 1328 to provide information to each other via NEF 1323, which can be used for edge computing implementation. In such implementations, network operators and third-party services can be hosted near the UE 1301 access point of the attachment to achieve effective service delivery through reduced end-to-end delay and load on the transmission network. For edge computing implementation, 5GC can select UPF 1302 near UE 1301 and perform traffic steering from UPF 1302 to DN 1303 via the N6 interface. This can be based on UE subscription data, UE location and information provided by AF 1328. In this way, AF 1328 can affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 1328 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow AF 1328 to interact directly with the relevant NF. In addition, AF 1328 can present an interface based on Naf services.

[0302] NSSF 1329 may select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 1301. If necessary, NSSF 1329 may also determine the allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAI. NSSF 1329 may also determine a set of AMFs to serve UE 1301, or a list of candidate AMFs 1321, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying NRF 1325. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 1301 may be triggered by AMF 1321, where UE 1301 registers by interacting with NSSF 1329, which may result in changes to AMF 1321. NSSF 1329 may interact with AMF 1321 via the N22 reference point between AMF 1321 and NSSF 1329; and may communicate with AMF 1321 via the N31 reference point ( Fig.13 The NSSF 1329 may communicate with another NSSF 1329 in the visited network (not shown). In addition, the NSSF 1329 may present an interface based on the Nnssf service.

[0303] As discussed previously, CN 1320 may include SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages from other entities, such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS routers, to UE 1301 or from the UE to other entities. SMS may also interact with AMF 1321 and UDM 1327 for notification procedures so that UE 1301 is available for SMS transmission (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 1327 when UE 1301 is available for SMS).

[0304] CN 1320 may also include Fig.13 Other elements not shown, such as data storage system / architecture, 5G-EIR, SEPP, etc. The data storage system may include SDSF, UDSF, etc. Any NF can communicate with UDSF ( Fig.13 The N18 reference point between the NF and the NF (not shown) stores or retrieves unstructured data in or from the UDSF (e.g., UE context). Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing their respective unstructured data, or individual NFs may each have their own UDSF located at or near a single NF. In addition, the UDSF may present an interface based on the Nudsf service ( Fig.13 (not shown). The 5G-EIR may be a NF that checks the status of the PEI to determine whether to blacklist a specific equipment / entity from the network; and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

[0305] Additionally, there may be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between NF services in a NF; however, for clarity, Fig.13 These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one example, CN 1320 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 1221) and AMF 1321 to enable interworking between CN 1320 and CN 1220. Other example interfaces / reference points may include an interface based on N5g-EIR services presented by 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between an NRF in a visited network and an NRF in a home network; and an N31 reference point between an NSSF in a visited network and an NSSF in a home network.

[0306] Fig.14 An example of infrastructure equipment 1400 according to various embodiments is shown. Infrastructure equipment 1400 (or "system 1400") can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 1111 and / or AP 1106 shown and described previously), an application server 1130, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, system 1400 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0307] System 1400 includes: application circuit 1405, baseband circuit 1410, one or more radio front end modules (RFEM) 1415, memory circuit 1420, power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 1425, power tee circuit 1430, network controller circuit 1435, network interface connector 1440, satellite positioning circuit 1445 and user interface 1450. In some embodiments, device 1400 may include additional elements, such as, for example, memory / storage, display, camera, sensor, or input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, the following components may be included in more than one device. For example, the circuit may be included separately in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU or other similar implementations.

[0308] The application circuit 1405 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of the following: a low dropout regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface (such as SPI, I2C, or a general programmable serial interface module), a real-time clock (RTC), a timer (including an interval timer and a watchdog timer), a general input / output (I / O or IO), a memory card controller (such as a secure digital (SD) multimedia card (MMC) or the like), a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interface, and a joint test access group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 1405 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element, and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 1400. In some implementations, the memory / storage element can be an on-chip memory circuit that can include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0309] The processor of the application circuit 1405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 1405 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating in accordance with various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 1405 may include one or more Processors, such as A5-A9 processors; Intel or Processor: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor, Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) or processors; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium(TM), Inc. and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior P-class processor; etc. In some embodiments, system 1400 may not utilize application circuit 1405, and instead may include a dedicated processor / controller to process IP data received, for example, from an EPC or 5GC.

[0310] In some implementations, the application circuit 1405 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, and the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such implementations, the circuitry of the application circuit 1405 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, and the like of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such an embodiment, the circuitry of application circuit 1405 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in a look-up table (LUT), etc.

[0311] Baseband circuit 1410 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Fig.16 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 1410 are discussed.

[0312] User interface circuitry 1450 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with system 1400 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with system 1400. User interfaces may include, but are not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio transmitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0313] The radio front end module (RFEM) 1415 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Fig.16 Antenna array 1611), and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative implementation, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 1415 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0314] The memory circuit 1420 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory including a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM); and a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as a "flash memory"), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with and The memory circuit 1420 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0315] The PMIC 1425 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a power outage (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 1430 may provide electrical power extracted from a network cable to provide power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 1400 using a single cable.

[0316] The network controller circuit 1435 may provide a connection to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. A physical connection may be used to provide a network connection to / from the infrastructure equipment 1400 via a network interface connector 1440, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 1435 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some specific implementations, the network controller circuit 1435 may include multiple controllers for providing connections to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0317] The positioning circuit 1445 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by a positioning network of a global satellite navigation system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., using the Indian constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbit Chart and Satellite Integrated Radio Positioning (DORIS), etc. for navigation), etc. The positioning circuit 1445 may include various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 1445 may include a micro technology (micro PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and timing that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 1445 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 1410 and / or RFEM 1415 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 1445 may also provide location data and / or time data to the application circuit 1405, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (e.g., RAN node 1111, etc.), etc.

[0318] Fig.14 The components shown can communicate with each other using interface circuits that can include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCIexpress (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX can be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0319] Fig.15 An example of a platform 1500 (or "device 1500") according to various embodiments is shown. In an embodiment, the computer platform 1500 may be suitable for use as a UE 1101, 1201, 1301, an application server 1130, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform 1500 may include any combination of components shown in the example. The components of the platform 1500 may be implemented as an integrated circuit (IC), part of an IC, a discrete electronic device, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computer platform 1500, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. Fig.15The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of computer platform 1500. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

[0320] The application circuit 1505 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of the following: LDO, interrupt controller, serial interface (such as SPI, I2C or general programmable serial interface module), RTC, timer (including interval timer and watchdog timer), general I / O, memory card controller (such as SD MMC or similar), USB interface, MIPI interface, and JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 1505 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 1500. In some specific implementations, the memory / storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0321] The processor of the application circuit 1405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 1405 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein.

[0322] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 1505 may include a One or more A series processors of the company, such as A5-A9 processors. The processor of the application circuit 1505 may also be one or more of the following: based on Architecture Core TM Processors such as Quark TM 、Atom TM , i3, i5, i7 or MCU class processors, or available from Santa Clara, CA company( Another such processor is Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Snapdragon by Technologies, Inc. TM Processor, Texas Instruments, Open Multimedia Applications Platform(OMAP) TM processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some implementations, the application circuit 1505 can be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which the application circuit 1505 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as Edison TM or Galileo TM SoC board.

[0323] Additionally or alternatively, the application circuit 1505 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 1505 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 1505 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs), etc.

[0324] Baseband circuit 1510 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Fig.16 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 1510 are discussed.

[0325] The RFEM 1515 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Fig.16 Antenna array 1611), and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative implementation, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 1515 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0326] The memory circuit 1520 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a fixed amount of system memory. For example, the memory circuit 1520 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 1520 may be developed according to a Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR) based design such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 1520 may be implemented as one or more of a solder-in package integrated circuit, a single die package (SDP), a dual die package (DDP), or a quad die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, and / or soldered to a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 1520 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 1505. In order to provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 1520 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, among others, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive change memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory. For example, the computer platform 1500 may be combined with a computer system obtained from and Three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory.

[0327] Removable memory circuitry 1523 may include devices, circuitry, housings / casings, ports or receptacles, etc., for coupling portable data storage devices to platform 1500. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD picture cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical disks, external HDDs, etc.

[0328] The platform 1500 may further include an interface circuit (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 1500. External devices connected to the platform 1500 via the interface circuit include a sensor circuit 1521 and an electromechanical component (EMC) 1522, and a removable memory device coupled to a removable memory circuit 1523.

[0329] Sensor circuitry 1521 comprises a device, module, or subsystem that is intended to detect events or changes in its environment, and to send information about the detected events (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; etc.

[0330] EMC 1522 includes devices, modules or subsystems that are intended to enable platform 1500 to change its state, position and / or orientation or to move or control mechanisms or (sub) systems. In addition, EMC 1522 can be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of platform 1500 to indicate the current state of EMC 1522. Examples of EMC 1522 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMR) and / or solid-state relays (SSR)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks and / or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, platform 1500 is configured to operate one or more EMC 1522 based on one or more capture events and / or instructions or control signals received from service providers and / or various clients.

[0331] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 1500 to the positioning circuit 1545. The positioning circuit 1545 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou navigation satellite system, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.), etc. The positioning circuit 1545 may include various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 1545 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 1545 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 1410 and / or RFEM 1515 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. Positioning circuitry 1545 may also provide position data and / or time data to application circuitry 1505 , which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (eg, radio base stations) for use in turn-by-turn navigation applications, and the like.

[0332] In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 1500 with a near field communication (NFC) circuit 1540. The NFC circuit 1540 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, where magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 1540 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 1500. The NFC circuit 1540 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 1540 by executing an NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit a short-range RF signal. The RF signal may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 1540, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 1540 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) proximate to the platform 1500.

[0333] The driver circuit 1546 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 1500. The driver circuit 1546 may include various drivers to allow other components of the platform 1500 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 1500. For example, the driver circuit 1546 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touch screen interface of the platform 1500, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 1521 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 1521, an EMC driver for obtaining an actuator position of the EMC 1522 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 1522, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0334] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 1525 (also referred to as “power management circuit 1525”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 1500. Specifically, the PMIC 1525 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion relative to the baseband circuit 1510. When the platform 1500 is capable of being powered by a battery 1530, for example, when the device is included in UE 1101, 1201, 1301, the PMIC 1525 may be generally included.

[0335] In some embodiments, the PMIC 1525 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 1500. For example, if the platform 1500 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 1500 may be powered off for short time intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the platform 1500 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the platform is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handovers, etc. are performed. The platform 1500 enters a very low power state and performs paging, in which the platform wakes up again periodically to listen to the network and then powers off again. The platform 1500 may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may prevent the device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this time will be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0336] The battery 1530 can power the platform 1500, but in some examples, the platform 1500 can be mounted in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to a power grid. The battery 1530 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 1530 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0337] In some implementations, the battery 1530 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 1500 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 1530. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 1530, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 1530 to provide fault prediction. The BMS may transmit information about the battery 1530 to the application circuit 1505 or other components of the platform 1500. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 1505 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 1530 or the current from the battery 1530. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 1500 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0338] A power block or other power source coupled to the grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 1530. In some examples, the power block XS30 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 1500. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of the battery 1530 and therefore the current required. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standard published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance.

[0339] The user interface circuit 1550 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 1500, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 1500 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to implement interaction with the peripheral components of the platform 1500. The user interface circuit 1550 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, in particular, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information). The output device circuitry may include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, including, in particular, one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs, such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where outputs of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. are generated or produced by the operation of platform 1500. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, etc. In some embodiments, sensor circuitry 1521 may be used as an input device circuit (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuits (e.g., actuators for providing tactile feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuitry including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, non-volatile memory ports, USB ports, audio jacks, power interfaces, etc.

[0340] Although not shown, the components of platform 1500 can communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which can include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, time-triggered protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX can be a proprietary bus / IX, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0341] Fig.16 16 shows exemplary components of a baseband circuit 1610 and a radio front end module (RFEM) 1615 according to various embodiments. The baseband circuit 1610 corresponds to Fig.14 The baseband circuit 1410 and Fig.15 Baseband circuit 1510. RFEM1615 respectively correspond to Fig.14 RFEM 1415 and Fig.15 RFEM 1515. As shown, RFEM 1615 may include at least a radio frequency (RF) circuit 1606, a front end module (FEM) circuit 1608, and an antenna array 1611 coupled together as shown.

[0342] The baseband circuit 1610 includes circuits and / or control logic components configured to execute various radio / network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 1606. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit 1610 may include a fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping function. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 1610 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. The implementation of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions is not limited to these examples, and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments. The baseband circuit 1610 is configured to process the baseband signal received from the receiving signal path of the RF circuit 1606 and generate a baseband signal for the transmitting signal path of the RF circuit 1606. The baseband circuit 1610 is configured to communicate with the application circuit 1405 / 1505 (see Fig.14 and Fig.15 ) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of RF circuit 1606. Baseband circuit 1610 may handle various radio control functions.

[0343] The aforementioned circuits and / or control logic components of the baseband circuit 1610 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 1604A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 1604B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 1604C, or some other baseband processors 1604D for other existing generations, generations under development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., the sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 1604A-1604D may include a module stored in the memory 1604G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 1604E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 1604A-1604D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA, ASIC, etc.) loaded with appropriate bitstreams or logic blocks stored in corresponding memory units. In various embodiments, the memory 1604G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which, when executed by the CPU 1604E (or other baseband processor), will enable the CPU 1604E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuit 1610, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of RTOS may include: Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided TM , by Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided TM , by Mentor Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Express Provided by ThreadX TM ,Depend on FreeRTOS and REXOS provided by Open Kernel (OK) OKL4 provided, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuit 1610 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 1604F. The audio DSP 1604F includes elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.

[0344] In some embodiments, each of processors 1604A-1604E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to / receive data from memory 1604G. Baseband circuit 1610 may also include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling to other circuits / devices, such as an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to baseband circuit 1610; an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuit; Figures 14 to 16 An application circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from the application circuit 1405 / 1505; Fig.16 RF circuit 1606 to send data / receive data from the RF circuit RF circuit interface; for receiving data from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, Low power consumption components, components, etc.) to send data / receive data from these wireless hardware elements; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to / receiving power or control signals from the PMIC 1525.

[0345] In an alternative embodiment (which can be combined with the above embodiment), the baseband circuit 1610 includes one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, the audio subsystem and the interface subsystem via an interconnection subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem can also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem via another interconnection subsystem. Each of the interconnection subsystems may include a bus system, a point-to-point connector, a network on chip (NOC) structure and / or some other suitable bus or interconnection technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include a DSP circuit, a buffer memory, a program memory, a voice processing accelerator circuit, a data converter circuit such as an analog-to-digital converter circuit and a digital-to-analog converter circuit, an analog circuit including one or more of an amplifier and a filter, and / or other similar components. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the baseband circuit 1610 may include a protocol processing circuit with one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuit and / or the radio frequency circuit (e.g., the radio front end module 1615).

[0346] although Fig.16Not shown, but in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 1610 includes various processing devices (e.g., "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") to operate one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices to implement PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuit operates or implements various protocol layers / entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, when the baseband circuit 1610 and / or the RF circuit 1606 are part of a millimeter wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuit may operate LTE protocol entities and / or 5G / NR protocol entities. In the first example, the protocol processing circuit will operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, when the baseband circuit 1610 and / or the RF circuit 1606 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuit may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In the second example, the protocol processing circuit will operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 1604G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing program code and performing various operations using data. The baseband circuitry 1610 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

[0347] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 1610 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged IC soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuit 1610 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1610 and the RF circuit 1606 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system on a chip (SoC) or a system-level package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1610 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 1606 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 1606). In yet another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1610 and the application circuit 1405 / 1505 may be implemented together as a separate SoC mounted to the same circuit board (e.g., a "multi-chip package").

[0348] In some embodiments, baseband circuit 1610 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuit 1610 may support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMAN, WLAN, WPAN. Embodiments in which baseband circuit 1610 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0349] RF circuit 1606 may enable communication with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various embodiments, RF circuit 1606 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with a wireless network. RF circuit 1606 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry for down-converting an RF signal received from FEM circuit 1608 and providing a baseband signal to baseband circuit 1610. RF circuit 1606 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry for up-converting a baseband signal provided by baseband circuit 1610 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to FEM circuit 1608.

[0350] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 1606 may include a mixer circuit 1606a, an amplifier circuit 1606b, and a filter circuit 1606c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 1606 may include a filter circuit 1606c and the mixer circuit 1606a. The RF circuit 1606 may also include a synthesizer circuit 1606d for synthesizing the frequencies used by the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 1608 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1606d. The amplifier circuit 1606b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 1606c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuit 1610 for further processing. In some embodiments, although this is not required, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

[0351] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 1606d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 1608. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuit 1610 and may be filtered by filter circuit 1606c.

[0352] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down conversion and quadrature up conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down conversion and direct up conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0353] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, RF circuit 1606 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuits, and baseband circuit 1610 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with RF circuit 1606.

[0354] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0355] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1606d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 1606d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0356] Synthesizer circuit 1606d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on a frequency input and a divider control input for use by mixer circuit 1606a of RF circuit 1606. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1606d may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0357] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuit 1610 or the application circuit 1405 / 1505 according to the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application circuit 1405 / 1505.

[0358] The synthesizer circuit 1606d of the RF circuit 1606 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a cascaded, tunable, delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay element may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0359] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1606d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and can be used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals with multiple different phases relative to each other at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 1606 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0360] FEM circuitry 1608 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array 1611, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to RF circuitry 1606 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1608 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by RF circuitry 1606 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in antenna array 1611. In various embodiments, amplification by the transmit or receive signal path may be accomplished only in RF circuitry 1606, only in FEM circuitry 1608, or in both RF circuitry 1606 and FEM circuitry 1608.

[0361] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 1608 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit 1608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 1608 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., provided to the RF circuit 1606). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 1608 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying the input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 1606), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 1611.

[0362] The antenna array 1611 includes one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured to convert an electrical signal into a radio wave to travel through the air and convert the received radio wave into an electrical signal. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 1610 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which is amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array 1611 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed into a variety of arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 1611 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 1611 may be formed as a patch of metal foil of various shapes (e.g., a patch antenna) and may be coupled to the RF circuit 1606 and / or the FEM circuit 1608 using a metal transmission line or the like.

[0363] The processor of the application circuit 1405 / 1505 and the processor of the baseband circuit 1610 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 1610 can be used alone or in combination to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuit 1405 / 1505 can utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a PHY layer of a UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0364] Fig.17 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device according to various embodiments are shown. Specifically, Fig.17An arrangement 1700 is included to show the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. Various protocol layers / entities operating in conjunction with 5G / NR system standards and LTE system standards are provided. Fig.17 The following description, but Fig.17 Some or all aspects of the invention may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0365] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 1700 may also include one or more of PHY 1710, MAC 1720, RLC 1730, PDCP 1740, SDAP 1747, RRC 1755, and NAS layer 1757. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Fig.17 Items 1759, 1756, 1750, 1749, 1745, 1735, 1725 and 1715).

[0366] PHY 1710 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 1705, which can be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 1705 may include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 1710 may also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and switching purposes) and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 1755). PHY 1710 may also further perform error detection on transmission channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transmission channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In an embodiment, an instance of PHY 1710 may process a request from an instance of MAC 1720 and provide an indication thereof via one or more PHY-SAP 1715. According to some embodiments, the request and indication transmitted via PHY-SAP 1715 may include one or more transmission channels.

[0367] An instance of MAC 1720 may process requests from an instance of RLC 1730 and provide indications thereto via one or more MAC-SAPs 1725. These requests and indications transmitted via MAC-SAP 1725 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 1720 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY 1710 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 1710 via transport channels to one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0368] An instance of RLC 1730 may process requests from an instance of PDCP 1740 and provide indications thereto via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 1735. These requests and indications transmitted via RLC-SAPs 1735 may include one or more RLC channels. RLC 1730 may operate in a variety of operating modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 1730 may perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 1730 may also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0369] An instance of PDCP 1740 may process requests from an instance of RRC 1755 and / or an instance of SDAP 1747 and provide indications thereto via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Access Points (PDCP-SAPs) 1745. These requests and indications transmitted via PDCP-SAPs 1745 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 1740 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-order delivery of upper layer PDUs when lower layers are reestablished, eliminate duplication of lower layers when reestablishing lower layer SDUs for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0370] An instance of SDAP 1747 may process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities and provide indications thereto via one or more SDAP-SAPs 1749. These requests and indications transmitted via SDAP-SAPs 1749 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 1747 may map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 1747 may be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 1110 may control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflective mapping or explicit mapping). For reflective mapping, SDAP 1747 of UE 1101 may monitor the QFI of DL packets for each DRB, and may apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For DRBs, SDAP 1747 of UE 1101 may map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow corresponding to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of the DRB. To implement the reflective mapping, the NG-RAN 1310 may mark the DL packets with a QoS flow ID over the Uu interface. The explicit mapping may involve the RRC 1755 configuring the SDAP 1747 with explicit mapping rules of QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by the SDAP 1747. In an embodiment, the SDAP 1747 may be used only in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

[0371] The RRC 1755 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 1710, MAC 1720, RLC 1730, PDCP 1740, and SDAP 1747, via one or more Management Service Access Points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, an instance of the RRC 1755 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 1757 and provide instructions thereto via one or more RRC-SAPs 1756. The main services and functions of the RRC 1755 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a MIB or SIB related to NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of an RRC connection between the UE 1101 and the RAN 1110 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. These MIBs and SIBs may include one or more IEs, each of which may include a separate data field or data structure.

[0372] NAS 1757 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 1101 and AMF 1321. NAS 1757 may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 1101 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 1101 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0373] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 1700 may be implemented in UE 1101, RAN node 1111, AMF 1321 in NR implementation or MME 1221 in LTE implementation, UPF 1302 in NR implementation or S-GW 1222 and P-GW 1223 in LTE implementation, etc., for control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 1101, gNB 1111, AMF 1321, etc. may communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities that may be implemented in or on another device (using services of corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of gNB1111 may host the gNB's RRC 1755, SDAP 1747, and PDCP1740 that control operations of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of gNB 1111 may each host the RLC 1730, MAC 1720, and PHY 1710 of gNB 1111.

[0374] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 1757, RRC 1755, PDCP 1740, RLC 1730, MAC 1720, and PHY 1710. In this example, an upper layer 1760 may be built on top of NAS 1757, which includes an IP layer 1761, SCTP 1762, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1763.

[0375] In a NR specific implementation, AP 1763 can be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 1763 for the NG interface 1113 defined between the NG-RAN node 1111 and the AMF 1321, or AP 1763 can be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 1763 for the Xn interface 1112 defined between two or more RAN nodes 1111.

[0376] The NG-AP 1763 may support the functionality of the NG interface 1113 and may include an elementary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 1111 and the AMF 1321. The NG-AP 1763 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 1101) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 1111 and the AMF 1321). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 1111 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 1321 to establish, modify and / or release the UE context in the AMF 1321 and the NG-RAN node 1111; a mobility function for the UE 1101 in ECM-CONNECTED mode, for intra-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transport function for transferring or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 1101 and the AMF 1321; a NAS signaling transport function for determining whether the AMF 1321 and the UE 1101 have a NAS message; and 1101; an NG interface management function for setting up an NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message sending function for providing a means for transmitting a warning message via the NG interface or cancelling an ongoing warning message broadcast; a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 1111 via CN1120; and / or other similar functions.

[0377] The XnAP 1763 may support the functions of the Xn interface 1112 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 1111 (or E-UTRAN 1210), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures unrelated to a specific UE 1101, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0378] In an LTE specific implementation, AP 1763 can be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 1763 for an S1 interface 1113 defined between an E-UTRAN node 1111 and an MME, or AP 1763 can be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 1763 for an X2 interface 1112 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 1111.

[0379] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 1763 may support the functions of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 1111 and the MME 1221 within the LTE CN 1120. The S1-AP 1763 services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM) and configuration transmission.

[0380] The X2AP 1763 may support the functions of the X2 interface 1112 and may include an X2AP basic mobility procedure and an X2AP global procedure. The X2AP basic mobility procedure may include a procedure for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 1120, such as a handover preparation and cancellation procedure, an SN state transfer procedure, a UE context retrieval and a UE context release procedure, a RAN paging procedure, a procedure related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedure may include a procedure that is not related to a specific UE 1101, such as an X2 interface setup and reset procedure, a load indication procedure, an error indication procedure, a cell activation procedure, etc.

[0381] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 1762 may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). The SCTP 1762 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 1111 and the AMF 1321 / MME 1221 based in part on the IP protocol supported by the IP 1761. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 1761 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 1761 may deliver and transmit PDUs using point-to-point transport. In this regard, the RAN node 1111 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0382] In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include SDAP 1747, PDCP 1740, RLC 1730, MAC 1720, and PHY 1710 in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 1101, RAN node 1111, and UPF 1302 in NR implementation, or communication between S-GW 1222 and P-GW 1223 in LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 1751 may be built on top of SDAP 1747 and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP / IP) 1752, a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol for a user plane layer (GTP-U) 1753, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 1763.

[0383] The transport network layer 1754 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of the IP transport, and the GTP-U 1753 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 1752 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry the user plane PDU (UP-PDU). The IP layer (also referred to as the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets, for example, in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

[0384] GTP-U 1753 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the transmitted user data may be packets in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats. UDP / IP 1752 may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data flows. The RAN node 1111 and the S-GW 1222 may utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 1710), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1720, RLC 1730, PDCP 1740, and / or SDAP 1747), a UDP / IP layer 1752, and GTP-U 1753. S-GW 1222 and P-GW 1223 may utilize an S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 1752, and a GTP-U 1753. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 1101 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 1101 and P-GW 1223.

[0385] In addition, despite Fig.17Not shown, but an application layer may exist above the AP 1763 and / or transport network layer 1754. The application layer may be a layer where a user of the UE 1101, RAN node 1111, or other network element interacts with a software application, for example, executed by the application circuit 1405 or the application circuit 1505, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with the communication system (such as the baseband circuit 1610) of the UE 1101 or RAN node 1111. In some implementations, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide the same or similar functionality as layers 5 to 7 of the open systems interconnection (OSI) model, or portions thereof (e.g., OSI layer 7—application layer, OSI layer 6—presentation layer, and OSI layer 5—session layer).

[0386] Fig.18 Components of the core network according to various embodiments are shown. The components of CN 1220 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In an embodiment, the components of CN 1320 can be implemented in the same or similar manner as discussed herein with respect to the components of CN1220. In some embodiments, NFV is used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN 1220 may be referred to as a network slice 1801, and each logical instance of CN1220 may provide specific network functions and network characteristics. A logical instance of a portion of CN 1220 may be referred to as a network sub-slice 1802 (e.g., a network sub-slice 1802 is shown as including a P-GW 1223 and a PCRF 1226).

[0387] As used herein, the terms "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to the concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. A network instance may refer to information identifying a domain, which may be used for traffic detection and routing in different IP domains or in the case of overlapping IP addresses. A network slice instance may refer to a set of network function (NF) instances and the resources (e.g., computing, storage, and network resources) required to deploy a network slice.

[0388] Compared to 5G systems (see e.g. Fig.13), a network slice always includes a RAN part and a CN part. Support for network slicing relies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled by different PDU sessions. The network can implement different network slices by scheduling and also by providing different L1 / L2 configurations. If NAS has provided an RRC message, UE 1301 provides auxiliary information for network slice selection in an appropriate RRC message. Although the network can support a large number of slices, the UE does not need to support more than 8 slices at the same time.

[0389] The network slice may include the CN 1320 control plane and user plane NF, the NG-RAN 1310 in the serving PLMN, and the N3IWF function in the serving PLMN. Each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI and / or may have a different SST. The NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and each network slice is uniquely identified by the S-NSSAI. The network slice may be different for the supported features and network function optimizations, and / or multiple network slice instances may deliver the same service / feature, but for different UE 1301 groups (e.g., enterprise users). For example, each network slice may deliver different committed services and / or may be dedicated to a specific customer or enterprise. In this example, each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI with the same SST but with a different slice differentiator. In addition, a single UE may be served simultaneously by one or more network slice instances via a 5G AN and be associated with eight different S-NSSAIs. In addition, an AMF 1321 instance serving a single UE 1301 may belong to each network slice instance serving the UE.

[0390] Network slicing in NG-RAN 1310 involves RAN slice awareness. RAN slice awareness includes differentiated processing of traffic for different network slices that have been pre-configured. Slice awareness in NG-RAN 1310 is introduced at the PDU session level by indicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to the PDU session in all signaling including PDU session resource information. How NG-RAN 1310 supports slices enabled in terms of NG-RAN functions (e.g., a set of network functions including each slice) is implementation-dependent. NG-RAN 1310 selects the RAN portion of the network slice using auxiliary information provided by UE 1301 or 5GC 1320, which explicitly identifies one or more network slices in the pre-configured network slices in the PLMN. NG-RAN1310 also supports resource management and policy enforcement between slices in accordance with SLA. A single NG-RAN node can support multiple slices, and NG-RAN 1310 can also appropriately apply appropriate RRM policies for SLA to each supported slice. NG-RAN1310 can also support QoS differences within a slice.

[0391] If available, the NG-RAN 1310 may also use UE assistance information to select an AMF 1321 during the initial attach. The NG-RAN 1310 routes the initial NAS to the AMF 1321 using the assistance information. If the NG-RAN 1310 cannot use the assistance information to select an AMF 1321, or the UE 1301 does not provide any such information, the NG-RAN 1310 sends the NAS signaling to a default AMF 1321, which may be in the AMF 1321 pool. For subsequent access, the UE 1301 provides the temp ID assigned to the UE 1301 by the 5GC 1320 to enable the NG-RAN 1310 to route the NAS message to the appropriate AMF 1321, as long as the temp ID is valid. The NG-RAN 1310 is aware of and can reach the AMF 1321 associated with the temp ID. Otherwise, the method for initial attach applies.

[0392] The NG-RAN 1310 supports resource isolation between slices. NG-RAN 1310 resource isolation can be achieved with the help of RRM policies and protection mechanisms, which should avoid the shortage of shared resources in the case where one slice disrupts the service level agreement of another slice. In some implementations, NG-RAN 1310 resources can be fully assigned to a slice. How the NG-RAN 1310 supports resource isolation is implementation dependent.

[0393] Some slices may be only partially available in the network. Awareness in the NG-RAN 1310 of the slices supported in its neighboring cells may be beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. Slice availability may not change within the registration area of ​​the UE. The NG-RAN 1310 and 5GC 1320 are responsible for handling service requests for slices that may or may not be available in a given area. The admission or denial of access to a slice may depend on factors such as support for the slice, availability of resources, support of the requested service by the NG-RAN 1310, and the like.

[0394] UE 1301 may be associated with multiple network slices simultaneously. In the case where UE 1301 is associated with multiple slices simultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained and for intra-frequency cell reselection, UE 1301 attempts to camp on the best cell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, dedicated priorities may be used to control the frequency that UE 1301 camps on. 5GC 1320 will verify that UE 1301 has the right to access the network slice. Prior to receiving the Initial Context Setup Request message, NG-RAN 1310 may be allowed to apply some temporary / local policies based on the perception of the specific slice that UE 1301 is requesting access to. During the Initial Context Setup, NG-RAN 1310 is informed of the slice for which resources are being requested.

[0395] NFV architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more NFs onto physical resources including a combination of industry standard server hardware, storage hardware or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system can be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0396] Fig.19 1900 is a block diagram illustrating components of a NFV-enabled system 1900 according to some exemplary embodiments. System 1900 is shown to include a VIM 1902, a NFVI 1904, a VNFM 1906, a VNF 1908, an EM 1910, a NFVO 1912, and a NM 1914.

[0397] VIM 1902 manages resources of NFVI 1904. NFVI 1904 may include physical or virtual resources and applications (including hypervisors) for executing system 1900. VIM 1902 may utilize NFVI 1904 to manage the lifecycle of virtual resources (e.g., creation, maintenance, and teardown of VMs associated with one or more physical resources), track VM instances, track performance, failures, and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems.

[0398] The VNFM 1906 may manage the VNF 1908. The VNF 1908 may be used to perform EPC components / functions. The VNFM 1906 may manage the lifecycle of the VNF 1908 and track the performance, failures, and security of the virtual aspects of the VNF 1908. The EM 1910 may track the performance, failures, and security of the functional aspects of the VNF 1908. The tracking data from the VNFM 1906 and the EM 1910 may include, for example, PM data used by the VIM 1902 or the NFVI 1904. The VNFM 1906 and the EM 1910 may both scale up / down the number of VNFs of the system 1900.

[0399] NFVO 1912 may coordinate, authorize, release, and engage resources of NFVI 1904 in order to provide requested services (e.g., to execute EPC functions, components, or slices). NM 1914 may provide an end-user functional package responsible for network management, which may include network elements with VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of VNFs may occur via EM 1910).

[0400] Fig. 20 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 one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Specifically, Fig. 20 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 2000 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 2010, one or more memory / storage devices 2020, and one or more communication resources 2030, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 2040. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 2002 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize hardware resources 2000.

[0401] Processor 2010 may include, for example, processor 2012 and processor 2014. Processor 2010 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0402] The memory / storage device 2020 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 2020 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0403] The communication resources 2030 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 2004 or one or more databases 2006 via the network 2008. For example, the communication resources 2030 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power consumption) components, components and other communication components.

[0404] The instructions 2050 may include software, programs, applications, applets, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 2010 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 2050 may reside completely or partially in at least one of the processors 2010 (e.g., in a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 2020, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 2050 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 2000 from any combination of the peripheral device 2004 or the database 2006. Therefore, the memory of the processor 2010, the memory / storage device 2020, the peripheral device 2004, and the database 2006 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0405] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0406] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of forms. For example, some embodiments may be implemented as computer-implemented methods, computer-readable storage media, or computer systems. Other embodiments may be implemented using one or more custom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Other embodiments may be implemented using one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs.

[0407] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be configured such that it stores program instructions and / or data, wherein if the program instructions are executed by a computer system, the computer system is caused to perform a method, such as any one of the method embodiments described herein, or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset of any method embodiments described herein, or any combination of such subsets.

[0408] In some embodiments, a device (e.g., UE 106, BS 102, network element 600) may be configured to include a processor (or a group of processors) and a memory medium, wherein the memory medium stores program instructions, wherein the processor is configured to read and execute the program instructions from the memory medium, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement any of the various method implementations described herein (or any combination of the method implementations described herein, or any subset of any method implementation of the method implementations described herein, or any combination of such subsets). The device may be implemented in any of various forms.

[0409] By interpreting each message / signal X received by a user equipment (UE) in the downlink as a message / signal X transmitted by the base station, and interpreting each message / signal Y transmitted by the UE in the uplink as a message / signal Y received by the base station, any of the methods for operating a UE described herein may become the basis for the corresponding method for operating a base station.

[0410] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to encompass all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. A device, comprising: A processor configured to cause the wireless device to: receiving higher layer signaling including a parameter indicating that dynamic switching between a bitmap-based scheme and a resource indication value (RIV)-based scheme for frequency domain resource allocation is enabled; receiving an indication of whether a bitmap-based scheme or a RIV-based scheme is to be used for frequency domain resource allocation; determining, based on the indication, a frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use for uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum; receiving information indicating frequency domain resource allocation for uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum according to the frequency domain resource allocation scheme; as well as The uplink communication is performed using the indicated frequency domain resource allocation.

2. The device according to claim 1, The frequency domain resource allocation scheme includes a bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation scheme.

3. The device according to claim 2, According to the bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation scheme, the size is N RBG The bitmap indication includes N RBG One or more rows of a preconfigured table of rows index, wherein each row of the preconfigured table corresponds to a set of frequency domain resources.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein according to the bitmap-based frequency domain resource allocation scheme, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: One or more parameters associated with the frequency domain resource allocation scheme are received via higher layer signaling, wherein the one or more parameters include one or more of the following: whether to use uniform or non-uniform interleaving; Starting physical resource block (PRB) index; Nominal number of PRBs per interlace; or One or more allocated interleave indices.

5. The device according to claim 1, The information indicating the frequency domain resource allocation includes a resource indication value (RIV), wherein the RIV indicates a starting physical resource block (PRB) of the frequency domain resource allocation and a number of frequency domain resource interlaces allocated to the wireless device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: An indication is received of whether the frequency-domain resource allocation scheme for use for uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum comprises a bitmap-based frequency-domain resource allocation scheme or a resource indication value (RIV)-based frequency-domain resource allocation scheme.

7. The device according to claim 1, Wherein the frequency domain resource allocation scheme for use with uplink communications in an unlicensed spectrum is determined based at least in part on a subcarrier spacing configuration associated with the uplink communications in the unlicensed spectrum.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the portion of active uplink bandwidth used for the uplink communications has a bandwidth greater than a listen-before-talk (LBT) bandwidth used for the unlicensed spectrum, wherein the information indicative of the frequency domain resource allocation for the uplink communication indicates a frequency domain resource allocation associated with a primary LBT subband of the active uplink bandwidth portion, The information indicating the frequency domain resource allocation for the uplink communication indicates one or more LBT subbands of the active uplink bandwidth portion, and each of the one or more LBT subbands has the same frequency domain resource allocation as the main LBT subband of the active uplink bandwidth portion.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the active uplink bandwidth portion used for the uplink communications has a bandwidth greater than a listen-before-talk (LBT) bandwidth used for the unlicensed spectrum, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: performing LBT on all LBT subbands within the active uplink bandwidth portion; and The uplink transmission is performed if LBT is successful on all LBT subbands within the active uplink bandwidth portion, wherein the uplink transmission is not performed if LBT is unsuccessful on at least one LBT subband within the active uplink bandwidth portion.

10. The device according to claim 9, The frequency domain resource allocation includes one or more physical resource blocks mapped to one or more guard bands between adjacent LBT subbands within the active uplink bandwidth portion.

11. A wireless device, comprising: antenna; a radio component coupled to the antenna; and a processor coupled to the radio; The wireless device is configured to: receiving higher layer signaling including a parameter indicating that dynamic switching between a bitmap-based scheme and a resource indication value (RIV)-based scheme for frequency domain resource allocation is enabled; receiving an indication of whether a bitmap-based scheme or a RIV-based scheme is to be used for frequency domain resource allocation; receiving an indication of resource allocation for uplink transmission on an unlicensed spectrum in a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless cellular network based on the indication indicating that a bitmap-based scheme is to be used for frequency domain resource allocation, wherein the indication comprises a bitmap, wherein respective bits of the bitmap indicate whether a corresponding resource block group (RBG) on the unlicensed spectrum is allocated to the wireless device, wherein the RBGs are separated in the frequency domain; as well as One or more uplink (UL) signals are transmitted based on the resource allocation.

12. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein each individual bit of the bitmap corresponds to a resource allocation interlace associated with one or more frequency domain resources, wherein the wireless device is configured to: accessing a data structure indicating interlace indices and frequency domain resources associated with those interlace indices; and The resource allocation for the uplink transmission is determined based at least in part on which frequency-domain resources are associated with the interlace index indicated in the bitmap according to the data structure.

13. The wireless device of claim 12, wherein the wireless device is configured to: receiving configuration information for the interleaving indicated in the data structure, wherein the configuration information indicates one or more of: The starting physical resource block (PRB) index and / or interlace index of each interlace; or Nominal number of PRBs per interlace and / or interlace index.

14. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the wireless device is configured to: The indication of the resource allocation for the uplink transmission is determined at least in part based on a subcarrier spacing configuration on the unlicensed spectrum in the 5G NR wireless cellular network, including a bitmap.

15. The wireless device according to claim 11, wherein an active uplink bandwidth portion used for the uplink transmission has a larger bandwidth than a listen-before-talk (LBT) bandwidth used for the unlicensed spectrum, wherein the active uplink bandwidth portion comprises a plurality of LBT subbands, wherein the indication of the resource allocation further comprises a bitmap indicating which of the plurality of LBT subbands may be used for the uplink transmission.

16. A method comprising: By wireless device: receiving higher layer signaling including a parameter indicating that dynamic switching between a bitmap-based scheme and a resource indication value (RIV)-based scheme for frequency domain resource allocation is enabled; receiving an indication of whether a bitmap-based scheme or a RIV-based scheme is to be used for frequency domain resource allocation; receiving an indication of resource allocation for uplink transmission on an unlicensed spectrum in a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless cellular network based on the indication indicating that a RIV-based scheme is to be used for frequency domain resource allocation, wherein the indication comprises a resource indication value (RIV) indicating a set of frequency domain resources allocated to the wireless device for use in the uplink transmission, wherein the set of frequency domain resources comprises resources separated in the frequency domain; and One or more uplink (UL) signals are transmitted based on the resource allocation.

17. The method according to claim 16, In order to indicate the frequency domain resource set allocated to the wireless device, the RIV indicates a starting resource block (RB START ) and the number of interleavings assigned, or The one or more UL signals include one or more of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein an active uplink bandwidth portion used for the uplink transmission has a larger bandwidth than a listen-before-talk (LBT) bandwidth used for the unlicensed spectrum, wherein the active uplink bandwidth portion includes a plurality of LBT subbands, wherein the indication of the resource allocation further indicates a set of LBT subbands scheduled for the uplink transmission.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the wireless device is configured to: The indication of the resource allocation for the uplink transmission is determined at least in part based on a subcarrier spacing configuration on the unlicensed spectrum in the 5G NR wireless cellular network, including a RIV.

20. An apparatus comprising: A processor configured to cause a wireless device to perform a method as claimed in any one of claims 16 to 19.

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