Improvements to configuration authorization for unlicensed new radio (NR)

Abstract

Some embodiments of the present disclosure include systems, devices, methods, and computer-readable media for improving configuration authorization for unlicensed new radio (NR) in a wireless network. For example, some embodiments relate to an electronic device comprising a radio front-end circuit and a processor circuit. The processor circuit can be configured to receive a message from a base station using the radio front-end circuit; and based on the received message, determine whether to use the lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) or the highest CAPC of one or more medium access control (MAC) service data units (SDUs) multiplexed in one or more MAC protocol data units (PDUs) for uplink (UL) transmission. The processor circuit uses the radio front-end circuit to transmit the MAC PDU to the base station.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 841,699, filed May 1, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Background Art

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

[0004] Certain embodiments of the present disclosure include systems, apparatus, methods, and computer-readable media for improving configuration authorization for unlicensed new radio (NR) in wireless networks.

[0005] Some embodiments relate to an electronic device. The electronic device includes a radio front-end circuit and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front-end circuit. The processor circuit can be configured to use the radio front-end circuit to receive a message from a base station; and based on the received message, determine whether to use the lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) or the highest CAPC. The processor circuit is further configured to select a CAPC based on the lowest CAPC of one or more medium access control (MAC) service data units (SDUs) multiplexed in one or more MAC protocol data units (PDUs) for uplink (UL) transmission in response to the received message indicating the use of the lowest CAPC. The processor circuit is further configured to select the CAPC based on the highest CAPC of the one or more MAC SDUs multiplexed in the MAC PDU for the UL transmission in response to the received message indicating the use of the highest CAPC. The processor circuit also uses the radio front-end circuit to transmit the MAC PDU to the base station.

[0006] In some examples, the message indicates to use the lowest CAPC in response to detecting an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network, wherein the AP is associated with the UE or the base station.

[0007] In some examples, the message indicates to use the highest CAPC in response to not detecting an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network, wherein the AP is associated with the UE or the base station.

[0008] In some examples, the UL transmission corresponds to at least one of a configured grant or a dynamic grant.

[0009] In some examples, the MAC PDU includes a first MAC PDU and a second MAC PDU, and the processor circuit is configured to multiplex control signaling into the first MAC PDU, multiplex data signaling into the second MAC PDU, use the dynamic authorization to transmit the first MAC PDU, and use the configuration authorization to transmit the second MAC PDU.

[0010] In some examples, the control signaling includes at least one of a MAC control element (CE), a signaling radio bearer (SRB), or a data radio bearer (DRB) with the highest CACP, and the data signaling includes a data radio bearer (DRB) not having the highest CACP.

[0011] In some examples, the processor circuit is configured to simultaneously start or restart a configuration grant timer and a configuration grant retransmission timer.

[0012] In some examples, the processor circuit is configured to restart the configuration grant timer when the configuration grant timer expires and to run the configuration grant retransmission timer for a predefined number of configuration grant retransmissions.

[0013] Some embodiments relate to a method. The method includes receiving a message from a base station at a user equipment; and determining, based on the received message, whether to use a lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) or a highest CAPC. The method also includes, in response to the received message indicating the use of the lowest CAPC, selecting a CAPC based on the lowest CAPC of one or more medium access control (MAC) service data units (SDUs) multiplexed in one or more MAC protocol data units (PDUs) for uplink (UL) transmission. The method also includes selecting the CAPC based on the highest CAPC of the one or more MAC SDUs multiplexed in the MAC PDU for the UL transmission in response to the received message indicating the use of the highest CAPC. The method also includes transmitting the MAC PDU to the base station.

[0014] Some embodiments relate to an electronic device. The electronic device includes a radio front-end circuit and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front-end circuit. The processor circuit can be configured to determine whether an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network is detected and generate a message for a user equipment (UE). The message includes a parameter set to a minimum channel access priority level (CAPC) in response to detecting an AP or a parameter set to a maximum CAPC in response to not detecting an AP. The processor circuit is further configured to transmit the message to the UE using the radio front-end circuit.

[0015] In some examples, the processor circuit is configured to transmit the message using an uplink (UL) grant procedure. In some examples, the message includes an information element included in an RRCReconfiguration message.

[0016] Some embodiments are directed to a method. The method includes determining whether an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network is detected and generating a message for a user equipment (UE). The message includes a parameter set to a lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) in response to detecting the AP or to a highest CAPC in response to not detecting the AP. The method also includes transmitting the message to the UE. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] Figure 1 An exemplary process according to some embodiments is shown.

[0018] Figure 2 Depicted is the architecture of a system of networks according to some embodiments.

[0019] Figure 3 An architecture of a system including a first core network according to some embodiments is depicted.

[0020] Figure 4 An architecture of a system including a second core network according to some embodiments is depicted.

[0021] Figure 5 Depicted are examples of infrastructure equipment according to various embodiments.

[0022] Figure 6 Depicted are exemplary components of a computer platform according to various embodiments.

[0023] Figure 7 Depicted are exemplary components of baseband circuitry and radio frequency circuitry according to various embodiments.

[0024] Figure 8 is a diagram of various protocol functions that may be used in various protocol stacks according to various embodiments.

[0025] Fig. 9 Depicted are block diagrams showing components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments.

[0026] Fig.10 Depicted is an exemplary flow chart for practicing various embodiments discussed herein, for example, for improving configuration authorization for unlicensed new radio (NR).

[0027] Fig.11 Another exemplary flow chart for practicing various embodiments discussed herein, for example, for improving configuration authorization for unlicensed new radio (NR), is depicted.

[0028] Features and advantages of the embodiments will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals identify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like reference numerals generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and / or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit in the corresponding reference numeral. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] The following specific embodiments relate to the accompanying drawings. The same figure numbers may be used to identify the same or similar elements in different drawings. In the following description, for the purpose of illustration and not limitation, specific details, such as specific structures, architectures, interfaces, technologies, etc., are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art who benefit from the present disclosure that various aspects of various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that deviate from these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so that the description of various embodiments will not be obscured by unnecessary details. For the purposes of this document, the phrase "A or B" refers to (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0030] In current LAA / eLAA (licensed assisted access / enhanced licensed assisted access) systems, a scheduling-based uplink (UL) access scheme (e.g., SUL) is used, where UL physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission is based on explicit UL grant transmission via physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). If PDCCH is sent over an unlicensed carrier, then the PDCCH is sent over the evolved Node B (eNB) (e.g., Figure 2 After completing the Listen Before Talk (LBT) procedure at the RAN node 211 of the UE, UL grant transmission is performed via the PDCCH. After receiving the UL grant, the scheduled user equipment (UE) (e.g., Figure 2 The UE 201) performs short LBT or Category 4 (Cat 4) LBT during the allocated time interval. If LBT succeeds at the scheduled UE, the UE transmits PUSCH on the resources indicated by the UL grant. When the UE first has UL data to send, the UE may also trigger a scheduling request to the eNB via dedicated resources (e.g., physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)) or random access.

[0031] It has been identified that the UL throughput performance using current scheduling-based schemes degrades significantly in unlicensed environments or during operation in unlicensed spectrum. The main reason for this UL degradation is due to the dual LBT requirements at the eNB when sending the UL grant and at the scheduled UE before transmission. To address the issue for scheduled systems, an agreement was reached to include autonomous UL (AUL) access in a work item in Release 15 (Rel-15) Further Enhancements to Licensed Assisted Access, i.e., Further Enhancements to LAA (FeLAA).

[0032] In Release 15 New Radio (NR), the configuration grant was developed to reduce the number of steps to set up the UL grant. Not because of LBT, but to reduce the latency of Ultra Reliable and Low Latency (URLLC) services.

[0033] In the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 16 (Rel-16), work on NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum has begun. However, Rel-15 NR systems are designed to operate on licensed spectrum. NR-Unlicensed, short for NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum, is a technology that enables NR systems to operate on unlicensed spectrum. One goal is to make configuration authorization work effectively in an unlicensed environment.

[0034] With respect to configuring UL authorization, the first problem is that, in Release 15 LAA, the channel access priority level (CAPC) of the multiplexed medium access control (MAC) service data unit (SDU) is determined according to the lowest CAPC of the selected logical channel. This enables coexistence with WiFi networks, but delays the delivery of high priority data or signaling radio bearers (SRBs) or MAC control elements (CEs). The second problem with respect to configuring UL authorization involves introducing automatic retransmission using the configuration authorization. The number of retransmissions needs to be controlled. The embodiments of this article provide exemplary solutions to two configuration UL authorization problems.

[0035] The exemplary embodiment provides a solution to the first problem. As previously described, selecting the lowest CAPC from the logical channels of the multiplexed MAC SDU according to Release 15 LAA is a reasonable way to allow coexistence with WiFi, but delays the delivery of high priority data or SRBs or MAC CEs. Another way is to select the highest CAPC from the logical channels within the multiplexed MAC SDU, which allows high priority data or SRBs or MAC CEs to access the channel faster due to less stringent LBT standards, but does not present fair coexistence to surrounding WiFi systems. In one embodiment, a gNB (next generation Node B) (e.g., Figure 2 The RAN node 211) dynamically configures the UE (e.g. Figure 2UE 201) to use the lowest / highest CAPC from the multiplexed MAC SDU.

[0036] This embodiment may allow the gNB to dynamically control the UE's selection of CAPC on a multiplexed protocol data unit (PDU). In the event that there is no WiFi access point (AP) (e.g., an access point associated with a wireless network operating based on IEEE 802.11 technology) nearby, the gNB may set the UE to use the highest CAPC for the multiplexed MAC PDU. On the other hand, if there is a WiFi AP in the vicinity of the gNB and / or the UE, the gNB may set the UE to use the lowest CAPC.

[0037] An exemplary embodiment provides a solution to the first problem that can be used in situations where fair coexistence with WiFi systems is required. In this embodiment, the logical channel prioritization algorithm is modified to overcome delays in the delivery of high priority data and signaling. Instead of having a single multiplexing scheme for all logical channels, there is one multiplexing scheme for control signaling (such as SRBs and MAC CEs), and another scheme for all data radio bearers (DRBs). Alternatively, one multiplexing scheme can be used for DRBs and SRB / MAC CEs with the highest CAT4 CAPC, and another scheme can be used for the remaining DRBs and MAC CEs. Whenever a configuration UL grant is available, it will be used for SRBs and MAC CEs or DRBs and SRB / MAC CEs with the highest CAT4 CAPC.

[0038] To overcome the delay in the delivery of high priority data and signaling in fair coexistence with WiFi systems, the implementation can ensure that Logical Channel Prioritization (LCP) does not multiplex the highest CAPC priority data / signaling with other CAPC priority data / signaling. This allows the gNB and UE to use their respective computing and signaling resources in a more efficient manner than existing solutions.

[0039] An exemplary embodiment provides a solution to the second problem. In this embodiment, a configuration grant timer (e.g., configuredGrantTimer) is used to control the number of restarts of a configuration grant retransmission timer (e.g., CGretransmission timer). In this way, the embodiment can control the number of retransmissions on the configuration grant based on a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). Without this, if the channel is busy, it may result in a radio link control (RLC) retransmission of the same MAC SDU while the previous MAC SDU is still in the HARQ buffer, which is a waste of computation, storage / memory, and signaling resources.

[0040] This embodiment may limit the number of retransmissions on the configuration grant and prevent the MAC SDU from being stalled at the HARQ entity using the configuration grant, thereby saving computation, storage / memory, and signaling resources.

[0041] Figure 1 An exemplary process 100 according to some embodiments is shown. According to some embodiments, UE 101 undergoes connection setup and transitions from a radio resource control (RRC) idle state 103 to an RRC connected state 105. According to some examples, UE 101 may send an RRCSetupRequest message 107 to a network (NW) 109 to establish or re-establish an RRC connection. Network 109 may include, but is not limited to, a gNB. After receiving RRCSetupRequest message 107 from UE 101, network 109 may send an RRCSetup message 111. In response, UE 101 may send an RRCSetupComplete message 113, which establishes (or re-establishes) an RRC connection between UE 101 and network 109.

[0042] In some examples, after establishing (or reestablishing) the RRC connection, the UE 101 may transition from the RRC idle state 103 to the RRC connected state 105. According to some examples, the network 109 may use a SecurityModeCommand message 115 to activate the security mode at the UE 101. The UE 101 may use a SecurityModeComplete message 117 to notify the network 109 that the security mode is activated in the UE 101. In addition or alternatively, the network 109 may use an RRCReconfiguration message 119 to set or modify the RRC configuration. The UE 101 may use an RRCReconfigurationComplete message 121 to notify the network 109 that the reconfiguration is complete.

[0043] According to some embodiments, any of the RRC messages (eg, RRCSetup message 113 or RRCReconfiguration message 119) may include a LogicalChannelConfig information element (IE) for configuring logical channel parameters including channel access priority. An exemplary LogicalChannelConfig IE is shown below.

[0044] LogicalChannelConfig Information Element

[0045]

[0046]

[0047]

[0048] In this embodiment, a new IE may be included in the RRCReconfiguration message 119 that indicates to the UE 101 whether to add a CAPC from the lowest / highest CAPC to the parameter set. When the IE is set to the lowest CAPC, the MAC entity of the UE will select a CAPC for UL transmission based on the lowest CAPC of the MAC SDUs multiplexed in the MAC PDU (e.g., corresponding to a UL configuration grant or a dynamic grant). If the IE is set to the highest CAPC, the MAC entity of the UE will select a CAPC for UL transmission based on the highest CAPC of the MAC SDUs multiplexed in the MAC PDU (corresponding to a UL configuration grant or a dynamic grant).

[0049] In Release 15 NR, the LCP procedure is applied whenever a new transmission is performed, and the logical channels are prioritized according to the following order (highest priority listed first):

[0050] - C-RNTI (Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI)) MACCE or data from UL-CCCH (Common Control Channel);

[0051] -Configure authorization confirmation MAC CE;

[0052] - MAC CE for Buffer Status Report (BSR), in addition to the BSR included for padding;

[0053] - Single-entry PHR MAC CE or multiple-entry PHR MAC CE;

[0054] - data from any logical channel, except data from UL-CCCH;

[0055] -MAC CE for recommended bit rate query;

[0056] - For MAC CE including BSR for padding

[0057] In an exemplary embodiment, the above priority order is used for both configuration grants and dynamic grants. For dynamic grants, the CAPC is allocated by the gNB via a UL grant, where the CAPC of the configuration grant is allocated to each logical channel via RRC as described above.

[0058] Additionally or alternatively, the MAC entity separates the multiplexing of control signals such as MAC CE and SRB and (DRB with highest CAPC) into a separate MAC PDU and transmits it through dynamic grant, while configuration grant is only for other CAPC DRBs.

[0059] In another embodiment, a new transmission on a configuration grant considers control signaling (e.g., SRBs and MAC CEs using high priority CAPCs) separately from data (e.g., DRBs). Under a configuration UL grant for a new UL transmission, and if data for the SRBs is available on the corresponding PDCP / RLC entity and / or a high priority CAPC MAC CE is triggered, the configuration UL grant will only be used to multiplex data for the SRBs and / or the triggered high priority CAPC MAC CEs. If only data for DRBs is available on the corresponding PDCP / RLC entity, the multiplexing of data for the DRBs is based on logical channel priority. In some embodiments, high priority CAPC DRBs are also included to be multiplexed with SRBs and MAC CEs using high priority CAPCs. Whether to multiplex high priority CAPC DRBs with control signaling may be configured via the gNB.

[0060] In Release 15 NR, whenever a configured grant resource is used to transmit data, the UE starts a configuredGrantTimer. When the configuredGrantTimer expires, an ACK is assumed and the MAC PDU in the HARQ buffer of the corresponding HARQ process may be overwritten by a new UL transmission corresponding to the configured grant or a dynamic grant. In an exemplary embodiment, this is also applied to the configured grant for NR-U (unlicensed NR) to prevent the MAC PDU corresponding to the HARQ process using the configured grant from being overwritten.

[0061] In Release 16 NR-U, a Configuration Grant Retransmission Timer (CGretransmission timer) is added to the Configuration Grant process. Whenever data is being transmitted, the CGretransmission timer is started. When the CGretransmission timer expires, a NACK is assumed and retransmission occurs automatically. Specifically, the CGretransmission timer is used for the case where a TB was previously transmitted on a Configuration Grant, where the CGretransmission timer is started when the TB is actually transmitted on the Configuration Grant, and is stopped when HARQ Feedback (DFI) or a dynamic grant is received for the HARQ process.

[0062] According to some embodiments, the two timers are coordinated. In one embodiment, the configuredGrantTimer and the CGretransmission timer are started / restarted at the same time. In another embodiment, both timers are started at the same time, but when they expire, only the CGretransmission timer is restarted and the configuredGrantTimer continues to run to allow X number of configured grant retransmissions. When the configuredGrantTimer expires, retransmissions of the current HARQ process on the configured grant for NR-U stop and this allows the HARQ process to be used by the new transmission.

[0063] In some embodiments, the parameters of the configuredGrantTimer are transmitted using the ConfiguredGrantConfig IE. The ConfiguredGrantConfig IE is used to configure uplink transmissions without dynamic grants according to two possible schemes. The actual uplink grant can be configured via RRC (type 1) or provided via PDCCH (addressed to CS-RNTI) (type 2). An example of the ConfiguredGrantConfig IE is shown below.

[0064] ConfiguredGrantConfig Information Element

[0065]

[0066]

[0067]

[0068]

[0069] System and implementation

[0070] Figure 2 An exemplary architecture of a system 200 of a network according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an example system 200 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.

[0071] like Figure 2As shown, system 200 includes UE 201a and UE 201b (collectively referred to as "UE 201"). In this example, UE 201 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a consumer electronic device, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a feature phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless handheld device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), an in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) device, an instrument panel (IC), a head-up display (HUD) device, an on-board diagnostic (OBD) device, a dashtop mobile equipment (DME), a mobile data terminal (MDT), an electronic engine management system (EEMS), an electronic / engine electronic control unit (ECU), an electronic / engine electronic control module (ECM), an embedded system, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system (EMS), a networked or "smart" appliance, an MTC device, an M2M, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.

[0072] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 201 may include 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.

[0073] UE 201 may be configured to connect, e.g., be communicatively coupled, to RAN 210. In an embodiment, RAN 210 may be an NG RAN or 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to RAN 210 operating in an NR or 5G system 200, while the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 210 operating in an LTE or 4G system 200. UE 201 utilizes connections (or channels) 203 and 204, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0074] In this example, connections 203 and 204 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE 201 may directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 205. The ProSe interface 205 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface 205, and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0075] UE 201b is shown configured to access AP 206 (also referred to as "WLAN node 206", "WLAN 206", "WLAN terminal 206", "WT 206", etc.) via connection 207. Connection 207 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 206 will include wireless fidelity. router. In this example, AP 206 is shown as being connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, UE 201b, RAN 210, and AP 206 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. LWA operation may involve UE 201b in the RRC_CONNECTED state being configured by RAN nodes 211a-b to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve UE 201b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 207) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over connection 207. 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.

[0076] The RAN 210 includes one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 211a and 211b (collectively referred to as "RAN node 211") that enable connections 203 and 204. 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 211 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 200, while the terms "E-UTRAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 211 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 200. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 211 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.

[0077] In some embodiments, all or part of the RAN node 211 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 211; 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 211; 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 211. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the RAN node 211 to execute other virtualized applications. In some specific implementations, separate RAN nodes 211 may represent a single RAN node 211 connected to a separate F1 interface ( Figure 2 In these embodiments, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 5), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in RAN 210 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 211 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 UE 201 and is connected to 5GC (e.g., NG-eNB) via an NG interface (discussed below). Figure 4 CN 420) RAN node.

[0078] In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 211 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 201 (vUE 201). 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.

[0079] Any of the RAN nodes 211 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 201. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 211 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 210, 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.

[0080] In an embodiment, UE 201 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of RAN nodes 211 over 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 communications) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. OFDM signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0081] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 211 to the UE 201, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice, which makes wireless resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0082] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 201. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about the transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It may also inform the UE 201 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 201b within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 211 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 201. Downlink resource allocation information may be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the UEs 201.

[0083] 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).

[0084] 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.

[0085] According to various embodiments, UE 201 and RAN node 211 communicate data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) through a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" and / or a "licensed frequency band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and / or an "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.

[0086] In order to operate in an unlicensed spectrum, the UE 201 and the RAN node 211 may operate using LAA, eLAA and / or feLAA mechanisms. LAA / eLAA / feLAA involves carrier aggregation with at least one SCell operating in an unlicensed spectrum. In LAA / eLAA / feLAA, the configuration set of the serving cell for the UE 201 includes at least one SCell (also referred to as "LAA SCell") operating in an unlicensed spectrum according to frame structure type 3. In most implementations, the LAA SCell acts as a regular Scell.

[0087] In these specific implementations, the UE 201 and the RAN node 211 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 operation may be performed according to the LBT protocol. LBT is a mechanism for equipment (e.g., UE 201, RAN node 211, etc.) to sense a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a specific channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). If it is determined that the channel is idle, the transmitter may perform a transmission on the LAA SCell; otherwise, the transmitter does not perform a transmission.

[0088] The medium sensing operation may include CCA that utilizes at least 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.

[0089] 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. When a WLAN node (e.g., an MS such as UE 201, AP 206, 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.

[0090] 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 may have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs may be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, the number of aggregated carriers may 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 bandwidth different from that of other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are usually the same for DL ​​and UL. CA also includes individual service cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the service cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary service cell or PCell may provide PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle activities related to RRC and NAS. Other service 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 201 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by PCells operating in 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.

[0091] In an embodiment, the specific LBT type (e.g., type 1 or type 2 uplink channel access) applied by UE 201 is signaled via an uplink grant for uplink PUSCH transmissions on the LAA SCell, in addition to AUL transmissions. For type 1 UL channel access on AUL, RAN 210 signals the CAPC for each logical channel, and UE 201 selects the lowest CAPC (e.g., with a higher number in Table CAPC-1) of the logical channels with MAC SDUs multiplexed into the MAC PDU. Except for filling the BSR, the MAC CE uses the highest CAPC (e.g., with the lowest number in Table CAPC-1). For type 2 uplink channel access on AUL, UE 201 may select a logical channel corresponding to any CAPC for UL transmission in a subframe signaled by RAN 210 in the common DL control signaling. For uplink LAA operation, the RAN node 211 does not schedule more subframes for the UE 201 than the minimum required to transmit all traffic corresponding to the selected CAPC or a lower CAPC (e.g., having a lower number in Table CAPC-1), i.e., if a type 1 uplink channel access procedure is signaled to the UE 201 (see, e.g., clause 15.2.1.1 of 3GPP TS 36.213), then the CAPC is lower than the CAPC signaled in the UL grant based on the latest BSR and the uplink traffic received from the UE 201, and / or if a type 2 UL channel access procedure is signaled to the UE 201 (see, e.g., clause 15.2.1.2 of 3GPP TS 36.213), then the CAPC is lower than the CAPC used by the RAN node 211 based on the DL traffic, the latest BSR and the UL traffic received from the UE. Four CAPCs are defined (see, e.g., 3GPP TS 36.213), which can be used when performing uplink and downlink transmission in a LAA carrier. Table CAPC-1 shows which CAPC should be used for services belonging to different standardized QCIs (or non-standardized QCIs). For the uplink, the RAN node 211 selects the CAPC by considering the lowest priority QCI in the logical channel group.

[0092] Table CAPC-1: Mapping between CAPC and QCI

[0093] CAPC(P) QCI 1 1、3、5、65、66、69、70 2 2、7 3 4、6、8、9 4 -

[0094] If a DL transmission burst with PDSCH is transmitted, for which channel access has been obtained using CAPC P (1...4), the RAN 210 shall ensure the following conditions, where a DL Tx burst refers to a continuous transmission by the E-UTRAN after a successful LBT: the Tx duration of the DL transmission burst shall not exceed the minimum duration required to transmit all available buffered traffic corresponding to the channel access priority level ≤ P; the Tx duration of the DL Tx burst shall not exceed the maximum channel occupancy time of CAPC P (T as defined in Table 15.1.1-1 of 3GPP TS 36.213). mcot,p ); and only once there is no more data corresponding to CAPC≤P available for transmission, additional traffic corresponding to CAPC>P can be included in the DL TX burst. In such a case, the RAN 210 should maximize the occupancy of the remaining Tx resources in the DL Tx burst by the additional traffic. For uplink PUSCH Tx, there are no additional restrictions at the UE 201 on the types of traffic that can be carried in the scheduled subframes, except for the multiplexing rules defined in clause 5.4.3 of 3GPP TS 36.321.

[0095] RAN nodes 211 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 212. In embodiments where system 200 is an LTE system (eg, when CN 220 is a Figure 3 320 in the EPC 220), the interface 212 may be an X2 interface 212. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 211 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 220, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 220. 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 201 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 201; 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.

[0096] When system 200 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN 220 is Figure 4In an implementation scheme of the 5GC 420 in the 5GC 220, the interface 212 may be an Xn interface 212. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 211 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 220, between a RAN node 211 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5GC 220, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 220. In some specific implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for the UE 201 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 211. The mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 211 to the new (target) serving RAN node 211; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 211 and the new (target) serving RAN node 211. 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.

[0097] RAN 210 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 220. CN 220 may include a plurality of network elements 222 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 201) connected to CN 220 via RAN 210. The components of CN 220 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 220 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 220 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.

[0098] Generally speaking, the application server 230 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 230 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for the UE 201 via the EPC 220 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0099] In an embodiment, CN 220 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 220" or the like), and RAN 210 may be connected to CN 220 via an NG interface 213. In an embodiment, NG interface 213 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 214, which carries traffic data between RAN node 211 and UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 215, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 211 and AMF. Figure 4 An implementation of CN 220 as 5GC 220 is discussed in more detail.

[0100] In an embodiment, CN 220 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 220", etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 220 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 220 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 220", etc.), RAN 210 may be connected to CN 220 via an S1 interface 213. In an embodiment, S1 interface 213 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 214, which carries traffic data between RAN node 211 and S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 215, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 211 and MME.

[0101] Figure 3 FIG. 3 shows an exemplary architecture of a system 300 including a first CN 320 according to various embodiments. In this example, the system 300 may implement the LTE standard, wherein the CN 320 is a Figure 2 In addition, UE 301 can communicate with Figure 2 The UE 201 is the same as or similar to the UE 201, and the E-UTRAN 310 may be Figure 2 The CN 320 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 210 of the mobile station, and may include the RAN node 211 discussed previously. The CN 320 may include an MME 321, an S-GW 322, a P-GW 323, an HSS 324, and an SGSN 325.

[0102] The MME 321 may be similar in function to the control plane of a conventional SGSN, and may implement MM functions to keep track of the current location of the UE 301. The MME 321 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 301, providing user identity confidentiality to users / subscribers, and / or performing other similar services. Each UE 301 and MME 321 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and when the attachment procedure is successfully completed, an MM context may be established in the UE 301 and the MME 321. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of the UE 301. MME 321 may be coupled to HSS 324 via an S6a reference point, to SGSN 325 via an S3 reference point, and to S-GW 322 via an S11 reference point.

[0103] SGSN 325 may be a node that serves UE 301 by tracking the location of individual UE 301 and performing security functions. In addition, SGSN 325 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 321; handling of UE 301 time zone functions, as specified by MME 321; and MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between MME 321 and SGSN 325 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in an idle state and / or an active state.

[0104] The HSS 324 may include a database for network users, which includes subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. The EPC 320 may include one or several HSSs 324, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the equipment, the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 324 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing solutions, location dependencies, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 324 and the MME 321 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing users to access the EPC 320 between the HSS 324 and the MME 321.

[0105] The S-GW 322 may terminate the S1 interface 213 towards the RAN 310 (at Figure 3 The S-GW 322 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 322 and the MME 321 may provide a control plane between the MME 321 and the S-GW 322. The S-GW 322 may be coupled to the P-GW 323 via the S5 reference point.

[0106] The P-GW 323 may terminate the SGi interface toward the PDN 330. The P-GW 323 may communicate with the PDN 330 via the IP interface 225 (see, e.g., Figure 2 ) routes data packets between EPC 320 and external networks such as a network including application server 230 (alternatively referred to as "AF"). In an embodiment, P-GW 323 can communicate with the EPC 320 via IP communication interface 225 (see, e.g., Figure 2 ) is communicatively coupled to an application server ( Figure 2 Application server 230 or Figure 3The S5 reference point between the P-GW 323 and the S-GW 322 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 323 and the S-GW 322. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 322 relocation due to the mobility of the UE 301 and whether the S-GW 322 needs to be connected to a non-colocated P-GW 323 for the required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 323 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 323 and the packet data network (PDN) 330 may be an operator-external public, private PDN, or an internal operator packet data network, such as for providing IMS services. The P-GW 323 may be coupled to the PCRF 326 via a Gx reference point.

[0107] PCRF 326 is a policy and charging control element of EPC 320. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 326 in a domestic public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of UE 301. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of UE 301: a domestic PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). PCRF 326 may be communicatively coupled to application server 330 via P-GW 323. Application server 330 may signal PCRF 326 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate QoS and charging parameters. PCRF 326 may configure the rule to a PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which starts QoS and charging as specified by application server 330. The Gx reference point between PCRF 326 and P-GW 323 may allow for the transfer of QoS policies and charging rules from PCRF 326 to PCEF in P-GW 323. The Rx reference point may reside between PDN 330 (or "AF 330") and PCRF 326.

[0108] Figure 4The architecture of a system 400 including a second CN 420 according to various embodiments is shown. The system 400 is shown to include a UE 401, which may be the same or similar to the previously discussed UE 201 and UE 301; an (R) AN 410, which may be the same or similar to the previously discussed RAN 210 and RAN 310, and which may include the previously discussed RAN node 211; and a DN 403, which may be, for example, an operator service, Internet access, or a 3rd party service; and a 5GC 420. The 5GC 420 may include an AUSF 422; an AMF 421; an SMF 424; an NEF 423; a PCF 426; an NRF 425; an UDM 427; an AF 428; an UPF 402; and an NSSF 429.

[0109] UPF 402 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with DN 403, and a branch point to support multi-host PDU sessions. UPF 402 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 (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement) on the user plane, 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. UPF 402 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to data networks. DN 403 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. DN 403 may include or be similar to the application server 230 discussed previously. UPF 402 may interact with SMF 424 via the N4 reference point between SMF 424 and UPF 402.

[0110] AUSF 422 may store data for authentication of UE 401 and handle authentication-related functions. AUSF 422 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. AUSF 422 may communicate with AMF 421 via an N12 reference point between AMF 421 and AUSF 422; and may communicate with UDM 427 via an N13 reference point between UDM 427 and AUSF 422. In addition, AUSF 422 may present an interface based on Nausf services.

[0111] AMF 421 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., responsible for registering UE 401, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. AMF 421 may be the termination point of the N11 reference point between AMF 421 and SMF 424. AMF 421 may provide transport for SM messages between UE 401 and SMF 424, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 421 may also provide a transport for UE 401 and SMSF ( Figure 4 421). The AMF 421 may provide transport for SMS messages between the (R)AN 410 and the AMF 421 (not shown). The AMF 421 may act as a SEAF, which may include interaction with the AUSF 422 and the UE 401, receiving intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 401 authentication process. In the case of using USIM-based authentication, the AMF 421 may retrieve security material from the AUSF 422. The AMF 421 may also include an SCM function that receives keys from the SEA for deriving access network-specific keys. In addition, the AMF 421 may be a termination point for the RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the (R)AN 410 and the AMF 421; and the AMF 421 may be a termination point for NAS (N1) signaling, and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0112] The AMF 421 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 401 over the N3 IWF interface. The N3 IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3 IWF may be the termination point for the N2 interface between the (R) AN 410 and the AMF 421 for the control plane, and may be the termination point for the N3 reference point between the (R) AN 410 and the UPF 402 for the user plane. Thus, the AMF 421 may process N2 signaling for PDU sessions and QoS from the SMF 424 and the AMF 421, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnels, mark N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and perform QoS corresponding to N3 packet markings, taking into account QoS requirements associated with such markings received over N2. The N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 401 and the AMF 421 via the N1 reference point between the UE 401 and the AMF 421, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 401 and the UPF 402. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE 401. The AMF 421 may present an interface based on the Namf service, and may be an N14 reference point between the two AMFs 421 and the AMF 421 and the 5G-EIR ( Figure 4 The termination point of the N17 reference point between the two (not shown).

[0113] UE 401 may need to register with AMF 421 in order to receive network services. RM is used to register UE 401 with the network (e.g., AMF 421) or deregister UE, and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 421). UE 401 may operate in the RM-REGISTERED state or the RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, UE 401 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 421 does not maintain the valid location or routing information of UE 401, so AMF 421 cannot reach UE 401. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 401 is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 421 may maintain the valid location or routing information of UE 401, so AMF 421 can reach UE 401. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 401 may perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by expiration of a periodic update timer (e.g., to notify the network that UE 401 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

[0114] AMF 421 may store one or more RM contexts for UE 401, each RM context being associated with a specific access to the network. An RM context may be a data structure, a database object, or the like, which indicates or stores, among other things, the registration status and periodic update timer for each access type. AMF 421 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 421 may store CE mode B restriction parameters for UE 401 in an associated MM context or RM context. AMF 421 may also derive values ​​from usage setting parameters of the UE already stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context) when necessary.

[0115] The CM may be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 401 and the AMF 421 over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 401 and the CN 420, 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 401 between the AN (e.g., the RAN 410) and the AMF 421. The UE 401 may operate in one of two CM states (CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode). When the UE 401 operates in the CM-IDLE state / mode, the UE 401 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 421 over the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 410 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connection) for the UE 401. When the UE 401 operates in the CM-CONNECTED state / mode, the UE 401 may have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 421 through the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 410 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connection) for the UE 401. Establishing an N2 connection between the (R)AN 410 and the AMF 421 may cause the UE 401 to transition from the CM-IDLE mode to the CM-CONNECTED mode, and when the N2 signaling between the (R)AN 410 and the AMF 421 is released, the UE 401 may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode.

[0116] SMF 424 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between UPF and AN nodes); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring traffic steering of UPF to route traffic to the correct destination; terminating the interface toward the policy control function; control portion of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface with LI system); terminating the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information sent to AN via AMF over N2; and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between a UE 401 and a data network (DN) 403 identified by a data network name (DNN). The PDU session may be established upon request by UE 401, modified upon request by UE 401 and 5GC 420, and released upon request by UE 401 and 5GC 420 using NAS SM signaling exchanged between UE 401 and SMF 424 over the N1 reference point. Upon request from an application server, 5GC 420 may trigger a specific application in UE 401. In response to receiving a trigger message, UE 401 may deliver the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in UE 401. The identified applications in UE 401 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. SMF 424 may check whether the UE 401 request complies with user subscription information associated with UE 401. In this regard, SMF 424 may retrieve and / or request to receive update notifications about SMF 424 level subscription data from UDM 427.

[0117] SMF 424 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 roaming scenarios, an N16 reference point between two SMFs 424 may be included in the system 400, which may be located between an SMF 424 in a visited network and another SMF 424 in a home network. In addition, SMF 424 may present an interface based on Nsmf services.

[0118] NEF 423 may provide components for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 428), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, NEF 423 may authenticate, authorize and / or restrict AF. NEF 423 may also convert information exchanged with AF 428 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF 423 may convert between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF 423 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on their exposure capabilities. The information may be stored at NEF 423 as structured data or at a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be re-exposed to other NFs and AFs by NEF 423 and / or used for other purposes such as analysis. In addition, NEF 423 may present an interface based on Nnef services.

[0119] NRF 425 may support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information about discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 425 also maintains information about available NF instances and services supported by these instances. 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 425 may present an interface based on Nnrf services.

[0120] The PCF 426 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 426 may also implement a FE to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM 427. The PCF 426 may communicate with the AMF 421 via the N15 reference point between the PCF 426 and the AMF 421, which may include the PCF 426 in the visited network and the AMF 421 in the case of a roaming scenario. The PCF 426 may communicate with the AF 428 via the N5 reference point between the PCF 426 and the AF 428; and communicate with the SMF 424 via the N7 reference point between the PCF 426 and the SMF 424. The system 400 and / or the CN 420 may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 426 (in the home network) and the PCF 426 in the visited network. In addition, the PCF 426 may present an interface based on Npcf services.

[0121] UDM 427 may process subscription-related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 401. For example, subscription data may be transmitted between UDM 427 and AMF 421 via an N8 reference point between UDM 427 and AMF. UDM 427 may include two parts: application FE and UDR ( Figure 4 FE and UDR are not shown). UDR can store subscription data and policy data of UDM 427 and PCF 426, and / or structured data for exposure and application data of NEF 423 (including PFD for application detection, application request information of multiple UE 401). Nudr service-based interface can be presented by UDR 221 to allow UDM 427, PCF 426 and NEF 423 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 424 via the N10 reference point between UDM 427 and SMF 424. UDM 427 may also support SMS management, where SMS-FE implements similar application logic discussed previously.In addition, UDM 427 may present an interface based on Nudm services.

[0122] AF 428 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 420 and AF 428 to provide information to each other via NEF 423, which can be used for edge computing implementation. In such implementations, network operators and third-party services can be hosted near the UE 401 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 402 near UE 401 and perform traffic steering from UPF 402 to DN 403 via N6 interface. This can be based on UE subscription data, UE location and information provided by AF 428. In this way, AF 428 can affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 428 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow AF 428 to interact directly with the relevant NF. In addition, AF 428 can present an interface based on Naf services.

[0123] NSSF 429 may select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 401. If necessary, NSSF 429 may also determine the allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAI. NSSF 429 may also determine a set of AMFs to serve UE 401, or a list of candidate AMFs 421, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying NRF 425. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 401 may be triggered by AMF 421, where UE 401 registers by interacting with NSSF 429, which may cause AMF 421 to change. NSSF 429 may interact with AMF 421 via the N22 reference point between AMF 421 and NSSF 429; and may communicate via the N31 reference point ( Figure 4 The NSSF 429 may communicate with another NSSF 429 in the visited network (not shown). In addition, the NSSF 429 may present an interface based on the Nnssf service.

[0124] As previously discussed, CN 420 may include SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages to / from UE 401 to / from other entities, such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS routers. SMS may also interact with AMF 421 and UDM 427 for notification procedures that UE 401 is available for SMS transmission (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 427 when UE 401 is available for SMS).

[0125] CN 120 may also include Figure 4 Other elements not shown, such as data storage system / architecture, 5G-EIR, SEPP, etc. The data storage system may include SDSF, UDSF, etc. Any NF may communicate with any NF and UDSF ( Figure 4 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 ( Figure 4 (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.

[0126] Additionally, there may be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between NF services in a NF; however, for clarity, Figure 4These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one example, CN 420 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 321) and an AMF 421, so as to enable interworking between CN 420 and CN 320. 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.

[0127] Figure 5 An example of infrastructure equipment 500 according to various embodiments is shown. Infrastructure equipment 500 (or "system 500") can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 211 and / or AP 206 shown and described previously), an application server 230, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, system 500 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0128] System 500 includes: application circuit 505, baseband circuit 510, one or more radio front end modules (RFEM) 515, memory circuit 520, power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 525, power tee circuit 530, network controller circuit 535, network interface connector 540, satellite positioning circuit 545 and user interface 550. In some embodiments, device 500 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.

[0129] Application circuit 505 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of the following: a low dropout regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, I 2C or general programmable serial interface module, real-time clock (RTC), timer counter including interval timer and watchdog timer, general input / output (I / O or IO), memory card controller such as secure digital (SD) multimedia card (MMC) or similar products, universal serial bus (USB) interface, mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interface and joint test access group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 505 can be coupled with or can include a memory / storage element, and can be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 500. In some specific implementations, the memory / storage element can be an on-chip memory circuit, which can include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0130] The processor of the application circuit 505 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 505 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 505 may include one or more Intel FPGAs. 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 500 may not utilize application circuit 505, and instead may include a dedicated processor / controller to process IP data received, for example, from an EPC or 5GC.

[0131] In some specific implementations, the application circuit 505 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 505 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 505 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 a lookup table (LUT), etc.

[0132] Baseband circuit 510 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 7 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 510 are discussed.

[0133] The user interface circuit 550 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 500 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the system 500. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio transmitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0134] The radio front end module (RFEM) 515 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Figure 7Antenna array 711), 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 515 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0135] The memory circuit 520 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 520 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0136] The PMIC 525 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 530 may provide power extracted from a network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 500 using a single cable.

[0137] The network controller circuit 535 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 500 via a network interface connector 540, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 535 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 535 may include multiple controllers for providing connections to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0138] The positioning circuit 545 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 545 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 545 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 545 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 510 and / or RFEM 515 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 545 may also provide location data and / or time data to the application circuit 505, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 211, etc.), etc.

[0139] Figure 5 The components shown may communicate with each other using interface circuitry that may include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended ISA (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus / IX systems may be included, such as I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface and power bus, etc.

[0140] Figure 6 An example of a platform 600 (or "device 600") according to various embodiments is shown. In an embodiment, the computer platform 600 may be suitable for use as a UE 201, 301, 401, an application server 230, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform 600 may include any combination of components shown in the example. The components of the platform 600 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 600, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. Figure 6The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of computer platform 600. 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.

[0141] Application circuit 605 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and LDO, interrupt controller, serial interface (such as SPI), I 2 C or general programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer counter (including interval timer and watchdog timer), general I / O, memory card controller (such as SD MMC or similar controller), USB interface, MIPI interface and JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 605 can be coupled with or can include a memory / storage element, and can be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 600. In some specific implementations, the memory / storage element can be an on-chip memory circuit, which can include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0142] The processor of the application circuit 505 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 505 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein.

[0143] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 605 may include a processor based on Architecture TM Processors such as Quark TM 、Atom TM , i3, i5, i7 or MCU class processors, or available from Santa Clara, CA The processor of application circuit 605 may also be one or more of the following: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Inc.'s A5-A9 processors, Snapdragon by Technologies, Inc. TM Processor, Texas Instruments, Open Multimedia Applications Platform(OMAP) TM processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some implementations, the application circuit 605 can be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which the application circuit 605 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as company( Edison Corporation TM or Galileo TM SoC board.

[0144] In addition or alternatively, the application circuit 605 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 605 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 605 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data, etc. in lookup tables (LUTs), etc.

[0145] Baseband circuit 610 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 7 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 610 are discussed.

[0146] The RFEM 615 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Figure 7 Antenna array 711), and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative implementation, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 615 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0147] The memory circuit 620 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a quantitative system memory. For example, the memory circuit 620 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 620 may be developed according to the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) based low power double data rate (LPDDR) design such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 620 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 620 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 605. In order to provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 620 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 600 may be combined with a memory device obtained from and Three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory.

[0148] Removable memory circuitry 623 may include devices, circuitry, housings / casings, ports or receptacles, etc., for coupling portable data storage devices to platform 600. 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.

[0149] The platform 600 may further include an interface circuit (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 600. External devices connected to the platform 600 via the interface circuit include a sensor circuit 621 and an electromechanical component (EMC) 622, and a removable memory device coupled to a removable memory circuit 623.

[0150] Sensor circuitry 621 comprises a device, module, or subsystem that is intended to detect events or changes in its environment, and to send information about the detected events (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; etc.

[0151] The EMC 622 includes devices, modules or subsystems that are intended to enable the platform 600 to change its state, position and / or orientation or to move or control a mechanism or (sub) system. In addition, the EMC 622 may be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of the platform 600 to indicate the current state of the EMC 622. Examples of the EMC 622 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and / or solid-state relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks and / or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, the platform 600 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 622 based on one or more capture events and / or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and / or various clients.

[0152] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 600 to the positioning circuit 645. The positioning circuit 645 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by the positioning network of the GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the GPS of the United States, the GLONASS of Russia, the Galileo system of the European Union, the Beidou navigation satellite system of China, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, QZSS of Japan, DORIS of France, etc.), etc. The positioning circuit 645 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communication) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 645 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 645 may also be part of the baseband circuit 510 and / or the RFEM 615 or interact with it to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. Positioning circuitry 645 may also provide position data and / or time data to application circuitry 605, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio base stations) for use in turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0153] In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 600 with a near field communication (NFC) circuit 640. The NFC circuit 640 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, where a magnetic field is sensed to enable communication between the NFC circuit 640 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 600. The NFC circuit 640 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 640 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 640, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 640 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) proximate to the platform 600.

[0154] The driver circuit 646 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 600. The driver circuit 646 may include various drivers to allow other components of the platform 600 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 600. For example, the driver circuit 646 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 600, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 621 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 621, an EMC driver for obtaining an actuator position of the EMC 622 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 622, 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.

[0155] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 625 (also referred to as “power management circuit 625”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 600. Specifically, the PMIC 625 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion relative to the baseband circuit 610. When the platform 600 is capable of being powered by a battery 630, for example, when the device is included in a UE 201, 301, 401, the PMIC 625 may be generally included.

[0156] In some embodiments, the PMIC 625 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 600. For example, if the platform 600 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 600 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 600 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the device is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. are performed. The platform 600 enters a very low power state and performs paging, in which the device wakes up periodically again to listen to the network and then powers off again. The platform 600 may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may prevent the device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this time will be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0157] The battery 630 can power the platform 600, but in some examples, the platform 600 can be mounted in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to a power grid. The battery 630 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 630 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0158] In some implementations, the battery 630 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 600 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 630. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 630, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 630 to provide fault prediction. The BMS may transmit information about the battery 630 to the application circuit 605 or other components of the platform 600. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 605 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 630 or the current from the battery 630. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 600 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0159] A power block or other power source coupled to the grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 630. In some examples, the power block 630 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 600. 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 630 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.

[0160] The user interface circuit 650 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 600, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 600 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to implement interaction with the peripheral components of the platform 600. The user interface circuit 650 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, among other things, one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where outputs of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. are generated or produced by the operation of the platform 600. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, etc. In some embodiments, the sensor circuitry 621 may be used as an input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing tactile feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuitry including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, non-volatile memory ports, USB ports, audio jacks, power interfaces, etc.

[0161] Although not shown, the components of platform 600 may communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, a time-triggered protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus / IX, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus / IX systems, such as I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface and power bus, etc.

[0162] Figure 7 7 shows exemplary components of a baseband circuit 710 and a radio front end module (RFEM) 715 according to various embodiments. The baseband circuit 710 corresponds to Figure 5 The baseband circuit 510 and Figure 6 The baseband circuit 610. RFEM 715 respectively corresponds to Figure 5 RFEM 515 and Figure 6 RFEM 615. As shown, RFEM 715 may include radio frequency (RF) circuit 706, front end module (FEM) circuit 708, and antenna array 711 coupled together at least as shown.

[0163] The baseband circuit 710 includes circuits and / or control logic components that are configured to execute various radio / network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 706. 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 710 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 710 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 710 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 706 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 706. The baseband circuit 710 is configured to communicate with the application circuit 505 / 605 (see Figure 5 and Figure 6 ) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of RF circuit 706. Baseband circuit 710 may handle various radio control functions.

[0164] The aforementioned circuits and / or control logic components of the baseband circuit 710 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 704A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 704B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 704C, or some other baseband processors 704D 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, part or all of the functions of the baseband processors 704A-704D may be included in a module stored in the memory 704G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 704E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 704A-D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA, ASIC, etc.) loaded with an appropriate bitstream or logic block stored in a corresponding memory unit. In various embodiments, the memory 704G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which, when executed by the CPU 704E (or other baseband processor), will enable the CPU 704E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuit 710, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of RTOS may include: Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided TM , by Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided TM , by Mentor Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Express Provided by ThreadX TM ,Depend on FreeRTOS and REX OS provided by Open Kernel (OK) OKL4 provided, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuit 710 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 704F. The audio DSP 704F includes elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.

[0165] In some embodiments, each of processors 704A-704E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to / receive data from memory 704G. Baseband circuit 710 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 710; an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuit; Figures 5 to 7An application circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from the application circuit 505 / 605; Figure 7 RF circuit 706 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 PMIC625.

[0166] In an alternative embodiment (which can be combined with the above embodiment), the baseband circuit 710 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 interconnect subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem can also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, a point-to-point connector, a network on chip (NOC) structure and / or some other suitable bus or interconnect 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 710 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 715).

[0167] although Figure 7Not shown, but in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 710 includes various processing devices (e.g., a "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") to operate one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices to implement PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuit operates or implements various protocol layers / entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, when the baseband circuit 710 and / or the RF circuit 706 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 710 and / or the RF circuit 706 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 circuit may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 704G) 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 circuit 710 may also support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol.

[0168] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 710 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuit 710 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 710 and the RF circuit 706 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 710 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 706 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 706). In yet another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 710 and the application circuit 505 / 605 may be implemented together as a separate SoC (e.g., a "multi-chip package") mounted to the same circuit board.

[0169] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 710 can provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 710 can support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMANs, WLANs, WPANs. Embodiments in which the baseband circuit 710 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol can be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0170] The RF circuit 706 may enable communication with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 706 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuit 706 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuits for down-converting RF signals received from the FEM circuit 708 and providing baseband signals to the baseband circuit 710. The RF circuit 706 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuits for up-converting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuit 710 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to the FEM circuit 708.

[0171] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 706 may include a mixer circuit 706a, an amplifier circuit 706b, and a filter circuit 706c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 706 may include a filter circuit 706c and a mixer circuit 706a. The RF circuit 706 may also include a synthesizer circuit 706d, which is used to synthesize the frequency used by the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 708 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 706d. The amplifier circuit 706b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 706c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF), which is configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 710 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not required.In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0172] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 706d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 708. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuit 710 and may be filtered by filter circuit 706c.

[0173] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 706a 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 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 706a 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 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0174] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 706 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 710 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 706.

[0175] 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.

[0176] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 706d 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 706d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0177] Synthesizer circuit 706d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by mixer circuit 706a of RF circuit 706. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 706d may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0178] 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 710 or the application circuit 505 / 605 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 505 / 605.

[0179] The synthesizer circuit 706d of the RF circuit 706 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 D-type flip-flop set. 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.

[0180] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 706d 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 706 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0181] The FEM circuitry 708 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the antenna array 711, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 706 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 708 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided for transmission by the RF circuitry 706 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in the antenna array 711. In various embodiments, amplification by the transmit or receive signal paths may be accomplished only in the RF circuitry 706, only in the FEM circuitry 708, or in both the RF circuitry 706 and the FEM circuitry 708.

[0182] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 708 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit 708 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 708 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 706). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 708 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying the input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 706), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 711.

[0183] The antenna array 711 includes one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured to convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals. For example, the digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 710 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 711 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 711 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 711 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 706 and / or the FEM circuit 708 using a metal transmission line or the like.

[0184] The processor of the application circuit 505 / 605 and the processor of the baseband circuit 710 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 710 can be used alone or in combination to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuit 505 / 605 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.

[0185] Figure 8 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device according to various embodiments are shown. Specifically, Figure 8 An arrangement 800 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. Figure 8The following description, but Figure 8 Some or all aspects of the present invention may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0186] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 800 may also include one or more of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, SDAP 847, RRC 855, and NAS layer 857. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Figure 8 Items 859, 856, 850, 849, 845, 835, 825 and 815), the one or more service access points can provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

[0187] PHY 810 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 805, which can be received or transmitted from one or more other communication devices to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 805 can include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 810 can also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and switching purposes) and other measurement items used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 855). PHY 810 can 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 810 can process a request from an instance of MAC 820 via one or more PHY-SAP 815 and provide an indication thereto. According to some embodiments, the request and indication transmitted via PHY-SAP 815 can include one or more transmission channels.

[0188] An instance of MAC 820 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of RLC 830 via one or more MAC-SAPs 825. These requests and indications transmitted via MAC-SAP 825 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 820 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 810 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 810 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.

[0189] An instance of MAC 820 is also responsible for UL-SCH data transmission. UL grants are received dynamically on the PDCCH, in a random access response, or semi-permanently configured by RRC 855. The MAC 820 entity may have an uplink grant to be transmitted on the UL-SCH. To perform the requested transmission, the MAC 820 receives HARQ information from lower layers. If the MAC 820 entity has a C-RNTI, a Temporary C-RNTI, or a CS-RNTI, the MAC 820 entity, for each PDCCH opportunity, and for each serving cell belonging to a TAG with a running timeAlignmentTimer, and for each grant received for that PDCCH opportunity:

[0190] If an uplink grant for the serving cell has been received on the PDCCH for the C-RNTI or temporary C-RNTI of the MAC entity, or if an uplink grant has been received in a random access response, MAC 820 considers the NDI to be switched for the corresponding HARQ process regardless of the value of NDI (if the uplink grant is for the C-RNTI of the MAC entity and if the previous uplink grant delivered to the HARQ entity for the same HARQ process is an uplink grant or a configured uplink grant received for the CS-RNTI of the MAC entity); if the uplink grant is for the C-RNTI of the MAC 820 entity and the identified HARQ process is configured for uplink grant, start or restart the configuredGrantTimer of the corresponding HARQ process (if configured); and / or deliver the UL grant and associated HARQ information to the HARQ entity of MAC 820. Otherwise, if the serving cell on the PDCCH for the CS-RNTI of the MAC entity has received an UL grant for the PDCCH opportunity, and if the NDI in the received HARQ information is 1, the MAC 820 considers that the NDI of the corresponding HARQ process has not switched; starts or restarts the configuredGrantTimer (if configured) of the corresponding HARQ process; and / or delivers the UL grant and associated HARQ information to the HARQ entity. Otherwise, if the NDI in the received HARQ information is 0, and if the PDCCH content indicates that the configuration grant type 2 is deactivated, the MAC 820 triggers the configuration uplink grant confirmation. Otherwise, if the PDCCH content indicates that configuration grant type 2 is activated, MAC 820 triggers a configuration uplink grant confirmation; stores the uplink grant and associated HARQ information for the serving cell as a configuration uplink grant; initializes or reinitializes the configuration uplink grant for the serving cell to start in the associated PUSCH duration and recurs according to the rules in subclause 5.8.2 of 3GPP TS 38.321; and / or stops the configuredGrantTimer of the corresponding HARQ process (if running).

[0191] For each serving cell and each configured UL grant (if configured and activated), if the PUSCH duration of the configured UL grant does not overlap with the PUSCH duration of the UL grant received on the PDCCH or in the random access response of the serving cell, the MAC 820 entity sets the HARQ process ID to the HARQ process ID associated with the PUSCH duration; if the configuredGrantTimer of the corresponding HARQ process is not running, the MAC 820 considers that the NDI bit of the corresponding HARQ process has been switched; and / or delivers the configured UL grant and associated HARQ information to the HARQ entity.

[0192] For configuring an uplink grant, the HARQ process ID associated with the first symbol of a UL transmission is derived from the following equation:

[0193] HARQ process ID = [floor(CURRENT_symbol / periodicity)] modulo nrofHARQ-Processes where CURRENT_symbol = (SFN×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+number of slots in frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+number of symbols in slot), and numberOfSlotsPerFrame and numberOfSymbolsPerSlot refer to the number of consecutive slots per frame and the number of consecutive symbols per slot, respectively, as specified in 3GPP TS 38.211. CURRENT_symbol refers to the symbol index of the first transmission opportunity of the repeated bundle that occurs. If configuring uplink grant is activated and the associated HARQ process ID is less than nrofHARQ-Processes, the HARQ process is configured for configuring UL grant. If the MAC 820 entity receives both a grant in a random access response and an overlapping grant for its C-RNTI or CS-RNTI, thereby requiring concurrent transmissions on the SpCell, the MAC 820 entity may choose to continue with the grant for its RA-RNTI or the grant for its C-RNTI or CS-RNTI.

[0194] As mentioned before, the MAC 820 entity includes a HARQ entity for each serving cell with configured UL (including the case where supplementary Uplink is configured), which maintains multiple parallel HARQ processes. The number of parallel UL HARQ processes for each HARQ entity is specified in 3GPP TS 38.214. Each HARQ process supports one TB. Each HARQ process is associated with a HARQ process identifier. For UL transmissions with UL grants in RA responses, HARQ process identifier 0 is used.

[0195] When the MAC 820 entity is configured with pusch-AggregationFactor>1, the parameter pusch-AggregationFactor provides the number of transmissions of a TB within a bundle of dynamic grants. After the initial transmission, pusch-AggregationFactor–1 HARQ retransmissions follow within the bundle. When the MAC 820 entity is configured with repK>1, the parameter repK provides the number of transmissions of a TB within a bundle of configured uplink grants. After the initial transmission, HARQ retransmissions follow within the bundle. For both dynamic grants and configured uplink grants, the bundling operation relies on the HARQ entity to call the same HARQ process for each transmission that is part of the same bundle. Within a bundle, HARQ retransmissions are triggered without waiting for feedback from previous transmissions based on the pusch-AggregationFactor for dynamic grants and repK for configured uplink grants, respectively. After the initial uplink grant within the bundle is delivered to the HARQ entity, each transmission within the bundle is a separate uplink grant. For each transmission within a bundle of dynamic grants, the sequence of redundancy versions is determined according to subclause 6.1.2.1 of 3GPP TS 38.214. For each transmission within a bundle of configured uplink grants, the sequence of redundancy versions is determined according to subclause 6.1.2.3 of 3GPP TS 38.214.

[0196] The MAC 820 entity also applies the LCP procedure whenever a new transmission is performed. Figure 8 RRC855) by following the following for each MAC entity (for example, Figure 8 Each logical channel of the MAC 820) is signaled to control the scheduling of uplink data: priority, where increasing priority values ​​indicate lower priority levels; prioritizedBitRate, which sets the prioritized bit rate (PBR); and bucketSizeDuration, which sets the bucket size duration (BSD).

[0197] The RRC entity additionally controls the LCP process by configuring mapping restrictions for each logical channel according to the following: allowedSCS-List, which sets the allowed subcarrier spacing for transmission; maxPUSCH-Duration, which sets the maximum PUSCH duration allowed for transmission; configuredGrantType1Allowed, which sets whether configured grant type 1 can be used for transmission; and allowedServingCells, which sets the allowed cells for transmission.

[0198] The following UE variable is used for the logical channel prioritization process: Bj, which is maintained for each logical channel j. When a logical channel is established, the MAC 820 entity initializes Bj for the logical channel to zero. For each logical channel j, the MAC 820 entity increments Bj by the product PBR×T before each instance of the LCP process, where T is the time since Bj was last incremented; and if the value of Bj is greater than the bucket size (e.g., PBR×BSD), Bj is set to the bucket size. The exact moment when the UE201 / 2201 updates Bj between LCP processes depends on the UE specific implementation, as long as Bj is up to date when the grant is processed by the LCP.

[0199] When performing a new transmission, the MAC 820 entity selects a logical channel for each UL grant that satisfies all of the following conditions: the set of allowed subcarrier spacing index values ​​in allowedSCS-List (if configured) includes the subcarrier spacing index associated with the UL grant; and maxPUSCH-Duration (if configured) is greater than or equal to the PUSCH transmission duration associated with the UL grant; and configuredGrantType1Allowed (if configured) is set to true if the UL grant is configured grant type 1; and allowedServingCells (if configured) includes the cell information associated with the UL grant. It does not apply to logical channels associated with DRBs configured with PDCP replication within the same MAC entity (e.g., CA replication) for which PDCP replication is deactivated. The subcarrier spacing index, PUSCH transmission duration, and cell information are included in the uplink transmission information received from the lower layer for the corresponding scheduled uplink transmission.

[0200] When performing a new transmission, the MAC 820 entity allocates resources to the logical channels as follows: allocate resources in decreasing priority order for the selected logical channels with UL grants with Bj>0. If the PBR of the logical channel is set to infinity, the MAC 820 entity allocates resources for all data available for transmission on the logical channel before the PBR of the lower priority logical channels is met; decrement Bj by the total size of the MAC SDU used for the above logical channel j; and if any resources remain, all logical channels selected in subclause 5.4.3.1.2 are served in strictly decreasing priority order (regardless of the value of Bj) until the data for that logical channel or the UL grant is exhausted (whichever comes first). Logical channels configured with equal priority should be served identically. The value of Bj can be negative.

[0201] If the MAC 820 entity is requested to transmit multiple MAC PDUs simultaneously, or if the MAC 820 entity receives multiple UL grants within one or more overlapping PDCCH opportunities (eg, on different serving cells), it is UE-specific implementation dependent in which order the grants are processed. UE 201 / 401 also follows the following rules during the scheduling process: if the entire SDU (or partially transmitted SDU or retransmitted RLC PDU) fits into the remaining resources of the associated MAC 820 entity, the UE 201 / 401 should not split the RLC SDU (or partially transmitted SDU or retransmitted RLC PDU); if UE 201 / 401 splits RLC SDU from a logical channel, the MAC 820 maximizes the size of the segment to fill the grant of the associated MAC 820 entity as much as possible; the UE 201 / 401 should maximize the transmission of data; if the MAC 820 entity is given a UL grant size equal to or greater than 8 bytes and has data available and allowed for transmission, the MAC 820 entity will not transmit only padding BSR and / or padding. The MAC 820 entity does not generate a MAC PDU for the HARQ entity if the following conditions are met: the MAC 820 entity is configured with skipUplinkTxDynamic with a value of true, and the grant indicated to the HARQ entity is addressed to the C-RNTI, or the grant indicated to the HARQ entity is a configuration uplink grant; and there is no non-periodic CSI for the PUSCH transmission request, as specified in 3GPP TS 38.212; and the MAC PDU includes zero MAC SDUs; and the MAC PDU includes only periodic BSRs, and no data is available for any LCG, or the MAC PDU includes only padding BSRs. Logical channels are prioritized according to the following order (highest priority listed first): C-RNTI MAC CE or data from UL-CCCH; Configuration Grant Confirmation MAC CE; MAC CE for BSR, except BSR included for padding; single-entry PHR MAC CE or multi-entry PHR MAC CE; data from any logical channel, except data from UL-CCCH; MAC CE for recommended bit rate query; and / or MAC CE for BSR included for padding.

[0202] An instance of RLC 830 may process requests from an instance of PDCP 840 and provide indications thereto via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 835. These requests and indications transmitted via RLC-SAPs 835 may include one or more logical channels. RLC 830 may operate in a variety of operating modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 830 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 830 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.

[0203] An instance of PDCP 840 may process requests from an instance of RRC 855 and / or an instance of SDAP 847 via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Points (PDCP-SAP) 845 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via PDCP-SAP 845 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 840 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.).

[0204] An instance of SDAP 847 may process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAPs 849 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via SDAP-SAPs 849 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 847 may map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 847 may be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 210 may control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflective mapping or explicit mapping). For reflective mapping, SDAP 847 of UE 201 may monitor the QFI of the DL packets of each DRB, and may apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For DRBs, SDAP 847 of UE 201 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 410 may mark the DL packets with a QoS flow ID over the Uu interface. The explicit mapping may involve the RRC 855 configuring the SDAP 847 with explicit mapping rules of QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by the SDAP 847. In an embodiment, the SDAP 847 may be used only in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

[0205] The RRC 855 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, and SDAP 847, via one or more Management Service Access Points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, an instance of the RRC 855 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 857 and provide instructions thereto via one or more RRC-SAPs 856. The main services and functions of the RRC 855 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 201 and the RAN 210 (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.

[0206] For example, the RRC connection establishment process involves the establishment of SRB1. The NW completes the RRC connection establishment before completing the establishment of the NG connection, for example, before receiving the UE context information from the 5GC 220 / 420. Therefore, AS security is not activated during the initial phase of the RRC connection. During this initial phase of the RRC connection, the NW may configure the UE 201 / 401 to perform measurement reporting, but the UE 201 / 401 sends the corresponding measurement report only after successful AS security activation. However, the UE only accepts reconfiguration using synchronization messages when AS security has been activated.

[0207] Upon receiving the UE context from the 5GC 220 / 420, the RAN 210 / 410 activates AS security (both encryption and integrity protection) using the initial AS security activation procedure. The RRC messages used to activate AS security (commands and success responses) are integrity protected, and encryption starts only after the process is completed. That is, the response to the message used to activate AS security is not encrypted, while subsequent messages (e.g., for establishing SRB2 and DRB) are integrity protected and encrypted. After the initial AS security activation procedure has been initiated, the network may initiate the establishment of SRB2 and DRB, for example, the NW may do so before receiving confirmation of the initial AS security activation from the UE 201 / 401. In any case, the network will apply encryption and integrity protection to the RRC reconfiguration messages used to establish SRB2 and DRB. If the initial AS security activation and / or radio bearer establishment fails, the network should release the RRC connection.

[0208] The release of the RRC connection is usually initiated by the NW. This procedure can be used to redirect the UE to an NR frequency or an E-UTRA carrier frequency.

[0209] The suspension of the RRC connection is initiated by the NW. When the RRC connection is suspended, the UE 201 / 401 stores the UE inactive AS context and any configuration received from the network, and transitions to the RRC_INACTIVE state. The RRC message used to suspend the RRC connection is integrity protected and encrypted.

[0210] The resumption of a suspended RRC connection is initiated by upper layers when the UE 201 / 401 needs to transition from the RRC_INACTIVE state to the RRC_CONNECTED state, or by the RRC layer for performing RNA updates, or by RAN paging from the NG-RAN 410. When the RRC connection is resumed, the network configures the UE 201 / 401 according to the RRC connection resumption procedure based on the stored UE inactive AS context and any RRC configuration received from the network. The RRC connection resumption procedure reactivates AS security and reestablishes SRBs and DRBs.

[0211] In response to the request to resume the RRC connection, the NW may resume the suspended RRC connection and send UE 201 / 401 to RRC_CONNECTED, or reject the request to resume and send UE 201 / 401 to RRC_INACTIVE (by waiting for a timer), or directly re-suspend the RRC connection and send UE 201 / 401 to RRC_INACTIVE, or directly release the RRC connection and send UE 201 / 401 to RRC_IDLE, or instruct UE 201 / 401 to initiate NAS-level resumption (in this case, the NW sends an RRC setup message).

[0212] NAS 857 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 201 and AMF 421. NAS 857 may support mobility and session management procedures of UE 201 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 201 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0213] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 800 may be implemented in UE 201, RAN node 211, AMF 421 in NR implementation or MME 321 in LTE implementation, UPF 402 in NR implementation or S-GW 322 and P-GW 323 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 201, gNB 211, AMF 421, 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 gNB 211 may host the RRC 855, SDAP 847, and PDCP 840 of the gNB that control operations of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of gNB 211 may each host the RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810 of gNB 211.

[0214] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 857, RRC 855, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810. In this example, an upper layer 860 may be built on top of NAS 857, which includes an IP layer 861, SCTP 862, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 863.

[0215] In a NR specific implementation, AP 863 can be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 863 for the NG interface 213 defined between the NG-RAN node 211 and the AMF 421, or AP 863 can be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 863 for the Xn interface 212 defined between two or more RAN nodes 211.

[0216] The NG-AP 863 may support the functionality of the NG interface 213 and may include an elementary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 211 and the AMF 421. The NG-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 201) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 211 and the AMF 421). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 211 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 421 to establish, modify and / or release the UE context in the AMF 421 and the NG-RAN node 211; a mobility function for the UE 201 in ECM-CONNECTED mode, for intra-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transport function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 201 and the AMF 421; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 421 and the UE 201; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message sending function for providing a means to transmit a warning message via the NG interface or to cancel an ongoing warning message broadcast; a NAS signaling transport function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 201 and the AMF 421; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 421 and the UE 201; a ... 220 A configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (eg, SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 211; and / or other similar functions.

[0217] The XnAP 863 may support the functions of the Xn interface 212 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 211 (or E-UTRAN 310), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures that are not related to a specific UE 201, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0218] In an LTE specific implementation, AP 863 can be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 for the S1 interface 213 defined between the E-UTRAN node 211 and the MME, or AP 863 can be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 863 for the X2 interface 212 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 211.

[0219] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 may support the functionality of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 211 and the MME 321 within the LTE CN 220. The S1-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0220] The X2AP 863 may support the functions of the X2 interface 212 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 220, 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 201, such as an X2 interface setup and reset procedure, a load indication procedure, an error indication procedure, a cell activation procedure, etc.

[0221] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 862 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 862 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 211 and the AMF 421 / MME 321 based in part on the IP protocol supported by the IP 861. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 861 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 861 may deliver and transmit PDUs using point-to-point transport. In this regard, the RAN node 211 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0222] In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include SDAP 847, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810 in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 201, RAN node 211, and UPF 402 in NR implementation, or communication between S-GW 322 and P-GW 323 in LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 851 may be built on top of SDAP 847 and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP / IP) 852, a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol layer (GTP-U) 853 for the user plane, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 863.

[0223] The transport network layer 854 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of the IP transport, and the GTP-U 853 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 852 (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.

[0224] GTP-U 853 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 a packet in any of the IPv4, IPv6 or PPP formats. UDP / IP 852 may provide a checksum for data integrity, a port number for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data flows. The RAN node 211 and the S-GW 322 may utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 810), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840 and / or SDAP 847), a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853. The S-GW 322 and the P-GW 323 may utilize the S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support mobility of UE 201 and session management procedures to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 201 and P-GW 323 .

[0225] In addition, despite Figure 8Not shown, but an application layer may exist above the AP 863 and / or transport network layer 854. The application layer may be a layer where a user of the UE 201, RAN node 211, or other network element interacts with a software application, for example, executed by the application circuitry 505 or the application circuitry 605, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with the communication system of the UE 201 or RAN node 211, such as the baseband circuitry 710. In some implementations, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide functionality that is the same or similar to layers 5 to 7 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, or portions thereof (e.g., OSI layer 7—application layer, OSI layer 6—presentation layer, and OSI layer 5—session layer).

[0226] Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Specifically, Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 900 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more memory / storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 940. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 900.

[0227] Processor 910 may include, for example, processor 912 and processor 914. Processor 910 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0228] The memory / storage device 920 may include a main memory, a disk storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 920 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a static random access memory (SRAM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a solid-state storage device, etc.

[0229] The communication resources 930 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 via the network 908. For example, the communication resources 930 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power) components, Wi- components and other communication components.

[0230] The instructions 950 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 910 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 950 may reside completely or partially in at least one of the processors 910 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 920, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 950 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 900 from any combination of the peripheral device 904 or the database 906. Therefore, the memory of the processor 910, the memory / storage device 920, the peripheral device 904, and the database 906 are examples of computer-readable media and machine-readable media.

[0231] In some embodiments, Figures 1 to 9 The electronic device, network, system, chip or component or part thereof or specific implementation in some other figures of this document may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques or methods described herein or part thereof. Fig.10 One such process is depicted in . Fig.10 1000 is shown, which describes an electronic device for improving configuration authorization for unlicensed new radio (NR) in a wireless network. According to some embodiments, the electronic device may include UE 201, 301, 401, 600. In some embodiments, the flowchart 1000 may be performed by a processor or processor circuit (including) described in various embodiments herein. Fig. 9 The processor, and / or application circuit 505 or 605, and / or Figures 5 and 6 The baseband circuit 510 or 610 shown is executed or controlled.

[0232] At 1002, a message is received from a base station. For example, the UE receives a message from a base station (e.g., a gNB). At 1004, based on the received message, it is determined whether to use a lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) or a highest CAPC. For example, in response to detecting an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network, the message indicates to the UE to use the lowest CAPC. In some examples, the AP is associated with the UE. Additionally or alternatively, the AP is associated with the base station. In other words, if the base station has determined that the AP is near the base station and / or the UE, the message indicates to use the lowest CAPC. In some examples, in response to not detecting an AP associated with the wireless network, the message indicates to the UE to use the highest CAPC.

[0233] Although some embodiments are discussed with respect to a UE using a lowest CAPC or a highest CAPC, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to using the lowest CAPC or the highest CAPC. In some examples, in response to detecting an AP, a message may indicate to the UE to use a CAPC that is between the lowest CAPC and the highest CAPC but closer to the lowest CAPC. For example, the CAPCs may be divided into one or more groups, and in response to detecting an AP, the message may indicate to the UE to use a CAPC in the lowest group. In some examples, in response to not detecting an AP, the message may indicate to the UE to use a CAPC that is between the lowest CAPC and the highest CAPC but closer to the highest CAPC. For example, the CAPCs may be divided into one or more groups, and in response to not detecting an AP, the message may indicate to the UE to use a CAPC in the highest group.

[0234] At 1006, in response to the received message indicating to the UE to use the lowest CAPC, the UE selects a CAPC based on a lowest CAPC of one or more medium access control (MAC) service data units (SDUs) multiplexed in one or more MAC protocol data units (PDUs) for uplink (UL) transmissions. In some examples, the UL transmission corresponds to at least one of a configured grant or a dynamic grant. Alternatively, the UE may select a CAPC based on a CAPC in a lowest CAPC group of one or more MAC SDUs in one or more MAC PDUs for the UL transmission.

[0235] Alternatively, at 1008, in response to the received message indicating to the UE to use the highest CAPC, the UE selects the CAPC based on the highest CAPC of one or more MAC SDUs multiplexed in the one or more MAC PDUs for UL transmission. In some examples, the UL transmission corresponds to at least one of a configured grant or a dynamic grant. Alternatively, the UE may select the CAPC based on the CAPC in the highest CAPC group of one or more MAC SDUs in the one or more MAC PDUs for UL transmission.

[0236] At 1010, the UE may transmit a MAC PDU to a base station.

[0237] According to some examples, the MAC PDU may include a first MAC PDU and a second MAC PDU, and method 1000 may also include multiplexing control signaling into the first MAC PDU, multiplexing data signaling into the second MAC PDU, transmitting the first MAC PDU using a dynamic grant, and transmitting the second MAC PDU using a configuration grant.

[0238] According to some examples, the control signaling includes at least one of a MAC control element (CE), a signaling radio bearer (SRB), or a data radio bearer (DRB) with the highest CACP, and the data signaling includes a data radio bearer (DRB) not having the highest CACP.

[0239] According to some examples, method 1000 may include starting or restarting a configuration grant timer and a configuration grant retransmission timer simultaneously. In addition or alternatively, method 1000 may include restarting the configuration grant timer when the configuration grant timer expires, and running the configuration grant retransmission timer for a predefined number of configuration grant retransmissions.

[0240] In some embodiments, Figures 1 to 9 The electronic device, network, system, chip or component or part thereof or specific implementation in some other figures of this document may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques or methods described herein or parts thereof. Fig.11 One such process is depicted in . Fig.11 1100 is shown, which describes an electronic device for improving configuration authorization for unlicensed new radio (NR) in a wireless network. According to some embodiments, the electronic device may include a base station, such as RAN node 211, AP 206, E-UTRAN 310, RAN 410, infrastructure equipment 500. In some embodiments, the flowchart 1100 may be executed by a processor or processor circuit (including Fig. 9 The processor, and / or application circuit 505 or 605, and / or Figures 5 and 6 The baseband circuit 510 or 610 shown is executed or controlled.

[0241] At 1102, the base station determines whether an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network is detected. In some examples, the AP is associated with a UE served by the base station. In addition or alternatively, the AP is associated with the base station. In other words, if the base station determines whether the AP is near the base station and / or near the UE.

[0242] At 1104, the base station generates a message for the UE. The message includes a parameter that is set to a lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) in response to detecting an AP or to a highest CAPC in response to not detecting an AP.

[0243] At 1006, the base station transmits the message to the UE. According to some examples, the base station transmits the message using an uplink (UL) grant procedure. Additionally or alternatively, the message includes an information element included in an RRCReconfiguration message.

[0244] According to some examples, method 1100 may include receiving a MAC PDU from a UE. In some embodiments, the MAC PDU may include a first MAC PDU containing control signaling and a second MAC PDU containing data signaling. According to some examples, the control signaling includes at least one of a MAC control element (CE), a signaling radio bearer (SRB), or a data radio bearer (DRB) with a highest CACP, and the data signaling includes a data radio bearer (DRB) that does not have a highest CACP.

[0245] 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.

[0246] Example

[0247] Embodiment A01 comprises a method of configuring a channel access priority class (CAPC).

[0248] Embodiment A02 includes the method of embodiment A01 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the CAPC is to be used to multiplex MAC SDUs and is controlled by the IE according to the RRC configuration.

[0249] Embodiment A03 includes the method of embodiment A02 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the CAPC to be used may be the highest priority or the lowest priority, depending on the RRC configuration.

[0250] Embodiment A04 may include a method according to embodiment A03 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein configuring a grant timer continues after restarting of configuring a grant retransmission timer.

[0251] Embodiment A05 comprises a method of separating control signaling (eg, SRBs and / or MAC CEs) into a MAC SDU that is different from data from DRBs.

[0252] Embodiment A06 includes a method according to embodiment A05 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the MAC SDU carrying the control signal uses a CAPC different from the CAPC used to encapsulate the MAC SDU data from the DRB.

[0253] Embodiment A07 includes a method for interworking of a configured grant timer (configuredGrantTimer) and a configured grant retransmission timer (CGretransmission).

[0254] Embodiment A08 includes a method according to embodiment A07 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the configuration grant timer and the configuration grant retransmission timer start at the same time.

[0255] Embodiment A09 includes a method according to embodiment A08 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein when a configuration grant timer expires, the configuration grant retransmission HARQ process stops.

[0256] Embodiment B01 includes a method comprising: determining or causing determination of whether to use a highest channel access priority level (CAPC) or a lowest channel access priority level based on a received configuration; when the configuration indicates use of the lowest CAPC, selecting or causing selection of a CAPC based on the lowest CAPC of one or more media access control (MAC) service data units (SDUs) multiplexed in a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) for an uplink (UL) transmission (Tx); and when the configuration indicates use of the highest CAPC, selecting or causing selection of a CAPC based on the highest CAPC of a MAC SDU multiplexed in a MAC PDU for the UL Tx.

[0257] Embodiment B02 includes the method according to embodiment B01 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the UL Tx corresponds to a configuration grant and a dynamic grant.

[0258] Embodiment B03 includes the method according to embodiment B02 and / or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: performing or causing to perform a logical channel prioritization (LCP) process according to predefined priority divisions of both the configuration authorization and the dynamic authorization.

[0259] Embodiment B04 includes a method according to embodiment B03 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the predefined priority division includes, in order from highest priority to lowest priority, C-RNTI MAC CE or data from UL-CCCH; configuration authorization confirmation MAC CE; MAC CE for BSR, except BSR included for filling; single-entry PHR MAC CE or multi-entry PHR MAC CE; data from any logical channel, except data from UL-CCCH; MAC CE for recommended bit rate query; and MAC CE for BSR included for filling.

[0260] Embodiment B05 includes the method of embodiments B03-B04 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the dynamically granted CAPC is assigned via the configuration grant, wherein the configuration granted CAPC is assigned to each logical channel via the received configuration.

[0261] Embodiment B06 includes the method described in accordance with embodiments B03-B04 and / or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: the MAC entity multiplexing control signaling into a first MAC PDU or causing such multiplexing; the MAC entity multiplexing data signaling into a second MAC PDU or causing such multiplexing; using the dynamic authorization to transmit or cause the transmission of the first MAC PDU; and using the configuration authorization to transmit or cause the transmission of the second MAC PDU.

[0262] Embodiment B07 includes a method according to embodiment B06 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the control signaling includes one or more MAC CEs, one or more SRBs and / or DRBs with the highest CAPC; and the data signaling includes one or more DRBs that do not have the highest CAPC.

[0263] Embodiment B08 includes the method described in accordance with embodiments B03-B04 and / or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: when SRB and / or MAC CE data are available at the corresponding PDCP entity or the corresponding RLC entity and / or when a high priority CAPC MAC CE is triggered, the MAC entity multiplexes one or more SRBs and / or one or more MAC CEs into the MAC PDU or causes such multiplexing; and uses the configuration authorization to transmit or cause the transmission of the MAC PDU.

[0264] Embodiment B09 includes the method described in accordance with embodiment B08 and / or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: when the data signaling DRB is available on the corresponding PDCP entity or the corresponding RLC entity and SRB or MAC CE data is not available, the MAC entity multiplexes the data signaling DRB into another MAC PDU or causes the multiplexing according to the logical channel priority; and uses the configuration authorization to transmit or cause the transmission of the other MAC PDU.

[0265] Embodiment B10 includes the method described in accordance with embodiments B02-B09 and / or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: when using the resources of the configured grant to transmit data, starting or causing a configured grant timer (configuredGrantTimer) to be started; and when the configuredGrantTimer expires, covering or causing covering the MAC PDU in the HARQ buffer of the corresponding HARQ process with a new UL Tx corresponding to the configured grant or the dynamic grant.

[0266] Embodiment B11 includes the method according to embodiments B02-B10 and / or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: when transmitting data, starting or causing a configuration authorization retransmission timer (CGretransmission timer) to be started; and retransmitting or causing the data to be retransmitted when the CGretransmission timer expires.

[0267] Embodiment B12 includes the method according to Embodiments B10-B11 and / or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: simultaneously starting or causing the configuredGrantTimer and the CGretransmission timer to be started.

[0268] Embodiment B13 includes the method according to embodiment B12 and / or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: restarting or causing to restart the configuredGrantTimer and the CGretransmission timer simultaneously.

[0269] Embodiment B14 includes the method according to embodiment B12 and / or some other embodiments herein, further including: restarting or causing the CGretransmission timer to be restarted only when the CGretransmission timer expires; allowing or causing the configuredGrantTimer to be allowed to continue running to allow X number of configured grant retransmissions; and when the configuredGrantTimer expires, stopping or causing the stopping of the retransmission of the current HARQ process on the configured grant to allow the current HARQ process to be used for new transmissions.

[0270] Embodiment B15 includes the method according to embodiments B01 to B14 and / or some other embodiments herein, wherein the method is to be performed by a user equipment (UE).

[0271] Embodiment Z01 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of a method as described or associated with any of Embodiments A01-A09, B01-B15, or any other method or process described herein.

[0272] Embodiment Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, which include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any one of embodiments A01 to A09, B01 to B15, or any other method or process described herein.

[0273] Embodiment Z03 may include a device comprising logic, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of a method described or related to any of Embodiments A01 to A09, B01 to B15, or any other method or process described herein.

[0274] Embodiment Z04 may include methods, techniques or processes described or related to any one of Embodiments A01 to A09, B01 to B15, or parts or components thereof.

[0275] Embodiment Z05 may include a device comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, wherein the one or more computer-readable media include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or part thereof, according to or related to any one of A01 to A09, B01 to B15.

[0276] Embodiment Z06 may include a signal according to or related to any one of embodiments A01 to A09, B01 to B15, or a portion or component thereof.

[0277] Embodiment Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU) or message as described or related to any one of embodiments A01 to A09, B01 to B15, or a part or component thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0278] Embodiment Z08 may include a signal encoded with data as described or associated with any one of Embodiments A01 to A09, B01 to B15, or a portion or component thereof, or as otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0279] Embodiment Z09 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 A01 to A09, B01 to B15, or a portion or component thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0280] Embodiment Z10 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, process, or portion thereof described in or related to any one of embodiments A01 to A09, B01 to B15.

[0281] Embodiment Z11 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, described in or related to any one of embodiments A01 to A09, B01 to B15.

[0282] Embodiment Z12 may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0283] Embodiment Z13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0284] Embodiment Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0285] Embodiment Z15 may include an apparatus for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0286] 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.

[0287] abbreviation

[0288] For the purposes of this document, the following abbreviations may be applied to the examples and embodiments discussed herein but are not meant to be limiting.

[0289] 3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project

[0290] 4G Fourth Generation

[0291] 5G Fifth Generation

[0292] 5GC 5G Core Network

[0293] ACK

[0294] AF Application Function

[0295] AM Confirmation Mode

[0296] AMBR Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate

[0297] AMF Access and Mobility Management Function

[0298] AN Access Network

[0299] ANR Automatic Neighbor Relation

[0300] AP application protocol, antenna port, access point

[0301] API Application Programming Interface

[0302] APN Access Point Name

[0303] ARP Assignment Retention Priority

[0304] ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

[0305] AS Access Layer

[0306] ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation

[0307] AUL Autonomous UL

[0308] AUSF authentication server function

[0309] AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

[0310] BCH Broadcast Channel

[0311] BER Bit Error Rate

[0312] BFD Beam Fault Detection

[0313] BLER Block Error Rate

[0314] BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying

[0315] BRAS Broadband Remote Access Server

[0316] BSS Business Support System

[0317] BS Base Station

[0318] BSR Buffer Status Report

[0319] BW Bandwidth

[0320] BWP Bandwidth Part

[0321] C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier

[0322] CA Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority

[0323] CAPC Channel Access Priority Level

[0324] CAPEX Capital Expenditure

[0325] CBRA Contention-based random access

[0326] CC component carrier, country code, encryption checksum

[0327] CCA Clear Channel Assessment

[0328] CCE Control Channel Element

[0329] CCCH Common Control Channel

[0330] CE Coverage Enhancement

[0331] CDM Content Delivery Network

[0332] CDMA Code Division Multiple Access

[0333] CFRA Contention-free random access

[0334] CG Cell Group

[0335] CI Cell ID

[0336] CID Cell ID (eg, positioning method)

[0337] CIM Common Information Model

[0338] CIR Carrier to Interference Ratio

[0339] CK Cryptographic Key

[0340] CM Connection Management, Conditionally Mandatory

[0341] CMAS Commercial Mobile Alert Service

[0342] CMD command

[0343] CMS Cloud Management System

[0344] CO Conditional optional

[0345] CoMP Coordinated Multipoint

[0346] CORESET Control Resource Set

[0347] COTS Commercial Off-the-Shelf

[0348] CP Control Plane, Cyclic Prefix, Attachment Point

[0349] CPD Connection Point Descriptor

[0350] CPE user terminal equipment

[0351] CPICH Common Pilot Channel

[0352] CQI Channel Quality Indicator

[0353] CPU CSI processing unit, central processing unit

[0354] C / R Command / Response field bit

[0355] CRAN Cloud Radio Access Network, Cloud RAN

[0356] CRB Common Resource Block

[0357] CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

[0358] CRI Channel State Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS Resource Indicator

[0359] C-RNTI Cell RNTI

[0360] CS Circuit Switched

[0361] CSAR Cloud Service Archive

[0362] CSI Channel State Information

[0363] CSI-IM CSI interference measurement

[0364] CSI-RS CSI reference signal

[0365] CSI-RSRP CSI reference signal received power

[0366] CSI-RSRQ CSI reference signal reception quality

[0367] CSI-SINR CSI signal to interference plus noise ratio

[0368] CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access

[0369] CSMA / CA CSMA with collision avoidance

[0370] CSS Common Search Space, Cell Specific Search Space

[0371] CTS Clear to Send

[0372] CW codeword

[0373] CWS Contention Window Size

[0374] D2D Device to Device

[0375] DC Dual Connection, Direct Current

[0376] DCI Downlink Control Information

[0377] DF deployment preferences

[0378] DL Downlink

[0379] DMTF Distributed Management Task Force

[0380] DPDK Data Plane Development Kit

[0381] DM-RS, DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal

[0382] DN Data Network

[0383] DRB Data Radio Bearer

[0384] DRS Discovery Reference Signal

[0385] DRX Discontinuous Reception

[0386] DSL Digital Subscriber Line

[0387] DSLAM DSL Access Multiplexer

[0388] DwPTS Downlink Pilot Time Slot

[0389] E-LAN ​​Ethernet Local Area Network

[0390] E2E End-to-End

[0391] ECCA Extended Clear Channel Assessment, Extended CCA

[0392] ECCE Enhanced Control Channel Element, Enhanced CCE

[0393] ED Energy Detection

[0394] EDGE Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (GSM Evolution)

[0395] EGMF exposes governance management functions

[0396] EGPRS Enhanced GPRS

[0397] EIR Equipment Identity Register

[0398] eLAA Enhanced License Assisted Access, enhanced LAA

[0399] EM Element Manager

[0400] eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband

[0401] EMS Element Management System

[0402] eNB Evolved Node B, E-UTRAN Node B

[0403] EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

[0404] EPC Evolved Packet Core

[0405] EPDCCH Enhanced PDCCH, Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0406] EPRE Energy per resource element

[0407] EPS Evolved Packet System

[0408] EREG Enhanced REG, enhanced resource element group

[0409] ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

[0410] ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System

[0411] eUICC embedded UICC, embedded universal integrated circuit card

[0412] E-UTRA Evolved UTRA

[0413] E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN

[0414] EV2X Enhanced V2X

[0415] F1AP F1 Application Protocol

[0416] F1-C F1 control plane interface

[0417] F1-U F1 User Plane Interface

[0418] FACCH Fast Associated Control Channel

[0419] FACCH / F Fast Associated Control Channel / Full Rate

[0420] FACCH / H Fast Associated Control Channel / Half Rate

[0421] FACH Forward Access Channel

[0422] FAUSCH Fast Uplink Signalling Channel

[0423] FB Function Block

[0424] FBI Feedback

[0425] FCC Federal Communications Commission

[0426] FCCH Frequency Correction Channel

[0427] FDD Frequency Division Duplex

[0428] FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing

[0429] FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access

[0430] FE Front End

[0431] FEC Forward Error Correction

[0432] FFS for further study

[0433] FFT Fast Fourier Transform

[0434] feLAA Further Enhanced License Assisted Access, further enhanced LAA

[0435] FN Frame Number

[0436] FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array

[0437] FR Frequency Range

[0438] G-RNTI GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

[0439] GERAN GSM EDGE RAN, GSM EDGE Radio Access Network

[0440] GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node

[0441] GLONASS GLObal'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (Chinese: Global Navigation Satellite System)

[0442] gNB Next Generation Node B

[0443] gNB-CU gNB centralized unit, next generation Node B centralized unit

[0444] gNB-DU gNB distributed unit, next generation Node B distributed unit

[0445] GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System

[0446] GPRS General Packet Radio Service

[0447] GSM Global System for Mobile Communications, Mobile Association

[0448] GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol

[0449] GTP-U GPRS Tunneling Protocol for the User Plane

[0450] GTS Go to sleep signal (related to WUS)

[0451] GUMMEI Globally Unique MME Identifier

[0452] GUTI Globally Unique Temporary UE Identifier

[0453] HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

[0454] HANDO, HO switch

[0455] HFN Superframe Number

[0456] HHO Hard Handover

[0457] HLR Home Location Register

[0458] HN Home Network

[0459] HO Switchover

[0460] HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network

[0461] HSDPA High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access

[0462] HSN Hopping Sequence Number

[0463] HSPA High Speed ​​Packet Access

[0464] HSS Home Subscriber Server

[0465] HSUPA High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access

[0466] HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol

[0467] HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (https is http / 1.1 over SSL (i.e. port 443))

[0468] I-Block Information Block

[0469] ICCID Integrated Circuit Card Identifier

[0470] ICIC Inter-cell Interference Coordination

[0471] ID

[0472] IDFT Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform

[0473] IE Information Elements

[0474] IBE In-Band Emission

[0475] IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

[0476] IEI Information Element Identifier

[0477] IEIDL Information Element Identifier Data Length

[0478] IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

[0479] IF Infrastructure

[0480] IM Interference Measurement, Intermodulation, IP Multimedia

[0481] IMC IMS credentials

[0482] IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity

[0483] IMGI International Mobile Group Identity

[0484] IMPI IP Multimedia Privacy Identity

[0485] IMPU IP Multimedia Public Identity

[0486] IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem

[0487] IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity

[0488] IoT

[0489] IP Internet Protocol

[0490] IPsec IP security, Internet Protocol security

[0491] IP-CAN IP connection access network

[0492] IP-M IP Multicast

[0493] IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4

[0494] IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6

[0495] IR

[0496] IS Synchronization

[0497] IRP Integration Reference Point

[0498] ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

[0499] ISIM IM Service Identity Module

[0500] ISO International Organization for Standardization

[0501] ISP Internet Service Provider

[0502] IWF interworking function

[0503] I-WLAN Intercommunication WLAN

[0504] K is the constraint length of the convolutional code, USIM individual key

[0505] kB kilobyte (1000 bytes)

[0506] kbps kilobits per second

[0507] Kc Cryptographic key

[0508] Ki Individual user authentication key

[0509] KPI Key Performance Indicator

[0510] KQI Key Quality Indicator

[0511] KSI Key Set Identifier

[0512] ksps kilosymbols per second

[0513] KVM Kernel Virtual Machine

[0514] L1 Layer 1 (physical layer)

[0515] L1-RSRP Layer 1 reference signal received power

[0516] L2 Layer 2 (Data Link Layer)

[0517] L3 Layer 3 (Network Layer)

[0518] LAA License Assisted Access

[0519] LAN Local Area Network

[0520] LBT Listen before you speak

[0521] LCM Lifecycle Management

[0522] LCP Logical Channel Prioritization

[0523] LCR Low Chip Rate

[0524] LCS Location Services

[0525] LCID Logical Channel ID

[0526] LI layer indicator

[0527] LLC Logical Link Control, low layer compatibility

[0528] LPLMN Local PLMN

[0529] LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

[0530] LSB Least Significant Bit

[0531] LTE Long Term Evolution

[0532] LWA LTE-WLAN Aggregation

[0533] LWIP LTE / WLAN radio level integration with IPsec tunneling

[0534] LTE Long Term Evolution

[0535] M2M Machine to Machine

[0536] MAC Medium Access Control (Protocol Layer Context)

[0537] MAC Message Authentication Code (Security / Cryptography Context)

[0538] MAC-A MAC for authentication and key agreement (TSG T WG3 context)

[0539] MAC-I MAC for data integrity of signalling messages (TSG T WG3 context)

[0540] MANO Management and Orchestration

[0541] MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service

[0542] MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Single Frequency Network

[0543] MCC Mobile Country Code

[0544] MCG Master Cell Group

[0545] MCOT Maximum Channel Occupancy Time

[0546] MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme

[0547] MDAF Management Data Analysis Function

[0548] MDAS Management Data Analysis Service

[0549] Minimization of MDT-driven testing

[0550] ME Mobile Equipment

[0551] MeNB Master eNB

[0552] MER message error rate

[0553] MGL Measurement Gap Length

[0554] MGRP measurement gap repetition period

[0555] MIB Master Information Block, Management Information Base

[0556] MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output

[0557] MLC Mobile Location Center

[0558] MM Mobility Management

[0559] MME Mobility Management Entity

[0560] MN Master Node

[0561] MO measurement object, mobile station calling

[0562] MPBCH MTC Physical Broadcast Channel

[0563] MPDCCH MTC Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0564] MPDSCH MTC Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0565] MPRACH MTC Physical Random Access Channel

[0566] MPUSCH MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0567] MPLS Multi-Protocol Label Switching

[0568] MS Mobile Station

[0569] MSB Most Significant Bit

[0570] MSC Mobile Switching Center

[0571] MSI minimum system information, MCH scheduling information

[0572] MSID Mobile Station Identifier

[0573] MSIN Mobile Station Identification Number

[0574] MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number

[0575] MT mobile station called, mobile terminal

[0576] MTC Machine Type Communication

[0577] mMTC Massive MTC, Massive Machine Type Communication

[0578] MU-MIMO Multi-User MIMO

[0579] MWUS MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS

[0580] NACK Negative Acknowledgement

[0581] NAI Network Access Identifier

[0582] NAS Non-Access Stratum, Non-Access Stratum

[0583] NCT Network Connection Topology

[0584] NEC network capabilities exposed

[0585] NE-DC NR-E-UTRA dual connectivity

[0586] NEF Network Exposure Function

[0587] NF Network Function

[0588] NFP Network Forwarding Path

[0589] NFPD Network Forwarding Path Descriptor

[0590] NFV Network Function Virtualization

[0591] NFVI NFV Infrastructure

[0592] NFVO NFV Orchestrator

[0593] NG Next generation, next generation

[0594] NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

[0595] NM Network Manager

[0596] NMS Network Management System

[0597] N-PoP Network Point of Presence

[0598] NMIB, N-MIB Narrowband MIB

[0599] NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel

[0600] NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0601] NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0602] NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access Channel

[0603] NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0604] NPSS Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal

[0605] NSSS Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal

[0606] NR New Radio, Neighbor Relations

[0607] NRF NF Repository Functionality

[0608] NRS Narrowband Reference Signal

[0609] NS Network Services

[0610] NSA Non-standalone operation mode

[0611] NSD Network Service Descriptor

[0612] NSR Network Service Record

[0613] NSSAI Network Slice Selection Assistance Information

[0614] S-NNSAI Single NSSAI

[0615] NSSF network slice selection function

[0616] NW Network

[0617] NWUS Narrowband wake-up signal, narrowband WUS

[0618] NZP Non Zero Power

[0619] O&M Operation and Maintenance

[0620] ODU2 Optical Channel Data Unit - Type 2

[0621] OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

[0622] OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

[0623] OOB Out of Band

[0624] OOS Out of Sync

[0625] OPEX Operating Expenditure

[0626] OSI Other System Information

[0627] OSS Operation Support System

[0628] OTA Air

[0629] PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio

[0630] PAR Peak to Average Ratio

[0631] PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

[0632] PC Power Control, Personal Computer

[0633] PCC Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC

[0634] PCell Primary Cell

[0635] PCI Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity

[0636] PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

[0637] PCF Policy Control Function

[0638] PCRF Policy Control and Charging Rules Function

[0639] PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Packet Data Convergence Protocol Layer

[0640] PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0641] PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

[0642] PDN Packet Data Network, Public Data Network

[0643] PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0644] PDU Protocol Data Unit

[0645] PEI Permanent Equipment Identifier

[0646] PFD Packet Flow Description

[0647] P-GW PDN Gateway

[0648] PHICH Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel

[0649] PHY Physical Layer

[0650] PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

[0651] PIN Personal Identification Number

[0652] PM performance measurement

[0653] PMI Precoding matrix indicator

[0654] PNF Physical Network Function

[0655] PNFD Physical Network Functional Descriptor

[0656] PNFR Physical Network Function Record

[0657] POC PTT over Cellular

[0658] PP, PTP Point to Point

[0659] PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

[0660] PRACH Physical RACH

[0661] PRB Physical Resource Block

[0662] PRG Physical Resource Group

[0663] ProSe Proximity-based Services

[0664] PRS Positioning Reference Signal

[0665] PRR Packet Receive Radio

[0666] PS Packet Service

[0667] PSBCH Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel

[0668] PSDCH Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel

[0669] PSCCH Physical Sidelink Control Channel

[0670] PSSCH Physical Sidelink Shared Channel

[0671] PSCell Primary SCell

[0672] PSS Primary Synchronization Signal

[0673] PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

[0674] PT-RS Phase Tracking Reference Signal

[0675] PTT Push to Talk

[0676] PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

[0677] PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0678] QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

[0679] QCI QoS Class Identifier

[0680] QCL Quasi-Co-sited

[0681] QFI QoS flow ID, QoS flow identifier

[0682] QoS Quality of Service

[0683] QPSK Quadrature (Quaternary) Phase Shift Keying

[0684] QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite System

[0685] RA-RNTI Random Access RNTI

[0686] RAB Radio Access Bearer, Random Access Burst

[0687] RACH Random Access Channel

[0688] RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service

[0689] RAN Radio Access Network

[0690] RAND random number (for authentication)

[0691] RAR Random Access Response

[0692] RAT Radio Access Technology

[0693] RAU Routing Area Update

[0694] RB Resource Block, Radio Bearer

[0695] RBG Resource Block Group

[0696] REG Resource Element Group

[0697] Rel Release

[0698] REQ Request

[0699] RF

[0700] RI Rank Indicator

[0701] RIV Resource Indicator Value

[0702] RL Radio Link

[0703] RLC Radio Link Control, Radio Link Control Layer

[0704] RLC AM RLC Acknowledgement Mode

[0705] RLC UM RLC Unacknowledged Mode

[0706] RLF Radio Link Failure

[0707] RLM Radio Link Monitoring

[0708] RLM-RS RLM reference signal

[0709] RM Registration Management

[0710] RMC Reference Measurement Channel

[0711] RMSI Remaining MSI, Remaining Minimum System Information

[0712] RN Relay Node

[0713] RNC Radio Network Controller

[0714] RNL Radio Network Layer

[0715] RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

[0716] ROHC Robust Header Compression

[0717] RRC Radio Resource Control, Radio Resource Control Layer

[0718] RRM Radio Resource Management

[0719] RS reference signal

[0720] RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

[0721] RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality

[0722] RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator

[0723] RSU Road Side Unit

[0724] RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference

[0725] RTP Real Time Protocol

[0726] RTS Ready to Send

[0727] RTT Round Trip Time

[0728] Rx receive, receive, receiver

[0729] S1AP S1 Application Protocol

[0730] S1-MME is used for S1 control plane

[0731] S1-U S1 for user plane

[0732] S-GW Service Gateway

[0733] S-RNTI SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identifier

[0734] S-TMSI SAE temporary mobile station identifier

[0735] SA Standalone Operation Mode

[0736] SAE system architecture evolution

[0737] SAP Service Access Point

[0738] SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor

[0739] SAPI Service Access Point Identifier

[0740] SCC Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC

[0741] SCell Secondary Cell

[0742] SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

[0743] SCG Secondary Cell Group

[0744] SCM Security Context Management

[0745] SCS Subcarrier Spacing

[0746] SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol

[0747] SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol, Service Data Adaptation Protocol Layer

[0748] SDL Supplemental Downlink

[0749] SDNF Structured Data Storage Network Function

[0750] SDP Session Description Protocol

[0751] SDSF structured data storage function

[0752] SDU Service Data Unit

[0753] SEAF Security Anchoring Function

[0754] SeNB Assisted eNB

[0755] SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy

[0756] SFI Slot Format Indicator

[0757] SFTD Space Frequency Time Diversity, SFN and Frame Timing Difference

[0758] SFN System Frame Number

[0759] SgNB

[0760] SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

[0761] S-GW Service Gateway

[0762] SI System Information

[0763] SI-RNTI System Information RNTI

[0764] SIB System Information Block

[0765] SIM Subscriber Identity Module

[0766] SIP Session Initiation Protocol

[0767] SiP System in Package

[0768] SL Side Link

[0769] SLA Service Level Agreement

[0770] SM Session Management

[0771] SMF session management functions

[0772] SMS Short Message Service

[0773] SMSF SMS Function

[0774] SMTC SSB-based measurement timing configuration

[0775] SN Secondary node, serial number

[0776] SoC System on Chip

[0777] SON Self-Organizing Network

[0778] SpCell Special Cell

[0779] SP-CSI-RNTI Semi-persistent CSI RNTI

[0780] SPS Semi-persistent Scheduling

[0781] SON Serial Number

[0782] SR Scheduling Request

[0783] SRB Signalling Radio Bearer

[0784] SRS Sounding Reference Signal

[0785] SS Sync Signal

[0786] SSB Synchronization Signal Block, SS / PBCH Block

[0787] SSBRI SS / PBCH block resource indicator, synchronization signal block resource indicator

[0788] SSC Session and Service Continuity

[0789] SS-RSRP Reference signal received power based on synchronization signal

[0790] SS-RSRQ Reference signal reception quality based on synchronization signal

[0791] SS-SINR Signal-to-noise ratio and interference ratio based on synchronization signal

[0792] SSS Secondary synchronization signal

[0793] SSSG Search Space Group

[0794] SSSIF Search Space Set Indicator

[0795] SST Slice / Service Type

[0796] SU-MIMO Single User MIMO

[0797] SUL Supplementary Uplink

[0798] TA timing advance, tracking area

[0799] TAC Tracking Area Code

[0800] TAG Timing Advance Group

[0801] TAU Tracking Area Updates

[0802] TB Transfer Block

[0803] TBS Transport Block Size

[0804] TBD To be defined

[0805] TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator

[0806] TCP transport communication protocol

[0807] TDD Time Division Duplex

[0808] TDM Time Division Multiplexing

[0809] TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

[0810] TE Terminal Equipment

[0811] TEID Tunnel Endpoint Identifier

[0812] TFT Business Flow Template

[0813] TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

[0814] TNL Transport Network Layer

[0815] TPC Transmit Power Control

[0816] TPMI Transmitted Precoding Matrix Indicator

[0817] TR Technical Report

[0818] TRP,TRxP Transmission Receive Point

[0819] TRS Tracking Reference Signal

[0820] TRx Transceiver

[0821] TS Technical Specification, Technical Standard

[0822] TTI Transmission Time Interval

[0823] Tx transmission, transmission, transmitter

[0824] U-RNTI UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

[0825] UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter

[0826] UCI Uplink Control Information

[0827] UE User Equipment

[0828] UDM Unified Data Management

[0829] UDP User Datagram Protocol

[0830] UDSF Unstructured Data Storage Network Function

[0831] UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card

[0832] UL Uplink

[0833] UM Unconfirmed Mode

[0834] UML Unified Modeling Language

[0835] UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

[0836] UP User Plane

[0837] UPF User Plane Function

[0838] URI Uniform Resource Identifier

[0839] URL Uniform Resource Locator

[0840] URLLC Ultra-Reliable Low Latency

[0841] USB Universal Serial Bus

[0842] USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

[0843] USS UE-specific search space

[0844] UTRA UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access

[0845] UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

[0846] UwPTS Uplink Pilot Time Slot

[0847] V2I Vehicle to Infrastructure

[0848] V2P Vehicle to Pedestrian

[0849] V2V Vehicle to Vehicle

[0850] V2X: Vehicle-to-Everything

[0851] VIM Virtualization Infrastructure Manager

[0852] VL Virtual Link

[0853] VLAN virtual LAN, virtual local area network

[0854] VM Virtual Machine

[0855] VNF Virtualized Network Function

[0856] VNFFG VNF forwarding graph

[0857] VNFFGD VNF Forwarding Graph Descriptor

[0858] VNFM VNF Manager

[0859] VoIP Voice over IP, Voice over Internet Protocol

[0860] VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network

[0861] VPN Virtual Private Network

[0862] VRB Virtual Resource Block

[0863] WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

[0864] WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

[0865] WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

[0866] WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network

[0867] X2-C X2 control plane

[0868] X2-U X2 user plane

[0869] XML Extensible Markup Language

[0870] XRES Expected User Response

[0871] XOR

[0872] ZC Zadoff-Chu

[0873] ZP Zero Power

[0874] the term

[0875] For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply to the examples and implementations discussed herein but are not intended to be limiting.

[0876] The term "circuit" refers to a circuit or a system of multiple circuits configured to perform a specific function in an electronic device. A circuit or circuit system may be part of or include one or more hardware components configured to provide the function, such as a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and / or a memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a system on a chip (SoC), a system-level package (SiP), a multi-chip package (MCP), a digital signal processor (DSP), etc. In addition, the term "circuit" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements and a program code for executing the function of the program code. Some types of circuits may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the functions. Such a combination of hardware elements and program codes may be referred to as a specific type of circuit.

[0877] As used herein, the term "processor circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes a circuit capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations or recording, storing, and / or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions (such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes). The terms "application circuit" and / or "baseband circuit" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuit" and may be referred to as "processor circuit".

[0878] As used herein, the term "memory" and / or "memory circuit" refers to one or more hardware devices for storing data, including random access memory (RAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), phase change random access memory (PRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), core memory, read-only memory (ROM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, or other machine-readable media for storing data. The term "computer-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, memory, portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other media capable of storing, containing or carrying instructions or data.

[0879] As used herein, the term "interface circuit" refers to a circuit that enables, is a part of, or includes information exchange between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, etc.

[0880] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device that has radio communication capabilities and can describe a remote user of network resources in a communication network. In addition, the terms "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous and may be referred to as a client, mobile phone, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. In addition, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0881] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure for providing wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN equipment, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

[0882] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to one another. Furthermore, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computer devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to one another and configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0883] As used herein, the terms "appliance", "computer appliance", etc. refer to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a device equipped with a hypervisor that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or is otherwise dedicated to providing specific computing resources.

[0884] The term "element" refers to an indivisible unit with well-defined boundaries at a given level of abstraction, where an element may be any type of entity including, for example, one or more devices, systems, controllers, network elements, modules, etc., or a combination thereof.

[0885] The term "device" refers to a physical entity that is embedded within or attached to another physical entity in its vicinity that has the capability to transfer digital information to or from that physical entity.

[0886] The term "entity" refers to the different components of an architecture or device, or the information passed as a payload.

[0887] The term "controller" refers to an element or entity that has the ability to affect a physical entity, such as by changing its state or causing the physical entity to move.

[0888] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component within a specific device, such as a computer device, a mechanical device, a memory space, a processor / CPU time and / or a processor / CPU usage rate, a processor and accelerator load, a hardware time or usage rate, a power supply, an input / output operation, a port or a network socket, a channel / link allocation, throughput, memory usage rate, storage, a network, a database and an application, a unit of work, etc. "Hardware resources" may refer to computing, storage and / or network resources provided by physical hardware elements. "Virtualized resources" may refer to computing, storage and / or network resources provided by a virtualized infrastructure to an application, a device, a system, etc. The term "network resources" or "communication resources" may refer to resources that a computer device / system can access via a communication network. The term "system resources" may refer to any kind of shared entity that provides a service, and may include computing resources and / or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services that can be accessed through a server, wherein such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and can be clearly identified.

[0889] As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium for transmitting data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous and / or equivalent to "communication channel", "data communication channel", "transmission channel", "data transmission channel", "access channel", "data access channel", "link", "data link", "carrier", "radio frequency carrier" and / or any other similar terms representing a path or medium through which data is transmitted. In addition, the term "link" as used herein refers to a connection between two devices for transmitting and receiving information over a RAT.

[0890] As used herein, the term "communication protocol" (wired or wireless) refers to a set of standardized rules or instructions implemented by a communication device and / or system to communicate with other devices and / or systems, including instructions for packetizing / unpacking data, modulating / demodulating signals, implementing protocol stacks, etc.

[0891] As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instantiate," and the like refer to the creation of an instance. "Instance" also refers to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0892] The terms "coupled," "communicatively coupled," and their derivatives are used herein. The term "coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, may mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements said to be coupled to each other. The term "directly coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with each other by means of communication, including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, etc.

[0893] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains the contents.

[0894] The term "admission control" refers to a verification process in a communication system where a check is performed before a connection is established to see if the current resources are sufficient for the proposed connection.

[0895] The term "SMTC" refers to the SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0896] The term "SSB" refers to SS / PBCH block.

[0897] The term "primary cell" refers to an MCG cell operating on a primary frequency, where the UE either performs an initial connection establishment procedure or initiates a connection re-establishment procedure.

[0898] The term "primary SCG cell" refers to an SCG cell in which a UE performs random access when reconfiguration is performed using a synchronization procedure for DC operation.

[0899] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources on top of a special cell for a UE configured with CA.

[0900] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells including a PSCell for a UE configured with DC and zero or more secondary cells.

[0901] The term "serving cell" refers to a primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED without CA / DC configured, where there is only one serving cell including the primary cell.

[0902] The term "serving cell" refers to a cell group including a special cell for a UE configured with CA and in RRC_CONNECTED and all secondary cells.

[0903] The term "special cell" refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to the Pcell.

[0904] As described above, various aspects of the present technology may include collecting and using data available from various sources, thereby (for example) improving or enhancing functionality. The present disclosure contemplates that, in some instances, these collected data may include personal information data that uniquely identifies or can be used to contact or locate a specific person. Such personal information data may include demographic data, location-based data, phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter IDs, home addresses, data or records related to the user's health or fitness level (e.g., vital sign measurements, medication information, exercise information), date of birth, or any other identifying information or personal information. The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personal information data in the present technology can be used to benefit users.

[0905] The present disclosure envisions that entities responsible for collecting, analyzing, disclosing, transmitting, storing or otherwise using such personal information data will comply with established privacy policies and / or privacy practices. Specifically, such entities should implement and adhere to privacy policies and practices that are recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or government requirements for maintaining the privacy and security of personal information data. Such policies should be easily accessible to users and should be updated as the collection and / or use of data changes. Personal information from users should be collected for the legitimate and reasonable purposes of the entity and not shared or sold outside of these legitimate uses. In addition, such collection / sharing should only be done after receiving the user's informed consent. In addition, such entities should consider taking any necessary steps to defend and safeguard access to such personal information data and ensure that others who have access to personal information data comply with their privacy policies and processes. In addition, such entities may subject themselves to third-party assessments to demonstrate their compliance with widely accepted privacy policies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should be adjusted to specific types of personal information data collected and / or accessed, and to applicable laws and standards that include specific considerations of jurisdiction. For example, in the United States, the collection or access of certain health data may be governed by federal and / or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), while health data in other countries may be subject to other regulations and policies and should be handled accordingly. Therefore, different privacy practices should be maintained in each country for different types of personal data.

[0906] Regardless of the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplates implementation schemes in which users selectively block the use or access of personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplates providing hardware elements and / or software elements to prevent or block access to such personal information data. For example, the present technology may be configured to allow users to selectively participate in "opt-in" or "opt-out" of collecting personal information data at any time during (for example) registration for a service or thereafter. In addition to providing "opt-in" and "opt-out" options, the present disclosure contemplates providing notifications related to access or use of personal information. For example, a user may be notified that their personal information data will be accessed when downloading an application, and then reminded again just before the personal information data is accessed by the application.

[0907] In addition, it is an object of the present disclosure that personal information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risks can be minimized by limiting data collection and deleting data once it is no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including in certain health-related applications, data de-identification can be used to protect the privacy of users. De-identification can be facilitated by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth, etc.), controlling the amount or specificity of stored data (e.g., collecting location data at the city level rather than at the address level), controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data between users), and / or other methods when appropriate.

[0908] Thus, while the present disclosure may broadly cover the use of personal information data to implement one or more of the various disclosed embodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that various embodiments may also be implemented without access to such personal information data. That is, various embodiments of the present technology will not fail to function properly due to the lack of all or part of such personal information data.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Radio front-end circuits; and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front end circuit and configured to: receiving a message from a base station using the radio front end circuit; Based on the received message, determining whether to use a lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) or a highest CAPC; In response to the received message indicating use of the lowest CAPC, selecting a CAPC based on the lowest CAPC of one or more medium access control (MAC) service data units (SDUs) multiplexed in one or more MAC protocol data units (PDUs) for uplink (UL) transmissions; selecting the CAPC based on the highest CAPC of the one or more MAC SDUs multiplexed in the MAC PDU for the UL transmission in response to the received message indicating use of the highest CAPC; as well as transmitting the MAC PDU to the base station using the radio front end circuit, The message indicates use of the lowest CAPC in response to detecting an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network, wherein the AP is associated with the UE or the base station. 2 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the message indicates to use the highest CAPC in response to not detecting an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network.

3. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UL transmission corresponds to at least one of a configured grant or a dynamic grant.

4. The UE of claim 3, wherein the MAC PDU comprises a first MAC PDU and a second MAC PDU, and the processor circuit is configured to: multiplexing control signaling into the first MAC PDU; multiplexing data signaling into the second MAC PDU; transmitting the first MAC PDU using the dynamic grant; as well as The second MAC PDU is transmitted using the configuration grant. 5 . The UE of claim 4 , wherein the control signaling comprises at least one of a MAC Control Element (CE), a Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB), or a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) having the highest CACP. 6 . The UE of claim 4 , wherein the data signaling comprises a data radio bearer (DRB) without the highest CACP.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is configured to simultaneously start or restart a configuration grant timer and a configuration grant retransmission timer.

8. The UE of claim 7, wherein the processor circuit is configured to restart the configuration grant timer when the configuration grant timer expires, and to run the configuration grant retransmission timer for a predefined number of configuration grant retransmissions.

9. A method comprising: receiving, at a user equipment (UE), a message from a base station; Based on the received message, determining whether to use a lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) or a highest CAPC; In response to the received message indicating use of the lowest CAPC, selecting a CAPC based on the lowest CAPC of one or more medium access control (MAC) service data units (SDUs) multiplexed in one or more MAC protocol data units (PDUs) for uplink (UL) transmissions; selecting the CAPC based on the highest CAPC of the one or more MAC SDUs multiplexed in the MAC PDU for the UL transmission in response to the received message indicating use of the highest CAPC; as well as transmitting the MAC PDU to the base station, The message indicates use of the lowest CAPC in response to detecting an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network, wherein the AP is associated with the UE or the base station.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the message indicates to use the highest CAPC in response to not detecting an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the UL transmission corresponds to at least one of a configured grant or a dynamic grant.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the MAC PDU comprises a first MAC PDU and a second MAC PDU, and the method further comprises: multiplexing control signaling into the first MAC PDU; multiplexing data signaling into the second MAC PDU; transmitting the first MAC PDU using the dynamic grant; as well as The second MAC PDU is transmitted using the configuration grant.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the control signaling comprises at least one of a MAC control element (CE), a signaling radio bearer (SRB), or a data radio bearer (DRB) with the highest CACP, and wherein the data signaling comprises a data radio bearer (DRB) without the highest CACP.

14. The method according to claim 9, further comprising: At the same time, start or restart the configuration authorization timer and the configuration authorization retransmission timer.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising: When the configuration authorization timer expires, restarting the configuration authorization timer; as well as The configuration grant retransmission timer is run for a predefined number of configuration grant retransmissions.

16. A base station, comprising: Radio front-end circuits; and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front end circuit and configured to: determining whether an access point (AP) associated with a wireless network is detected; generating a message for a user equipment (UE), wherein the message includes a parameter set to a lowest channel access priority level (CAPC) in response to detecting the AP or to a highest CAPC in response to not detecting the AP; as well as The message is transmitted to the UE using the radio front end circuitry.

17. The base station of claim 16, wherein the processor circuit is configured to transmit the message using an uplink (UL) grant procedure.

18. The base station of claim 16, wherein the message comprises an information element included in an RRCReconfiguration message.

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