Logical channel prioritization

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to logical channel prioritization. A method includes obtaining an uplink grant from a network device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device, and selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a predetermined policy associated with the uplink grant, the logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources. The method also includes generating a packet data unit based on the logical channel prioritization setting for transmission to the network device using uplink resources, the packet data unit including at least one of the following: uplink control information, or at least a portion of uplink data. In this way, adaptive and dynamic prioritization across logical channels can be achieved on a terminal device.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of telecommunications, and in particular to logical channel prioritization. Background Art

[0002] Various wireless cellular communication systems have been implemented and are being implemented. Mobile communication systems have been developed and are being developed to meet the growing demand for communication services. With the rapid development of technology, mobile communication systems have developed to the level of being able to provide high-speed data communication services that go beyond the early voice-oriented services.

[0003] In a communication system, a terminal device uses an uplink (UL) grant provided by a network device to communicate UL information with a network device. The UL information includes UL data and / or UL control information. The UL grant generally indicates UL resources available for use by the terminal device. The terminal device may apply logical channel prioritization (LCP) across one or more logical channels (LCHs) with data to be transmitted to allocate UL resources for transmission of UL data and / or possible UL control information. Summary of the invention

[0004] In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for logical channel prioritization.

[0005] In a first aspect, a method is provided. The method includes: obtaining, at a terminal device, an uplink grant from a network device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device; selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a predetermined policy associated with the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources; and generating a packet data unit for transmission to the network device using the uplink resources based on the selected logical channel prioritization setting, the packet data unit including at least one of the following: at least a portion of the uplink control information or the uplink data.

[0006] In a second aspect, a method is provided. The method includes: assigning an uplink grant by a network device to a terminal device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device; transmitting to the terminal device a setting indication that one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings is to be applied for the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different prioritization parameter sets for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources; and receiving a packet data unit from the terminal device on the uplink resource, the packet data unit including at least one of the following: uplink control information, or at least a portion of data, and the packet data unit being generated based on the logical channel prioritization setting indicated by the setting indication.

[0007] In a third aspect, a device is provided. The device includes at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, enable the device to: at a terminal device, obtain an uplink grant from a network device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device, select a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a predetermined policy related to the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different prioritization parameter sets for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources, and generate a packet data unit based on the selected logical channel prioritization setting for transmission to the network device using uplink resources, the packet data unit including at least one of the following: uplink control information, or at least a portion of uplink data.

[0008] In a fourth aspect, a device is provided. The device includes at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the device to: assign an uplink grant by a network device to a terminal device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device, transmit to the terminal device a setting indication that one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings is to be applied for the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different prioritization parameter sets for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources, and receive a packet data unit from the terminal device on the uplink resource, the packet data unit including at least one of the following: uplink control information, or at least a portion of data, and the packet data unit is generated based on the logical channel prioritization setting indicated by the setting indication.

[0009] In a fifth aspect, a device is provided, comprising a component for obtaining an uplink grant from a network device at a terminal device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device; a component for selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a predetermined policy associated with the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources; and a component for generating a packet data unit based on the selected logical channel prioritization setting for transmission to the network device using uplink resources, the packet data unit comprising at least one of the following: uplink control information, or at least a portion of uplink data.

[0010] In a sixth aspect, a device is provided, comprising a component for assigning an uplink grant by a network device to a terminal device, the uplink grant indicating an uplink resource for transmission to the network device; a component for transmitting to the terminal device a setting indication regarding one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to be applied for the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources; and a component for receiving a packet data unit from the terminal device on the uplink resource, the packet data unit comprising at least one of: uplink control information, or at least a portion of data, and the packet data unit being generated based on the logical channel prioritization setting indicated by the setting indication.

[0011] In a seventh aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to at least execute the method according to the above-mentioned first aspect.

[0012] In an eighth aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to at least execute the method according to the second aspect above.

[0013] It should be understood that the invention summary is not intended to identify the key or essential features of the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become readily understood through the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0015] Figure 1 shows an example communication network in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0016] Figure 2 A flow chart illustrating logical channel prioritization according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0017] Figure 3A and Figure 3B A flowchart illustrating an example process for selecting a logical channel prioritization setting by a terminal device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0018] Figure 4 A schematic diagram showing an example of the structure of a downlink (DL) medium access control (MAC) control element (CE);

[0019] Figure 5 A flowchart of a method implemented at a terminal device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0020] Figure 6 A flowchart of a method implemented at a network device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0021] Figure 7 shows a simplified block diagram of an apparatus suitable for implementing an example embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0022] Figure 8 A block diagram of an example computer-readable medium is shown according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0023] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] The principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It should be understood that these example embodiments are described only for the purpose of explaining and helping those skilled in the art to understand and realize the present disclosure, without any limitation to the scope of the present disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be realized in various other ways except as described below.

[0025] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0026] References in this disclosure to "one embodiment," "an example embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc. indicate that the described example embodiment may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but not every embodiment necessarily includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Furthermore, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Furthermore, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in conjunction with an example embodiment, it is considered to be within the knowledge of those skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in conjunction with other example embodiments (whether or not explicitly described).

[0027] It should be understood that although the terms "first" and "second" etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. For example, without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiment, the first element may be referred to as the second element, and similarly, the second element may be referred to as the first element. As used herein, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0028] The terms used herein are used only for the purpose of describing specific example embodiments and are not intended to limit the example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are also intended to include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises", "comprising", "having", "including", "comprising", and / or "comprising" specify the presence of the described features, elements, and / or components, etc., but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and / or combinations thereof.

[0029] As used in this application, the term "circuitry" may refer to one, more, or all of the following:

[0030] (a) pure hardware circuit implementation (such as implementation in analog and / or digital circuitry only), and

[0031] (b) a combination of hardware circuitry and software such as (where applicable):

[0032] (i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuitry and software / firmware, and

[0033] (ii) any portion of a hardware processor with software (including a digital signal processor), software and memory that works together to enable a device such as a mobile phone or server to perform various functions, and

[0034] (c) Hardware circuits and / or processors, such as a microprocessor or portion of a microprocessor, that require software (e.g., firmware) to operate, but which may not be present when not required for operation.

[0035] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of the term in this application, including in any claims. As another example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of only a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers (for example and if applicable to a particular claim element) a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit of a mobile device, or a similar integrated circuit in a server, cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0036] As used herein, the term "communication network" refers to a network that complies with any suitable communication standard, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), Advanced LTE (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA), Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), etc. In addition, the communication between the terminal device and the network device in the communication network can be performed according to any suitable generation of communication protocols, including but not limited to the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, future fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, and / or any other protocol currently known or developed in the future. The example embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems. In view of the rapid development of communication, there will certainly be communication technologies and systems that can be used to embody future types of the present disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to the above-mentioned systems.

[0037] As used herein, the term "network device" refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. A network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a NodeB (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a NR NB (also known as a gNB), a remote radio unit (RRU), a radio head (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node (such as a femto, a pico), etc., depending on the terminology and technology applied.

[0038] The term "terminal device" refers to any terminal device capable of wireless communication. As an example and not limitation, the terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, a user equipment (UE), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station, a mobile station (MS) or an access terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a tablet computer, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable computer, a desktop computer, an image acquisition terminal device (such as a digital camera), a game terminal device, a music storage and playback device, a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, a wireless terminal, a mobile station, a laptop embedded device (LEE), a laptop mounted device (LME), a USB dongle, a smart device, a wireless client device (CPE), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable device, a head mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, medical equipment and applications (e.g., remote surgery), industrial equipment and applications (e.g., robots and / or other wireless devices operating in industrial and / or automated processing chain environments), consumer electronic devices, equipment operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, etc. In the following description, the terms "terminal device", "communication device", "terminal", "user equipment" and "UE" may be used interchangeably.

[0039] Figure 1 An example communication system 100 in which an example embodiment of the present disclosure may be implemented is shown. System 100 includes a network device 110 and a terminal device 120 served by network device 110. The service area of ​​network device 110 is referred to as cell 102. It should be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices is only for illustrative purposes and does not represent any limitation. System 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it should be understood that one or more terminal devices may be located in cell 102 and served by network device 110.

[0040] The communication in the communication system 100 can be implemented according to any appropriate communication protocol(s), including but not limited to cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G) and fifth generation (5G), wireless local area network communication protocols (such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, etc.), and / or any other protocol currently known or developed in the future. In addition, the communication can use any appropriate wireless communication technology, including but not limited to: code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division duplex (FDD), time division duplex (TDD), multiple input multiple output (MIMO), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM), discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM), and / or any other technology currently known or developed in the future.

[0041] In the communication system 100, the network device 110 can transmit data and control information to the terminal device 120, and the terminal device 120 can also transmit data and control information to the network device 110. The link from the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 is called the downlink (DL), and the link from the terminal device 120 to the network device 110 is called the uplink (UL). In the DL, the network device 110 is a transmission (TX) device (or transmitter) and the terminal device 120 is a reception (RX) device (or receiver). In the UL, the terminal device 120 is a TX device (or transmitter) and the network device 110 is an RX device (or receiver).

[0042] During operation, the terminal device 120 may receive a UL grant indicating UL resources for UL communication from the network device 110. The terminal device 120 may be able to provide a plurality of different services to the user. Examples of services may include, but are not limited to, voice communication, text messaging, email access, network access to a remote network (such as the Internet), and file transfer to / from a remote computer. The terminal device 120 may have a plurality of logical channels (LCHs), each LCH being associated with one or more applications or services of the terminal device 120 for data transmission. Data from one or more LCHs may be multiplexed in a packet data unit (PDU) (such as a media access control (MAC) PDU) for transmission to the network device 110.

[0043] The terminal device 120 may perform logical channel prioritization (LCP) at the MAC layer to construct a PDU for transmission. LCP needs to ensure that the UE serves the LCHs in a certain order. In this way, in the case where the UL resources are insufficient for UL data in all active LCHs, the LCHs with higher priority are served first. In some cases, if there is UL control information to be transmitted, the terminal device 120 may also include the UL control information in the PDU, for example as one or more MAC control elements (CEs).

[0044] In conventional LCP, the priority level and other prioritization parameters for LCH are pre-configured and fixed at the terminal device. When executing LCP for each received UL grant, the terminal device can always follow the pre-configured priority level and other prioritization parameters. In some cases, if certain UL control information (such as buffer status report (BSR) or power headroom report (PHR)) is triggered for transmission, the terminal device will first map the UL control information into the transport block (TB) associated with the UL grant, and then map the data from one or more LCHs according to the priority level and other parameters (such as prioritized bit rate (PBR)) configured by the LCH.

[0045] Although fixed LCP can be configured to ensure that different types of data are transmitted in an appropriate manner according to their requirements, at the same time such a framework may result in less flexible operation. In addition, there are some configurable LCP mapping restrictions that can be applied to LCH. For example, some LCP mapping restrictions may indicate the allowed digital basic configuration, the allowed service cells and / or the allowed UL authorization types and / or maximum durations. According to the LCP mapping restrictions, if the UL authorization does not satisfy the (multiple) LCP mapping restrictions applied to the LCH, the terminal device may prohibit mapping the LCH to the UL authorization. The LCP mapping restrictions are adopted to facilitate meeting the quality of service (QoS) requirements of certain traffic. However, when LCP mapping restrictions are applied, the fixed LCP mechanism may adversely affect the performance of certain traffic.

[0046] Therefore, improvements and enhancements are needed to make LCP more flexible. According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, a solution for LCP based on authorization is provided. In this solution, a terminal device is configured with multiple different LCP settings. For each UL authorization, the terminal device selects one of these different LCP settings for the UL authorization, and generates a PDU including at least a portion of UL control information and / or UL data in multiple LCHs based on the selected LCP setting for UL transmission. In this way, adaptive and dynamic LCP across LCHs can be implemented at the terminal device.

[0047] The principles and exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Figure 2 , Figure 2 A process 200 for LCP according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. For the purpose of discussion, reference will be made to Figure 1 200. Process 200 may involve Figure 1 The terminal device 120 and the network device 110 are shown.

[0048] In process 200, the network device 110 allocates 210 an UL grant to the terminal device 120. The UL grant may be scheduled to the terminal device 120 in a dynamic manner, a semi-persistent / configured manner, etc., and the UL grant may indicate to the network device 110 corresponding UL resources for UL transmission. The authorized UL resources may include resources for UL transmission mapped on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or other physical channels. Examples of UL grants may include dynamic UL grants, configured grants, or other grants. Based on the UL grant, the UE may identify its (multiple) UL resources scheduled for UL transmission. The UL grant may also indicate one or more parameters for transmission using the corresponding UL resources.

[0049] After obtaining the UL authorization from the network device 110, the terminal device 120 selects 220 an LCP setting from a plurality of LCP settings for the UL authorization based on a predetermined policy associated with the UL authorization. In an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal device 120 is configured with more than one LCP setting and is capable of dynamically selecting an LCP setting for use depending on the UL authorization. The plurality of LCP settings define different sets of prioritization parameters in terms of occupying UL resources for UL data and UL control information in one or more LCHs. In some examples, the plurality of LCP settings may define prioritization parameters for a subset of LCHs established at the terminal device 120, and the plurality of additional LCP settings may define prioritization parameters for additional subsets of LCHs established at the terminal device 120. According to the LCP settings, the terminal device 120 may allocate UL resources for the transmission of part or all of the UL data and / or UL control information in the (multiple) LCHs.

[0050] As used herein, the UL data in the LCH may include UL traffic corresponding to a service or application associated with the LCH. The UL control information may indicate any type of control information to be transmitted in the UL. In an example embodiment, the UL control information may include a buffer status report (BSR) and / or a power headroom report (PHR). The BSR indicates the corresponding UL data amount to be transmitted on different LCHs, or the total amount of UL data to be transmitted on a group of LCHs or all LCHs. The PHR is used to notify the network device 110 of the power situation of the terminal device 120, so that the network device 110 can decide whether to allocate more resources to the terminal device 120. Other examples of UL control information may include, for example, configured grant confirmation and / or recommended bit rate information. Some UL control information may be specific to one or more LCHs or related to one or more LCHs, such as a BSR for an individual LCH or a group of LCHs. Some UL control information may be independent of a specific LCH, such as a PHR for the entire terminal device 120.

[0051] The UL resources granted by the UL grant may be used to transmit UL information of a specific size, such as a transport block (TB) of a specific size. The prioritization parameter set may be used by the terminal device 120 to determine which UL data in which LCH may occupy UL resources, how the UL data occupies the UL resources, and the amount of data that may be transmitted using the UL resources. The prioritization parameters may also be associated with the UL control information. The prioritization parameters may include any parameters that may affect the prioritization of UL data and possible UL control information in the LCH in UL transmission using the UL grant. In order to better understand the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, some examples of the prioritization parameters will first be introduced below.

[0052] In an example embodiment, the LCP setting may define a relative prioritization between UL control information and UL data in one or more LCHs as a prioritization parameter. The prioritization parameter indicates whether the UL control information may take precedence over UL data in one, some or all LCHs or conform to the corresponding LCP setting. For example, if the UL control information takes precedence over UL data in the LCH, the UL resources granted by the UL grant may be first allocated to carry the UL control information, and then the remaining UL resources may be allocated to the UL data in the LCH. In the case where the UL data in one or more LCHs takes precedence over the UL control information, the transmission of the UL data may be considered first when allocating UL resources.

[0053] The LCP setting may also define the corresponding priority level of one or more LCHs as a prioritization parameter. As used herein, the priority level of an LCH indicates the priority of UL data from the LCH. The corresponding priority indicates the order of the LCHs, and the terminal device 120 may allocate UL resources for the transmission of UL data in the LCH according to the order. In some examples, the LCH may be assigned a priority level from 1 to 16, where priority level 1 is the highest priority and priority level 16 is the lowest priority. The higher the priority level, the greater the possibility that the UL data in the corresponding LCH can be transmitted using the authorized UL resources.

[0054] The LCP setting may alternatively or additionally define a corresponding prioritized bit rate (PBR) and / or a corresponding bucket size duration (BSD) for one or more LCHs as a prioritization parameter. Assuming that the network device allocates sufficient UL resources, the PBR provides a "guaranteed" bit rate that should be achieved for the corresponding LCH. In some examples, the PBR may be set to 8kbps, 16kbps, 32kbps, 64kbps, 128kbps, 256kbps, or 512kbps. The BSD is used for resource allocation during the LCP performed by the terminal device. The PBR and / or BSD may be used to determine the amount of UL data in the corresponding LCH to be transmitted using the authorized UL resources. In some examples, the terminal device 120 may maintain a variable Bj for each LCH j. When the relevant LCH is established, the variable Bj may be initialized to zero, and the variable Bj may be incremented by the product of PBR×TTI duration for each TTI, where PBR is the prioritized bit rate of LCH j. The value of Bj cannot exceed the bucket size, and if the value of Bj is greater than the bucket size of LCH j, it can be set to the bucket size. The bucket size of LCH is equal to PBR×BSD. It can be understood that in some examples, only one of PBR and BSD is set in the LCP setting, and the other can be pre-configured to a fixed value.

[0055] The prioritization parameter set defined by the LCP setting may alternatively or additionally include one or more LCH mapping restrictions for at least one LCH for the current UL grant. The LCP mapping restriction may indicate whether the UL data in the LCH can be mapped to the UL grant or transmitted with the UL grant. In some examples, the LCP mapping restriction may indicate the allowed numeric basic configuration (expressed as "allowedSCS-List") for a specific LCH. The numeric basic configuration (numerology) may be used to define the subcarrier spacing (SCS). The LCP mapping restriction of allowedSCS-List (if present) indicates that the UL data in the LCH can only be mapped to the UL grant with the indicated allowed numeric basic configuration. Another example of an LCP mapping restriction may indicate the allowed serving cells (expressed as "allowedServingCells") for a specific LCH and (if present) indicate that the UL data in the LCH can only be mapped to the allowed cells. The restriction of serving cells is typically used for PDCP duplication to ensure that the duplicated packets are transmitted on a cell different from the original packets.

[0056] The LCP mapping restriction may alternatively or additionally include a restriction on the allowed UL grant type for a specific LCH, if any, indicating that the UL data in the LCH can only be transmitted using the configured UL grant type. For example, the LCH may be restricted to UL grant type 1 as the allowed UL grant. In another example, the LCP mapping restriction may indicate a maximum duration for a specific LCH. According to the LCP mapping restriction, the UL data in the LCH can only be transmitted using a UL grant that results in a duration shorter than or equal to the indicated maximum duration. The LCP mapping restriction may be set for an LCH with low latency requirements, such as an LCH for ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) data. It should be understood that other LCP mapping restrictions may also be included in the LCP settings as prioritization parameters for the LCH. It may also be understood that in some example embodiments of the present disclosure, URLLC data is used as an example of UL data with low latency requirements and / or high reliability requirements, and other types of UL data with similar requirements are also applicable in those embodiments.

[0057] Some examples of prioritization parameters defined in an LCP setting have been described above. It should be understood that one or more types of prioritization parameters may be included in an LCP setting, and one or more prioritization parameters may be different between multiple LCP settings selectable at the terminal device 120. For example, if two LCP settings define prioritization parameters for UL data and UL control information in one LCH, the relative prioritization between the UL data and the UL control information, and / or the PBR, BSD and / or LCP mapping restrictions of the LCH may be different in the two LCP settings. It should also be understood that any other prioritization parameter may also be included in the LCP setting, as long as the parameter can determine the prioritization of UL data and UL control information when occupying authorized UL resources.

[0058] In some example embodiments described below, for ease of discussion, relative prioritization between UL control information and UL data, priority and / or PBR of LCH are used as examples of prioritization parameters. Examples of two LCP settings with different prioritization parameters are provided below.

[0059] Table 1 Example of LCP settings

[0060]

[0061] It should be understood that Table 1 is provided only as a specific example without any limitation. More than two LCP settings may be configured at the terminal device 120, and each LCP setting may define more, fewer, or different prioritization parameters. In some other examples, the LCP setting may define prioritization parameters for one LCH.

[0062] LCP settings have been discussed above. In an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal device 120 is configured with multiple LCP settings by the network device 110. For example, the network device 110 may transmit the configuration of the multiple LCP settings to the terminal device 120. For example, the configuration of the multiple LCP settings may be provided via upper layer signaling such as radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0063] In an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal device 120 can dynamically switch between multiple LCP settings for each UL grant by following a predetermined policy related to the UL grant. In this way, grant-related prioritization can be implemented for multiple UL grants, which provides greater flexibility compared to performing the same prioritization for all UL grants. In some example embodiments, the predetermined policy may allow the terminal device to autonomously determine the LCP setting selected for use based on at least one or more characteristics of the UL grant. In some example embodiments, the predetermined policy may allow the terminal device 120 to determine the LCP setting directly indicated by the network device 110 via the setting indication of each grant. In either case, the LCP setting adopted at the terminal device 120 can be adapted according to the UL grant. Some example embodiments of LCP setting selection will be described in detail below.

[0064] The terminal device 120 may perform prioritization across one or more LCHs and / or possible UL control information based on the selected LCP setting. Figure 2 In the process 200, the terminal device 120 generates 230 a PDU based on the selected LCP setting for transmission to the network device using UL resources, the PDU including at least one of the following: UL control information, or at least a portion of UL data.

[0065] In some example embodiments, the terminal device 120 generates a MAC PDU at its MAC layer. In an example embodiment, the UL data may be contained in one or more service data units (SDUs), and the UL control information may be contained in one or more MAC CEs. The SDU and the MAC may form a PDU that is transmitted to the network device 110. Depending on the granted UL resources of the UL grant, there is a possibility that all UL data and the triggered UL control information cannot be transmitted using the current UL grant. The terminal device 120 performs prioritization between the UL data and the UL control information in the LCH.

[0066] Depending on the selected LCP setting, the generated PDU may include only UL control information, include UL control information and UL data of one or more LCHs with a higher priority level, and / or include only UL data of one or more LCHs with a higher priority level. Instead of using the same LCP setting for all acquired UL grants, according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal device 120 may flexibly select a first LCP setting for a first UL grant and perform prioritization associated therewith, and select a second LCP setting for a second UL grant and perform different prioritization. The terminal device 120 may transmit 240 the generated PDU to the network device 110 using the UL resources granted by the UL grant. For example, the PDU may be provided to a physical (PHY) layer for UL transmission.

[0067] As described above, the selection of an LCP setting for use may be determined by the terminal device 120 based on one or more characteristics of the UL grant.In some example embodiments, the selection of an LCP setting may be performed based on specific criteria associated with one or more LCP settings. Figure 3A A flow chart is shown of an example process 300 of selecting an LCP setting by a terminal device 120 according to some example embodiments.

[0068] As shown, in box 310, the terminal device 120 determines whether the currently acquired UL authorization satisfies the predetermined criteria associated with the LCP setting. The predetermined criteria can be configured based on one or more characteristics of the UL authorization. Therefore, the terminal device 120 can identify the corresponding characteristics of the currently acquired UL authorization, and determine whether the characteristics of the current UL authorization meet the predetermined criteria associated with one of the LCP settings. If the predetermined criteria are met, then in box 320, the terminal device 120 selects the LCP setting corresponding to the criterion. For example, in the example LCP setting provided in Table 1, the terminal device 120 can select the second LCP setting when the criteria associated with the second LCP setting are met. In some example embodiments, the predetermined criteria associated with the LCP setting can be pre-configured by the network device 110. For example, the network device 110 can transmit a criterion indication associated with the LCP setting regarding the predetermined criteria. For example, the criterion indication can be transmitted via upper layer signaling such as RRC signaling.

[0069] In some example embodiments, the plurality of configured LCP settings may include a default LCP setting. If the UL grant fails to satisfy any predetermined criteria associated with other LCP settings other than the default LCP setting, then at block 330, the terminal device 120 decides to select the default LCP setting for the UL grant. In other words, the default LCP setting may not be associated with any predetermined criteria based on the characteristics of the UL grant, but may always be selected when other criteria-based LCP settings cannot be selected. In one example, the terminal device 120 may select the default LCP setting if the criteria associated with the second LCP setting cannot be satisfied and there are no other preconfigured LCP settings other than the first default setting as shown in Table 1.

[0070] According to the default LCP setting, UL control information may be prioritized over UL data in LCHs, such as shown in the first LCP setting in Table 1 above. In some example embodiments, the priority of certain LCHs may be increased compared to the default LCP setting, and UL control information may even be prioritized in another LCP setting, such as the second LCP setting in Table 1 above. In this way, if the current UL grant meets the predetermined criteria associated with the second LCP setting, the prioritization of these LCHs may be adaptively changed.

[0071] It should be understood that although Figure 3A In the example of , two LCP settings (including a default setting) are provided for selection, but more other LCP settings may be provided for the terminal device 120. The terminal device 120 may determine whether a predetermined criterion associated with any other LCP setting is satisfied sequentially or in parallel to determine whether to select any LCP setting.

[0072] Any characteristics of the UL grant may be considered when selecting an LCP setting. In some example embodiments, one or more characteristics of the UL grant may affect or even determine UL transmission performance, such as delay, reliability, interference, and / or robustness. Corresponding thresholds for such characteristics may be measured as predetermined criteria in different LCP settings. Some examples of characteristics of the UL grant and corresponding criteria are discussed below.

[0073] In an example embodiment, the characteristics of the UL grant may include an allocation of authorized UL resources in at least one of a time domain and a frequency domain. The allocation of authorized UL resources may include a duration of the UL resources in the time domain, a size of the UL resources, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), etc. The LCP setting may be associated with a predetermined criterion based on the allocation of the granted UL resources, for example, by setting a threshold for the duration of the UL resources, the size of the UL resources, and / or the number of PRBs. If the allocation of the UL resources granted by the current UL grant meets the predetermined criterion, for example, the duration of the granted UL resources exceeds the threshold for the duration, the terminal device 120 may select the associated LCP setting. In this way, the terminal device 120 may switch between different LCP settings based on the allocation of the granted UL resources.

[0074] As a specific example, the terminal device 120 may be configured with at least a first default LCP setting and a second LCP setting, the second LCP setting being associated with a predetermined criterion based on a threshold of the duration of the UL resource. If the duration of the UL resource granted by the current UL grant exceeds the threshold of the duration of the UL resource, the second LCP setting may be selected. LCHs (such as LCHs for URLLC data) may be set with a higher priority level and an LCP mapping restriction for the maximum duration in the default LCP setting, and may be set with a lower priority without an LCP mapping restriction for the maximum duration in the second LCP setting. Therefore, the LCH with URLLC data may not be completely excluded from UL grants with longer durations. Compared with the default LCP setting, the PRBs of the LCH with URLLC data may be reduced in the second LCP setting. Therefore, according to the selected second LCP setting, if there are idle UL resources in the current UL grant after allocating to UL data and / or UL control information with relatively high priority, the URLLC data in the particular LCH may still be transmitted using the current UL grant. In this way, the terminal device 120 may also be able to transmit URLLC data without waiting for another UL grant if there is no suitable UL grant available in the near future.

[0075] In an example embodiment, the characteristics of the UL grant may include a type of the UL grant. The type of the UL grant may include a dynamic grant, a Type 1 Configured Grant, a Type 2 Configured Grant, etc. One or more LCP settings may be associated with one or more specific UL grant types. In such a case, if the currently acquired UL grant has the same type associated with the LCP setting, the terminal device 120 may select the LCP setting to perform prioritization when generating the PDU.

[0076] In an example embodiment, the characteristics of the UL authorization may include the spectrum in which the UL resources are located. The spectrum may include a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. Typically, the unlicensed spectrum may be subject to more uncontrollable interference from other wireless communication systems (such as IEEE802.11) and may have a higher probability of being delayed due to potential failures in the listen-before-talk (LBT) process. Therefore, in an LCP setting associated with an unlicensed spectrum, an LCH with low latency requirements and / or high reliability requirements (such as an LCH for URLLC data) may be set to have a lower priority level. Therefore, the possibility of URLLC data being transmitted using UL resources on an unlicensed spectrum is low.

[0077] Alternatively or additionally, the characteristics of the UL grant may include whether the UL resources are allocated on a supplementary UL (SUL) and / or whether frequency hopping of the UL resources is enabled. UL transmission performance may depend on these two aspects of the UL resources, including performance related to delay and reliability. Different LCP settings may be associated with criteria for having allowed UL resources on the SUL and / or enabling frequency hopping on the UL resources. In some examples, in an LCP setting associated with the SUL and / or frequency hopping, an LCH with low delay requirements and / or high reliability requirements may be set to have a lower priority.

[0078] Some examples of characteristics of the UL grant may also include a waveform type of the UL resource, such as OFDM, CP-OFDM, DFT-s-OFDM, etc.; a digital base configuration for the UL resource (corresponding to the subcarrier spacing), a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the UL resource, a transport block size (TBS) for the UL resource, and / or a transmission power for the UL resource. The configuration of these characteristics may also affect UL transmission performance, including performance related to delay and reliability.

[0079] As an example, an LCP setting may be selected when a predetermined criterion that the TBS is below a threshold is met. According to the LCP setting, the priority of LCHs with low delay requirements (such as LCHs with URLLC data) may be set to have a higher priority level, even over UL control information. Compared to the default LCP setting in which UL control information takes precedence over all LCHs, URLLC data may be allocated UL resources first and may not be segmented and delayed due to the smaller TBS and the prioritization of UL control information.

[0080] In another example, an LCP setting may be selected when a predetermined criterion that the MCS satisfies a reliability threshold is met. According to the LCP setting, the priority level of the LCH with a high reliability requirement may be set to have a lower priority level, because it is less desirable to use an MCS that is more prone to error transmission to transmit UL data with a more stringent error target. This LCP setting is more suitable for UL data that is not so sensitive to delay but has very high reliability requirements. Of course, it is understood that the predetermined criterion can be based on both TBS and MCS to meet the requirements for both delay and reliability, which is suitable for UL data that requires both low delay and high reliability, such as URLLC data.

[0081] In some example embodiments, the characteristics of the UL grant may also include settings for MIMO in the UL resources, settings for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) in the UL resources, multiple access schemes configured for the UL resources, whether repetition in the UL resources is enabled, and / or the number of repetitions configured for the transmission in the UL resources. The settings for MIMO may include, for example, single rank or multi-rank settings, (multiple) antenna ports of the terminal device 120 for UL transmission, configuration of the precoder codebook, etc. The settings for HARQ may include, for example, various types of HARQ timers. The multiple access scheme may include, for example, an orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme or a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme. Different LCP settings may depend on different settings of MIMO, HARQ, and / or multiple access schemes, based on whether repetition in the uplink resources is enabled (whether the number of repetitions is greater than 1), and / or whether the number of repetitions is greater than a threshold (whether it is greater than 1). These criteria may be associated with different reliability levels, interference levels, delay levels, etc.

[0082] For example, due to potential interference between spatial streams, it is less desirable to use UL resources configured with a multi-rank MIMO scheme to transmit UL data with higher reliability requirements. Therefore, the LCP setting associated with the multi-rank MIMO scheme can define a lower priority level for LCH with higher reliability requirements. As another example, UL transmission using UL resources with a NOMA scheme may also result in lower reliability, so the LCP setting associated with the NOMA scheme may also define a lower priority level for LCH with higher reliability requirements. As another example, it is less desirable to use additional radio resources for UL data that has been privileged in PDCP-level repeated transmissions. Therefore, in an LCP setting associated with repetition on UL resources being enabled (e.g., the number of repetitions is greater than 1) or a repetition level being higher than a threshold (e.g., the number of repetitions is greater than 2), the priority level for the PDCP-duplicated LCH can be set to a lower level, and / or the PBR can be set to a lower value.

[0083] In some example embodiments, the characteristics of the UL grant may also include whether the UL resources granted by the current UL grant conflict with other available UL resources (e.g., overlap with other UL resources in the time domain and / or frequency domain). Conflicts with other UL resources (other UL resources that may be granted by additional UL grants) may increase the latency of UL data transmission. Therefore, different LCP settings may be configured to be associated with whether a conflict occurs. In some examples, if the information transmitted on the conflicting UL resources is known, the LCP setting may be associated with specific information of the conflicting UL resources. For example, if it is known that certain UL data with a higher priority level (such as UL data with low delay requirements) will be transmitted on the conflicting UL resources, then for the current UL grant, the terminal device 120 may select an LCP setting with a higher priority level for LCHs that do not have limited delay requirements (such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) data), and select an LCP setting with a lower priority level for LCHs with low delay requirements (such as URLLC data). In this way, the probability that the UL data of two LCHs with low delay requirements are delayed from each other due to resource conflicts can be avoided or eliminated.

[0084] In some example embodiments, the characteristics of the UL grant may also include a timing relationship between the UL grant and additional UL grants expected in the future. This timing relationship is considered when it is known that one or more upcoming UL grants can better meet the requirements (multiple) of UL data in the LCH. In such a case, an LCP setting that defines a lower priority level and / or a lower PBR for the corresponding LCH may be selected for the current UL grant.

[0085] In another example embodiment, the characteristic of the UL grant may include an interval between the time when the UL grant is obtained and the time when the transmission on the UL grant starts. For example, if the interval is greater than a threshold, it means that there is still a long time before the UL transmission using the current UL grant actually starts. In such a case, the LCP setting associated with the longer interval can define a lower priority level for the LCH with low delay requirements.

[0086] Some examples of characteristics of UL authorizations considered in the predetermined criteria for LCP settings have been described above. When selecting LCP settings for a currently acquired UL authorization, the terminal device 120 may determine whether the corresponding characteristic(s) of the UL authorization satisfies any predetermined criteria, thereby selecting an LCP setting that satisfies the criteria. It should be understood that the predetermined criteria associated with the LCP setting may be configured to be associated with one or more of the above-mentioned characteristics and other characteristics.

[0087] In some example embodiments, as an alternative or in addition to the (multiple) characteristics of the UL grant, the terminal device 120 may also determine the LCP setting based on the buffer status of one or more LCHs. In some examples, the predetermined criteria associated with the LCP setting may be based on the buffer status of one or more LCHs, for example, by setting a threshold for the buffer status of each LCH. The terminal device 120 may select the LCP setting for use accordingly based on the current buffer status of the corresponding LCH. For example, the LCP setting may be selected in the following circumstances: if the buffer status of a particular LCH is above a threshold and the duration of the granted UL resources exceeds the threshold. Therefore, when the current buffer status of the LCH is below the corresponding threshold, the terminal device 120 may not select the LCP setting, but instead select a default LCP setting.

[0088] In some example embodiments, there may be more than one UL grant available at the terminal device 120. The terminal device 120 may jointly consider the characteristics of these UL grants to determine how to select the LCP setting for each UL grant. In some examples, the jointly considered UL grants may have a gap below a threshold between the transmission start times. That is, when selecting a UL grant, UL grants corresponding to close transmission times are jointly considered. In such a case, the LCP setting for a certain UL grant may depend on the characteristics of another UL grant.

[0089] Figure 3B A flow chart of an example process 302 for selecting an LCP setting by the terminal device 120 according to some example embodiments is shown. To select an LCP setting for a current UL grant of interest, at block 340 the terminal device 120 determines whether there is an additional UL grant obtained from the network device 110. If there is such an UL grant, at block 350 the terminal device 120 may also determine whether the additional UL grant is more suitable for transmission of UL data in one or more LCHs, e.g., based on one or more characteristics of the additional UL grant.

[0090] Still using the example LCP setting in Table 1 as an example. If the terminal device 120 determines that the second LCP setting in Table 1 can be selected for the current UL grant to serve the UL data in a certain LCH based on the characteristics of the current UL grant, the terminal device 120 can also identify the other UL grant based on the characteristics of the other available UL grants. More suitable for the transmission of UL data in the LCH. In this case, the terminal device 120 may not select the second LCP setting, but select another LCP setting. For example, in the example process 302, the terminal device 120 selects the first default LCP setting in Table 1 for the current UL grant in box 360.

[0091] It should be understood that when the terminal device 120 finds that the additional UL grant is more suitable for one or more LCHs than the current UL grant, the terminal device 120 can select a different LCP setting instead of the default setting. The principle is to ensure that the LCP setting selected for the current UL grant defines a lower priority level and / or a lower PBR for (multiple) LCHs that can be transmitted in a better way when using the additional UL grant. Thus, by jointly considering the available UL grants at the terminal device, the overall performance of the UL transmission can be further improved.

[0092] If no additional UL grant is available or if the additional UL grant is not more suitable for one or more LCHs, the terminal device 120 may switch to selecting an LCP setting for the current UL grant based on the characteristics of the current UL grant(s) and / or the cache status of the LCH(s), for example, switching to performing the following steps: Figure 3A Process 300 is shown.

[0093] In some example embodiments, the adaptation behavior of the terminal device 120 between the multiple LCP settings may be dynamically enabled and / or disabled by the network device 110. The terminal device 120 may determine whether the adaptation between the multiple LCP settings is enabled for the UL grant, and select the LCP setting based on the characteristics (multiple) of the current UL grant and / or the buffer status of the (multiple) LCHs when the adaptation is enabled. In the case where the adaptation is disabled for the UL grant, the terminal device 120 may always select the same LCP setting for the acquired UL grant, such as the default LCP setting.

[0094] In some example embodiments, the enabling / disabling of the adaptation may be performed on a "per grant" basis, e.g., via control signaling such as in a MAC CE in the DL. For example, when the terminal device 120 may have multiple active UL grants, the network device 110 may transmit an indication indicating whether the terminal device 120 may perform adaptation of the LCP setting for each UL grant. Figure 4 An example of the structure of a DL MAC CE 400 that may be used to enable / disable adaptation between LCP settings is shown. Figure 4 In the example of FIG. 4 , it is assumed that the terminal device 120 has up to 8 active UL grants. The DL MAC CE 400 includes 8 bits corresponding to the eight configured UL grants, each bit C i Whether the adaptation is enabled or disabled for the corresponding UL grant is indicated by a value of 0 or 1. It is understood that if the maximum number of active UL grants is lower or higher than 8, the DL MAC CE may be adapted accordingly to indicate the LCP settings of these UL grants.

[0095] In some example embodiments, as described above, instead of the terminal device 120 itself determining the LCP setting for use, the network device 110 may directly indicate that an LCP setting from a plurality of LCP settings may be used for UL grant. In these example embodiments, the network device 110 may transmit 215 a setting indication to the terminal device 120, such as from Figure 2 . The setting indication may indicate to the terminal device 120 that one of the multiple LCP settings is to be applied for the UL grant. In some example embodiments, the setting indication may be transmitted in a DL control information (DCI) format for scheduling the grant. In some example embodiments, for configuring the UL grant, the setting indication may be embedded in the RRC configuration (e.g., for a type 1 configuration grant) or embedded in the DCI (e.g., for activation of a type 2 configuration grant). Upon receiving the setting indication, the terminal device 120 may select the indicated LCP setting for the current UL grant.

[0096] In some example embodiments, the terminal device 120 may be configured, for example via RRC signalling, to perform adaptation between all selectable LCP settings itself or based on direct instructions from the network device 110. That is, the network device 110 may be able to explicitly or implicitly indicate switching between these two types of adaptation behaviour (e.g. the absence of criteria for triggering conditional LCP setting in the RRC signalling would imply that the terminal device 120 should select an LCP setting based only on instructions from the network device).

[0097] Figure 5 FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example method 500 implemented at a terminal device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, reference will be made to Figure 1 The method 500 is described from the perspective of the terminal device 120 .

[0098] In box 510, the terminal device 120 obtains an uplink grant from the network device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device. In box 520, the terminal device 120 selects a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a predetermined policy associated with the uplink grant. The plurality of logical channel prioritization settings define different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources. In box 530, the terminal device 120 generates a packet data unit for transmission to the network device using the uplink resources based on the selected logical channel prioritization setting, the packet data unit including at least one of the following: uplink control information, or at least a portion of uplink data.

[0099] In some example embodiments, the selecting includes selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a setting indication associated with the uplink grant and received from a network device, the setting indication indicating one of the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to be applied for the uplink grant.

[0100] In some example embodiments, the selecting comprises determining a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on a characteristic of the uplink grant.

[0101] In some example embodiments, the determination includes: determining whether the uplink grant satisfies a predetermined criterion associated with one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on characteristics of the uplink grant; in response to determining that the uplink grant satisfies the predetermined criterion, selecting a logical channel prioritization setting corresponding to the predetermined criterion; and in response to determining that the uplink grant does not satisfy the predetermined criterion associated with other logical channel prioritization settings among the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings other than the default logical channel prioritization setting, selecting a default logical channel prioritization setting for the uplink grant.

[0102] In some example embodiments, the determining further comprises determining the logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings further based on a buffer status of the at least one logical channel.

[0103] In some example embodiments, the characteristics of the uplink grant include at least one of: allocation of uplink resources in at least one of the time domain and the frequency domain, the type of uplink grant, the frequency spectrum in which the uplink resources are located, whether the uplink resources are allocated on the supplemental uplink, whether frequency hopping of the uplink resources is enabled, the waveform type of the uplink resources, a digital basic configuration for the uplink resources, a modulation and coding scheme for the uplink resources, a transport block size for the uplink resources, a transmission power for the uplink resources, a setting for multiple-input multiple-output in the uplink resources, a setting for hybrid automatic repeat request in the uplink resources, whether the uplink resources conflict with other available uplink resources, a timing relationship between the uplink grant and additional uplink grants expected in the future, an interval between the time when the uplink grant is obtained and the time when transmission on the uplink grant starts, whether repetition in the uplink resources is enabled, the number of repetitions in the uplink resources, and a multiple access scheme configured for the uplink resources.

[0104] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises receiving, from the network device, a criteria indication that the predetermined criteria is associated with the logical channel prioritization.

[0105] In some example embodiments, the determination based at least in part on a characteristic of an uplink grant includes: determining whether adaptation between a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings is enabled for the uplink grant; and in response to determining that adaptation is enabled for the uplink grant, determining a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on the characteristic of the uplink grant.

[0106] In some example embodiments, the selecting further comprises, in response to determining that adaptation is disabled for the uplink grant, selecting a default logical channel prioritization setting for the uplink grant from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings.

[0107] In some example embodiments, the selecting includes determining whether an additional uplink grant is obtained from the network device; and determining, in response to the additional uplink grant, a logical channel prioritization setting for the uplink grant further based on characteristics of the additional uplink grant.

[0108] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises receiving, from a network device, a configuration of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings.

[0109] In some example embodiments, the selecting includes: determining whether adaptation between the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings is enabled for an uplink grant; and in response to determining that adaptation is enabled, selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings for the uplink grant.

[0110] In some example embodiments, the set of prioritization parameters defined by the logical channel prioritization setting includes at least one of the following: relative prioritization between uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel, a priority level for at least one logical channel, a prioritized bit rate for at least one logical channel, a bucket size duration for at least one logical channel, and a logical channel mapping restriction for at least one logical channel.

[0111] Figure 6 FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example method 600 implemented at a network device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, reference will be made to Figure 1 Method 600 is described from the perspective of network device 110 .

[0112] In box 610, the network device 110 assigns an uplink grant to the terminal device, and the uplink grant indicates an uplink resource for transmission to the network device. In box 620, the network device 110 transmits to the terminal device a setting indication about one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to be applied for the uplink grant. The plurality of logical channel prioritization settings define different prioritization parameter sets for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources. In box 630, the network device 110 receives a packet data unit from the terminal device on the uplink resource. The packet data unit includes at least one of the following: uplink control information, or at least a portion of data, and the packet data unit is generated based on the logical channel prioritization setting indicated by the setting indication.

[0113] In some example embodiments, the set of prioritization parameters defined by the logical channel prioritization setting includes at least one of the following: relative prioritization between uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel, a priority level for at least one logical channel, a prioritized bit rate for at least one logical channel, a bucket size duration for at least one logical channel, and a logical channel mapping restriction for at least one logical channel.

[0114] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises transmitting the configuration of the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to the terminal device.

[0115] In some example embodiments, an apparatus (e.g., terminal device 120) capable of executing any method 500 may include a component for executing the corresponding steps of method 500. The component may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the component may be implemented in a circuit system or a software module.

[0116] In some example embodiments, the apparatus includes a component for obtaining an uplink grant from a network device at a terminal device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device; a component for selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a predetermined policy associated with the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources; and a component for generating a packet data unit based on the selected logical channel prioritization setting for transmission to the network device using the uplink resources, the packet data unit including at least one of: uplink control information, or at least a portion of the uplink data.

[0117] In some example embodiments, the means for selecting includes: means for receiving a setting indication from a network device regarding a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to be applied for an uplink grant; and means for selecting the logical channel prioritization setting for the uplink grant in response to the setting indication.

[0118] In some example embodiments, the component for selecting includes: a component for selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a setting indication associated with an uplink grant and received from a network device, the setting indication indicating one of the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to be applied for the uplink grant.

[0119] In some example embodiments, the means for selecting comprises means for determining the logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on a characteristic of the uplink grant.

[0120] In some example embodiments, the component for determining includes: a component for determining whether an uplink grant satisfies a predetermined criterion associated with one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on characteristics of the uplink grant; a component for selecting a logical channel prioritization setting corresponding to the predetermined criterion in response to determining that the uplink grant satisfies the predetermined criterion; and a component for selecting a default logical channel prioritization setting for the uplink grant in response to determining that the uplink grant fails to satisfy the predetermined criterion associated with other logical channel prioritization settings among the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings other than the default logical channel prioritization setting.

[0121] In some example embodiments, the means for determining further comprises means for determining the logical channel prioritization setting from the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings further based on a buffer status of the at least one logical channel.

[0122] In some example embodiments, the characteristics of the uplink grant include at least one of: allocation of uplink resources in at least one of the time domain and the frequency domain, the type of uplink grant, the spectrum in which the uplink resources are located, whether the uplink resources are allocated on the supplemental uplink, whether frequency hopping of the uplink resources is enabled, the waveform type of the uplink resources, a digital base configuration for the uplink resources, a modulation and coding scheme for the uplink resources, a transport block size for the uplink resources, a transmission power for the uplink resources, a setting for multiple-input multiple-output in the uplink resources, a setting for hybrid automatic repeat request in the uplink resources, whether the uplink resources conflict with other available uplink resources, a timing relationship between the uplink grant and additional uplink grants expected in the future, an interval between the time when the uplink grant is obtained and the time when transmission on the uplink grant starts, whether repetition in the uplink resources is enabled, the number of repetitions in the uplink resources, and a multiple access scheme configured for the uplink resources.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for receiving a criteria indication from the network device that the predetermined criteria is associated with the logical channel prioritization.

[0124] In some example embodiments, the component for determining includes: a component for determining whether adaptation between multiple logical channel prioritization settings is enabled for an uplink authorization; and a component for determining a logical channel prioritization setting from the multiple logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on characteristics of the uplink authorization in response to determining that adaptation is enabled for the uplink authorization.

[0125] In some example embodiments, the means for selecting further comprises means for selecting a default logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings for an uplink grant in response to determining that adaptation is disabled for the uplink grant.

[0126] In some example embodiments, the component for determining further includes: a component for determining whether an additional uplink grant is obtained from the network device; and a component for determining a logical channel prioritization setting for the uplink grant in response to the additional uplink grant and also based on characteristics of the additional uplink grant.

[0127] In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for receiving a configuration of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings from a network device.

[0128] In some example embodiments, the set of prioritization parameters defined by the logical channel prioritization setting includes at least one of the following: relative prioritization between uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel, a priority level for at least one logical channel, a prioritized bit rate for at least one logical channel, a bucket size duration for at least one logical channel, and a logical channel mapping restriction for at least one logical channel.

[0129] In some example embodiments, the components in the apparatus include at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause execution of the apparatus.

[0130] In some example embodiments, an apparatus (e.g., network device 110) capable of performing any of method 600 may include components for performing the corresponding steps of method 600. The components may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the components may be implemented in a circuit system or a software module.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the apparatus comprises: a component for assigning an uplink grant to a terminal device via a network device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device; a component for transmitting to the terminal device a setting indication regarding one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to be applied for the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying uplink resources; and a component for receiving a packet data unit from the terminal device on the uplink resources, the packet data unit comprising at least one of: uplink control information, or at least a portion of data, and the packet data unit being generated based on the logical channel prioritization setting indicated by the setting indication.

[0132] In some example embodiments, the set of prioritization parameters defined by the logical channel prioritization setting includes at least one of the following: relative prioritization between uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel, a priority level for at least one logical channel, a prioritized bit rate for at least one logical channel, a bucket size duration for at least one logical channel, and a logical channel mapping restriction for at least one logical channel.

[0133] In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for transmitting the configuration of the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to the terminal device.

[0134] In some example embodiments, the components in the apparatus include at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause execution of the apparatus.

[0135] Figure 7 is a simplified block diagram of a device 700 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 700 may be provided to implement a communication device, such as Figure 1 The terminal device 120 or the network device 110 is shown. As shown, the device 700 includes one or more processors 710, one or more memories 740 coupled to the processor 710, and one or more transmitters and / or receivers (TX / RX) 740 coupled to the processor 710.

[0136] TX / RX 740 is used for bidirectional communication. TX / RX 740 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface required to communicate with other network elements.

[0137] Processor 710 may be of any type suitable for the local technology network, and may include, as non-limiting examples, one or more of: a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a processor based on a multi-core processor architecture. Device 700 may have multiple processors, such as application specific integrated circuit chips that are time slaved to a clock synchronized with a main processor.

[0138] The memory 720 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) 724, electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, hard disks, compact disks (CDs), digital video disks (DVDs), and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage devices. Examples of volatile memories include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM) 722 and other volatile memories that do not persist over the duration of a power outage.

[0139] Computer program 730 includes computer executable instructions executed by associated processor 710. Program 730 may be stored in ROM 720. Processor 710 may perform any suitable actions and processes by loading program 730 into RAM 720.

[0140] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by a program 730 so that the device 700 may execute the Figure 2 , Figure 3A , Figure 3B , Figure 5 and Figure 6Any process of the present disclosure discussed. The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or a combination of software and hardware.

[0141] In some example embodiments, the program 730 may be tangibly embodied in a computer-readable medium, which may be included in the device 700 (such as in the memory 720) or in other storage devices accessible to the device 700. The device 700 may load the program 730 from the computer-readable medium to the RAM 722 for execution. The computer-readable medium may include any type of tangible non-volatile memory, such as ROM, EPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD, DVD, etc. Figure 8 An example of a computer readable medium 800 in the form of a CD or DVD is shown. The computer readable medium has a program 730 stored thereon.

[0142] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuits, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software that may be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Although various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are shown and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other graphical representations, it should be understood that the block diagrams, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuits or logic, general hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0143] The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer executable instructions, such as computer executable instructions included in a program module, which are executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor to perform the above referenced Figure 2 , Figure 3A , Figure 3B , Figure 5 and Figure 6 The method / process described herein. Typically, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data types, etc. that perform specific tasks or implement specific abstract data structures. The functions of program modules can be combined or split between program modules as needed in various embodiments. Machine executable instructions for program modules can be executed in local or distributed devices. In distributed devices, program modules can be located in local and remote storage media.

[0144] The program code for executing the method of the present disclosure can be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes can be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer or other programmable data processing device so that these program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, enable the functions / operations specified in the flow chart and / or block diagram to be implemented. The program code can be executed entirely on the machine, partially on the machine, as an independent software package, partially on the machine and partially on a remote machine, or completely on a remote machine or server.

[0145] In the context of the present disclosure, computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable a device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of carriers include signals, computer readable media, etc.

[0146] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. The computer readable medium may include, but is not limited to, an electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared or semiconductor system, device or apparatus, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of computer readable storage media include an electrical connection with one or more wires, a portable computer floppy disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0147] In addition, although the operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring such operations to be performed in the particular order shown or in a continuous order or to perform all the operations shown to achieve the desired result. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, although the above discussion includes several specific implementation details, these details should not be interpreted as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but should be interpreted as descriptions of features that may be specific to a particular embodiment. Certain features described in the context of a separate embodiment may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. On the contrary, the various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments or in any suitable sub-combination, respectively.

[0148] Although the disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it should be understood that the disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A method for communication, comprising: obtaining, at a terminal device, an uplink grant from a network device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device; selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a predetermined policy associated with the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying the uplink resource; as well as generating a packet data unit for transmission to the network device using the uplink resources based on the selected logical channel prioritization setting, the packet data unit comprising at least a portion of the uplink data, wherein the selection comprises determining a logical channel prioritization setting from the multiple logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on the type of the uplink grant; and wherein the set of prioritization parameters defined by the logical channel prioritization setting comprises at least a priority level of the at least one logical channel and a logical channel mapping restriction for the at least one logical channel. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the type of the uplink grant is at least one of: a dynamic grant, a type 1 configured grant, or a type 2 configured grant.

3. A method for communication, comprising: assigning, by a network device to a terminal device, an uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device; transmitting to the terminal device a setting indication that one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings is to be applied for the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying the uplink resource; as well as receiving a packet data unit from the terminal device on the uplink resource, the packet data unit comprising at least a portion of the data and the packet data unit being generated based on the logical channel prioritization setting indicated by the setting indication, wherein the one logical channel prioritization setting is determined from the multiple logical channel prioritization settings at least in part based on the type of the uplink grant; and wherein the prioritization parameter set defined by the logical channel prioritization setting includes at least the priority level of the at least one logical channel and the logical channel mapping restriction for the at least one logical channel. 4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the type of the uplink grant is at least one of: a dynamic grant, a type 1 configured grant, or a type 2 configured grant.

5. A device for communication, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory including computer program code; The at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: obtaining, at a terminal device, an uplink grant from a network device, the uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device, Based on a predetermined policy associated with the uplink grant, selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink control information and uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying the uplink resource, wherein the selecting comprises determining the logical channel prioritization setting from the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on a type of the uplink grant; and wherein the set of prioritization parameters defined by the logical channel prioritization setting comprises at least a priority level of the at least one logical channel and a logical channel mapping restriction for the at least one logical channel, and Based on the selected logical channel prioritization setting, a packet data unit is generated for transmission to the network device using the uplink resources, the packet data unit including at least one of: the uplink control information, or at least a portion of the uplink data.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein the device: A logical channel prioritization setting is selected from the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a setting indication associated with the uplink grant and received from the network device, the setting indication indicating one of the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings to be applied for the uplink grant.

7. The device according to claim 5, wherein the device: A logical channel prioritization setting is determined from the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on characteristics of the uplink grant.

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein the device: determining, based at least in part on the characteristic of the uplink grant, whether the uplink grant satisfies a predetermined criterion associated with one of the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings; In response to determining that the uplink grant satisfies the predetermined criterion, selecting the logical channel prioritization setting corresponding to the predetermined criterion; as well as In response to determining that the uplink grant fails to satisfy predetermined criteria associated with other logical channel prioritization settings of the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings other than a default logical channel prioritization setting, selecting the default logical channel prioritization setting for the uplink grant.

9. The device according to claim 7, wherein the device: A logical channel prioritization setting is determined from the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings also based on a buffer status of the at least one logical channel.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the characteristic of the uplink grant comprises at least one of: allocation of the uplink resources in at least one of a time domain and a frequency domain, The frequency spectrum where the uplink resource is located, whether the uplink resources are allocated on a supplementary uplink, whether frequency hopping of the uplink resource is enabled, the waveform type of the uplink resource, a digital basic configuration for said uplink resources, a modulation and coding scheme for the uplink resource, a transport block size for the uplink resource, a transmission power for the uplink resource, a configuration for multiple-input multiple-output in the uplink resources, settings for a hybrid automatic repeat request in said uplink resources, whether the uplink resource conflicts with other available uplink resources, a timing relationship between the uplink grant and another uplink grant expected within a future period of time, an interval between the time when the uplink grant is acquired and the time when transmission on the uplink grant starts, whether repetition in the uplink resource is enabled, the number of repetitions in the uplink resource, and A multiple access scheme for the uplink resource configuration.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the apparatus is further caused to: determining whether selecting a logical channel prioritization setting from a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based on a predetermined policy associated with the uplink grant is enabled or disabled for the uplink grant; and In response to determining that the selection is enabled for the uplink grant, a logical channel prioritization setting is determined from the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings based at least in part on the characteristic of the uplink grant.

12. The device according to claim 7, wherein the device: determining whether an additional uplink grant is obtained from the network device; and In response to the further uplink grant, the logical channel prioritization setting for the uplink grant is selected based on a characteristic of the further uplink grant.

13. The device according to claim 12, wherein the device is caused to: In response to determining that the selection is disabled for the uplink grant, a default logical channel prioritization setting is selected from the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings for the uplink grant.

14. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the type of the uplink grant is at least one of: a dynamic grant, a type 1 configured grant, or a type 2 configured grant.

15. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the set of prioritization parameters defined by a logical channel prioritization setting comprises at least one of: a relative prioritization between the uplink control information and the uplink data in the at least one logical channel, a prioritized bit rate for the at least one logical channel, A bucket size duration for the at least one logical channel.

16. A device for communication, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory including computer program code; The at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: assigning, by a network device to a terminal device, an uplink grant indicating uplink resources for transmission to the network device, transmitting to the terminal device a setting indication that one of a plurality of logical channel prioritization settings is to be applied for the uplink grant, the plurality of logical channel prioritization settings defining different sets of prioritization parameters for uplink data in at least one logical channel occupying the uplink resource, and receiving a packet data unit from the terminal device on the uplink resource, the packet data unit comprising at least a portion of the data and the packet data unit being generated based on the logical channel prioritization setting indicated by the setting indication, wherein the one logical channel prioritization setting is determined from the multiple logical channel prioritization settings at least in part based on the type of the uplink grant; and wherein the prioritization parameter set defined by the logical channel prioritization setting includes at least the priority level of the at least one logical channel and the logical channel mapping restriction for the at least one logical channel.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the type of the uplink grant is at least one of: a dynamic grant, a type 1 configured grant, or a type 2 configured grant.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are used to cause a device to at least perform the method according to claim 1 or 2.

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