Downlink control channel signaling for UL coexistence of multiple service types

Abstract

Systems, devices, and techniques for controlling uplink transmissions, including canceling previously scheduled transmissions, are described. The techniques include: receiving, by a user equipment (UE), configuration information that provides a search space set configuration associated with a control resource set (CORESET) to monitor for an uplink cancellation indication; receiving, by the UE, scheduling information for scheduling one or more uplink transmissions; monitoring, by the UE via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the uplink cancellation indication based on the configuration information; receiving, by the UE via the PDCCH, a downlink control information (DCI) message including the uplink cancellation indication; and canceling, by the UE, at least a portion of the one or more uplink transmissions in response to the uplink cancellation indication.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] The present disclosure claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 842,882, entitled “DOWNLINK CONTROL CHANNEL SIGNALING FOR UL COEXISTENCE OF MULTIPLE SERVICE TYPES,” filed on May 3, 2019. The above-described patent application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems. Background Art

[0004] Base stations, such as nodes of a radio access network (RAN), can communicate wirelessly with wireless devices, such as user equipment (UE). Downlink (DL) transmissions refer to communications from a base station to a wireless device. Uplink (UL) transmissions refer to communications from a wireless device to another device, such as a base station. A base station can transmit control signaling in order to control wireless devices operating within its network. Summary of the invention

[0005] The present invention describes systems, devices and techniques for controlling uplink transmissions (including canceling previously scheduled transmissions). The techniques include: receiving configuration information by a UE, the configuration information providing a search space set configuration associated with a control resource set (CORESET) to monitor an uplink cancellation indication; receiving scheduling information for scheduling one or more uplink transmissions by the UE; monitoring the uplink cancellation indication based on the configuration information by the UE via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); receiving a downlink control information (DCI) message including the uplink cancellation indication by the UE via the PDCCH; and canceling at least a portion of the one or more uplink transmissions by the UE in response to the uplink cancellation indication. Other specific implementations include corresponding systems, devices and computer programs for performing the actions of the method defined by instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.

[0006] These and other implementations may include one or more of the following features. Receiving configuration information may include receiving configuration information in RRC signaling. The configuration information may include a monitoring duration of a monitoring window for controlling the UE to monitor the PDCCH for a cancellation indication, a monitoring offset to a starting position of the monitoring window, a PDCCH monitoring periodicity, a monitoring mode within a time slot, or a combination thereof. In some implementations, the configuration information includes an RNTI based on the cancellation indication, which is used to detect a DCI message scrambled by the RNTI.

[0007] In some implementations, the DCI message including the cancellation indication is a UE-specific DCI message. In some implementations, the DCI message including the cancellation indication is a group-common DCI message. Receiving scheduling information may include receiving a UE-specific message via a PDCCH. Monitoring the uplink cancellation indication may include activating the search space set configuration in response to receiving a UE-specific PDCCH message.

[0008] Receiving the scheduling information may include receiving an uplink grant for scheduling a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission. The uplink grant may be provided in a DCI message. In some implementations, the scheduled PUSCH transmission is associated with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier (PID). Canceling at least a portion of one or more uplink transmissions may include canceling a PUSCH transmission, one or more repetitions of a PUSCH transmission, or both.

[0009] The UE may include one or more processors; a transceiver; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations. The operations may include: receiving configuration information via the transceiver, the configuration information providing a search space set configuration associated with a CORESET to monitor for an uplink cancellation indication; receiving scheduling information scheduling one or more uplink transmissions via the transceiver; monitoring the uplink cancellation indication based on the configuration information via a PDCCH; receiving a DCI message on the PDCCH via the transceiver, the DCI message including the uplink cancellation indication; and canceling at least a portion of the one or more uplink transmissions in response to the uplink cancellation indication in the received DCI message.

[0010] One or more processors for use in a device such as a UE may be configured to: receive, via a transceiver, configuration information providing a search space set configuration associated with a CORESET to monitor an uplink cancellation indication; receive, via the transceiver, scheduling information for scheduling one or more uplink transmissions; monitor, via the transceiver, the uplink cancellation indication on a PDCCH based on the configuration information; receive, via the transceiver, a DCI message on the PDCCH, the DCI message including the uplink cancellation indication; and cancel at least a portion of the one or more uplink transmissions in response to the uplink cancellation indication in the received DCI message.

[0011] The details of one or more specific implementations are set forth in the drawings and description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the detailed description and drawings, and from the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Figure 1 An example of a wireless communication system is illustrated.

[0013] Figure 2 An exemplary architecture of a system including a core network is illustrated.

[0014] Figure 3 Another exemplary architecture of a system including a core network is illustrated.

[0015] Figure 4 An example of infrastructure equipment is shown.

[0016] Figure 5 Examples of platforms or devices are shown.

[0017] Figure 6 Exemplary components of baseband circuitry and radio front-end circuitry are illustrated.

[0018] Figure 7 Exemplary components of a cellular communications circuit are shown.

[0019] Figure 8 Example protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication system are shown.

[0020] Fig. 9 An example of a computer system is illustrated.

[0021] Fig.10 An example of a timeline for monitoring uplink cancellation indications is shown.

[0022] Fig.11 An example of a monitoring timeline associated with a search space set is shown, which can be configured with a monitoring pattern within a time slot, an offset from a reference point, and a duration for monitoring for uplink cancellation indications, rescheduling grants, or both.

[0023] Fig.12 A flow chart of a process performed by a UE to monitor and respond to a cancellation indication is shown.

[0024] Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] Figure 1 An example of a wireless communication system 100 is illustrated. For convenience and not limitation, the exemplary system 100 is described in the context of LTE and 5G NR communication standards defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technical specifications. However, other types of communication standards are possible.

[0026] System 100 includes UE 101a and UE 101b (collectively referred to as "UE 101"). Examples of UE 101 include a smartphone (eg, a handheld, touch-screen mobile computing device capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks). In other examples, any of the UEs 101 may include other mobile or non-mobile computing devices, such as consumer electronic devices, cellular phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (ICs), heads-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, on-board mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine control units (ECUs), electronic / engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or “smart” appliances, machine type communication (MTC) devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, or combinations thereof, etc.

[0027] In some implementations, any of the UEs 101 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device using, for example, a public land mobile network (PLMN), a short-range service (ProSe), a device-to-device (D2D) communication, a sensor network, an IoT network, or a combination thereof. The M2M or MTC data exchange may be a machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages or status updates) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0028] The UE 101 is configured to connect (e.g., be communicatively coupled) to an access network (AN) or a radio access network (RAN) 110. In some implementations, the RAN 110 may be a next generation RAN (NG RAN), an evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), or a legacy RAN, such as a UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) or a GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN). As used herein, the term "NG RAN" may refer to the RAN 110 operating in a 5G NR system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN" may refer to the RAN 110 operating in an LTE or 4G system 100.

[0029] To connect to RAN 110, UE 101 utilizes connections (or channels) 103 and 104, respectively, each of which may include a physical communication interface or layer, as described below. In this example, connections 103 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may conform to a cellular communication protocol, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a Cellular PTT (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a LTE-M protocol, a 5G NR protocol, or a combination thereof, etc.

[0030] The RAN 110 may include RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively referred to as "RAN nodes 111") that enable connections 103 and 104. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functions for data or voice connections, or both, between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as base stations (BS), gNodeBs, gNBs, eNodeBs, eNBs, NodeBs, RAN nodes, roadside units (RSUs), etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell), etc. As used herein, the term "NGRAN node" may refer to a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) operating in a 5G NR system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN node" may refer to a RAN node 111 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 100. In some implementations, the RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station, or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0031] Any of the RAN nodes 111 may serve as a termination point for the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 101. In some implementations, any of the RAN nodes 111 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 110, including but not limited to functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0032] In some implementations, multiple UEs 101 may be configured to communicate with each other or any of RAN nodes 111 over a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink communications), although the scope of the techniques described herein is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0033] In some implementations, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 111 to the UE 101, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a frequency grid or a time-frequency grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is common practice, which makes wireless resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks may be used to transmit several different physical channels.

[0034] The RAN node 111 may transmit to the UE 101 via one or more DL channels. Various examples of DL communication channels include a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). Other types of DL channels are possible. For example, the PDSCH may carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 101. The UE 101 may transmit to the RAN node 111 via one or more UL channels. Various examples of UL communication channels include a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), and a physical random access channel (PRACH). Other types of UL channels are possible. Devices such as the RAN node 111 and the UE 101 may transmit reference signals. Examples of reference signals include a sounding reference signal (SRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS or DM-RS), and a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS). Other types of reference signals are also possible.

[0035] A channel such as a PDCCH may convey different types of scheduling information for one or more downlink channels and uplink channels. The scheduling information may include downlink resource scheduling, uplink power control instructions, uplink resource grants, and indications for paging or system information. The RAN node 111 may transmit one or more downlink control information (DCI) messages on the PDCCH to provide scheduling information, such as the allocation of one or more resource blocks. In some implementations, the DCI message transmits control information, such as a request for aperiodic CQI reporting, a UL power control command for a channel, and a notification of a slot format for a group of UEs 101. Downlink scheduling (e.g., allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 101b within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 101. Downlink resource allocation information may be sent on a PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) a UE 101 or each UE in a group of UEs. In some implementations, the PDCCH carries information about transport formats and resource allocations related to a PDSCH channel, among other information. The PDCCH may also inform the UE 101 about transport format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information for providing HARQ feedback on uplink channels based on PDSCH reception.

[0036] In some implementations, the PDCCH uses control channel elements (CCEs) to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quaternions, which may then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. In some implementations, one or more of these CCEs may be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE may correspond to four sets of nine physical resource elements, collectively referred to as resource element groups (REGs). Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs may be used to transmit the PDCCH. In some implementations, there may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0037] Downlink and uplink transmissions may occur in one or more component carriers (CCs). One or more bandwidth part (BWP) configurations may be configured for each component carrier. In some implementations, the DL BWP includes at least one control resource set (CORESET). A CORESET may include a set of one or more continuous physical resource blocks (PRBs). In some implementations, a CORESET may include a set of one or more continuous or discontinuous PRBs. In some implementations, a CORESET includes one or more PRBs in the frequency domain and one or more OFDM symbols in the time domain. In some implementations, a channel such as a PDCCH may be transmitted via one or more CORESETs, where each CORESET corresponds to a set of time-frequency resources. CORESET information may be provided to UE 101, and UE 101 may monitor the time-frequency resources associated with one or more CORESETs to receive PDCCH transmissions. In some implementations, the CORESET is semi-statically configured by the network.

[0038] In some implementations, data may be transmitted using one or more code blocks within a transport block (TB). One or more code blocks may be grouped together in a code block group (CBG). A TB may include one or more CBGs. CBG transmission information (CBGTI) may be provided in a DCI message.

[0039] The RAN nodes 111 are configured to communicate with each other using the interface 112. In an example, such as if the system 100 is an LTE system (eg, when the core network 120 is Figure 2101 ), the interface 112 may be an X2 interface 112. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 120, or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 120, or both. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the primary eNB to the secondary eNB; information about successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP protocol data units (PDUs) from the secondary eNB to the UE 101 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 101; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the secondary eNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from the source eNB to the target eNB, or user plane transmission control; load management function; inter-cell interference coordination function; and so on.

[0040] In some implementations, such as if system 100 is a 5G NR system (e.g., when core network 120 is Figure 3), the interface 112 may be an Xn interface 112. The Xn interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5G core network 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5G core network 120, or between two eNBs connected to the 5G core network 120, or a combination of the above. In some specific implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 101 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED), including functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 111; and the like. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 111 to the new (target) serving RAN node 111, and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP-U) layer of the user plane on top of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or IP layer, or both, to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP or XnAP)) and a transport network layer built on a stream control transmission protocol (SCTP). SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack or the Xn-C protocol stack or both may be the same or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0041] RAN 110 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network 120 (referred to as "CN 120"). CN 120 includes one or more network elements 122 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 101) connected to CN 120 using RAN 110. Components of CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, and may include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some specific implementations, network function virtualization (NFV) may be used to virtualize some or all of the network node functions described herein using executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, as will be described in further detail below. A logical instance of CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, a NFV system may be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations, or both, of one or more network components or functions.

[0042] The application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS packet service (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for the UE 101 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.) using the CN 120. The application server 130 may communicate with one or more network elements 112 using the IP communication interface 125.

[0043] In some implementations, CN 120 may be a 5G core network (referred to as “5GC 120” or “5G core network 120”), and RAN 110 may be connected to CN 120 using a next generation interface 113. In some implementations, the next generation interface 113 may be divided into two parts: a next generation user plane (NG-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 111 and the UPF (user plane function); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 111 and the access and mobility management function (AMF). Reference Figure 3 Discussing in more detail, CN 120 is an example of a 5G core network.

[0044] In some implementations, the CN 120 may be an EPC (referred to as “EPC 120” or the like), and the RAN 110 may be connected to the CN 120 using an S1 interface 113. In some implementations, the S1 interface 113 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 111 and a serving gateway (S-GW); and an S1-MME interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 111 and a mobility management entity (MME).

[0045] In some implementations, some or all of the RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a cloud RAN (CRAN) and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). The CRAN or vBBUP may implement a RAN functional split, such as a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) split, where the radio resource control (RRC) and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and other layer 2 (e.g., data link layer) protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; a medium access control (MAC) / physical layer (PHY) split, where the RRC, PDCP, MAC, and radio link control (RLC) layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111; or a "lower PHY" split, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers and the upper portion of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portion of the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111. The virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the RAN node 111 to execute, for example, other virtualized applications. In some implementations, a single RAN node 111 may represent a single virtualized application using each F1 interface ( Figure 1 ) are connected to the gNB Central Unit (CU). In some implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 4 ), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 110 or by a server pool in a manner similar to the CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 111 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), including a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to the UE 101 and is connected to a 5G core network (e.g., the core network 120) using a next generation interface.

[0046] In a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 111 may be or act as an RSU. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" refers to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, wherein an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In some specific implementations, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side that provides connectivity support to a passing vehicle UE 101 (vUE 101). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications or other software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communications (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications as well as other cellular communications services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications, or both. Some or all of the computing device and the RSU's RF circuitry may be packaged in a weather-resistant enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network, or both.

[0047] Figure 2 An exemplary architecture of a system 200 including a first CN 220 is shown. In this example, the system 200 may implement the LTE standard such that the CN 220 is a Figure 1 In addition, UE 201 may communicate with EPC 220 of CN 120. Figure 1 The UE 101 is the same as or similar to the UE 101, and the E-UTRAN 210 may be Figure 1 The CN 220 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 110 of the present invention and may include the RAN node 111 discussed previously. The CN 220 may include an MEE 221, an S-GW 222, a PDN Gateway (P-GW) 223, a High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSS) function 224, and a Serving GPRS Support Node (GENEVA) 225.

[0048] The MME 221 may be similar in function to the control plane of a traditional SGSN, and may implement mobility management (MM) functions to keep track of the current location of the UE 201. The MME 221 may perform various mobility management processes to manage mobility aspects of the access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. Mobility management (also referred to as "EPSMM" or "EMM" in the E-UTRAN system) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data stores, etc. for maintaining knowledge of the current location of the UE 201, providing user identity confidentiality to users / subscribers, or performing other similar services, or a combination thereof, etc. Each UE 201 and the MME 221 may include an EMM sublayer, and when the attachment process is successfully completed, a mobility management context may be established in the UE 201 and the MME 221. The mobility management context may be a data structure or database object that stores mobility management related information of the UE 201. MME 221 may be coupled to HSS 224 using an S6a reference point, to SGSN 225 using an S3 reference point, and to S-GW 222 using an S11 reference point.

[0049] SGSN 225 may be a node that serves UE 201 by tracking the location of individual UE 201 and performing security functions. In addition, SGSN 225 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G / 3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 221; handling of UE 201 time zone functions, as specified by MME 221; and MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network, etc. The S3 reference point between MME 221 and SGSN 225 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in an idle state or an active state or both.

[0050] The HSS 224 may include a database for network users that includes subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. Among other features, the EPC 220 may include one or more HSSs 224, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the equipment, the organization of the network, or a combination thereof. For example, the HSS 224 may provide support for routing, roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing resolution, location dependency, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 224 and the MEE 221 may enable the transmission of subscription and authentication data between the HSS 224 and the MEE 221 for authenticating or authorizing user access to the EPC 220.

[0051] The S-GW 222 may terminate the S1 interface 113 toward the RAN 210 ( Figure 2The S-GW 222 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and enforcement of certain policies. The S11 reference point between the S-GW 222 and the MME 221 may provide a control plane between the MME 221 and the S-GW 222. The S-GW 222 may be coupled to the P-GW 223 using the S5 reference point.

[0052] The P-GW 223 may terminate the SGi interface toward the PDN 230. The P-GW 223 may utilize the IP communication interface 125 (see, e.g., Figure 1 ) routes data packets between EPC 220 and external networks such as a network including application server 130 (sometimes referred to as "AF"). In some implementations, P-GW 223 can be communicatively coupled to an application server (e.g., AF) using IP communication interface 125 (see, e.g., FIG. 1 ). Figure 1 Application server 130 or Figure 2 The S5 reference point between the P-GW 223 and the S-GW 222 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 223 and the S-GW 222. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 222 relocation due to the mobility of the UE 201 and whether the S-GW 222 needs to be connected to a non-colocated P-GW 223 for the required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 223 may also include nodes for policy enforcement and charging data collection, such as a PCEF (not shown). In addition, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 223 and the packet data network (PDN) 230 may be an operator-external public, private PDN, or an internal operator packet data network, such as for providing IMS services. The P-GW 223 may be coupled to a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) 226 using the Gx reference point.

[0053] PCRF 226 is a policy and charging control element of EPC 220. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 226 in a domestic public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of UE 201. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of UE 201: a domestic PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). PCRF 226 may be communicatively coupled to application server 230 using P-GW 223. Application server 230 may signal PCRF 226 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate quality of service (QoS) and charging parameters. PCRF 226 may configure the rule to a PCEF (not shown) with an appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class identifier (QCI), which initiates QoS and charging specified by application server 230. The Gx reference point between PCRF 226 and P-GW 223 may allow for the transfer of QoS policies and charging rules from PCRF 226 to PCEF in P-GW 223. The Rx reference point may reside between PDN 230 (or "AF 230") and PCRF 226.

[0054] Figure 3 The architecture of a system 300 including a second CN 320 is shown. The system 300 is shown to include a UE 301, which may be the same or similar to the previously discussed UE 101 and UE 201; a RAN 310, which may be the same or similar to the previously discussed RAN 110 and RAN 210, and which may include the previously discussed RAN node 111; and a data network (DN) 303, which may be, for example, an operator service, Internet access, or a 3rd party service; and a 5GC 320. The 5GC 320 may include an authentication server function (AUSF) 322; an access and mobility management function (AMF) 321; a session management function (SMF) 324; a network exposure function (NEF) 323; a policy control function (PCF) 326; a network repository function (NRF) 325; a unified data management (UDM) function 327; an AF 328; a user plane function (UPF) 302; and a network slice selection function (NSSF) 329.

[0055] UPF 302 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with DN 303, and a branch point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. UPF 302 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform the user plane portion of policy rules, lawful interception of packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement) on the user plane, perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 302 may include an uplink classifier for supporting routing of traffic flows to data networks. DN 303 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. DN 303 may include or be similar to the application server 130 discussed previously. UPF 302 may interact with SMF 324 using the N4 reference point between SMF 324 and UPF 302.

[0056] AUSF 322 stores data for authentication of UE 301 and handles authentication-related functions. AUSF 322 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. AUSF 322 may communicate with AMF 321 using the N12 reference point between AMF 321 and AUSF 322, and may communicate with UDM 327 using the N13 reference point between UDM 327 and AUSF 322. In addition, AUSF 322 may present an interface based on Nausf services.

[0057] AMF 321 is responsible for registration management (e.g., responsible for registering UE 301, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, as well as access authentication and authorization. AMF 321 can be the termination point of the N11 reference point between AMF 321 and SMF 324. AMF 321 can provide transmission of SM messages between UE 301 and SMF 324, and act as a transparent agent for routing SM messages. AMF 321 can also provide UE 301 and SMSF ( Figure 3301). The AMF 321 may act as a security anchor function (SEAF), which may include interaction with the AUSF 322 and the UE 301 to, for example, receive intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 301 authentication process. In the case of using universal user identity module (UMTS)-based authentication, the AMF 321 may retrieve security materials from the AUSF 322. The AMF 321 may also include a security context management (SCM) function that receives keys from the SEAF to derive access network specific keys. In addition, the AMF 321 may be a termination point for the RAN control plane interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between the RAN 310 and the AMF 321. In some specific implementations, the AMF 321 may be a termination point for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0058] The AMF 321 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 301 over an N3 interworking function (IWF) interface (referred to as "N3IWF"). The N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3IWF may be the termination point for the N2 interface between the RAN 310 and the AMF 321 for the control plane, and may be the termination point for the N3 reference point between the RAN 310 and the UPF 302 for the user plane. Thus, the AMF 321 may process N2 signaling for PDU sessions and QoS from the SMF 324 and the AMF 321, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnels, mark N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and perform QoS corresponding to N3 packet markings, taking into account QoS requirements associated with such markings received over N2. The N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 301 and the AMF 321 using the N1 reference point between the UE 301 and the AMF 321, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 301 and the UPF 302. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE 301. The AMF 321 may present an interface based on the Namf service, and may be an N14 reference point between the two AMFs 321 and an N14 reference point between the AMF 321 and the 5G Equipment Identity Register (EIR) ( Figure 3 The termination point of the N17 reference point between the two (not shown).

[0059] UE 301 may register with AMF 321 in order to receive network services. Registration Management (RM) is used to register UE 301 with the network (e.g., AMF 321) or deregister UE 301, and to establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 321). UE 301 may operate in an RM-REGISTERED state or an RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM DEREGISTERED state, UE 301 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 321 does not maintain valid location or routing information of UE 301, so AMF 321 cannot reach UE 301. In the RM REGISTERED state, UE 301 is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 321 may maintain valid location or routing information of UE 301, so AMF 321 may reach UE 301. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 301 may perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by expiration of a periodic update timer (e.g., to notify the network that UE 301 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

[0060] AMF 321 may store one or more RM contexts for UE 301, each RM context being associated with a specific access to the network. The RM context may be, for example, a data structure or a database object, etc., which indicates or stores the registration status and periodic update timer for each access type. AMF 321 may also store a 5GC mobility management (MM) context that may be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. In some specific implementations, AMF 321 may store coverage enhancement mode B restriction parameters for UE 301 in an associated MM context or RM context. AMF 321 may also derive values ​​from the UE's usage setting parameters already stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context) when necessary.

[0061] Connection Management (CM) may be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 301 and the AMF 321 over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 301 and the CN 320, and includes a signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., an RRC connection or a UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPP access) and an N2 connection of the UE 301 between the AN (e.g., RAN 310) and the AMF 321. In some implementations, the UE 301 may operate in one of two CM modes (CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode). When the UE 301 operates in the CM-IDLE mode, the UE 301 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 321 over the N1 interface, and there may be a RAN 310 signaling connection for the UE 301 (e.g., an N2 or N3 connection or both). When the UE 301 operates in the CM-CONNECTED mode, the UE 301 may have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 321 through the N1 interface, and there may be a RAN 310 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connection) for the UE 301. Establishing an N2 connection between the RAN 310 and the AMF 321 may cause the UE 301 to transition from the CM-IDLE mode to the CM-CONNECTED mode, and when the N2 signaling between the RAN 310 and the AMF 321 is released, the UE 301 may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode.

[0062] SMF 324 may be responsible for session management (SM), such as session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between UPF and AN nodes; UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to the correct destination; terminating the interface toward the policy control function; control portion of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface with LI system); terminating the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information sent to AN via N2 using AMF; and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session (or "session") may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between a UE 301 and a data network (DN) 303 identified by a data network name (DNN). The PDU session may be established upon request by UE 301, modified upon request by UE 301 and 5GC 320, and released upon request by UE 301 and 5GC 320 using NAS SM signaling exchanged between UE 301 and SMF 324 over the N1 reference point. Upon request from an application server, 5GC 320 may trigger a specific application in UE 301. In response to receiving a trigger message, UE 301 may deliver the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in UE 301. The identified applications in UE 301 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. SMF 324 may check whether the UE 301 request complies with user subscription information associated with UE 301. In this regard, SMF 324 may retrieve and / or request to receive update notifications about SMF 324 level subscription data from UDM 327.

[0063] The SMF 324 may include some or all of the following roaming functions: handling local execution to apply QoS service level agreements (SLAs) (e.g., in a VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interfaces (e.g., in a VPLMN); lawful interception (e.g., SM events and interfaces with LI systems in a VPLMN); and supporting interaction with external DNs to transport signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication through external DNs. An N16 reference point between two SMFs 324 may be included in the system 300, which in a roaming scenario may be between another SMF 324 in a visited network and an SMF 324 in a home network. In addition, the SMF 324 may present an interface based on Nsmf services.

[0064] NEF 323 may provide components for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 328), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In some specific implementations, NEF 323 may authenticate, authorize and / or throttle AF. NEF 323 may also convert information exchanged with AF 328 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF 323 may convert between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF 323 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on their exposure capabilities. The information may be stored at NEF 323 as structured data or at a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be re-exposed to other NFs and AFs by NEF 323, or used for other purposes such as analysis, or both. In addition, NEF 323 may present an interface based on Nnef services.

[0065] NRF 325 may support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information about discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 325 also maintains information about available NF instances and services supported by these instances. As used herein, the term "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to the specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of a program code. In addition, NRF 325 may present an interface based on Nnrf services.

[0066] The PCF 326 may provide for control plane functions to enforce their policy rules, and may also support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. The PCF 326 may also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the unified data repository (UDR) of the UDM 327. The PCF 326 may communicate with the AMF 321 using the N15 reference point between the PCF 326 and the AMF 321, which may include the PCF 326 and the AMF 321 in the visited network in the case of a roaming scenario. The PCF 326 may communicate with the AF 328 using the N5 reference point between the PCF 326 and the AF 328; and communicate with the SMF 324 using the N7 reference point between the PCF 326 and the SMF 324. The system 300 or the CN 320 or both may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 326 (in the home network) and the PCF 326 in the visited network. Additionally, PCF 326 may present an interface based on Npcf services.

[0067] UDM 327 may process subscription-related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions, and may store subscription data for UE 301. For example, subscription data may be transferred between UDM 327 and AMF 321 using the N8 reference point between UDM 327 and AMF. UDM 327 may include two parts: an application front end and a UDR ( Figure 3 The front end and UDR are not shown). The UDR may store subscription data and policy data of the UDM 327 and PCF 326, or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFD for application detection, application request information of multiple UEs 301) of the NEF 323, or both. The Nudr service-based interface may be presented by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 327, PCF 326, and NEF 323 to access a specific set of stored data, as well as read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of related data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM front end, which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. In different transactions, several different front ends may serve the same user. The UDM front end accesses the subscription information stored in the UDR, and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. The UDR may interact with the SMF 324 using the N10 reference point between the UDM 327 and the SMF 324. UDM 327 may also support SMS management, where the SMS front end implements application logic similar to that discussed previously. Additionally, UDM 327 may present an interface based on Nudm services.

[0068] AF 328 can provide the influence of applications on traffic routing, provide access to network capability exposure (NCE), and interact with the policy framework for policy control. NCE can be a mechanism that allows 5GC 320 and AF 328 to provide information to each other using NEF 323, which can be used for edge computing implementation. In such implementations, network operators and third-party services can be hosted near the UE 301 access point of the attachment to achieve effective service delivery through reduced end-to-end delay and load on the transmission network. For edge computing implementation, 5GC can select UPF 302 near UE 301 and perform traffic steering from UPF 302 to DN 303 using the N6 interface. This can be based on UE subscription data, UE location and information provided by AF 328. In this way, AF 328 can affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 328 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow AF 328 to interact directly with the relevant NF. In addition, AF 328 can present an interface based on Naf services.

[0069] NSSF 329 may select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 301. If necessary, NSSF 329 may also determine the allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI). NSSF 329 may also determine a set of AMFs to serve UE 301, or a list of candidate AMFs 321, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying NRF 325. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 301 may be triggered by AMF 321, where UE 301 registers by interacting with NSSF 329, which may cause AMF 321 to change. NSSF 329 may interact with AMF 321 using the N22 reference point between AMF 321 and NSSF 329; and may utilize the N31 reference point ( Figure 3 The NSSF 329 may communicate with another NSSF 329 in the visited network (not shown). In addition, the NSSF 329 may present an interface based on the Nnssf service.

[0070] As previously discussed, CN 320 may include SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages to or from UE 301 to or from other entities, such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS routers. SMS may also interact with AMF 321 and UDM 327 for notification procedures that UE 301 is available for SMS transmission (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 327 when UE 301 is available for SMS).

[0071] CN 120 may also include Figure 3 Other elements not shown, such as a data storage system, 5G-EIR, a security edge protection proxy (SEPP), etc. The data storage system may include a structured data storage function (SDSF), an unstructured data storage function (UDSF), or both, etc. Any network function may utilize any NF and UDSF ( Figure 3 The N18 reference point between the UDSF (not shown) stores or retrieves unstructured data to or from the UDSF (e.g., UE context). Each network function may share the UDSF for storing its corresponding unstructured data, or each network function may each have its own UDSF located at or near each network function. In addition, the UDSF may present an interface based on the Nudsf service ( Figure 3 (not shown). 5G-EIR may be a network function that checks the status of a Permanent Equipment Identifier (PEI) to determine whether to blacklist a particular equipment or entity from the network; and SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

[0072] In some implementations, there may be additional or alternative reference points or service-based interfaces, or both, between network function services in a network function. However, for clarity, Figure 3 These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one embodiment, CN 320 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 221) and an AMF 321, so as to achieve intercommunication between CN 320 and CN 220. Other exemplary interfaces or reference points may include an interface based on N5g-EIR services presented by 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between an NRF in a visited network and an NRF in a home network, or an N31 reference point between an NSSF in a visited network and an NSSF in a home network, and the like.

[0073] In some implementations, the components of CN 220 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, and may include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some implementations, the components of CN 320 may be implemented in the same or similar manner as discussed herein with respect to the components of CN 220. In some implementations, NFV is used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions using executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, as described in further detail below. The logical instantiation of CN 220 may be referred to as a network slice, and each logical instantiation of CN 220 may provide specific network capabilities and network characteristics. The logical instantiation of a portion of CN 220 may be referred to as a network sub-slice, which may include P-GW 223 and PCRF 226.

[0074] As used herein, the terms "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to the concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. A network instance may refer to information identifying a domain, which may be used for traffic detection and routing in different IP domains or in the case of overlapping IP addresses. A network slice instance may refer to a set of network function (NF) instances and the resources (e.g., computing, storage, and network resources) required to deploy a network slice.

[0075] Regarding 5G systems (see e.g. Figure 3), a network slice may include a RAN part and a CN part. Support for network slicing relies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled by different PDU sessions. The network can implement different network slices by scheduling or by providing different L1 / L2 configurations or both. If provided by NAS, the UE 301 provides auxiliary information for network slice selection in an appropriate RRC message. In some specific implementations, although the network can support a large number of slices, the UE does not need to support more than 8 slices at the same time.

[0076] The network slice may include the CN 320 control plane and user plane NF, the NG-RAN 310 in the serving PLMN, and the N3IWF function in the serving PLMN. Each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI or a different SST, or both. The NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and each network slice is uniquely identified by the S-NSSAI. The network slices may be different for supported features and network function optimizations. In some specific implementations, multiple network slice instances may deliver the same service or feature, but for different groups of UEs 301 (e.g., enterprise users). For example, each network slice may deliver different committed services or may be dedicated to a specific customer or enterprise, or both. In this example, each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI with the same SST but with a different slice differentiator. In addition, a single UE may be served simultaneously by one or more network slice instances using a 5G AN, and the UE may be associated with eight different S-NSSAIs. In addition, an AMF 321 instance serving a single UE 301 may belong to each network slice instance serving the UE.

[0077] Network slicing in NG-RAN 310 involves RAN slice awareness. RAN slice awareness includes differentiated handling of traffic for different network slices that have been pre-configured. Slice awareness in NG-RAN 310 is introduced at the PDU session level by indicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to the PDU session in all signaling including PDU session resource information. How NG-RAN 310 supports enabling slices in terms of NG-RAN functions (e.g., a set of network functions including each slice) depends on the specific implementation. NG-RAN310 selects the RAN part of the network slice using auxiliary information provided by UE 301 or 5GC 320, which explicitly identifies one or more network slices in the pre-configured network slices in the PLMN. NG-RAN 310 also supports resource management and policy enforcement between slices according to SLA. A single NG-RAN node can support multiple slices, and NG-RAN310 can also appropriately apply appropriate RRM policies for SLA to each supported slice. NG-RAN 310 can also support QoS differentiation within a slice.

[0078] The NG-RAN 310 may also use the UE assistance information to select an AMF 321 during the initial attach, if available. The NG-RAN 310 routes the initial NAS to the AMF 321 using the assistance information. If the NG-RAN 310 cannot select an AMF 321 using the assistance information, or the UE 301 does not provide any such information, the NG-RAN 310 sends the NAS signaling to a default AMF 321, which may be in the AMF 321 pool. For subsequent access, the UE 301 provides a temporary ID assigned to the UE 301 by the 5GC 320 to enable the NG-RAN 310 to route the NAS message to the appropriate AMF 321, as long as the temporary ID is valid. The NG-RAN 310 knows and can reach the AMF 321 associated with the temporary ID. Otherwise, the method for initial attach applies.

[0079] The NG-RAN 310 supports resource isolation between slices. NG-RAN 310 resource isolation can be achieved through RRM policies and protection mechanisms that should avoid starvation of shared resources in the case where one slice disrupts the service level agreement of another slice. In some implementations, NG-RAN 310 resources can be fully assigned to a slice. How the NG-RAN 310 supports resource isolation depends on the specific implementation.

[0080] Some slices may be only partially available in the network. The NG-RAN 310 is aware of slices supported in its neighboring cells that may be beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. Slice availability may not change within the registration area of ​​the UE. The NG-RAN 310 and 5GC 320 are responsible for handling service requests for slices that may or may not be available in a given area. Granting or denying access to a slice may depend on factors such as support for the slice, availability of resources, and support of the requested service by the NG-RAN 310.

[0081] UE 301 may be associated with multiple network slices simultaneously. In the case where UE 301 is associated with multiple slices simultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained and for intra-frequency cell reselection, UE 301 attempts to camp on the best cell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, dedicated priorities may be used to control the frequency that UE 301 camps on. 5GC 320 will verify that UE 301 has the right to access the network slice. Knowing the specific slice that UE 301 is requesting access to before receiving the Initial Context Setup Request message may allow NG-RAN 310 to apply some temporary or local policies. During the Initial Context Setup, NG-RAN 310 is informed of the slice whose resources are being requested.

[0082] Figure 4 An example of infrastructure equipment 400 is shown. Infrastructure equipment 400 (or "system 400") can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 111 shown and described previously), an application server 130, or any other component or device discussed herein. In other examples, system 400 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0083] System 400 includes: application circuit 405, baseband circuit 410, one or more radio front end modules (RFEM) 415, memory circuit 420, power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 425, power tee circuit 430, network controller circuit 435, network interface connector 440, satellite positioning circuit 445 and user interface circuit 450. In some specific implementations, system 400 may include additional elements, such as, for example, memory, storage, display, camera, one or more sensors, or input / output (I / O) interface, or a combination thereof. In other examples, the components described with reference to system 400 may be included in more than one device. For example, various circuits may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU or other specific implementations.

[0084] The application circuit 405 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, one or more of the following: a low dropout regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, I2C or a general programmable serial interface module, a real-time clock (RTC), a timer-counter including an interval timer and a watchdog timer, a general input / output (I / O or IO), a memory card controller, a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interface, and a joint test access group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 405 may be coupled to or may include a memory or storage element, and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory or storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 400. In some specific implementations, the memory or storage element may include an on-chip memory circuit, which may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, or a combination thereof, in addition to other types of memory.

[0085] The processor of the application circuit 405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or a combination thereof, etc. In some specific implementations, the application circuit 405 may include or may be a dedicated processor or controller configured to perform the various techniques described herein. The baseband circuit 410 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits.

[0086] The user interface circuit 450 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 400 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the system 400. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio transmitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, or a combination thereof, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0087] The radio front end module (RFEM) 415 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., Figure 6 The antenna array 611 is connected to the RFEM, and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In some specific implementations, the radio functions of both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 415 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0088] The memory circuit 420 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM); and a non-volatile memory (NVM), such as a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), or a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), or a combination thereof, etc. For example, the memory circuit 420 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a solder-in packaged integrated circuit, a socketed memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0089] The PMIC 425 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 430 may provide power extracted from the network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 400 using a single cable.

[0090] The network controller circuit 435 may provide connectivity to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to and from the infrastructure equipment 400 using a network interface connector 440 using a physical connection, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 435 may include one or more dedicated processors or FPGAs, or both, for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 435 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0091] The positioning circuit 445 includes circuits for receiving and decoding signals transmitted or broadcast by a positioning network of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of GNSS include the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., using the Indian constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbit Chart and Satellite Integrated Radio Positioning (DORIS) for navigation), etc. The positioning circuit 445 may include various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some specific implementations, the positioning circuit 445 may include a micro technology (micro PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and timing that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking and estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 445 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 410 or the RFEM 415 or both to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 445 may also provide data (e.g., location data, time data) to the application circuit 405, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (e.g., RAN node 111, etc.).

[0092] Figure 4 The components shown can communicate with each other using interface circuits that can include any number of bus or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus or IX can be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus or IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0093] Figure 5 An example of a platform 500 (or "device 500") is shown. In some implementations, the computer platform 500 may be suitable for use as a UE 101, 201, 301, an application server 130, or any other component or device discussed herein. The platform 500 may include any combination of components shown in the example. The components (or portions thereof) of the platform 500 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof adapted in the computer platform 500, or as components otherwise incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. Figure 5The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of platform 500. However, in some implementations, platform 500 may include fewer, additional, or alternative components, or Figure 5 Different arrangements of components shown.

[0094] The application circuit 505 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces (such as SPI), I2C or general programmable serial interface modules, RTCs, timer-counters (including interval timers and watchdog timers), general I / Os, memory card controllers (such as SD MMC or similar controllers), USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces, and JTAG test access ports. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 505 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory or storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 500. In some specific implementations, the memory or storage element may include an on-chip memory circuit, which may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, or a combination thereof, in addition to other types of memory.

[0095] The processor of the application circuit 505 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some implementations, the application circuit 405 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for performing the techniques described herein. In some implementations, the application circuit 505 may be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which the application circuit 505 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package. In some implementations, the application circuit 505 may include circuits, such as but not limited to one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs); ASICs, such as structured ASICs; programmable SoCs (PSoCs), or combinations thereof, and the like. In some implementations, the application circuit 505 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions described herein. In some implementations, the application circuit 505 may include a memory unit (e.g., an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a static memory (e.g., a static random access memory (SRAM), or an antifuse)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data, or other data in a lookup table (LUT), etc.

[0096] Baseband circuit 510 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 6 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 510 are discussed.

[0097] The RFEM 515 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., Figure 6The antenna array 611 of the platform 500 is connected to the RFEM, and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In some specific implementations, the radio functions of both mmWave and sub-mmWave can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 515 that combines both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave. In some specific implementations, the RFEM 515, the baseband circuit 510, or both are included in the transceiver of the platform 500.

[0098] The memory circuit 520 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a certain amount of system memory. For example, the memory circuit 520 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), such as high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), or magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), or a combination thereof, etc.

[0099] In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 520 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 505. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 520 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, for example, a solid-state drive (SSD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive change memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory, etc.

[0100] Removable memory circuitry 523 may include devices, circuits, housings, casings, ports or receptacles, etc., for coupling portable data storage devices to platform 500. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., secure digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD picture cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical disks, or external HDDs, or combinations thereof, etc.

[0101] The platform 500 may further include an interface circuit (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 500. External devices connected to the platform 500 using the interface circuit include a sensor circuit 521 and an electromechanical component (EMC) 522, and a removable memory device coupled to a removable memory circuit 523.

[0102] Sensor circuit 521 includes a device, module, or subsystem that is intended to detect events or changes in its environment and send information about the detected events (e.g., sensor data) to one or more other devices, modules, or subsystems. Examples of such sensors include: an inertial measurement unit (IMU), such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, or magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, or a magnetometer; a liquid level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other audio capture device, or a combination thereof, etc.

[0103] The EMC 522 includes devices, modules or subsystems that are intended to enable the platform 500 to change its state, position, or orientation or to move or control a mechanism, system or subsystem. In addition, the EMC 522 may be configured to generate messages or signaling and send messages or signaling to other components of the platform 500 to indicate the current state of the EMC 522. Examples of EMC 522 include one or more power switches, relays (such as electromechanical relays (EMRs) or solid-state relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors or stepper motors), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, or combinations thereof, in addition to other electromechanical components. In some specific implementations, the platform 500 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 522 based on one or more capture events, instructions or control signals received from a service provider or a client or both.

[0104] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit can connect the platform 500 with the positioning circuit 545. The positioning circuit 545 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted or broadcast by a positioning network of GNSS. In some specific implementations, the positioning circuit 545 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking or estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 545 can also be a part of the baseband circuit 510 or the RFEM 515 or both or interact with it to communicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 545 can also provide data (e.g., position data, time data) to the application circuit 505, which can use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (e.g., radio base stations) for turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0105] In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 500 with a near field communication (NFC) circuit 540. The NFC circuit 540 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 540 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 500. The NFC circuit 540 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip or IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 540 by executing an NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit a short-range RF signal. The RF signal may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 540, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 540 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smart phone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) close to the platform 500.

[0106] The driver circuit 546 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 500. The driver circuit 546 may include various drivers to allow other components of the platform 500 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 500. For example, the driver circuit 546 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touch screen interface of the platform 500, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 521 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 521, an EMC driver for obtaining actuator positions or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 522, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0107] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 525 (also referred to as “power management circuit 525”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 500. Specifically, the PMIC 525 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion with respect to the baseband circuit 510. The PMIC 525 may be included when the platform 500 is capable of being powered by a battery 530, for example, when the device is included in a UE 101, 201, 301.

[0108] In some implementations, the PMIC 525 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 500. For example, if the platform 500 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 500 may be powered off for short time intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for a longer period of time, the platform 500 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which it is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback or handover. This may allow the platform 500 to enter a very low power state in which it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers off again. In some implementations, the platform 500 may not receive data in the RRC_Idle state, but must transition back to the RRC_Connected state to receive data. Additional power saving modes may prevent the device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device may not be able to connect to the network and may lose power completely. Any data sent during this time may be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0109] The battery 530 can power the platform 500, but in some implementations, the platform 500 can be deployed in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to a power grid. The battery 530 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, or a lithium-air battery, etc. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 530 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0110] The user interface circuit 550 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 500, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 500 or peripheral component interfaces designed to implement interaction with peripheral components of the platform 500. The user interface circuit 550 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, or a headset, or a combination thereof, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other information). The output device circuitry may include any number or combination of audio or visual displays, including one or more simple visual outputs or indicators (e.g., binary state indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs, such as a display device or touch screen (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), an LED display, a quantum dot display, or a projector), where the output of characters, graphics, or multimedia objects is generated or produced by the operation of the platform 500. The output device circuitry may also include a speaker or other audio emitting device, or a printer. In some implementations, the sensor circuitry 521 may be used as an input device circuit (e.g., an image capture device, or a motion capture device) and one or more EMCs may be used as an output device circuit (e.g., an actuator for providing tactile feedback). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuitry including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, or a power interface.

[0111] Although not shown, the components of platform 500 can communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which can include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, time-triggered protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus or IX can be a proprietary bus or IX, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus or IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0112] Figure 6 6 and 615. The baseband circuit 610 may correspond to Figure 4 The baseband circuit 410 and Figure 5The baseband circuit 510 of FIG. RFEM 615 may correspond to Figure 4 RFEM415 and Figure 5 RFEM 515. As shown, RFEM 615 may include radio frequency (RF) circuitry 606, front end module (FEM) circuitry 608, and antenna array 611 coupled together. In some implementations, RFEM 615, baseband circuitry 610, or both are included in a transceiver.

[0113] The baseband circuit 610 includes circuits configured to execute various radio or network protocols and control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks using the RF circuit 606. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation and demodulation, encoding and decoding, and radio frequency shifting. In some specific implementations, the modulation and demodulation circuits of the baseband circuit 610 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping and demapping functions. In some specific implementations, the encoding and decoding circuits of the baseband circuit 610 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder and decoder functions. The modulation and demodulation and encoder and decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other examples. The baseband circuit 610 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 606 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 606. The baseband circuit 610 is configured to communicate with application circuits (e.g., Figure 4 and Figure 5 4 and 505) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of RF circuitry 606. Baseband circuitry 610 may handle various radio control functions.

[0114] The aforementioned circuits and control logic components of the baseband circuit 610 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 604A, a 4G or LTE baseband processor 604B, a 5G or NR baseband processor 604C, or some other baseband processor 604D for other existing generations, generations under development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., the sixth generation (6G)). In some specific implementations, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 604A-D may be included in a module stored in the memory 604G and executed using one or more processors such as a central processing unit (CPU) 604E. In some specific implementations, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 604A-D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA or ASIC) loaded with appropriate bitstreams or logic blocks stored in corresponding memory units. In some implementations, the memory 604G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which, when executed by the CPU 604E (or other processor), is used to enable the CPU 604E (or other processor) to manage resources, schedule tasks, or perform other operations of the baseband circuit 610. In some implementations, the baseband circuit 610 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 604F. The audio DSP 604F may include elements for compression and decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements.

[0115] In some implementations, each of processors 604A-604E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to and receive data from memory 604G. Baseband circuit 610 may also include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling to other circuits or devices, such as an interface for sending data to and receiving data from a memory external to baseband circuit 610; an interface for sending data to and receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuit; Figure 4 and Figure 5 The application circuit interface for sending data to the application circuit 405, 505 and receiving data from the application circuit; Figure 6 RF circuit 606 to send data and receive data from the RF circuit; an RF circuit interface for receiving data from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, Low power consumption components, components, etc.) to send data and receive data from these wireless hardware elements; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to the PMIC 525 and receiving power or control signals from the PMIC.

[0116] In some specific implementations (which may be combined with the above examples), the baseband circuit 610 includes one or more digital baseband systems that are coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, the audio subsystem, and the interface subsystem using an interconnect subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem using another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, a point-to-point connector, a network on chip (NOC) structure, or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include a DSP circuit, a buffer memory, a program memory, a voice processing accelerator circuit, a data converter circuit such as an analog-to-digital converter circuit and a digital-to-analog converter circuit, an analog circuit including one or more of an amplifier and a filter, and the like. In some specific implementations, the baseband circuit 610 may include a protocol processing circuit having one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for a digital baseband circuit or a radio frequency circuit (e.g., a radio front end module 615).

[0117] In some implementations, the baseband circuit 610 includes various processing devices (e.g., a "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") for operating one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices for implementing PHY layer functions. In some implementations, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In some implementations, the protocol processing circuit operates or implements various protocol layers or entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. For example, when the baseband circuit 610 or the RF circuit 606 or both are part of a millimeter wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuit may operate an LTE protocol entity or a 5G NR protocol entity or both. In this example, the protocol processing circuit may operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In some implementations, when the baseband circuit 610 or the RF circuit 606 or both are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuit may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In this example, the protocol processing circuit may operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 604G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing program code and performing various operations using data. The baseband circuitry 610 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

[0118] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 610 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In some implementations, the components of the baseband circuit 610 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some implementations, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 610 and the RF circuit 606 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system on a chip (SoC) or a system-in-package (SiP). In some implementations, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 610 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 606 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 606). In some implementations, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 610 and the application circuits 405, 505 may be implemented together as a separate SoC mounted to the same circuit board (e.g., a "multi-chip package").

[0119] In some implementations, the baseband circuit 610 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, the baseband circuit 610 may support communications with an E-UTRAN or other WMAN, WLAN, or WPAN. Examples in which the baseband circuit 610 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as a multi-mode baseband circuit.

[0120] The RF circuit 606 can use modulated electromagnetic radiation to achieve communication with a wireless network through a non-solid medium. In some specific implementations, the RF circuit 606 may include switches, filters, or amplifiers, among other components, to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuit 606 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuits for down-converting RF signals received from the FEM circuit 608 and providing baseband signals to the baseband circuit 610. The RF circuit 606 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuits for up-converting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuit 610 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to the FEM circuit 608.

[0121] The receiving signal path of the RF circuit 606 includes a mixer circuit 606a, an amplifier circuit 606b, and a filter circuit 606c. In some specific implementations, the transmitting signal path of the RF circuit 606 may include a filter circuit 606c and a mixer circuit 606a. The RF circuit 606 also includes a synthesizer circuit 606d for synthesizing the frequency used by the mixer circuit 606a for the receiving signal path and the transmitting signal path. In some specific implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receiving signal path can be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 608 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 606d. The amplifier circuit 606b can be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 606c can be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal can be provided to the baseband circuit 610 for further processing. In some implementations, the output baseband signal can be a zero-frequency baseband signal, but this is not required.In some implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path can include a passive mixer.

[0122] In some implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path can be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 606d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 608. The baseband signal can be provided by the baseband circuit 610 and can be filtered by the filter circuit 606c.

[0123] In some implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for orthogonal down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0124] In some implementations, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals. In some implementations, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals, and the RF circuit 606 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuits, and the baseband circuit 610 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 606. In some dual-mode examples, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, but the techniques described herein are not limited in this regard.

[0125] In some implementations, the synthesizer circuit 606d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other examples, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and can be used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals with multiple different phases relative to each other at the carrier frequency. In some implementations, the output frequency can be an LO frequency (fLO). In some implementations, the RF circuit 606 can include an IQ or polarity converter.

[0126] FEM circuitry 608 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array 611, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to RF circuitry 606 for further processing. FEM circuitry 608 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by RF circuitry 606 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in antenna array 611. Amplification by either the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be accomplished only in RF circuitry 606, only in FEM circuitry 608, or in both RF circuitry 606 and FEM circuitry 608.

[0127] In some implementations, the FEM circuit 608 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit 608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 608 may include an LNA to amplify a received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 606). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 608 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 606), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 611.

[0128] The antenna array 611 includes one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured to convert an electrical signal into a radio wave to travel through the air and convert the received radio wave into an electrical signal. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 610 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which is amplified and transmitted using the antenna elements of the antenna array 611 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed into a variety of arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 611 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 611 may be formed as a patch of metal foil (e.g., a patch antenna) of various shapes and may be coupled to the RF circuit 606 and / or the FEM circuit 608 using a metal transmission line or the like.

[0129] The processor of the application circuit 405 / 505 and the processor of the baseband circuit 610 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 610 can perform layer 3, layer 2 or layer 1 functions individually or in combination, and the processor of the application circuit 405, 505 can utilize the data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a PHY layer of a UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0130] Figure 7 2 shows exemplary components of the communication circuit 700. In some implementations, the communication circuit 700 may be implemented as Figure 4 and Figure 5 The communication circuit 700 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 711a, 711b, 711c, and 711d. In some implementations, the communication circuit 700 includes or is communicatively coupled to dedicated receive chains, processors, or radio components, or a combination thereof, for multiple RATs (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR). For example, Figure 7 As shown, the communication circuit 700 includes a modem 710 and a modem 720, which may correspond to or be Figure 4 and Figure 54 and 510. Modem 710 may be configured to communicate in accordance with a first RAT (such as LTE or LTE-A), and modem 720 may be configured to communicate in accordance with a second RAT (such as 5G NR). In some implementations, processor 705, such as an application processor, may interact with modems 710, 720.

[0131] The modem 710 includes one or more processors 712 and a memory 716 in communication with the processor 712. The modem 710 is in communication with a radio frequency (RF) front end 730, which may correspond to Figure 4 and Figure 5 RFEM 415 and 515 are shown or are part thereof. RF front end 730 may include circuits for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, RF front end 730 includes receiving circuits (RX) 732 and transmitting circuits (TX) 734. In some specific implementations, receiving circuit 732 communicates with DL front end 752, which may include circuits for receiving radio signals from one or more antennas 711a. Transmitting circuit 734 communicates with UL front end 754, which is coupled to one or more antennas 711b.

[0132] Similarly, the modem 720 includes one or more processors 722 and a memory 726 in communication with the one or more processors 722. The modem 720 is in communication with the RF front end 740, which may correspond to Figure 4 and Figure 5 RFEM 415 and 515 shown or part thereof. RF front end 740 may include circuits for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, RF front end 740 includes receiving circuit 742 and transmitting circuit 744. In some specific implementations, receiving circuit 742 communicates with DL front end 760, and the DL front end may include circuits for receiving radio signals from one or more antennas 711c. Transmitting circuit 744 communicates with UL front end 765, and the UL front end is coupled to one or more antennas 711d. In some specific implementations, one or more front ends may be combined. For example, an RF switch may selectively couple modems 710, 720 to a single UL front end 772 for transmitting radio signals using one or more antennas.

[0133] The modem 710 may include hardware and software components for time division multiplexing UL data (e.g., for NSA NR operation) and various other technologies described herein. The processor 712 may include one or more processing elements configured to implement the various features described herein, such as by executing program instructions stored on a memory 716 (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In some specific implementations, the processor 712 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA or an ASIC. In some specific implementations, the processor 712 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the processor 712. For example, each IC may include a circuit configured to perform the functions of the processor 712.

[0134] The modem 720 may include hardware and software components for time division multiplexing UL data (e.g., for NSA NR operation) and various other techniques described herein. The processor 722 may include one or more processing elements configured to implement the various features described herein, such as by executing program instructions stored on a memory 726 (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable memory medium). In some specific implementations, the processor 722 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA or ASIC. In some specific implementations, the processor 722 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the processor 722.

[0135] Figure 8 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device are shown. Specifically, Figure 8 An arrangement 800 is included to illustrate the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. Various protocol layers and entities operating in conjunction with the 5G NR system standard and the LTE system standard are provided. Figure 8 The following description, but Figure 8 Some or all aspects of the invention may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0136] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 800 may also include one or more of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, SDAP 847, RRC 855, and NAS layer 857. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Figure 8 Items 859, 856, 850, 849, 845, 835, 825 and 815).

[0137] PHY 810 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 805, which can be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 805 may include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 810 may also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and switching purposes) and other measurement items used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 855). PHY 810 may also further perform error detection on transmission channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding of transmission channels, modulation and demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In some specific implementations, an instance of PHY 810 may utilize one or more PHY-SAP 815 to process requests from an instance of MAC 820 and provide instructions thereto. According to some specific implementations, requests and instructions transmitted using PHY-SAP 815 may include one or more transmission channels.

[0138] An instance of MAC 820 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of RLC 830 using one or more MAC-SAPs 825. These requests and indications transmitted using MAC-SAPs 825 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 820 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto transport blocks (TBs) to be delivered to PHY 810 using transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 810 using transport channels to one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0139] An instance of RLC 830 may process requests from an instance of PDCP 840 and provide indications thereto using one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 835. These requests and indications transmitted using RLC-SAPs 835 may include one or more RLC channels. RLC 830 may operate in a variety of operating modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 830 may perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 830 may also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0140] An instance of PDCP 840 may utilize one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Access Points (PDCP-SAP) 845 to process requests from an instance of RRC 855 or an instance of SDAP 847, or both, and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted utilizing PDCP-SAP 845 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 840 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-order delivery of higher layer PDUs when lower layers are reestablished, eliminate duplication of lower layer SDUs when lower layers are reestablished for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, or integrity verification).

[0141] An instance of SDAP 847 may utilize one or more SDAP-SAPs 849 to process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities and provide instructions thereto. These requests and instructions transmitted using SDAP-SAPs 849 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 847 may map QoS flows to data radio bearers (DRBs) and vice versa, and may also mark QoS flow identifiers (QFIs) in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 847 may be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 110 may control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflective mapping or explicit mapping). For reflective mapping, SDAP 847 of UE 101 may monitor the QFI of the DL packets of each DRB, and may apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For DRBs, SDAP 847 of UE 101 may map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow corresponding to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of the DRB. To implement the reflective mapping, the NG-RAN 310 may mark the DL packets with the QoS flow ID over the Uu interface. The explicit mapping may involve the RRC 855 configuring the SDAP 847 with explicit mapping rules of QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by the SDAP 847. In some implementations, the SDAP 847 may only be used in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

[0142] The RRC 855 may utilize one or more management service access points (M-SAPs) to configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, and SDAP 847. In some implementations, instances of the RRC 855 may utilize one or more RRC-SAPs 856 to process requests from and provide indications to one or more NAS entities 857. The main services and functions of the RRC 855 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a master information block (MIB) or system information block (SIB) related to NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of an RRC connection between the UE 101 and the RAN 110 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIB and SIB may include one or more information elements, each of which may include separate data fields or data structures.

[0143] NAS 857 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 101 and AMF 321. NAS 857 may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 101 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 101 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0144] In some implementations, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 800 may be implemented in UE 101, RAN node 111, AMF 321 in NR implementation or MME 221 in LTE implementation, UPF 302 in NR implementation or S-GW 222 and P-GW 223 in LTE implementation, etc., for control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the aforementioned devices. In some implementations, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 101, gNB 111, AMF 321, etc. may communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities that may be implemented in or on another device (using services of corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some specific implementations, the gNB-CU of gNB 111 may host the RRC 855, SDAP 847, and PDCP 840 of the gNB that control the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of gNB111 may each host the RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810 of gNB 111.

[0145] In some implementations, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 857, RRC 855, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810. In this example, upper layers 860 may be built on top of NAS 857, which includes an IP layer 861, SCTP 862, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 863.

[0146] In some implementations such as NR implementations, AP 863 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 863 for the NG interface 113 defined between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321, or AP 863 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 863 for the Xn interface 112 defined between two or more RAN nodes 111.

[0147] The NG-AP 863 may support the functionality of the NG interface 113 and may include an elementary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321. The NG-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 101) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321). These services may include functions such as, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 111 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 321 to establish, modify or release the UE context in the AMF 321 and the NG-RAN node 111; a mobility function for the UE 101 in ECM-CONNECTED mode, for intra-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transport function for transporting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 101 and the AMF 321; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 321 and the UE 101; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors over the NG interface; a warning message transport function for providing a means to transport a warning message using the NG interface or to cancel an ongoing warning message broadcast; a function for utilizing the CN 120 is a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (eg, SON information, or performance measurement (PM) data) between two RAN nodes 111; or a combination thereof, etc.

[0148] The XnAP 863 may support the functions of the Xn interface 112 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 111 (or E-UTRAN 210), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, or procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures not related to a specific UE 101, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, or cell activation procedures, etc.

[0149] In an LTE specific implementation, AP 863 can be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 for the S1 interface 113 defined between the E-UTRAN node 111 and the MME, or AP 863 can be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 863 for the X2 interface 112 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 111.

[0150] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 may support the functionality of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 111 and the MME 221 within the LTE CN 120. The S1-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0151] The X2AP 863 may support the functions of the X2 interface 112 and may include an X2AP basic mobility procedure and an X2AP global procedure. The X2AP basic mobility procedure may include a procedure for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 120, such as a handover preparation and cancellation procedure, an SN state transfer procedure, a UE context retrieval and a UE context release procedure, a RAN paging procedure, or a procedure related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedure may include a procedure not related to a specific UE 101, such as an X2 interface setup and reset procedure, a load indication procedure, an error indication procedure, or a cell activation procedure, etc.

[0152] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 862 may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). The SCTP 862 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 111 and the AMF 321 / MME 221 based in part on the IP protocol supported by the IP 861. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 861 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 861 may deliver and transmit PDUs using point-to-point transport. In this regard, the RAN node 111 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0153] In some implementations, the user plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, SDAP 847, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 101, RAN node 111, and UPF 302 in NR implementations, or between S-GW 222 and P-GW 223 in LTE implementations. In this example, the upper layer 851 may be built on top of SDAP 847 and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP / IP) 852, a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol layer (GTP-U) 853 for the user plane, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 863.

[0154] The transport network layer 854 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of the IP transport, and the GTP-U 853 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 852 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry the user plane PDU (UP-PDU). The IP layer (also referred to as the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets, for example, in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

[0155] GTP-U 853 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the transmitted user data may be packets in any of the IPv4, IPv6 or PPP formats. UDP / IP 852 may provide a checksum for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data flows. The RAN node 111 and the S-GW 222 may utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data using a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 810), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840 and / or SDAP 847), a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853. The S-GW 222 and the P-GW 223 may utilize an S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data using a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support mobility of UE 101 and session management procedures to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 101 and P-GW 223 .

[0156] In addition, despite Figure 8Not shown, but an application layer may exist above the AP 863 and / or transport network layer 854. The application layer may be a layer where a user of the UE 101, RAN node 111, or other network element interacts with a software application, for example, executed by the application circuitry 405 or the application circuitry 505, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with the communication system (such as the baseband circuitry 610) of the UE 101 or RAN node 111. In some implementations, the IP layer or the application layer or both may provide functionality the same or similar to layers 5 to 7 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, or portions thereof (e.g., OSI layer 7—application layer, OSI layer 6—presentation layer, and OSI layer 5—session layer).

[0157] NFV architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more NFs onto physical resources including a combination of industry standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system can be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components and functions.

[0158] Fig. 9 A block diagram of an example of a computer system including components for reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the techniques described herein is shown. In this example, Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 900 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more memory or storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, each of which may be communicatively coupled using a bus 940. For specific implementations where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices or sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 900.

[0159] Processor 910 may include processor 912 and processor 914. Processor 910 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0160] The memory / storage device 920 may include a main memory, a disk storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 920 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a static random access memory (SRAM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, or a solid-state storage device, or a combination thereof, etc.

[0161] The communication resources 930 may include an interconnection device or a network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 using the network 908. For example, the communication resources 930 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling using USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power consumption) components, Wi-Fi components and other communication components.

[0162] The instructions 950 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 910 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 950 may reside completely or partially in at least one of the processors 910 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 920, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 950 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 900 from any combination of the peripheral device 904 or the database 906. Therefore, the memory of the processor 910, the memory / storage device 920, the peripheral device 904, and the database 906 are examples of computer-readable media and machine-readable media.

[0163] NR systems can support the coexistence of various services and business communications in a common carrier. Since different services have different requirements and characteristics, multiplexing techniques can be implemented in the communication system to minimize the impact on packet transmission of each service type.

[0164] The present disclosure describes UL multiplexing of transmissions with different requirements, such as different reliability and latency requirements. One or more disclosed techniques and mechanisms address how to convey an indication of affected resources to a UE so that ongoing or upcoming UL transmissions can be adjusted to avoid adversely affecting other UL transmissions that may occur in shared resources. Transmissions of one service type may be more urgent than another service type and may take precedence over other ongoing transmissions. Several UE-specific downlink control channel signaling mechanisms and corresponding configurations for indicating UL transmission cancellation are disclosed.

[0165] UE-specific DCI signaling may be tailored to individual requirements and resource allocations. Depending on the time-frequency granularity of the indication of affected resources, group-common signaling may unnecessarily trigger one or more UEs to cancel a portion of their transmissions, but whose allocated resources do not overlap with those of more urgent transmissions.

[0166] The network may use a UE-specific indication mechanism to allow one or more UL transmissions to be made in shared resources in an orthogonal or non-orthogonal manner. Orthogonal transmission refers to the case when multiple transmissions are made in overlapping time-frequency-code resources. With non-orthogonal transmission, it is assumed that at least one of the time resources, frequency resources, and code may overlap or be shared between multiple transmissions.

[0167] UE-specific control channel signaling (particularly DCI format content design and configuration) may be used to convey UL transmission cancellation indications to the UE. In some implementations, the UE may be triggered based on power control parameters as a function of the effective BWP. The configured RNTI may be used for UL grants, where one or more transmission parameters may be implicitly obtained based on the detected RNTI.

[0168] Unless otherwise mentioned, the duration referred to herein may be one or more time slots, one or more symbols, or a combination thereof. UL coexistence may occur in licensed and unlicensed bands below or above 6 GHz, in FDD and TDD systems, and in any bandwidth portion of a given parameter set, such as 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, or 120 kHz. It should be noted that the UL transmission cancellation indication may alternatively be referred to as a UL transmission interruption indication or a UL transmission preemption indication. In some specific implementations, the network may provide one or more search spaces associated with the CORESET, in which DL control channel signaling (such as UL transmission cancellation indication or UL authorization) may be monitored. Although UE-specific indications are used in some examples, similar PDCCH monitoring behaviors and search space set configurations may also be used for group-common indications. For example, the UL cancellation indication may be in a group-common DCI message.

[0169] In some embodiments, the UE is not required to monitor any UL cancellation indication before receiving an UL grant for an uplink transmission (e.g., a PUSCH transmission). The UE may be configured to monitor one or more UL grant cancellation indications upon successful detection of an UL grant. Examples of activation, configuration, and content design of such transmission cancellation indications are provided below. Some of the following examples are provided in the context of PUSCH transmission cancellation. However, after the UE is triggered for such transmission, similar considerations may be made semi-statically or dynamically or through a combination of such signaling for other ongoing or upcoming UL transmissions (such as PUCCH, PRACH, and SRS). In some embodiments, the UE may receive higher layer signaling to enable or disable cancellation of PUCCH, PRACH, SRS, or a combination thereof. If disabled, the UE may assume that PUCCH, PRACH, or SRS may not be canceled, for example, even if the UL CI indicates resources that include indicated resources for PUCCH, PRACH, or SRS.

[0170] In some implementations, the UE is configured by RRC signaling to monitor for UL transmission cancellation indications (CI), UL transmission preemption indications (PI), or UL transmission rescheduling indications. After the UE receives a grant (e.g., successful decoding of a DCI), a higher layer parameter UL CI=ON or OFF may be used to activate monitoring for UL preemption or cancellation indications. Such characterization may require consideration of UE processing time (e.g., DCI decoding time), for example, N2 is the number of OFDM symbols required for UE processing from the end of the PDCCH containing the UL grant to the earliest possible start of the corresponding PUSCH transmission from the UE perspective.

[0171] In another example, the UL grant in the PDCCH may include a field for triggering monitoring of the UL transmission cancellation indication. For example, the bit field in the PDCCH message containing the UL grant may be 1 or 0 (or vice versa) to indicate to the UE to monitor or not monitor the UL PI, respectively. In another example, the bit field in the DCI containing the UL grant may be 1 or 0 (or vice versa) to indicate to the UE whether the PUSCH scheduled by the DCI (including the first TB or associated with the first HARQ PID) may be canceled by another subsequent DCI, for example, another UL grant (received for the first TB, the first HARQ PID, or for another TB in the PUSCH with a different HARQ PID) or a group common DCI format. In some specific implementations, the UE's second PUSCH may be prioritized over the UE's first PUSCH, wherein the DCI for the second PUSCH is received after the DCI for the first PUSCH, and such prioritization of the second PUSCH may be indicated in the DCI scheduling the second PUSCH. In some implementations, the DCI scheduling the first PUSCH may indicate to the UE that the first PUSCH may be cancelled by a subsequent DCI.

[0172] Fig.10 An example of a timeline 1001 for monitoring uplink cancellation indications is shown. In this example, the UE receives an UL grant 1020 indicating that a PUSCH transmission (e.g., PUSCH transmission portions 1040a, 1040b, and 1040c over multiple time slots) will begin after a time T1 from when the UL grant 1020 is received. The UL grant 1020 may be included in a DCI message transmitted via the PDCCH. The time T1 may be measured from the end of the CORESET that detects the UL grant 1020 to the start of a scheduled PUSCH transmission (e.g., an initial portion 1040A of the scheduled PUSCH transmission). However, in some implementations, T1 may be measured as (number of time slots - 1)*N 符号 + The starting symbol in a slot, where the slot number is counted from the position where the UL grant is received, and the starting symbol is the starting symbol of the initial part 1040a of the scheduled PUSCH transmission. N 符号 The parameter represents the number of symbols in a slot for a given parameter set. In some implementations, for the case of a normal cyclic prefix (NCP), N 符号 The parameter is 14, or in the case of extended cyclic prefix (ECP), N 符号 The parameter is 12. In some implementations, the UL grant 1020 schedules transmissions in a single slot or multiple slots. In some implementations, the number of slot offsets, the starting symbol of the scheduled PUSCH transmissions, or both can be dynamically indicated in the UL grant or configured by higher layers.

[0173] After detecting the UL grant 1020, the UE starts monitoring the UL CI after a T5 duration. The UL CI may be received in a DCI message 1030 in the PDCCH. In some implementations, the UL CI monitoring may be performed within a window after the UL grant. The window may include M≥1 monitoring opportunities for the UL CI. The location of the initial opportunity may be obtained as an offset from the location where the UL grant 1020 is received. In some implementations, the parameter M may be higher layer configured or may be implicitly derived from the time gap between the end of the UL grant and the end of the scheduled PUSCH or from the duration of the scheduled PUSCH.

[0174] A parameter T5 may be identified, which may be measured in symbols, time slots, or a combination of a given parameter set, that indicates the location of the initial ULCI monitoring opportunity as an offset from a known reference point. The reference point may be the beginning or end of the CORESET in which the UL grant 1020 is detected, or starting from the boundary of the time slot in which the UL grant 1020 is detected. Fig.10 In the example, the parameter T5 is measured from the end of the CORESET receiving the UL grant 1020 to the start of the CORESET monitoring the first UL CI. In some implementations, T5 may be indicated as (number of time slots - 1) * N 符号 + The starting symbol in the time slot, where the time slot number is counted from the position where the UL grant is received, and the starting symbol is the position where the initial symbol of the CORESET for monitoring the UL CI is located. One or more parameters related to the indication of T5 (such as the number of time slots offset from the position where the UL grant is detected or the starting symbol of the CORESET for monitoring the UL CI) may be included in the UL grant, configured by higher layers, or a combination of both.

[0175] In some implementations, the UE monitors the UL CI periodically after the initial monitoring opportunity of the UL CI. The parameter T3 may specify the monitoring period for consecutive opportunities for monitoring one or more UL CIs. For a given parameter set, T3 may be measured in symbols or time slots or a combination thereof. The parameter T3 may be configured by a higher layer or may be implicitly obtained based on the time gap between the end of the UL grant and the end of the scheduled PUSCH or the duration of the scheduled PUSCH.

[0176] In some implementations, UEs that can receive UL CIs may be scheduled for longer PUSCH transmission durations, e.g., UEs that receive transmissions with a particular PUSCH mapping type (e.g., mapping type A in the 3GPP NR specification), where the starting symbol is symbol index 0 in the slot and the length of the PUSCH is at least 4 symbols and up to 14 symbols. In some implementations, if configured (e.g., by higher layer signaling), UEs with a PUSCH duration longer than J symbols may monitor one or more UL CIs after UL grant, where J may be an integer, J={2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,13,14}. In some implementations, time partitions of the PUSCH duration may be available (e.g., L≥1 time parts), and one UL CI may address one time partition of the PUSCH. The UL CI addressing a time partition may indicate all or a portion of the scheduled resources within the time partition to be canceled. In some implementations, each time partition may be further divided in frequency, e.g., J ≥ 1 frequency partitions, e.g., the PUSCH BW may be divided into J partitions for each time partition. The frequency partitions may be counted from the top or bottom of the PUSCH BW. If each UL CI is detected, the UE is notified to cancel all or part of the time partition.

[0177] In some implementations, the PUSCH duration may be divided into L=3 parts, and the UE may monitor the UL CI at M=L=3 occasions. The periodicity of monitoring the UL CI is determined by Fig.10 The application time after the UL CI is detected is represented by T3. The application time after the UL CI is detected is represented by T2. T2 can be the same as, longer than, or shorter than the UE processing capability identified in the 3GPP NR specification (e.g., N1 or N2 time). The UL CI can be detected in an opportunity that triggers the UE to cancel the transmission within the time of the allocated resources for PUSCH transmission. In some specific implementations, the UL CI is not transmitted in the subsequent monitoring opportunity, and the UE can continue the transmission of PUSCH in the remaining time portion.

[0178] In some implementations, the duration of each time portion T4 may be the same as, longer than, or shorter than the monitoring period T3. In some implementations, parameter T5 may be implicitly derived from parameter T1 or one or more parameters defining T1, such as the number of time slots offset from the time slot in which the UL grant is received (see, e.g., the K2 value in the 3GPP NR specification). In some implementations, each of parameters T1, T2, T3, and T5 may be equal to or greater than the minimum UE processing time for the PUSCH preparation procedure, which may be limited by the capabilities of the UE.

[0179] In some implementations, UL CI in a UE-specific search space or a group common search space associated with one or more CORESETs may be monitored. Parameters such as monitoring periodicity and monitoring offset of UL CI may be configured as part of one or more search spaces associated with one or more CORESETs in a given DLBWP. In some implementations, UL CI monitoring is only effective when the UE has an upcoming or ongoing UL transmission. In some implementations, UL CI at K≥1 aggregation level may be monitored. In some implementations, as part of a higher layer parameter such as search-space-config, the UE may be configured for UL CI monitoring based on: the association of a DCI format with a search space, based on whether it is a UE-specific search space or a common search space; the number of PDCCH candidates according to the supported aggregation level; the PDCCH monitoring periodicity in symbols or time slots or a combination thereof (e.g., T3); the PDCCH monitoring offset in symbols or time slots or a combination thereof (e.g., T5 or the number of time slots in the calculation of T5, see the example mentioned above for the calculation of T5); and the PDCCH monitoring pattern within the time slot (e.g., the position of the initial symbol of the CORESET within the time slot for monitoring) (e.g., the pattern can be used to identify the starting symbol of the CORESET in the calculation of T5). The UE may be configured to monitor one or more UL CIs. In some implementations, if a UE-specific search space is used, the higher layer parameter USS-DCI-Format may cause the UE to monitor the PDCCH for a given DCI format containing a UL CI. In some implementations, if a common search space is used, the higher layer parameter RNTI-monitoring may cause the UE to monitor the PDCCH with the RNTI for the DCI format containing the UL CI.

[0180] UL CI monitoring may be triggered based on an event such as the UE receiving an UL grant. In some implementations, although the monitoring configuration may be obtained as part of the search space configuration associated with one or more CORESETs in the DL BWP, the UE is not always actively monitoring based on the parameters. For example, the PDCCH monitoring offset in the configuration of the UL CI may be separated from other PDCCHs monitored in the search space. In the context of PDCCH monitoring, the offset may indicate the time offset between the reception of the UL grant and the start of the CORESET monitoring the UL CI, for example, Fig.10In some implementations, the offset indicates the number of time slots starting from the location where the UL grant is received, and the starting symbol of the CORESET containing the UL CI is not symbol #0 in the time slot. The PDCCH monitoring pattern within the time slot can be used to identify the location of the symbol of the CORESET in which the UL CI is to be monitored.

[0181] In some implementations, the UE may monitor the UL CI with the same or different CORESET as the UL grant from which it receives the scheduled transmission. In some implementations, the scheduled PUSCH duration may include one or more repetitions. An implicit way to trigger the UE to monitor the UL CI is whether the number of repetitions K exceeds a predetermined value. For example, if K is equal to or greater than 2, the UE may monitor the UL CI. The monitoring configuration discussed above may be applicable to any DCI format that contains a UL CI. In some implementations, a DCI format may signal multiple UL CIs in the same DCI message.

[0182] In some implementations, UE-specific DCI scrambled by C-RNTI or another configured RNTI may be used in a DCI format containing UL CI. In some implementations, one or more reserved fields may be used for UL grants, such as in DCI format 0_0 or 0_1, which may be used for UL CI. For example, a one-bit field may be used, which, if 1 (or vice versa), may indicate that a certain time-frequency portion or all of the PUSCH is canceled by the UE. Therefore, if the bit field contains a given value that triggers cancellation, one or more of the remaining fields in the DCI format may be invalid, for example, such a DCI format may not allocate any resource allocation. For example, in Fig.10 In the context of , for each of the L parts, the UE monitors the UL grant, whether the bit value in the field indicates cancellation.

[0183] The DCI format for the UL CI may be scrambled with a dedicated RNTI (e.g., CI-based RNTI), which may be different from the RNTI used to scramble the UL grant. The UE may monitor the UL grant or any other DCI format, such as a compact DCI format with an RNTI, at one or more occasions. Detection of a DCI message 1030 with a configured CI-based RNTI may indicate cancellation of part or all of the PUSCH transmissions scheduled by the original UL grant 1020. Fig.10In the context of , detecting a DCI message 1030 with a CI-based RNTI indicates cancellation of at least an initial portion 1040a, and the remaining portions 1040b, 1040c may also be cancelled without an additional UL CI. In some implementations, the network may transmit a DCI message 1030 with a configured CI-based RNTI to cancel the initially scheduled PUSCH transmission in the portions 1040a-c so that another UE may perform a PUSCH transmission 1050.

[0184] In some implementations, the values ​​of L and J are configured by a higher layer. In some implementations, the values ​​of J and L are implicitly derived from the set or number of PRBs and the number of scheduled symbols, respectively. A table configured by a higher layer (e.g., Table 1) may be used for the UE, where the UE may obtain the values ​​of J, L, or both based on a range of values ​​for the number of PRBs and a range of values ​​for the number of symbols. In some implementations, the values ​​of L and J depend on the parameter set used in the network. In some implementations, the UE may obtain the configuration of the values ​​of L and J based on the effective BW.

[0185] The value of L Range of PUSCH duration (symbols) 1 1 to 4 2 5 to 8 3 9 to 12 or 14

[0186] Table 1

[0187] In some implementations, the DCI format used to provide UL CI may contain a bitmap of X*Y bits, where X≥1 indicates the number of time partitions within each time portion, and Y≥1 indicates the number of frequency portions. The time and frequency granularity may be higher layer configured or implicitly obtained from the allocated resources of PUSCH. Fig.10 In , it is assumed that X = 1 and Y = 1. X and Y may be configured or obtained in a parameter set specific manner (eg, depending on the effective BWP).

[0188] In some implementations, a compact DCI format may be considered for UL CI. Compact DCI may be monitored with C-RNTI or any other configured RNTI. Compact DCI may indicate one or more of the following: a header or flag if multiple DCI formats have the same size; a field containing XY≥1 bits to indicate the region where transmission is to be canceled and may be a bitmap including X*Y bits; a HARQ ID (note that a UE may have multiple UL transmissions in progress in parallel); a carrier indicator; a BWP indicator; and zero padding.

[0189] In some implementations, one or more of the New Data Indicator (NDI) bit field of the UL grant, the HARQ ID bit field, the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) indication field, or the Time or Frequency Resource Allocation field (such as DCI format 0_0 or 0_1) may be used to identify that the DCI actually indicates a transmission cancellation, rather than a grant. For example, for a given HARQ ID, if the NDI bit is toggled, it may indicate a new transmission. However, certain sets of entries in the MCS table are reserved for retransmissions, for example, MCSs with indices 28 to 31, as described in 3GPP TS 38.214. Now, one of those reserved entries of the MCS may be indicated, while the NDI bit may be toggled for the same HARQ process ID, which may serve as a notification of the UL CI for packets scheduled with the HARQ process ID. The Time / Frequency Resource Allocation bit field may be used to indicate the time / frequency region for which the transmission is to be canceled, and may span physical resources beyond the previously allocated PUSCH. Therefore, it may be desirable for the UE to cancel all UL transmissions that overlap with the resource region identified by the resource allocation information in the UL CI. In some implementations, if the time / frequency resource allocation uses a total of L≥1 bits, then K<=L bits may be used for cancellation indication. As another example, the time domain and frequency domain RA bit fields may be combined and reinterpreted to determine the time-frequency resources for cancellation, or the time domain and frequency domain RA fields may be interpreted as for regular UL grants.

[0190] In some implementations, the network may use a rescheduling or modified grant mechanism. The initial UL grant may schedule packets with a specific state of the NDI bit for a given HARQ process. If the UE receives a subsequent UL grant for the same HARQ process with the same or different NDI bit state within a configured window or a set of monitoring opportunities, for example, the monitoring configuration shown above (before or during the ongoing PUSCH transmission scheduled by the initial UL grant), the UE may cancel the ongoing transmission and instead follow the updated grant for the same HARQ process. This technology "transfers" the PUSCH resource allocation to, for example, a later time, or alternatively updates the UL grant with a new resource allocation. The updated grant may also be referred to as a modified or rescheduled grant. In some implementations, the subsequent grant performs both the operation of canceling the transmission and the scheduling of the transmission. In addition, if the UE has been configured with repeated transmissions through an earlier configuration, such subsequent grants can perform the functions of repeated cancellation and scheduling new transmissions. The UE may be configured to monitor subsequent UL grants at one or more occasions. If a subsequent grant is not received within multiple configured occasions, the UE continues the existing operation or follows the original grant. The configured multiple opportunities may be obtained by configuring a time window or duration that includes the opportunities.

[0191] Even though the network scheduler has the flexibility to transmit the original grant at any time, the timing of transmission of the modified grant and how frequently the network can send such modified grants may be different from when the UE was monitoring the first grant. Excessive delays in UL grant reception and UL transmission should be avoided, which is particularly important for UEs supporting low-latency traffic, taking into account the processing time required for the UE to detect and act on the modified UL grant.

[0192] In some implementations, upon detection of an UL grant, the UE monitors for potential subsequent update grants, possibly with finer monitoring granularity, and within a time window. Such monitoring periodicity and time window duration may be configurable or predefined and may be obtained based on the initial (before receiving the UL grant) monitoring opportunity periodicity, symbol, time slot, etc. In some implementations, the window length may be determined based on the duration of the scheduled PUSCH (or PUSCH in the case where PUSCH repetition is configured), e.g., the UE may or may not monitor after the PUSCH transmission (transmission in the case of repetition) ends. As yet another alternative, the time window duration may be configured to the UE as part of the search space set configuration performed via higher layers (UE-specific RRC signaling).

[0193] Note that if the network configures the UE with fine monitoring granularity, e.g., nothing changes before and after receiving a grant, the UE may be burdened with unnecessarily frequent monitoring, e.g., when no rescheduling needs to be performed. This illustrates the need for a proper choice of the window length as well as the monitoring periodicity.

[0194] In some implementations, the UE may be configured with a monitoring periodicity for generally scheduled transmissions and an additional set of DCI monitoring configuration parameters corresponding to potential rescheduling operations. These additional configurations may be activated based on events (e.g., reception of an UL grant) and may be associated with a specific search space set configuration.

[0195] The PDCCH monitoring periodicity, offset and pattern within a timeslot are currently indicated as part of the configuration of a given search space set. The rescheduling grant may then be monitored in the same or a different search space set than the search space set in which the original grant was received, possibly with some additional parameters (such as a different monitoring periodicity), e.g., based on a triggering event when the UE monitors the rescheduling grant.

[0196] For example, a given search space and CORESET may have two monitoring periodicities, one as a default monitoring periodicity, and another that may be activated only if a specific event occurs (e.g., reception of a scheduling grant). An additional set of parameters may include a different monitoring periodicity, offset, or pattern relative to the original UL grant.

[0197] In some networks, monitoring related parameters and configurations are configured semi-statistically. Some other networks may dynamically update the search space monitoring configuration. In some implementations, such dynamic updates may not require any dynamic indication and may be implicitly activated or deactivated. Dynamic updates of configurations may enable situations where the UE does not monitor candidates in some monitoring occasions, while in some other occasions the UE monitors very few additional candidates. With this additional monitoring setting, the UE may monitor candidates more frequently but less frequently, for example, a subset of the candidates it can monitor for full-fledged periodic monitoring. In some implementations, it is specified that such additional monitoring behavior may be triggered only upon detection of a valid UL grant for scheduling data transmission in the UL.

[0198] The minimum PUSCH preparation time for a subsequent UL grant depends on the UE processing time capabilities and the UE implementation, taking into account the time required for the UE to detect and decode a subsequent modified grant and the time when the UE needs to take action on it (e.g., cancel the earlier grant and PUSCH preparation and transmit according to the modified grant). For example, N2 is defined as the number of OFDM symbols required for UE processing from the end of the PDCCH containing the UL grant to the earliest possible start of the corresponding PUSCH transmission from the UE perspective.

[0199] Additional UE monitoring is activated upon receiving an UL grant, which may also be extended to the case of an UL update grant with a different HARQ process ID. Thus, depending on the HARQ process, the UE cancels the transmission of the PUSCH corresponding to the initial grant if the latter is a rescheduled grant without switching the NDI compared to the initial grant.

[0200] In another example, the UE may continue to transmit PUSCH based on two grants for the same HARQ process regardless of the NDI switching phase, as long as the PUSCH is time-division multiplexed, e.g., there is no time domain overlap between resource allocations made by the initial grant and subsequent grants. Thus, the UE follows the scheduling grants and continues to transmit, with each grant following its own HARQ timeline.

[0201] As described above, one aspect of the rescheduling grant is dynamic adaptation in the UE monitoring behavior. The UE may be configured for dynamic PDCCH monitoring, where the monitored PDCCH may change (e.g., modify, update, or cancel) resource allocations via a previous PDCCH transmission. In some implementations, the UE is configured with S search space sets in a given DL BWP, where the search space set is indexed by s. An UL cancellation indication (UL CI) or a rescheduling grant may be configured to be transmitted on at least one search space set. The DCI format for the UL CI or rescheduling grant may be referred to as DCI format xy, where x may be 0 as selected for the UL grant in the specification, and y may be 0 or 1. In some implementations, if transmitted in a common DCI in a PDCCH selected for the common PDCCH in this specification, x may be 2, and y=>1 may be an integer, such as y may be 1 or 4. If y=1, it may imply that the DL preemption indication DCI format 2_1 may also be reused for UL cancellation. The size of DCI format xy may be one of: (i) the same as DCI format 0_0, (ii) the same as DCI format 2_1 if configured in the same search space, or (iii) configured by UE-specific RRC signaling. Other sizes are possible.

[0202] In some implementations, for the search space set s that may be monitored for UL CI or rescheduling grants, the UE may be provided with an indication by a higher layer parameter dci-Format-xy as part of the SearchSpace higher layer configuration. If there is an indication, the UE may monitor DCI format xy messages in the search space set s. In some implementations, the UE monitors the search space set s only after a trigger (e.g., detection of a valid UL grant) or starting a specified number of symbols (Ns) before a particular UL transmission opportunity, such as for DCI format xy. Such transmission opportunities may include one or more of type 1 or type 2 CG PUSCH transmissions, SRS transmissions, or PUCCH transmissions based on semi-static configuration (e.g., for scheduling request (SR), periodic or semi-persistent CSI feedback).

[0203] Fig.11An example of a monitoring timeline 1101 associated with a search space set is shown, which can be configured with a monitoring pattern within a time slot, an offset from a reference point, and a duration for monitoring uplink cancellation indications, rescheduling grants, or both. The network may provide a duration time parameter for the search space set s to the UE via a higher layer. The duration parameter controls the monitoring window and can be indicated in a time slot or symbol. In some specific implementations, the duration parameter may be the same as or configured separately from the CSS duration parameter in the 3GPP NR specification. The network may provide a monitoring offset parameter via a higher layer to indicate when the monitoring window starts. In this example, there are multiple monitoring opportunities within the time slot of the search space set. The location of the monitoring opportunity within the time slot may be controlled by the monitoring pattern parameter. The monitoring pattern parameter may be configured by a higher layer parameter such as monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot for the search space set s.

[0204] In some implementations, search space set s may be configured with a periodicity. The UE may monitor DCI format xy messages in search space set s within a window controlled by a duration parameter according to the configured monitoring periodicity. In some implementations, once the UE detects a DCI format xy message in one of the monitoring opportunities in search space set s, the UE skips monitoring the remaining opportunities in the time slot. In some implementations, the UE skips monitoring the remaining opportunities of search space set s within the duration.

[0205] In some implementations, the UE monitors search space set s based on a trigger (such as receiving an assignment from the network). In some implementations, search space set s may be indexed with a lower value than other existing search space set indices, however the UE may be configured to give a higher priority to search space set s. This is because each search space set may have a given number of PDCCH candidates, and the UE may not exceed the total number of blind detection attempts within a time slot on all search space sets configured for the UE. In some implementations, if search space set s is used on demand, the set may be identified as a higher priority search space set (regardless of the search space set index), and if necessary, one or more other search space sets may be discarded in a given time slot. This can be achieved by including a priority parameter in the search space set configuration. In another example, search space set s may also be used to periodically monitor other DCI formats, however, if a trigger is received, the UE may monitor search space set s in consecutive time slots, although it may have a periodicity greater than the time slot. In some implementations, if a trigger is received, the UE uses the duration parameter, otherwise the UE follows the search space set s configuration with periodicity.

[0206] In some implementations, the UE activates a monitoring window for a search space set s based on a duration and offset parameter after receiving an allocation (such as an UL grant). In some implementations, the UE may monitor the search space set s after a configured periodicity. In some implementations, the search space set s has a periodicity of K=5 slots and a duration parameter of 2 slots. An UL grant may be received in a DL slot n that schedules the start of an UL transmission in UL slot n+K2. The K2 parameter indicates the time between the UL grant and the UL data transmission and may be represented in slots or symbols, for example, K2=2 slots. In some implementations, the offset to the starting position of the monitoring window may be obtained based on the minimum UE processing time for PDCCH transmission in an NR system. A parameter N3 may be identified to define the PDCCH processing time in a slot or symbol for a given parameter set. N3 may be less than N2, which is the number of OFDM symbols required from the UE's perspective for the earliest possible start of processing of the corresponding PUSCH transmission from the end of the PDCCH transmission containing the UL grant. N3 may be a UE capability parameter and reported by the UE, for example as part of the RRC connection setup. In some implementations, the duration may start after one slot offset (e.g., offset from DL slot n+1) and end at slot n+2. The UE may monitor the search space set s according to the pattern given by the parameter monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot or parameters configured separately within slots n+1 and n+2. The UE may resume monitoring of the search space set s again at the next configured periodic occasion. In some implementations, at least a portion of the search space set configuration is dynamically activated, which may be different from a fully semi-static search space set configuration.

[0207] In some implementations, the search space set s is not configured with a duration parameter. The UE may implicitly determine the duration parameter for monitoring the search space set s after a trigger. In some implementations, the UE may determine when the monitoring window duration ends depending on the length of the scheduled UL transmission. In some implementations, the UE may monitor the set s after an offset with a periodicity of one slot according to a pattern given by the parameter monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot and not monitor after the end of the scheduled UL transmission.

[0208] In some implementations, the number of blind decoding attempts and / or CCEs used for channel estimation within a time slot may be dynamically increased following a trigger. Following a trigger, a search space set s may be used that may require a greater number of blind decoding attempts and / or CCEs used for channel estimation within a time slot than the existing number of blind decoding attempts and / or CCEs used for channel estimation before receiving the trigger. If the UE can support such behavior, the UE may report in terms of UE-NR-capability. In some implementations, a grant to schedule a PUCCH may trigger the UE to monitor for cancellation of the PUCCH. The cancellation may be a partial cancellation or a complete cancellation. In some implementations, the UE may not expect to monitor for a cancellation indication to cancel a periodically configured UL transmission, such as an SRS or CSI feedback report in the PUCCH.

[0209] In some implementations, a UE configured with a grant of type 1 or type 2 UL configuration may monitor the UL CI or reschedule the grant or UL grant according to the above behavior. The starting position of the duration or the offset of the starting position of the monitoring opportunity may be counted from a reference point, such as a position with respect to time, which is a number of time slots and / or symbols before the start of a scheduled UL transmission, or a number of time slots and / or symbols before the boundary of the time slot where the UL transmission opportunity starts. In some implementations, for a grant of type 2 UL configuration, the starting position of the duration or the offset of the starting position of the monitoring opportunity may be counted from the time slot in which the DCI activating the transmission of the type 2 UL configuration is received.

[0210] The network may indicate which transmissions are subject to indications, such as preemption indications, cancellation indications, or rescheduling indications. In some implementations, such indications may apply to other UL transmissions in addition to dynamically scheduled PUSCH transmissions. In some implementations, the network may specify that certain types of transmissions are subject to these indications. In the case of UL grant-free transmissions (where transmission opportunities are semi-statically configured), a device such as a UE may specify whether or how the gNB may cancel or reschedule some or all of the PUSCH transmission opportunities. In some implementations, the network may specify whether a PUCCH transmission opportunity or another type of semi-statically configured transmission opportunity is subject to these indications.

[0211] In some implementations, in the case of a configured authorized UL transmission where the duration of each transmission opportunity is known, a threshold may be defined such that if the transmission duration is longer than the threshold, the UE is required to monitor one or more indications (such as a preemption indication, a cancellation indication, and / or a rescheduling indication). In some implementations, if a transmission takes a relatively long duration, the UE may need to cancel the transmission and start a higher priority transmission.

[0212] In some implementations, for PUCCH transmissions, depending on the duration of the configured PUCCH (e.g., long PUCCH format), the UE may be configured to monitor for any preemption, cancellation, or rescheduling indications. In some implementations, short transmissions (e.g., SRS or for short PUCCH formats when no repetition is configured) may not be subject to preemption, cancellation, or rescheduling.

[0213] In some implementations, PUSCH transmissions (including dynamically scheduled PUSCH and both type 1 and 2CG PUSCH) are subject to preemption, cancellation, or rescheduling. In some implementations, only dynamically scheduled PUSCH transmissions are subject to preemption, cancellation, or rescheduling. These can be further extended by limiting the applicability of preemption, cancellation, or rescheduling indications to PUSCH transmissions with a total duration (including any repetitions) longer than 2 or 4 symbols. Similar rules based on transmission duration can be applied to SRS and PUCCH transmissions.

[0214] In some implementations, rescheduling may be performed for both Grant-Based (GB) UL transmissions and Grant-Free (GF) UL transmissions. Thus, the UE may be configured to switch between these operations as long as the same HARQ process identifier (PID) is referenced, and GF UL transmissions may be subject to the same rescheduling mechanism as previously described (while different scrambling RNTIs may be used for GB and GF). Specifically, a rescheduling grant may trigger the UE to switch between GF and GB operation. In some implementations, a GF PUSCH transmission opportunity may be overwritten by a GB transmission opportunity when the UE receives a rescheduling grant before the current transmission in GF operation is completed.

[0215] In some implementations, PUSCH transmissions may be based on a dynamic grant or a configured grant and may be cancelled by UL CI. UL CI may be transmitted in a UE-specific DCI message (such as a UL grant) or in a group common DCI message.

[0216] In some implementations, the UL cancellation indication may apply to both dynamic grant-based PUSCH and configured granted PUSCH (e.g., type 1 or type 2). In some implementations, even if the cancellation indication is based on resources that overlap with PUSCH transmission opportunities as indicated by the configured grant, the higher layer configuration of the configured granted PUSCH may include an indication that the PUSCH is prioritized.

[0217] In some implementations, if a subsequent cancel indication is received and indicates resources that overlap with resources of a scheduled PUSCH, a UL grant format such as DCI format 0_0 or DCI format 0_1 ​​may include a field for indicating whether the corresponding scheduled PUSCH may be preempted or canceled. For example, a value of 0 may indicate that the transmission is prioritized and may not be preempted or canceled by another L1 signaling such as a UL grant or cancel indication, or vice versa. In some implementations, the CBGTI field in the UL grant that schedules the initial transmission may be used to indicate that the transmission of the HARQ process indicated in the UL grant is prioritized and may not be canceled.

[0218] In some implementations, if the UE identifies a PUSCH transmission that should be prioritized or not canceled, the UE does not monitor for cancellation indications until the end of the scheduled PUSCH transmission. In some implementations, the duration may start after the DCI message that schedules the PUSCH transmission and lasts for 1 second after the end of the scheduled PUSCH transmission plus T a In some implementations, T a The cancellation time (time offset between UL grant and PUSCH transmission) can be based on the minimum value of the cancellation indication, N2 or K2 configured by higher layers.

[0219] In some implementations, if monitoring is turned on, for example, via higher layer configuration or based on an indication in a grant, the UE may increase monitoring activity. The UE may monitor the ULCI within a configured monitoring window (e.g., after a UL grant or higher layer configuration). In the activation of search space set s, higher layers may configure T p,s The duration of the monitoring duration or mode indicates the number of symbols or slots in which the search space set s exists for the configured monitoring duration or mode. For example, the UE may receive an UL grant in symbol 0 in slot n and start monitoring the CI or PI every p>0 symbols from symbol k>0 in slot n until symbol m≥0 in slot n+d (d>0).

[0220] The starting position of the duration may be configured or implicitly obtained based on the offset between the UL grant and the PUSCH. The search space set may be activated in a non-periodic manner (e.g., monitored only when the UE expects a cancellation indication). In some implementations, the UE monitors a search space set for a DCI format configured with a cancellation indication or UL grant that may cancel transmission during the monitoring window. In some implementations, for a given budget for the maximum number of PDCCH candidates monitored when the monitoring window of the UL CI is activated, the UE may prioritize the search space set associated with the DCI format of the UL CI over other search space sets.

[0221] In some implementations, the activation of monitoring UL CI may be obtained implicitly based on the length of PUSCH. For example, if the scheduled or configured PUSCH length is less than K symbols, the UE expects that the transmission will not be cancelled. In some implementations, for a given parameter set, K = {4, 7, 14} symbols.

[0222] In some implementations, a rescheduled DCI (such as a fallback or non-fallback DCI for UL scheduling) may be used for UL cancellation (e.g., where the NDI bit is not toggled). In some implementations, the UE may initiate an application or preparation time (e.g., T proc,2 time) after which one or more PUSCH transmissions or repetitions are canceled, where the PUSCH transmission is identified by the HARQ PID used in the rescheduled DCI (see, e.g., 3GPP TS 38.214).

[0223] If the application time corresponds to the middle of a PUSCH transmission, the UE may be configured to cancel a portion of the PUSCH transmission. In some implementations, the UE may cancel the application or preparation time (e.g., T proc,2 In some implementations, the UE may cancel a portion of the PUSCH transmission if the application time corresponds to the middle of the PUSCH transmission. In some implementations, the UE may continue to transmit the remaining portion of the PUSCH transmission after the partial cancellation.

[0224] In some implementations, for a HARQ PID (PID indicated in the UL grant), if a UL-SCH indicator bit=0, CSI request field=all zeros (such as format 0_1) is received in the UL grant, it may indicate the cancellation of the UL transmission associated with the HARQ PID. An UL grant transmission with UL-SCH indicator bit=0, CSI request field=all zeros may be referred to as a null grant, e.g., an UL grant that does not schedule any transmission. In some implementations, if an UL transmission for the HARQ PID was previously scheduled, the UL grant may cancel the previously scheduled transmission and do not reschedule any transmission for the HARQ PID. The UE may or may not flush the transmission buffer for the canceled transmission for the HARQ PID. In some implementations, the NDI bit is not toggled in the UL grant because this is not a new transmission block for the HARQ PID. In another example, the NDI bit can be a fixed value, either toggled or not toggled, and the UE can identify the cancellation of a previously scheduled transmission for a given HARQ PID based on the bit value of the field UL-SCH indicator bit and the CSI request, for example, if the UL-SCH indicator bit = 0, then the CSI request field = all zeros.

[0225] In some implementations, if the UE receives an UL grant with UL-SCH indicator bit = 0, CSI request field = all zeros, the UE may assume that the UL grant is a cancellation indication, and the UE may identify the time-frequency region for UL transmission cancellation based on the time-domain resource allocation and frequency-domain resource allocation fields. The UE may cancel one or more UL transmissions, including one or more subsequent or ongoing scheduled or configured granted PUSCH, SRS, PUCCH transmissions that overlap with the indicated time-frequency region. In some implementations, the UE ignores the HARQ PID in this case because the cancellation may be applied to a group of UL transmissions that overlap with the indicated region.

[0226] In some implementations, once the UE determines that the UL grant indicates cancellation, one or more fields in the UL grant may be reinterpreted to indicate parameters related to the UL cancellation. Examples of UL cancellation parameters may include a time-frequency bitmap for canceling affected UL transmissions, time-frequency region information for canceling affected UL transmissions, a starting position of a region in time and / or frequency, and a time-frequency granularity of the cancellation indication via one or more fields in the UL grant. In some implementations, a time-frequency bitmap (where each bit maps to a partition within a configured time-frequency region) indicates the location of the cancellation of the transmission within the time-frequency region, i.e., which partitions are affected, which may be signaled by reinterpreting the frequency domain and time domain resource allocation fields having N=>1 bits and M=>1 bits, respectively, for example, the M+N bits in these two fields may be used to indicate a bitmap for signaling cancellation on the M+N partitions within the configured time-frequency region.

[0227] In some implementations, one or more of the fields in the UL grant may be reinterpreted to indicate one or more of the following: a time-frequency bitmap including K=>1 bit to indicate which of the K partitions are affected within the first time-frequency region, a first time-frequency region (including one or more of the time and frequency span and the location where the region starts in frequency and time), a time-frequency granularity, or a value of K. If not indicated via DCI, one or more parameters related to the UL cancellation indication may be configured by higher layer signaling (such as UE-specific RRC signaling). The fields within the UL grant may include a bandwidth portion indicator, a frequency domain resource allocation, a time domain resource allocation, a frequency hopping flag, a modulation and coding scheme, a new data indicator, a redundancy version, a HARQ process number, a downlink allocation index, a transmit power command (TPC) command for scheduled PUSCH transmissions, an SRS resource indicator, precoding information and number of layers, antenna ports, SRS requests, CBGTI, PTRS-DMRS association, a beta_offset indicator, and a DMRS sequence initialization. Other and different fields for the UL grant are possible.

[0228] In some implementations, the UE receives a first UL grant (such as format 0_0 or format 0_1) for a first HARQ process at time t0. Subsequently, if the UE receives a second UL grant (such as format 0_0 or format 0_1) for the first HARQ process at time t1>t0, wherein the MCS field in the second UL grant indicates one of the reserved entries, for example, MCS indexes 28 to 31 in an MCS table including 32 entries (see, for example, Tables 6.1.4.1-1 and 6.1.4.1-2 in 3GPP TS 38.214), and the NDI bit in the second UL grant is switched relative to the NDI bit value in the first UL grant, the UE may recognize that the second UL grant indicates a cancellation of a transmission for the indicated HARQ process. The second UL grant may be used as a null grant to cancel a previously scheduled transmission. In some implementations, the second UL grant serving the cancellation indication needs to be received within a specific time window after receiving the first UL grant. In some implementations, t1-t0<=P, where P is indicated in the UL grant and is equal to the duration between the start time and the corresponding end time of the PUSCH transmission, which may be measured in a slot or a subslot.

[0229] In some implementations, the UE receives a first UL grant (such as format 0_0 or format 0_1) for a first HARQ process at time t0. Subsequently, if the UE receives a second UL grant (such as format 0_0 or format 0_1) for the first HARQ process at time t1>t0, wherein the MCS field in the second UL grant indicates one of the reserved entries, for example, MCS indexes 28 to 31 in an MCS table including 32 entries (see, for example, Tables 6.1.4.1-1 and 6.1.4.1-2 in 3GPP TS 38.214), and the NDI bit in the second UL grant is switched relative to the NDI bit value in the first UL grant, then the UE may determine that the second UL grant indicates a cancellation of the transmission, wherein the cancellation may apply to any previously scheduled PUSCH, for example, a PUSCH associated with the first HARQ process, a configured granted PUSCH, an SRS, a PUCCH transmission overlapping the indicated time-frequency resources. In another example, once the UE determines that the UL grant indicates cancellation, one or more fields in the UL grant may be reinterpreted to provide UL cancellation-related parameters. Examples of such parameters may include one or more of the following: time-frequency resources related to the cancellation (such as time-frequency region information, for example, one or more of the time-frequency bitmaps, for canceling the affected UL transmissions), the starting position of the region in time and / or frequency, and the time-frequency granularity of the cancellation indication via one or more fields in the UL grant. In some specific implementations, a time-frequency bitmap (where each bit is mapped to a partition within a configured time-frequency region) is used to indicate the location of the cancellation transmission within the time-frequency region, i.e., which partitions are affected, which can be signaled by reinterpreting the frequency domain and time domain resource allocation fields having N=>1 bits and M=>1 bits, respectively. For example, the M+N bits in these two fields can be used to indicate a bitmap for signaling cancellation on the M+N partitions within the configured time-frequency region.

[0230] In some implementations, one or more fields in the UL grant may be reinterpreted to indicate one or more of the following: a time-frequency bitmap including K=>1 bit to indicate which of the K partitions are affected within the first time-frequency region, a first time-frequency region (including one or more of the time and frequency span and the location where the region starts in frequency and time), a time-frequency granularity, or a value of K. If not indicated via DCI, one or more parameters related to the UL cancellation indication may be configured by higher layer signaling (such as UE-specific RRC signaling). Fields within the UL grant may include bandwidth part indicator, frequency domain resource allocation, time domain resource allocation, frequency hopping flag, redundancy version, HARQ process number, downlink allocation index, TPC command for scheduled PUSCH, SRS resource indicator, precoding information and number of layers, antenna port, SRS request, CBGTI, PTRS-DMRS association, beta_offset indicator, and DMRS sequence initialization. Other and different fields for the UL grant are possible.

[0231] In some implementations, if an UL grant is received for a given HARQ PID (at least T before the scheduled PUSCH transmission opportunity of the CGPUSCH for that HARQ ID), proc,2 time), the UE may cancel the CG PUSCH transmission or CG PUSCH repetition or all subsequent PUSCH repetitions and follow the allocation in the UL grant. In some implementations, for the first HARQ PID (PID indicated in the grant), if the UL-SCH indicator bit = 0, CSI request field = all zeros (such as format 0_1) is received in the first UL grant, it may indicate cancellation of the CG PUSCH UL transmission, PUSCH repetition, or all subsequent PUSCH repetitions associated with the HARQ PID and the UE will not retransmit the PUSCH or PUSCH repetition. In some implementations, the UE only cancels the PUSCH repetition (e.g., indicating the next PUSCH repetition after the cancellation) and still transmits the subsequent PUSCH repetitions.

[0232] In some implementations, a new UE-specific DCI format may be used for UL CI, which may be received with a newly configured RNTI or C-RNTI. The size of the new DCI format may match the fallback DCI format. In some implementations, the new DCI format is a scheduling DCI, e.g., a scheduling DCI containing a null grant, and the time-frequency region to be cancelled may be determined based on the time and frequency resource indication in the DCI.

[0233] The new DCI format may include one or more of the following configurable fields: a header or flag, if multiple DCI formats have the same size; a time-frequency region field, which is used to indicate which time-frequency region (e.g., affected region) is to be canceled; a coarse indication field, which may be 1 bit to indicate whether the remaining PUSCH / repetition opportunities are to be canceled or only the affected region is to be canceled; a CBG level field, which is used to indicate which CBGs are to be canceled; one or more HARQ IDs; a carrier indicator; a BWP indicator; one or more power control parameters, if the UE is required to adjust the transmission power in the affected region; a field indicating whether to transmit uplink control information (UCI), if the UCI is initially selected to be multiplexed onto the overlapping PUSCH (it is possible that the UE can still transmit UCI on the PUCCH, despite the need to cancel the PUSCH); and a zero padding field. In some implementations, the time-frequency region field may include a bit field containing XY≥1 bits to indicate the region to cancel transmission, where X indicates the number of time partitions and Y indicates the number of frequency partitions within the configured region. Configurable time and frequency granularity. In some implementations, the UE may determine the affected area based on a configured offset from the location of the DCI or identify the T proc,2 PUSCH / repetition to be cancelled after time. In some implementations, the power control parameter may include a 2-bit field, where a 00-bit value indicates cancellation, and other values ​​indicate power adjustment on overlapping transmissions.

[0234] In some implementations, a group common DCI format may be used for UL CI, which may include one or more of the following fields: a common time frequency region field, which is used to indicate which time frequency region is to be canceled; one or more UE-specific fields with a coarse indication, in each UE-specific field there is a 1-bit coarse indication field, which is used to indicate whether the transmission is to be canceled; an offset field, which is used to indicate, for example, a time offset from the last symbol of the PDCCH carrying the CI to the start position of the configured region. In some implementations, the offset field is configured by a higher layer. In some implementations, the common time frequency region field may include a bit field containing XY≥1 bits to indicate the region to cancel the transmission, where X indicates the number of time partitions and Y indicates the number of frequency partitions within the configured region. Configurable time and frequency granularity. The region field may include carrier-specific common fields, each of which includes XY bits. In some implementations, X={1,2,3} and Y={1,2,3,4,5,6,7}. Other values ​​of X and Y are also possible. The time domain granularity can be 1 to 14 symbols, and the frequency domain granularity can be 1 / 2, 1 / 4, 1 / 8 or 1 / 16 of the effective BWP. The region of the reference configuration can be a continuous symbol group, a continuous PRB group, or both. In some specific implementations, if the UL CI is transmitted in the GC DCI message, the UE only cancels the PUSCH or PUSCH repetitions that overlap with the indicated region, and the remaining PUSCH repetitions can still be transmitted.

[0235] In some implementations, if the UE can multiplex UCI onto the PUSCH in the timeslot and the UE receives an UL CI indicating the cancellation of the PUSCH, the UE can still transmit UCI in the initial PUCCH resources if the PUCCH resources do not overlap with the indicated time-frequency region to be avoided by the UL CI. In some implementations, if the PUCCH resources of the scheduled UCI message overlap with the first PUSCH and the second PUSCH and the first PUSCH in the timeslot are located before the second PUSCH, the UE can multiplex the UCI message onto the first PUSCH, unless the UL CI canceling the first PUSCH is received, otherwise if it does not overlap with the region indicated by the UL CI, the UE can multiplex the UCI message onto the second PUSCH.

[0236] The network may use a given bandwidth portion in a carrier for overlapping transmissions of multiple service types. For example, a 60kHz bandwidth portion may be used that may benefit from low-latency transmissions. In order to facilitate overlapping transmissions so that one or more of the overlapping transmissions are not adversely affected, if the network expects subsequent overlapping transmissions, some parameters, such as power control parameters, may be provided to the UE. If overlapping transmissions are not expected, the UE may operate using existing power control parameters or according to other indicated power control parameters. In some specific implementations, the network may provide a dynamic indication of power control parameters to one or more UEs with overlapping transmissions. In some specific implementations, the UE may be provided with power control parameters as part of a BWP configuration, an independent configuration, or as part of other UL-associated configurations, which may be turned off by default. When such overlapping transmissions are expected, the parameter value may be turned on. The parameter may be indicated by UE-specific RRC signaling.

[0237] The UE may be configured with one or more RNTIs, each of which may be used to scramble the CRC appended to the DCI format. In some implementations, the UE is configured with RNTI A and RNTI B. One or more parameters related to the UL transmission may be implicitly obtained based on the RNTI used. For example, if RNTI A is used, a first set of power control parameters may be assumed. If RNTI B is used, a second set of power control parameters may be assumed. For example, when a UL grant provides resources in a manner that overlaps with other transmissions, RNTI B may be used by the network with the grant so that the UE can use appropriate power settings to control UL interference.

[0238] Fig.12 A flow chart of a process performed by a UE to monitor and respond to a cancellation indication is shown. At 1205, the UE receives configuration information that provides a search space set configuration associated with a CORESET to monitor for an uplink cancellation indication. Receiving the configuration information may include receiving the configuration information in RRC signaling. The configuration information may include a monitoring duration of a monitoring window for controlling the UE to monitor the PDCCH for the cancellation indication, a monitoring offset to a starting position of the monitoring window, a PDCCH monitoring periodicity, a monitoring mode within a time slot, or a combination thereof. In some specific implementations, the configuration information includes an RNTI based on the cancellation indication, which is used to detect a DCI message scrambled by the RNTI.

[0239] At 1210, the UE receives scheduling information for scheduling one or more uplink transmissions. In some implementations, receiving the scheduling information includes receiving an uplink grant for scheduling a PUSCH transmission. The uplink grant may be provided in a DCI message. In some implementations, the scheduled PUSCH transmission is associated with a HARQ process.

[0240] At 1215, the UE monitors for uplink cancellation indications based on the configuration information. Monitoring for uplink cancellation indications may include detecting a DCI message contained within a CORESET corresponding to the search space set configuration. In some implementations, monitoring for uplink cancellation indications includes activating the search space set configuration in response to receiving a UE-specific PDCCH message scheduling one or more uplink transmissions.

[0241] At 1220, the UE determines whether a DCI message including an uplink cancellation indication has been received. If not, the UE continues monitoring at 1215. In some implementations, the DCI message including the cancellation indication is a UE-specific DCI message. In some implementations, the DCI message including the cancellation indication is a group-common DCI message. In some implementations, the UE is configured to use an RNTI based on the cancellation indication to determine whether the UE should process the DCI message.

[0242] If the DCI has been received, then at 1225, the UE cancels at least a portion of one or more uplink transmissions in response to the uplink cancellation indication in the received DCI message. Canceling at least a portion of one or more uplink transmissions may include canceling a PUSCH transmission, one or more repetitions of a PUSCH transmission, or both. Canceling a scheduled transmission may also be referred to as dropping a scheduled transmission.

[0243] A communication technique using CI-based signaling includes: receiving a first configuration signaling by a UE to provide a search space set configuration associated with a CORESET to monitor an uplink cancellation indication; receiving a second configuration signaling by the UE to turn on monitoring for an uplink cancellation indication; receiving a first UE-specific PDCCH by the UE to schedule an uplink transmission; receiving a second UE-specific PDCCH by the UE to indicate cancellation of a first portion of an uplink transmission scheduled by the first PDCCH; and canceling at least a portion of the uplink transmission by the UE. In some implementations, the first configuration signaling is transmitted in UE-specific RRC signaling. The configuration information may include one or more of the following: a duration for the UE to monitor the PDCCH, a monitoring offset to a starting position of the duration, a PDCCH monitoring periodicity, or a monitoring mode within a time slot. In some implementations, the second configuration signaling is transmitted in UE-specific RRC signaling. The technique may include receiving a second uplink grant by the UE, the second uplink grant including an MCS field for indicating a reserved entry, and an NDI bit that is switched compared to the NDI bit in the first uplink grant. In some implementations, canceling at least a portion of the uplink transmission may include canceling a PUSCH transmission, and the UE does not retransmit. In some implementations, a second UE-specific PDCCH is monitored after receiving a first UE-specific PDCCH. In some implementations, the first UE-specific PDCCH and the second UE-specific PDCCH are transmitted using the same DCI format. In some implementations, the configuration of the search space set is only valid after the first UE-specific PDCCH is received and detected. In some implementations, the UE is configured to ignore the periodicity configured as part of the search space set configuration and monitor only for the indicated duration.

[0244] Another communication technique includes: receiving a first uplink grant scheduling a PUSCH transmission for a HARQ PID; receiving a second uplink grant for the HARQ PID, wherein the second uplink grant is received before or during a PUSCH resource; and canceling the PUSCH transmission by the UE. In some implementations, the UE is configured to retransmit the PUSCH transmission based on the second uplink grant. In some implementations, the UL-SCH indicator bit = 0, the CSI request = all zeros. In some implementations, the UE cancels the PUSCH transmission and does not retransmit.

[0245] Yet another communication technique includes: receiving a first uplink grant that schedules a PUSCH transmission for a first HARQ process identifier (PID) in an uplink resource; receiving a second uplink grant for the first HARQ PID, wherein the second uplink grant is received before or during the uplink resource; and canceling the PUSCH transmission. In some implementations, the uplink resource is a first uplink resource, and the second uplink grant corresponds to a second uplink resource, and the UE is configured to transmit a PUSCH in the second uplink resource. In some implementations, the canceled PUSCH transmission is not transmitted at a later time. In some implementations, the PUSCH transmission will include HARQ feedback associated with the HARQ PID. In some implementations, the uplink resource is a new radio resource. In some implementations, the HARQ PID is associated with a new radio downlink transmission.

[0246] Yet another communication technique includes receiving a first uplink grant to schedule a first PUSCH for a first HARQ PID; receiving a second uplink grant for the first HARQ PID, wherein the second uplink grant is received before or during a first PUSCH resource; and canceling PUSCH transmission of the first PUSCH resource.

[0247] Techniques may include retransmitting the PUSCH transmission based on the second uplink grant. In some implementations, the UL-SCH indicator bits are equal to zero and the CSI request is equal to all zeros. In some implementations, the UE does not retransmit the canceled PUSCH transmission. In some implementations, the MCS field in the second uplink grant indicates a reserved entry and the NDI bit in the second uplink grant is toggled relative to the NDI bit in the first uplink grant. In some implementations, the UE does not retransmit the canceled PUSCH transmission.

[0248] Other techniques may include generating, transmitting, receiving or processing a DCI including an uplink grant to indicate whether a subsequent DCI may cancel, stop or preempt a scheduled PUSCH. Still other techniques may include generating, transmitting, receiving or processing an uplink grant indicating a canceled PUSCH; and interpreting one or more fields in an uplink grant to indicate parameters related to uplink cancellation.

[0249] These and other techniques may be performed by an apparatus implemented or employed in one or more types of network components, user equipment, or both. In some implementations, one or more non-transitory computer-readable media include instructions for causing an electronic device to perform one or more of the techniques described herein when the instructions are executed by one or more processors of an electronic device. An apparatus may include one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more of the techniques described herein.

[0250] In different specific implementations, the methods described herein can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. In addition, the order of the blocks of the method can be changed, and various elements can be added, reordered, combined, omitted, modified, etc. Various modifications and changes can be made, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art who benefit from this disclosure. The various specific implementations described herein are intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements are possible. Therefore, multiple examples can be provided for the components described herein as a single example. The boundaries between various components, operations, and data repositories are arbitrary to a certain extent, and specific operations are shown in the context of a specific exemplary configuration. Other allocations of functions are contemplated, and they may fall within the scope of the appended claims. Finally, the structure and function presented as discrete components in the exemplary configuration may be implemented as a combined structure or component.

[0251] The methods described herein may be implemented in a circuit, such as one or more of an integrated circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and / or a memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), a digital signal processor (DSP), or some combination thereof. In some specific implementations, the circuit may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the functions described. The term "circuit" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements and a program code for performing the functions of the program code (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system). In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit. The circuit may also include a radio circuit, such as a transmitter, a receiver, or a transceiver.

[0252] A plurality of specific implementations have been described. However, it should be understood that various modifications may be made. Elements in one or more specific implementations may be combined, deleted, modified or supplemented to form other specific implementations. As another example, the logic flow shown in the accompanying drawings does not require the specific order or sequential order shown to achieve the desired result. In addition, other steps may be provided or steps may be eliminated from the process, and other components may be added to the system or removed from the system. Therefore, other specific embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising: receiving configuration information, the configuration information providing a search space set configuration associated with a control resource set CORESET to monitor for an uplink cancellation indication, wherein the configuration information includes a radio network temporary identifier RNTI based on the cancellation indication; receiving scheduling information for scheduling one or more uplink transmissions; monitoring the uplink cancellation indication based on the configuration information via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the search space set, wherein a priority is provided so that the PDCCH of the search space set is monitored; receiving, via the PDCCH, a downlink control information (DCI) message indicating the uplink cancellation indication, wherein the DCI message is scrambled by the RNTI based on the cancellation indication; as well as In response to detecting the DCI message, at least a portion of the one or more uplink transmissions are cancelled.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the configuration information comprises receiving the configuration information in radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes one or more of the following: a monitoring duration of a monitoring window for monitoring the PDCCH for cancellation indication, a monitoring offset to a starting position of the monitoring window, a PDCCH monitoring periodicity, a monitoring mode within a time slot, or a priority for monitoring the PDCCH.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving scheduling information comprises receiving a UE-specific message via the PDCCH, and wherein monitoring the uplink cancellation indication comprises activating the search space set configuration in response to receiving the UE-specific PDCCH message. The method of claim 1 , wherein the DCI message is a UE-specific DCI message. The method of claim 1 , wherein the DCI message is a group common DCI.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the scheduling information comprises receiving an uplink grant scheduling a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the PUSCH transmission is associated with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier (PID).

9. The method of claim 7, wherein canceling at least a portion of the one or more uplink transmissions comprises canceling the PUSCH transmission, one or more repetitions of the PUSCH transmission, or both.

10. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: one or more processors; as well as A memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including: receiving configuration information, the configuration information providing a search space set configuration associated with a control resource set CORESET to monitor for an uplink cancellation indication, wherein the configuration information includes a radio network temporary identifier RNTI based on the cancellation indication; receiving scheduling information for scheduling one or more uplink transmissions; monitoring the uplink cancellation indication on a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the search space set based on the configuration information, wherein a priority is provided so that the PDCCH of the search space set is monitored; receiving a downlink control information (DCI) message on the PDCCH, the DCI message including the uplink cancellation indication, wherein the DCI message is scrambled by the RNTI based on the cancellation indication; as well as In response to detecting the DCI message, at least a portion of the one or more uplink transmissions are cancelled.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein receiving the configuration information comprises receiving the configuration information in radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

12. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the configuration information includes one or more of the following: for controlling the monitoring duration of the monitoring window for monitoring the PDCCH for cancellation indication, the monitoring offset to the starting position of the monitoring window, the PDCCH monitoring periodicity, the monitoring mode within the time slot, or the priority of monitoring the PDCCH.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein receiving scheduling information comprises receiving a UE-specific message via the PDCCH, and wherein monitoring the uplink cancellation indication comprises activating the search space set configuration in response to receiving the UE-specific PDCCH message. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the DCI message is a UE-specific DCI message.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the DCI message is a group common DCI.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein receiving the scheduling information comprises receiving an uplink grant scheduling a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the PUSCH transmission is associated with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier (PID).

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein canceling at least a portion of the one or more uplink transmissions comprises canceling the PUSCH transmission, one or more repetitions of the PUSCH transmission, or both.

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