Telecommunications equipment and methods

Abstract

A method for operating a terminal device in a wireless telecommunication system, the method comprising: determining that a first uplink control information should be sent using a first radio resource set; determining that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority; determining that a second uplink control information should be sent using a second radio resource set; determining that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority; determining whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, selectively multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering the priorities corresponding to the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; selecting a radio resource set for sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; and sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information using the selected radio resource set.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to wireless telecommunication devices and methods. Background Art

[0002] The "background technology" description provided herein is to generally present the context of the present disclosure. To the extent described in this background technology section, the work of the currently named inventors and aspects of the description that may not be considered prior art at the time of filing are neither explicitly nor implicitly admitted to be prior art against the present invention.

[0003] New generation mobile telecommunication systems (e.g., mobile telecommunication systems based on the UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architectures defined by 3GPP) are capable of supporting a wider range of services than the simple voice and messaging services provided by previous generations of mobile telecommunication systems. For example, through the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, users are able to enjoy high data rate applications, such as mobile video streaming and mobile video conferencing, which were previously only available via fixed line data connections. As a result, there is a great demand for the deployment of such networks, and the coverage areas of these networks (i.e., the geographic locations where the networks can be accessed) are expected to continue to increase rapidly.

[0004] It is expected that future wireless communication networks will effectively support communications with an ever-increasing range of devices and data traffic profiles compared to the range that existing systems are optimized to support. For example, it is expected that future wireless communication networks will effectively support communications with devices, including reduced complexity devices, machine type communication devices, high-resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets, etc. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in large quantities, for example, low-complexity devices used to support the "Internet of Things", and may generally be associated with the transmission of smaller amounts of data with higher delay tolerance. Other types of devices, such as those supporting high-definition video streaming, may be associated with the transmission of relatively large amounts of data with relatively low delay tolerance. Other types of devices, such as those used for autonomous vehicle communications and for other critical applications, may be characterized by data that should be transmitted over the network with low latency and high reliability. Depending on the applications being run, a single device type may also be associated with different business profiles / characteristics. For example, when a smartphone is running a video streaming application (high downlink data), different considerations may be applied to effectively support data exchange with a smartphone compared to when the smartphone is running an Internet browsing application (sporadic uplink and downlink data) or when it is used for voice communications by emergency responders in emergency situations (data subject to strict reliability and delay requirements).

[0005] In view of this, future wireless communication networks, such as those that may be referred to as 5G or new radio (NR) systems / new radio access technology (RAT) systems as well as future iterations / versions of existing systems, are expected to support connectivity for a wide range of devices efficiently associated with different applications and different feature data service profiles and requirements.

[0006] Example use cases currently considered to be of interest for next and latest generation wireless communication systems include so-called ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) / enhanced ultra-reliable and low latency communications (eURLLC) and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB). See, for example, 3GPP documents RP-160671, “New SID Proposal: New Radio Access Technology Study,” NTT DOCOMO, RAN#71 [1]; RP-172834, “Work Item on New Radio (NR) Access Technology,” NTT DOCOMO, RAN#78 [2]; RP-182089, “Physical Layer Enhancements for NR Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) New SID,” Huawei, HiSilicon, Nokia, Nokia Shanghai Bell, RAN#81 [3]; and RP-190654, “Physical Layer Enhancements for NR Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC),” Huawei, HiSilicon, Shenzhen, China, March 18-21, 2019 [4].

[0007] URLLC services are low latency and high reliability services (e.g., supporting applications such as factory automation, transportation industry, power distribution, etc.). For example, a URLLC service may be designed to transmit data over a radio network with a target 32-byte packet transmission time (i.e., the time from the ingress of a layer 2 packet to its egress from the network) of 1ms (i.e., each packet needs to be scheduled and transmitted at the physical layer in less than 1ms), and with 99.999% reliability within the 1ms target packet transmission time, and there are recent proposals to increase this to 99.9999%, with latency between 0.5ms and 1ms.

[0008] On the other hand, eMBB services can generally be characterized as high-capacity services, e.g., supporting up to 20 Gb / s, which have relatively lower priority and relatively lower reliability requirements compared to URLLC services.

[0009] The inventors have recognized that the desire to efficiently support transmissions with different priority and reliability requirements in wireless telecommunication systems, such as for URLLC and eMBB data, introduces new challenges that need to be addressed to help optimize the operation of the wireless telecommunication systems. Summary of the invention

[0010] The present disclosure may help solve or alleviate at least some of the problems discussed above.

[0011] Various aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in the appended claims.

[0012] It should be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are illustrative rather than restrictive of the present technology. The described embodiments and further advantages will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] A more complete understanding of the present disclosure and many of its attendant advantages will be readily obtained by referring to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and in which:

[0014] Figure 1 schematically represents some aspects of an LTE-type wireless telecommunications network that may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0015] Figure 2 schematically represents some aspects of a new radio access technology (RAT) wireless telecommunications network that may be configured to operate in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0016] Figure 3 A schematic diagram showing a telecommunications system according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0017] Figure 4 Four potential PUCCH resource sets are schematically shown;

[0018] Figure 5 schematically illustrates an example mapping from a logical channel identifier to a PUCCH resource identifier;

[0019] Figure 6 schematically illustrates examples of radio resources associated with a terminal device in an uplink radio resource grid (upper half of the figure) and a downlink radio resource grid;

[0020] Figure 7 Schematically represents the selection of a PUCCH resource identifier;

[0021] Figure 8 schematically illustrates an example mapping from a scheduling request identifier to an index in a scheduling request indication lookup (SILT) table;

[0022] Figures 9 to 17 schematically illustrating an example of radio resources associated with a terminal device in an uplink radio resource grid;

[0023] Fig.18schematically illustrates an example mapping from a scheduling request identifier to an index into a reduced-size SILT table; and

[0024] Fig.19 is a flow chart schematically illustrating some operational aspects of a terminal device according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] Figure 1 A schematic diagram is provided illustrating some basic functions of a mobile telecommunication network / system 100 , which typically operates according to LTE principles but may also support other radio access technologies and may be suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure described herein. Figure 1 Certain aspects of the various elements and their corresponding modes of operation are well known and defined in relevant standards and related recommendations managed by the 3GPP (RTM) body and are also described in a number of books on the subject, for example, Holma H. ​​and Toskala A [5]. It should be understood that operational aspects of the telecommunications network discussed herein that are not specifically described (e.g., with regard to specific communication protocols and physical channels used for communication between the different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example, in accordance with relevant standards and known proposed modifications and additions to relevant standards.

[0026] The network 100 includes a plurality of base stations 101 connected to a core network 102. Each base station provides a coverage area 103 within which data can be communicated with terminal devices 104. Data is transmitted from the base station 101 to the terminal devices 104 within its respective coverage area 103 via a radio downlink. The coverage area may be referred to as a cell. Data is transmitted from the terminal device 104 to the base station 101 via a radio uplink. The core network 102 routes data to and from the terminal device 104 via the respective base station 101 and provides functions such as authentication, mobility management, charging, etc. The terminal device may also be referred to as a mobile station, user equipment (UE), user terminal, mobile radio, communication device, etc. A base station is an example of a network infrastructure device / network access node, which may also be referred to as a transceiver station / nodeB / e-nodeB / g-nodeB, etc. In this regard, different terms are often associated with different generations of wireless telecommunication systems for elements providing broadly comparable functions. However, certain embodiments of the present disclosure may be equally implemented in different generations of wireless telecommunication systems, and for simplicity, specific terms may be used regardless of the underlying network architecture. That is, the use of specific terms associated with specific example embodiments is not intended to indicate that these implementations are limited to the specific generation of networks to which the specific terms are most associated.

[0027] Figure 2is a schematic diagram showing the network architecture of a new RAT wireless mobile telecommunication network / system 300 based on previously proposed methods, which methods may also be adapted to provide functionality according to the disclosed embodiments described herein. Figure 2 The new RAT network 300 represented in the figure includes a first communication unit 301 and a second communication unit 302. Each communication unit 301, 302 includes a control node (centralized unit) 321, 322 that communicates with the core network component 310 via corresponding wired or wireless links 351, 352. The corresponding control nodes 321, 322 also communicate with multiple distributed units (radio access nodes / remote transmission and reception points (TRP)) 311, 312 in their corresponding units. Similarly, these communications can be carried out through corresponding wired or wireless links. The distributed units 311, 312 are responsible for providing a radio access interface for terminal devices connected to the network. Each distributed unit 311, 312 has a coverage area (radio access area) 341, 342, which together define the coverage of the corresponding communication units 301, 302. Each distributed unit 311 , 312 includes a transceiver circuit 311 a , 312 a for transmitting and receiving wireless signals and a processor circuit 311 b , 312 b configured to control the corresponding distributed unit 311 , 312 .

[0028] In terms of broad top-level functionality, Figure 2 The core network components 310 of the telecommunications system shown may be broadly considered to correspond to Figure 1 The core network 102 shown, and the corresponding control nodes 321, 322 and their associated distributed units / TRPs 311, 312 can be broadly considered to provide corresponding Figure 1 The term network infrastructure equipment / access node may be used to encompass these elements of the wireless telecommunications system and the more conventional base station type elements. Depending on the application at hand, the responsibility for scheduling transmissions scheduled over the radio interface between the respective distributed units and the terminal devices may lie with the control node / centralized unit and / or the distributed units / TRP.

[0029] exist Figure 2In the figure, a terminal device 400 is represented within the coverage area of ​​the first communication unit 301. The terminal device 400 can therefore exchange signaling with the first control node 321 in the first communication unit via one distributed unit 311 associated with the first communication unit 301. In some cases, the communication of a given terminal device is routed through only one distributed unit, but it can be understood that in some other implementations, for example, in soft handover scenarios and other scenarios, the communication associated with a given terminal device can be routed through more than one distributed unit. The specific distributed unit through which the terminal device is currently connected to the associated control node can be referred to as the active distributed unit of the terminal device. Therefore, the active subset of distributed units for the terminal device may include one or more distributed units (TRP). The control node 321 is responsible for determining which of the distributed units 311 across the first communication unit 301 is responsible for radio communication with the terminal device 400 at any given time (that is, which of the distributed units is the currently active distributed unit of the terminal device). Typically, this will be based on a measurement of the radio channel conditions between the terminal device 400 and a corresponding one of the distributed units 311. In this regard, it will be appreciated that the subset of distributed units in a cell that is currently active to a terminal device will depend at least in part on the location of the terminal device within the cell (as this contributes significantly to the radio channel conditions that exist between the terminal device and the respective distributed unit).

[0030] In at least some embodiments, the participation of the distributed unit in routing communications from the terminal device to the control node (control unit) is transparent to the terminal device 400. That is, in some cases, the terminal device may not know which distributed unit is responsible for routing communications between the terminal device 400 and the control node 321 of the communication unit 301 currently operated by the terminal device. In this case, for the terminal device, it simply transmits uplink data to the control node 321 and receives downlink data from the control node 321, and the terminal device is unaware of the participation of the distributed unit 311. However, in other embodiments, the terminal device may know which distributed unit is involved in its communication. The switching and scheduling of one or more distributed units can be based on the measurements of the distributed units of the terminal device uplink signals at the network control node or the measurements taken by the terminal device and reported to the control node via one or more distributed units.

[0031] exist Figure 2 In the example, for simplicity, two communication units 301, 302 and one terminal device 400 are shown, but it can be understood that in practice, the system may include a large number of communication units (each communication unit is supported by a corresponding control node and multiple distributed units) serving a large number of terminal devices.

[0032] It should also be understood that Figure 2 It only represents one example of a proposed architecture of a new RAT telecommunication system, in which the method according to the principles described herein may be employed, and the functionalities disclosed herein may also be applied to wireless telecommunication systems having different architectures.

[0033] Thus, certain embodiments of the present disclosure discussed herein may be implemented in accordance with a variety of different architectures (e.g., Figure 1 and 2 The example architecture shown) is implemented in a wireless telecommunications system / network, and in practice is implemented in a network that supports aspects of different architectures in parallel, for example, in a traditional radio access network architecture (e.g., as Figure 1 ) and a new RAT architecture (e.g., Figure 2 It should be understood that the specific wireless telecommunications architecture in any given implementation is not of primary significance to the principles described herein. In this regard, certain embodiments of the present disclosure may be generally described in the context of communications between network infrastructure equipment / access nodes and terminal devices, wherein the specific nature of the network infrastructure equipment / access nodes and terminal devices will depend on the specific network infrastructure to be implemented. For example, in some scenarios, the network infrastructure equipment / access nodes may include base stations, such as Figure 1 The LTE-type base station 101 shown is suitable for providing functionality according to the principles described herein, and in other examples, network infrastructure equipment may include Figure 2 Control units / control nodes 321, 322 and / or TRPs 311, 312 of the type shown are suitable for providing functionality according to the principles described herein, and in other scenarios, the network infrastructure equipment / access nodes may include two base stations, e.g. Figure 1 The LTE type base station 101 is shown, and Figure 2 Control units / control nodes 321 , 322 and / or TRPs 311 , 312 of the type shown, at least one of which is adapted to provide functionality according to the principles described herein.

[0034] As mentioned above, such as Figure 1 The network 100 and Figure 2The mobile communications network of network 300 shown may support services with different characteristics, including services for which reliability (i.e., ensuring that a high chance data can be successfully transmitted through the network) is a primary consideration (e.g., for URLLC). Certain embodiments of the present disclosure present methods that seek to help support reliability of transmissions in a communications network, and may be described in particular in the context of URLLC data (including eURLLC data), but it should be understood that while more stringent requirements associated with new types of data in wireless telecommunications systems may be viewed as a driver for improved reliability, improvements in reliability are beneficial to any type of data used for transmission in a wireless telecommunications system, whether classified as URLLC or similar data or otherwise.

[0035] Figure 3 Some further details of a telecommunications system 500 supporting communications between a radio access node 504 and a terminal device 506 according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure are schematically shown. As an example, it is assumed here that the telecommunications system 500 is broadly based on an LTE-type architecture that may also support other radio access technologies, or use a LTE-based architecture such as Figure 3 The same hardware with appropriate configuration functions as shown, or configured to Figure 3 Individual hardware that operates in association with the hardware shown. However, the specific network architecture in which the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented is not important for the principles described herein. Many aspects of the operation of the telecommunications system / network 500 are known and understood, and are not described in detail herein for the sake of brevity. The operational aspects of the telecommunications system 500 not specifically described herein can be implemented according to any known technology, such as according to current wireless telecommunications system standards and other recommendations for operating wireless telecommunications systems. For convenience, the network access node 504 may sometimes be referred to as a base station 504 in this article, and it can be understood that the term is used for simplicity and is not intended to imply that any network access node should conform to any specific network architecture. On the contrary, it can correspond to any network infrastructure device / network access node that can be configured to provide the functions described herein. In this sense, it will be understood that the specific network architecture in which the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented is not important for the principles described herein.

[0036] The telecommunications system 500 comprises a core network portion 502 coupled to a radio network portion. The radio network portion comprises a radio network access node 504 and a terminal device 506. Of course, it will be appreciated that in practice the radio network portion may comprise more network access nodes, serving a plurality of terminal devices across various communication units (e.g., Figure 1 However, for simplicity, Figure 3 Only one network access node and one end device are shown.

[0037] The terminal device 506 is arranged to transmit data to and from a network access node (base station / transceiver station) 504 or another network access node in a wireless telecommunications system, depending on the coverage area. The network access node 504 is communicatively connected to a core network portion 502, which is arranged to perform routing and management of mobile communication services for terminal devices in the telecommunications system 500 via the network access node 504. The connection from the network access node 504 to the core network 502 can be wired or wireless. In order to maintain mobility management and connectivity, the core network portion 502 also includes a mobility management entity MME, which manages service connections with terminal devices (such as the terminal device 506) operating in the communication system. As described above, Figure 3 The operation of the various elements of the communication system 500 shown in FIG. 5 may be in accordance with known techniques, except as modified to provide functionality in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure as discussed herein.

[0038] The terminal device 506 is adapted to support operations according to embodiments of the present disclosure as discussed herein.

[0039] The terminal device 506 includes a transceiver circuit 506a (which may also be referred to as a transceiver / transceiver unit) for sending and receiving wireless signals and a processor circuit 506b (which may also be referred to as a processor / processor unit) configured to control the terminal device 506. The processor circuit 506b may include various sub-units / sub-circuits for providing the required functionality, as further explained herein. These sub-units may be implemented as discrete hardware elements or appropriately configured functions of the processor circuit. Therefore, the processor circuit 506b may include circuits that are appropriately configured / programmed to provide the desired functionality described herein for the device in the wireless telecommunications system using conventional programming / configuration techniques. For ease of representation, the transceiver circuit 506a and the processor circuit 506b are shown in FIG. Figure 3 Schematically shown as separate components in FIG. 1 . However, it will be appreciated that the functionality of these circuit components may be provided in a variety of different ways, for example, using one or more appropriately programmed programmable computers or one or more appropriately configured application specific integrated circuits / circuitry systems / chips / chip sets. It will be appreciated that the terminal device 506 will typically include various other components associated with its operating functionality, such as a power supply, a user interface, etc., but for simplicity these are not shown in FIG. Figure 3 Not shown in FIG.

[0040] The network access node 504 includes a transceiver circuit 504a (which may also be referred to as a transceiver / transceiver unit) for sending and receiving wireless signals and a processor circuit 504b (which may also be referred to as a processor / processor unit), which is configured to control each network access node 504 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure as described herein. Therefore, the processor circuit 504b for the network access node 504 may include circuits that are appropriately configured / programmed to provide the desired functionality described herein for the devices in the wireless telecommunications system using conventional programming / configuration techniques. For ease of representation, the transceiver circuit 504a and the processor circuit 504b are shown in FIG. Figure 3 Schematically shown as separate elements in FIG. However, it should be understood that the functions of these circuit elements can be provided in various different ways, for example, using one or more appropriately programmed programmable computers or one or more appropriately configured application specific integrated circuits / circuitry systems / chips / chip sets. It should be understood that the network access node 504 will typically include various other elements associated with its operating functions, such as a scheduler.

[0041] Thus, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the network access node 504 is configured to communicate data with the terminal device 506 over the communication link 510 .

[0042] Certain embodiments of the present disclosure relate to apparatus and methods for multiplexing uplink data associated with different services supported by a terminal device, wherein data associated with one service has a higher priority (in the sense of having more stringent delay and / or reliability requirements) than data associated with another service. Thus, in one example, the higher priority service may be a URLCC service, and the lower priority service may be an eMBB service. However, it should be understood that the specific nature of the service is generally not of primary significance to the principles discussed herein.

[0043] Uplink control information (UCI) is used in wireless telecommunications systems to send control signaling from a terminal device to a network. UCI is typically sent on a physical uplink control channel (e.g., PUCCH), but in some cases may be transmitted on a physical uplink shared channel (e.g., PUSCH). Certain aspects of the present disclosure are based on the recognition that uplink control information (UCI) for different services (e.g., URLLC and eMBB services) may have different requirements, which means that they may benefit from different treatments.

[0044] To provide some specific examples, this document will describe certain embodiments of the present disclosure in the context of URLLC and eMBB services and using terminology, such as with respect to channel names (e.g., PUCCH and PDSCH) that are commonly used in conjunction with current 3GPP wireless telecommunications systems. However, it should be understood that this is for convenience only, and that in general, the methods discussed herein are applicable to other service types and wireless telecommunications systems that use different terminology (thus, for other channels and terms that may be referenced herein, unless the context requires otherwise, references to PUCCH herein should be understood to refer generally to the physical uplink control channel, rather than specifically to a specific format of the physical uplink control channel, etc.).

[0045] UCI in wireless telecommunication systems is usually carried by the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). Details on how to handle UCI in wireless telecommunication systems can be found in relevant specifications, such as 3GPP TS 38.211, "Physical Channels and Modulation (Release 15)", v15.6.0 (2019-06) [6]; 3GPP TS 38.212, "Multiplexing and Channel Coding (Release 15)", v15.6.0 (2019-06) [7]; 3GPP TS 38.213, "Physical Layer Procedures for Control (Release 15)", v15.6.0 (2019-06) [8]; and 3GPP TS 38.331, "Radio Resource Control (RRC) Protocol Specification (Release 15)", V15.5.1 (2019-04) for the 3GPP NR (New Radio) series [9].

[0046] Thus, a terminal device may be configured with multiple (e.g. four) potential PUCCH resource sets, where each set is identified by a PUCCH resource set ID {0, 1, 2, 3}, where each set contains multiple potential PUCCH resources (e.g. in terms of time and frequency radio resources) and a maximum payload (i.e. the number of bits to be used for UCI). Table 1 summarizes the configurable parameters for each PUCCH resource set. The values ​​N2 and N3 (i.e. the maximum number of UCI bits for PUCCH resource sets with IDs 1 and 2) are RRC (Radio Resource Control) configurable via the parameter maxPayloadMinus1, which may have a value between 4 and 256 bits, where N3>N2. There are 5 potential PUCCH formats {0, 1, 2, 3, 4}, and PUCCH resources in PUCCH resource set ID 0 can only use PUCCH formats 0 and 1, while other resource sets can only use PUCCH formats 2, 3 and 4.

[0047] Table 1: PUCCH resource set

[0048]

[0049] Figure 4 An example of the structure of a PUCCH resource set is shown. Figure 4 Four PUCCH resource sets are shown (IDs 0, 1, 2, and 3), and in each set there are eight PUCCH resources (IDs 0 to 7). Physical resources, such as the PUCCH format and any frequency hopping, in terms of frequency and time, may be configured for each PUCCH resource. It should be appreciated that although PUCCH resource set ID 0 has only 8 PUCCH resources in this example, the number of PUCCH resources for this set may be in the range of 8 to 32 (as indicated in Table 1).

[0050] The UCI sent by the terminal device may include a scheduling request (SR), i.e. an indication that the terminal device has uplink data to send to the network, confirmation signaling (e.g. HARQ-ACK signaling) regarding a previously received downlink transmission, and an indication of channel state information (CSI), i.e. an indication reporting channel quality.

[0051] A terminal device that wishes to send UCI follows the following principle based on the number of UCI bits N to be transmitted: UCI Select PUCCH resource set:

[0052] If N UCI ≤2 bits and UCI includes HARQ-ACK and / or SR, then select PUCCH resource set ID 0 (PUCCH format 0 can carry 2 HARQ-ACK bits + 1 SR, i.e., 3 bits effectively)

[0053] If N UCI >2 and ≤N2, select PUCCH resource set ID 1

[0054] If N UCI >N2 and ≤N3, then select PUCCH resource set ID 2

[0055] If N UCI > N3 and ≤ 1706 bits, select PUCCH resource set ID 3

[0056] Once a PUCCH resource set is selected, the terminal device selects one of the PUCCH resources in the set depending on whether the UCI contains SR or HARQ-ACK.

[0057] Each potential PUCCH resource in a PUCCH resource set provides time and frequency resources for a terminal device to send its UCI. Each PUCCH resource is configured with a starting resource block (RB) of the PUCCH resource. The number of RBs and time resources (starting OFDM symbol and duration) of a PUCCH resource depends on the PUCCH format.

[0058] There are five potential PUCCH formats {0, 1, 2, 3, 4}. PUCCH formats 0 and 1 are sequence-based, while Reed-Muller or polar codes with CRC (cyclic redundancy check) are used to encode the UCI bits for PUCCH formats 2, 3, and 4. PUCCH formats 0 and 2 are called short PUCCH occupying up to 2 OFDM symbols, while PUCCH formats 1, 3, and 4 are called long PUCCH occupying 4 to 14 OFDM symbols. Each PUCCH format can be configured to start at any OFDM symbol within a slot as long as it does not cause the PUCCH to cross a slot boundary. Table 2 summarizes some features of the different PUCCH formats and is further explained below.

[0059] Table 2: PUCCH format summary

[0060]

[0061] PUCCH format 0

[0062] PUCCH format 0 can carry up to 2 UCI bits and one SR (effectively 3 bits), that is, 2 HARQ-ACK + 1 scheduling request (SR). It is formed by a Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence that occupies one RB (12 subcarriers) and 1 or 2 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols (the so-called short PUCCH), where the number of OFDM symbols is configurable. PUCCH format 0 can indicate 13 different HARQ-ACK and SR combinations (including combinations with different numbers of HARQ-ACK indications) and can be used to indicate different cyclic shifts m. CS to distinguish them. These combinations are shown in Table 3. It can be noted that the same cyclic shift can be used for different combinations, for example, m CS =0 for the 3 combinations {positive SR}, {NACK, positive SR} and {NACK, NACK, positive SR}, since the base station already knows how many HARQ-ACK bits are expected, there is no need to distinguish them based on the cyclic shift applied to the PUCCH. If there are no HARQ-ACK bits to be signaled and there is no SR (i.e., negative SR), then the PUCCH is not transmitted.

[0063] Table 3: Cyclic shifts for indicating different combinations of HARQ-ACK and SR for PUCCH format 0

[0064]

[0065] PUCCH format 1

[0066] PUCCH format 1 can carry up to 2 UCI bits for HARQ-ACK or SR, and uses BPSK (binary phase shift keying) when carrying 1 bit (1 HARQ-ACK or SR), and uses QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying) when carrying 2 bits (2 HARQ-ACK). It occupies one RB (12 subcarriers) in the frequency domain, and can be configured to occupy 4 to 14 OFDM symbols in the time domain (i.e., it is a so-called long PUCCH). The modulated symbols are then multiplied (i.e., spread) using a ZC length 12 sequence in the frequency domain and further spread using an orthogonal sequence in the time domain.

[0067] PUCCH Format 2

[0068] PUCCH format 2 can carry more than 2 UCI bits for HARQ-ACK, SR, and CSI. UCI ≤11 bits (small block length), Reed-Muller coding without CRC is used. UCI >11 bits, polar coding is used and CRC is appended. For PUCCH format 2, the maximum number of RBs is M RB-MAX configurable from 1 to 16, and the number of OFDM symbols can be configured from 1 to 2 (short PUCCH). For this PUCCH format, based on the number of UCI bits (N UCI ) and the configured maximum bit rate R UCI , determine the actual number of RBs used by PUCCH M RB-PUCCH The terminal device determines the M that satisfies the following conditions RB-MAX M > 1 RB-PUCCH The minimum value of RB is used to calculate the actual number of RBs:

[0069] ((M RB-PUCCH -1)×N SC-RB ×N symbol-PUCCH ×Q m ×R UCI )<(N UCI +O CRC )≤(M RB-PUCCH ×N SC-RB ×N symbol-PUCCH ×Q m ×R UCI )

[0070] in,

[0071] O CRC is the number of CRC bits appended to the UCI bits

[0072] N SC-RB is the number of subcarriers in a resource block (RB), i.e., N SC-RB =12

[0073] N symbol is the number of OFDM symbols occupied by PUCCH

[0074] Q m is the modulation order used by PUCCH, i.e., for QPSK Q m = 2 and for π / 2-BPSK Q m =1

[0075] If (N UCI +O CRC )>((M RB-MAX -1)×N SC-RB ×N symbol-PUCCH ×Q m ×R UCI ), then M RB-PUCCH =M RB-MAX That is, when the maximum number of RBs M is used RB-MAX Even if UCI exceeds the maximum bit rate R UCI , the terminal device still sends UCI.

[0076] PUCCH format 3

[0077] PUCCH format 3 is similar to PUCCH format 2, except that it has a longer duration of 4 to 14 OFDM symbols (i.e., it is a long PUCCH). Similar to format 2, it can carry more UCI bits than 2 for HARQ-ACK, SR, and CSI, and if N UCI ≤11 bits (block length), Reed-Muller coding without CRC is used, and if N UCI >11 bits, then append CRC and use polar encoding. Maximum number of RBs M RB-MAX Configurable from 1 to 16, but the actual number of RBs used is based on the number of UCI bits (N UCI ) and the maximum bit rate R configured for this format UCI is determined in the same manner as described above for PUCCH format 2.

[0078] PUCCH format 4

[0079] PUCCH format 4 is similar to PUCCH format 3, except that it occupies one RB and an additional orthogonal code is applied to it so that it can be code-multiplexed with other PUCCHs, i.e., multiple PUCCHs from different terminal devices can share the same frequency and time resources but can be distinguished based on the orthogonal codes.

[0080] As for PUCCH format 3, PUCCH format 4 can carry more than 2 UCI bits for HARQ-ACK, SR and CSI, and if N UCI ≤11 bits (block length), Reed-Muller coding without CRC is used, and if N UCI >11 bits, a CRC is appended and polar coding is used. The duration of PUCCH format 4 is configurable from 4 to 14 OFDM symbols. A configurable maximum code rate is also used to determine the maximum number of UCI bits that can be multiplexed into the PUCCH.

[0081] Scheduling Request

[0082] When data arrives at a logical channel buffer with a specific logical channel ID (LCID), the MAC layer in the terminal device will trigger a scheduling request (SR), which is a 1-bit indicator to inform the serving base station (network access node) that PUSCH resources need to be allocated for that LCID. One or more LCIDs are mapped to a scheduling request ID (SR-ID), of which there are up to 8 SR-IDs. A single independent SR transmission (1 bit) can only use PUCCH format 0 or format 1, and each SR-ID is configured as a PUCCH resource ID in PUCCH resource set ID 0, that is, it points to one of the PUCCH resources in PUCCH resource set ID 0 (which can only contain PUCCH format 0 or format 1). If one or more SRs are multiplexed with other UCI (such as HARQ-ACK and / or CSI), other PUCCH formats can be used. Figure 5 An example mapping between LCID, SR-ID and PUCCH resource ID is shown (it should be understood that this is just an example mapping and other mappings may be configured).

[0083] exist Figure 5 In the example of , LCID 2 and 3 are configured with SR-ID 0, so whenever data arrives at LCID 2 or LCID 3, this condition will trigger the SR corresponding to the SR-ID 0 configuration. This in turn will use the PUCCH resources according to the PUCCH resources configured for PUCCH resource ID 1, in Figure 5In the example of , its starting RB is 5 and uses PUCCH format 0. Other LCIDs are similarly mapped to their corresponding SR-IDs and the PUCCH resource IDs used to transmit those SR-IDs. As described above, Figure 5 Only one example configuration is shown, and other LCID to SR-ID and SR-ID to PUCCH resource ID configurations may be used, and each PUCCH resource ID may be configured with a different starting RB position and PUCCH format (0 or 1).

[0084] Each SR-ID is also configured with a period that can range from 2 symbols (for any subcarrier spacing) to 80, 160, 320, and 640 slots for subcarrier spacings of 15kHz, 30kHz, 60kHz, and 120kHz, respectively. A time offset can also be configured for each SR-ID, which facilitates multiplexing of SR-IDs and differentiation between different SR-IDs.

[0085] Since there is a one-to-one mapping between PUCCH resource IDs (in PUCCH resource set ID 0) and SR IDs, the base station is able to determine which LCID triggered the SR based on the PUCCH frequency resources (starting RB) and time resources (period, offset, starting symbol and duration) used to send the SR. A single independent SR is transmitted only if it is positive, i.e., triggered by one or more LCIDs, while an indication of a negative SR can be sent together with other signaling (e.g., HARQ feedback).

[0086] HARQ-ACK

[0087] A hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement signaling (HARQ-ACK) feedback about PDSCH scheduling is transmitted by the terminal device to the base station to inform the base station whether the terminal device has successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH. If the terminal device has successfully decoded the relevant PDSCH transmission, the terminal device transmits an ACK indication, and if the terminal device has not successfully decoded the relevant PDSCH transmission, the terminal device transmits a NACK indication. For simplicity, the term confirmation signaling can be used to refer to HARQ signaling, regardless of whether the confirmation signaling indicates ACK or NACK. For a PDSCH that ends in time slot n, the corresponding PUCCH carrying HARQ-ACK is transmitted in time slot n+K1, where the value of K1 is indicated in the "PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator" field in the DL grant (carried by DCI (downlink control information) format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1). Multiple (different) PDSCHs can point to the same time slot for the transmission of their respective HARQ-ACKs, and multiple HARQ-ACKs in the same time slot can be multiplexed into a single PUCCH. Therefore, the PUCCH may contain multiple HARQ-ACKs for multiple PDSCHs. Such an example is Figure 6 shown.

[0088] Figure 6 Schematically shown are an uplink radio resource grid (upper part of the figure) and a downlink radio resource grid (lower part of the figure) representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis). Figure 6 Schematically shows the time span across five time slots (in Figure 6The radio resources used by the terminal device in the example scenario during the period (identified as time slots n to n+4) in the example scenario. In time slot n, the terminal device receives downlink control information (DCI#1) indicating the allocation of radio resources on the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH#1) in time slot n+1, and its PDSCH-to-HARQ_BEACKING timing indicator value is K1=3. In time slot n+1, the terminal device receives downlink control information (DCI#2) indicating the allocation of radio resources on the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH#2) in time slot n+2, and its PDSCH-to-HARQ_BEACKING timing indicator value is K1=2. In time slot n+2, the terminal device receives downlink control information (DCI#3) indicating the allocation of radio resources on the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH#3) in time slot n+3, and its PDSCH-to-HARQ_BEACKING timing indicator value is K1=1. Thus, in this particular example scenario, the HARQ-ACK feedback for each of the three downlink transmissions on the physical downlink shared channel is transmitted by the terminal device in a multiplexed manner in time slot n+4. To support this multiplexed HARQ-ACK functionality, a multiplexing window may be defined, where the multiplexing window is a time window that indicates how many PDSCHs in a single time slot may have their associated HARQ-ACK signaling multiplexed in the PUCCH, and may depend on a range of K1 values. Figure 6 In the example in , it is assumed that the PUCCH multiplexing window is from time slot n to time slot n+3, which means that the maximum K1 value that can be used during this period is 4.

[0089] To send multiplexed HARQ-ACK signaling, the terminal device first determines the number of HARQ-ACK bits to be sent, i.e., N as described above. UCI bits, determining the PUCCH resource set to be used. Once the PUCCH resource set is determined, the terminal device then determines the PUCCH resource ID of the selected PUCCH resource set to be used. For a PUCCH resource set with 8 PUCCH resources, the PUCCH resource ID to be used is indicated by the PUCCH resource indicator (PRI) in the DL grant that schedules the last PDSCH (i.e., the PRI field in DCI format 1_0 and DCI format 1_1). For PUCCH resource set ID 0 with more than 8 configured PUCCH resources, in addition to the PRI, the terminal device also uses the control channel element (CCE) index of the PDCCH carrying the DL grant to schedule the last PDSCH to be multiplexed for HARQ-ACK signaling, i.e., the last PDSCH in the PUCCH multiplexing window (e.g., in Figure 6 In the example, the last PDSCH is PDSCH#3).

[0090] Figure 7 An example of selecting a PUCCH resource ID for multiplexing in UCI in a single slot by a terminal device with 3 HARQ-ACK feedbacks is shown in FIG. Figure 6 ). Figure 7 Similar to Figure 4 , and will be Figure 4 It is understood that N2 (the maximum payload of PUCCH resource set ID 1) is configured as 20 bits and N3 (the maximum payload of PUCCH resource set ID 2) is configured as 60 bits (it should be understood that these are just example values). Figure 7 It is also indicated that in these example cases, the terminal device selects PUCCH resource ID 6 in PUCCH resource set ID 1. This is because the number of UCI bits that the terminal device needs to transmit for three multiplexed HARQ-ACK feedback is N UCI =3, which results in the terminal device selecting PUCCH resource set ID 1, since it has the smallest maximum payload that can contain three HARQ-ACK bits, and assuming that the last PDSCH is scheduled (e.g. Figure 6 The DL grant for PDSCH #3 in RB 7 sets the PRI field to 6, which indicates to the terminal device to use PUCCH resource ID=6 for its UCI transmission, which means that the terminal device should use PUCCH format 3 starting from RB 7.

[0091] SR and HARQ-ACK multiplexing

[0092] A terminal device may be in a situation where a UCI carrying an SR for the terminal device and another UCI carrying HARQ-ACK feedback collide in the same time slot. In a wireless telecommunication system currently recommended in accordance with Release 15 of the 3GPP standard specification series, SR and HARQ-ACK feedback in the same time slot are multiplexed into a single UCI in consideration of the following principles.

[0093] If the SR UCI scheduled to be carried by the first PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 or format 1 conflicts with the HARQ-ACK UCI scheduled to be carried by the second PUCCH using format 0, the SR is multiplexed on the second PUCCH (PUCCH format 0) by using a cyclic shift corresponding to the positive SR, and the related HARQ-ACK values ​​to be sent are summarized in Table 3 above.

[0094] If the SR UCI scheduled to be carried by the first PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 collides with the HARQ-ACK UCI scheduled to be carried by the second PUCCH using format 1, the SR is simply not transmitted, that is, only the HARQ-ACK UCI carried by the second PUCCH using format 1 is transmitted.

[0095] If an SR UCI scheduled to be carried by a first PUCCH using PUCCH format 1 collides with an HARQ-ACK UCI scheduled to be carried by a second PUCCH using format 1, then if the SR is positive, the UCI with HARQ-ACK is transmitted using the first PUCCH, but if the SR is negative, the HARQ-ACK is transmitted using the second PUCCH.

[0096] If the terminal device is configured to potentially transmit multiple SRs, such as mapping to K SR The number K of different SR-IDs SR SR, and their configured periods collide in a specific time slot, and in this same specific time slot, a number O scheduled to carry HARQ-ACK bits using format 2, format 3, or format 4 is also transmitted. ACK If a second PUCCH is used, the SR is multiplexed into the second PUCCH.

[0097] It can be noted that when K SR When PUCCH resources collide in the same time slot, not all of these SRs are necessarily positive. SR =ceiling[log2(K SR +1)]SR bit is used to indicate which K SR SR-ID has a positive SR. If all SRs in this slot are negative, then all SR Set the bit to 0. SR The bit is appended to UCI O ACK bits and uses the second PUCCH transmission. This function essentially corresponds to forming what may be referred to as a SR +1 entry of SR indication lookup table (SILT), and additional O SR The SR_ID bit points to one of these entries to indicate which SR-ID has the positive SR. Figure 8 An example SILT and the mapping of SR-IDs to entries in the SILT are shown schematically. Figure 8 In the example, eight SR-IDs {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} are configured, and in this example, it is assumed that four of them (i.e., K SR =4) SR-IDs {1, 4, 5, 7} conflict in a specific time slot. Therefore, these four SR-IDs form a K SR+1 = a lookup table of 5 entries, one of which is used to indicate that all SRs are negative. Here, O SR = 3 bits are used to indicate one of the 5 entries. It should be noted that although O SR However, due to these O SR The bits point to these K SR The index of one of the SR-IDs, so only K is indicated SR 1 positive SR in .

[0098] In the current wireless telecommunication system recommended according to Release 15 of the 3GPP standard specification series, even if the total number of UCI bits N to be transmitted UCI =O ACK +O SR +O CRC (O CRC is the number of CRC bits) means that when the maximum number of RBs M is used RB-MAX When the maximum bit rate R is exceeded UCI PUCCH is still transmitted when multiplexing UCI. However, while this is acceptable in many cases, the inventors have recognized that this may not be acceptable for UCI of certain services, such as URLLC or other high priority services, because the resulting code rate for PUCCH with multiplexed UCI may not be sufficient to provide reliability targets for URLLC. Therefore, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, certain modifications to existing UCI multiplexing methods are provided to seek to help reduce the impact of this problem.

[0099] Therefore, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for operating a terminal device in a wireless telecommunications system, comprising: determining that a scheduling request (or more generally, first uplink control information) should be sent using a first radio resource set; determining an indication of the priority of the scheduling request; determining that additional uplink control information (e.g., HARQ-ACK and / or CSI information) should be sent using a second radio resource set; determining an indication of the priority of the additional uplink control information; determining whether there is an overlap (i.e., a conflict) between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set; in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, selectively multiplexing the scheduling request and the additional uplink control information together by considering the priorities corresponding to the scheduling request and the additional uplink control information, and selecting a radio resource set for sending the multiplexed scheduling request and the additional uplink control information; and sending the multiplexed scheduling request and the additional uplink control information using the selected radio resource set.

[0100] Accordingly, certain embodiments of the present disclosure relate to aspects such as (i) determining the priority of uplink control information (including SR, HARQ-ACK, and CSI); (ii) selecting a radio resource set for sending multiplexed control information; and (iii) multiplexing different types of control information together for transmission on the selected radio resource set in a manner that takes into account the different priorities of the different types of control information.

[0101] This document will mainly describe different methods of these aspects in the context of a conflict between first uplink control information including a scheduling request SR and second uplink control information including acknowledgment signaling (HARQ-ACK), but it should be understood that the same principles also apply to conflicts between other types of uplink control information, such as the conflict between SR UCI and CSI UCI, so the examples focusing on SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI below can be extended to the first and second UCI accordingly.

[0102] (i) Example Method for Prioritizing Uplink Control Information (UCI)

[0103] In existing wireless telecommunication systems, UCI is not associated with any priority, so when radio resources of different UCIs used for a terminal device overlap (i.e., conflict in time), a scheduling request UCI (SR UCI) will typically be multiplexed with other UCIs, regardless of the corresponding service types and requirements of different services associated with the different UCIs.

[0104] According to certain examples of the present disclosure, each UCI type (e.g., SR, HARQ-ACK, CSI) is associated with a plurality of different priority groups, wherein each priority group is associated with a priority. The number of priority groups for each different type of UCI may be different, for example, SR may have three priority groups (which may be referred to as SR priority groups), while HARQ-ACK may have two groups (which may be referred to as HARQ-ACK priority groups). It should be understood that other numbers of priority groups may be used.

[0105] As described above, the scheduling request is associated with a scheduling request identifier SR-ID. According to one example of the present disclosure, the SRs identified by their corresponding SR-IDs are divided into SR priority groups, each of which has a different priority. For example, if there are 8 configured SR-IDs {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, three SR priority groups may be configured such that SR-ID of group 1 = {0, 3}, SR-ID of group 2 = {1, 2, 5}, and SR-ID of group 3 = {4, 6, 7}. The priority of group 1 may be higher than that of group 2, and the priority of group 2 may be higher than that of group 3. It should be understood that this is just one example, and for other examples, a different number of priority groups and mappings between SR-IDs and priority groups may be configured. For example, each of the eight SR-IDs may be associated with one of the eight priorities that is different from that one (i.e., each priority group is therefore associated with one SR-ID).

[0106] In some cases, the HARQ-ACK UCI may have a different number of priorities. For example, the HARQ-ACK may be grouped into two priorities, high priority and low priority, such as based on the nature of the service associated with the UCI. For example, HARQ-ACK feedback for URLLC services may be classified as high priority, while HARQ-ACK feedback for eMBB services may be classified as low priority.

[0107] If the priority group of the UCI is higher than or equal to the predetermined threshold priority, the UCI can be classified as "high priority", otherwise it can be classified as "low priority". This allows each UCI type to be classified as "high priority" or "low priority" to simplify the direct comparison of the relative priorities of different UCI types, regardless of the number of priority groups defined for each UCI type. For example, SR-ID can be divided into three priority groups {SR group 1, SR group 2, SR group 3}, where the lower the number of groups, the higher the priority. On the other hand, HARQ-ACK can be divided into four priority groups {ACK group 1, ACK group 2, ACK group 3, ACK group 4}, similarly, the lower the number of groups, the higher the priority. Due to the different number of priority groups, it is unclear whether SR group 2 should have a higher or lower priority than ACK group 2. However, if in this example, the predetermined threshold priority for SR is set at the priority of SR group 2, then the SR UCI associated with SR groups 1 and 2 will be classified as high priority, and the SR UCI associated with SR group 3 will be classified as low priority. Similarly, if the predetermined threshold priority for HARQ-ACK is set at the priority of ACK group 3, then the HARQ-ACK UCI associated with ACK groups 1, 2 and 3 will be classified as high priority, and the HARQ-ACK UCI associated with ACK group 4 will be classified as low priority. It should be understood that more than one predetermined threshold priority can be defined for each UCI type to give more classifications, for example, two threshold levels can classify UCI as "high priority", "medium priority" and "low priority". By normalizing the priorities of different UCI types in this way, it is easier to directly compare the priorities of different types of UCI. Of course, in some cases, the number of priority groups may be the same for different types of UCI (for example, SR-ID can be divided into 3 priority groups, and HARQ-ACK can also take one of the three priorities). Since the number of priority groups is the same between different UCI types, they can be directly compared with each other without the need for a threshold-based priority normalization function.

[0108] In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, it would be helpful to prioritize each UCI type at the physical layer, and there may be a variety of different ways to accomplish this.

[0109] In one example, there may be different maximum code rates and resource block numbers (M RB-MAX) of different services (e.g., URLLC or eMBB), and so on. The priority of the UCI can then be determined at the physical layer from the PUCCH resource set being used. That is, according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure, the priority of the UCI can be determined from the PUCCH resources scheduled for the UCI. As discussed further below, other methods may allow the priority of the UCI to be determined at the physical layer without defining separate PUCCH resource sets for different services. Although some examples will be presented in the context of one or the other of the SR and HARQ-ACK UCIs, it should be understood that generally corresponding methods can be used for any different types of UCI. It should also be understood that although the examples described here relate to how the terminal device can determine the priority, in general, the specific way in which the priorities are assigned to different services will depend on the specific implementation and operational requirements of the wireless telecommunications system at hand. That is, for certain embodiments of the present disclosure, the main significance is not how to initially establish the priority for a given UCI, but how the terminal device determines the priority that has been established, and in particular how to do so at the physical layer.

[0110] SR Priority

[0111] In some examples, the priority of each SR UCI can be determined by the maximum code rate of the PUCCH resources allocated for SR transmission, thereby determining that a lower maximum code rate corresponds to a higher priority SR. It should be understood that the maximum code rate of the UCI is visible at the terminal device physical layer, so the terminal device can calculate the number of RBs used for PUCCH.

[0112] In some examples, the priority of each SR may be determined from its associated SR-ID. A simple implementation of this is that the lower the SR-ID, the higher its priority. The base station may then ensure that high priority services are associated with low numbered SR-IDs. It will be appreciated that the SR-ID is visible at the terminal device physical layer, so the terminal device may use e.g. Figure 5 The SILT shown is used to calculate the relevant PUCCH resource ID.

[0113] In some examples, the priority of each SR may be determined from the duration of the scheduled PUCCH resources for the UCI. How the duration of the UCI scheduled PUCCH resources maps to priorities will depend on the implementation at hand. For example, if high reliability is considered to be the primary defining factor for classifying a UCI as high priority, then it may be determined that longer durations of the UCI's PUCCH resources represent higher priority (because these would indicate that the UCI has been scheduled for transmissions of relatively long duration to improve reliability). However, if low latency is considered to be the primary defining factor for classifying a UCI as high priority, then it may be determined that shorter durations of the UCI's PUCCH resources represent higher priority (because these would indicate that the UCI has been scheduled for transmissions of short duration to reduce latency).

[0114] In some examples, the priority of each SR can be determined from its periodicity. As described above, each SR-ID is configured with a periodicity and this is known to the physical layer. For example, a relatively short periodicity of an SR-ID can be determined to indicate a relatively high priority because, for some embodiments, it can be expected that high priority services are associated with a requirement for low latency, and therefore a relatively low periodicity can be configured for an SR-ID so that transmissions can be made relatively frequently.

[0115] In some examples, the priority of each SR may be determined from the PUCCH format used to carry the SR. The PUCCH format is known to the terminal device at the physical layer. For example, PUCCH format 0 may be considered to have a higher priority than PUCCH format 1, or vice versa, depending on how higher layers (i.e., layers above the physical layer) are configured to associate different priority services with different PUCCH formats.

[0116] In some examples, the priority of each SR may be determined at the physical layer based on an indication received from a medium access control (MAC) layer. That is, in addition to triggering the transmission of the SR indicating the SR-ID, the MAC layer may also indicate the priority of the SR transmission to the physical layer.

[0117] HARQ-ACK Priority

[0118] In some examples, the priority of each HARQ-ACK UCI can be determined from an indication of a priority received in association with a resource allocation message (DL grant) of downlink signaling related to the HARQ-ACK UCI. If the HARQ-ACK UCI involves downlink signaling of multiple DL grants with different priorities, the priority of the UCI can be determined, for example, as the highest priority among these priorities.

[0119] In some examples, the priority of each HARQ-ACK UCI can be determined from the PUCCH resources scheduled for the UCI. For example, a PUCCH resource with a low PUCCH resource ID can be used to indicate a higher priority, or vice versa. Therefore, the method can consider that the PRI indicator confirmed in the DL grant also indicates the priority of the PUCCH corresponding to the HARQ-ACK UCI.

[0120] In some examples, the priority of each HARQ-ACK UCI can be determined by the code rate of the scheduled PUCCH resources used for HARQ-ACK UCI transmission, thereby determining that a lower code rate corresponds to a higher priority HARQ-ACK UCI.

[0121] In some examples, the priority of each HARQ-ACK UCI can be determined from the subslot size used to transmit the HARQ-ACK UCI. The possibility of subslot operation for HARQ-ACK is a proposal recently introduced for some wireless telecommunications systems, such as in Release 16 of the 3GPP standard specification series. Subslot operation for HARQ-ACK allows the timing of the HARQ-ACK UCI to be configured with a resolution less than one slot (ie, the HARQ-ACK process operates with a subslot timing granularity). For example, a HARQ-ACK UCI configured for subslot operation can be determined to have a high priority (this reflects the fact that services with stricter delay requirements will be configured for subslot operation) compared to a HARQ-ACK UCI that is not configured for subslot operation. In the case where multiple different subslot sizes can be configured, the HARQ-ACK UCI priority can be determined from the configured subslot size, where a shorter subslot size indicates a higher priority. Conversely, depending on the implementation of the system, a HARQ-ACK UCI configured for subslot operation may be determined to have a lower priority than a HARQ-ACK UCI that is not configured for subslot operation (reflecting the fact that services with less stringent reliability requirements will be configured for subslot operation). In general, it should be understood that the specific mapping between a given subslot size and priority will depend on how the system is configured to use subslot sizes according to priority (i.e., whether latency or reliability is considered most important).

[0122] (ii) Example Method for Selecting Radio Resources for Transmitting Multiplexed Uplink Control Information

[0123] As described above, if the first PUCCH and the second PUCCH are scheduled in the same time slot, sub-time slot, or more generally overlap in time, that is, there is a time overlap between the respective radio resource sets associated with the first PUCCH and the second PUCCH, then the first UCI carried by the first PUCCH can be considered to conflict with the second UCI carried by the second PUCCH. Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to selecting one of the corresponding radio resource sets associated with the first PUCCH and the second PUCCH for transmission of the first UCI and / or the second UCI after a priority-based decision on whether and how to multiplex them. As also described above, in recent developments in some wireless telecommunication systems, for example in accordance with Release 16 of the 3GPP standard specification series, is the introduction of sub-time slot operation for uplink control information (e.g., for HARQ-ACK UCI). With this approach, the time granularity for scheduling PUCCH carrying HARQ-ACK UCI with respect to at least some PDSCHs (e.g., PDSCHs for URLLC services) can be different. That is, for sub-slot operation, the time granularity (timing resolution) of parameter K1 ("PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator" - the time difference between the end of PDSCH and the start of its corresponding PUCCH) is smaller than the time slot. Such an example is Fig. 9 shown.

[0124] Fig. 9 Schematically shown are an uplink radio resource grid (upper part of the figure) and a downlink radio resource grid (lower part of the figure) representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis). Fig. 9 and Figure 6 Similar to, and will be from Figure 6 It is understood, but an example is shown that combines sub-slot operation with a sub-slot size of 0.5 slots (e.g., 7 symbols for a 14 symbol slot size). Figure 6 , Fig. 9 Schematically shows the time span across five time slots (in Fig. 9 In the figure, the time slots n to n+4) / ten sub-time slots (in Fig. 9The radio resources used by the terminal device in the example scenario during the period (identified as subslots m to m+9) in time slot n. At the beginning of time slot n (i.e., in subslot m), the terminal device receives downlink control information (DCI#1) indicating the allocation of radio resources on the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH#1) in subslot m+2 in time slot n+1, with a PDSCH-to-HARQ_BEACKING timing indicator value of K1=6 (in units of subslots). Therefore, the HARQ-ACK signaling (HARQ-ACK1) associated with the radio resource allocation in subslot m+2 is transmitted in subslot m+8 (i.e., m+2+K1) in time slot n+4. At the beginning of time slot n+1 (i.e., in sub-time slot m+2), the terminal device receives downlink control information (DCI#2) indicating the allocation of radio resources on the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH#2) located in time slot n+2 spanning sub-time slots m+4 and m+5, with a PDSCH-to-HARQ_BEACKING timing indicator value of K1=4 (in units of sub-time slots). Therefore, the HARQ-ACK signaling (HARQ-ACK2) associated with the radio resource allocation spanning sub-time slots m+4 and m+5 is transmitted in sub-time slot m+9 (i.e., m+5+K1) in time slot n+4, because the reference sub-time slot for K1 is the sub-time slot in which the PDSCH ends, and in this example case PDSCH#2 ends in sub-time slot m+5.

[0125] Therefore, if Fig. 9 As seen in FIG. 1 , two different instances of the same type of UCI (e.g., HARQ-ACK UCI) may be scheduled at different times in the same time slot. This means that another type of UCI (e.g., SR UCI) may conflict with multiple instances of another type of UCI. Therefore, certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to selecting one from two or more radio resource sets correspondingly associated with the two or more UCIs for transmitting the UCI after a priority-based decision as to whether and how to multiplex them.

[0126] A number of example scenarios will now be listed involving various different ways in which a first type of UCI (e.g., SR UCI) scheduled for transmission on a first radio resource set (first PUCCH) conflicts / overlaps with a second type of UCI (e.g., one or more HARQ-ACK UCIs) scheduled for transmission on one or more other radio resources (PUCCH), and a method for selecting a radio resource set for transmitting UCI after a priority-based multiplexing determination according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure will be described.

[0127] Fig.10Schematically illustrated is a portion of an uplink radio resource grid representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis) of an example implementation of a method according to examples of the present disclosure. Fig.10 Schematically shows the time span across two time slots (in Fig.10 Indicated as time slots n and n+1) / four sub-time slots (in Fig.10 The scheduled radio resources are used by the terminal device for UCI in the example scenario during the period (identified as subslots m to m+3 in time slot n). In this example, it is assumed that a first PUCCH (assumed in this example to be for SR UCI) is scheduled between time t1 and t3 (which is in subslot m in time slot n), and a second PUCCH (assumed in this example to be for HARQ-ACK UCI) is scheduled between time t0 and t2 (which is again in subslot m in time slot n). Since the radio resources defined by the corresponding PUCCHs for SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI overlap in time, the terminal device determines whether to multiplex SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI and how to multiplex SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI according to the principles disclosed herein, and transmits the resulting multiplexed UCI using the radio resources used for the selected one of the PUCCHs, which in this example is assumed to be the second PUCCH, as schematically indicated by the surrounding dotted lines.

[0128] Fig.11 Schematically illustrated is a portion of an uplink radio resource grid representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis) of an example implementation of a method according to examples of the present disclosure. Fig.11 Schematically shows the time span across two time slots (in Fig.11 Indicated as time slots n and n+1) / four sub-time slots (in Fig.11The scheduled radio resources are used by the terminal device for UCI in the example scenario during a period (identified as subslots m to m+3 in time slot n). In this example, it is assumed that a first PUCCH (assumed to be for SR UCI in this example) is scheduled between time t1 and t3 (i.e., it crosses the boundary between subslots m and m+1 in time slot n), and a second PUCCH (assumed to be for HARQ-ACK UCI in this example) is scheduled between time t2 and t4 (which is in subslot m in time slot n). Since the radio resources defined by the corresponding PUCCHs for SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI overlap in time, the terminal device determines whether to multiplex SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI and how to multiplex SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI according to the principles disclosed herein, and transmits the resulting multiplexed UCI using the radio resources for a selected one of the PUCCHs, which in this example is assumed to be the second PUCCH, as schematically indicated by the surrounding dotted lines.

[0129] Fig.12 Schematically illustrated is a portion of an uplink radio resource grid representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis) of an example implementation of a method according to examples of the present disclosure. Fig.12 Schematically shows the time span across two time slots (in Fig.12 Indicated as time slots n and n+1) / four sub-time slots (in Fig.12The scheduled radio resources are used by the terminal device for UCI in the example scenario during a period (identified as subslots m to m+3 in time slot n). In this example, it is assumed that a first PUCCH (assumed to be for SR UCI in this example) is scheduled between time t2 and t5 (i.e., it crosses the boundary between subslots m and m+1 in time slot n), a second PUCCH (assumed to be for HARQ-ACK UCI in this example, labeled HARQ-ACK UCI 1) is scheduled between time t1 and t3 (which is in subslot m in time slot n), and a third PUCCH (assumed to be for another HARQ-ACK UCI, labeled HARQ-ACK UCI 2 in this example) is scheduled between time t4 and t6 (which is in subslot m+1 in time slot n). Since the radio resources defined by the first PUCCH for SR UCI overlap with the radio resources defined by the second PUCCH for HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and the third PUCCH for HARQ-ACK UCI 2, the terminal device determines whether to multiplex SR UCI and the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI2 and how to multiplex SR UCI and the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 according to the principles disclosed in this article, and uses the radio resources of the corresponding PUCCH for the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 to transmit the multiplexed UCI obtained. In this example, the PUCCH is assumed to be the second PUCCH (for HARQ-ACK UCI1), as schematically indicated by the surrounding dotted lines. Therefore, for some embodiments, when there is an overlap between the first radio resource set for the first UCI and the second radio resource set for the second UCI and the third radio resource set for the third UCI, the selected radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed UCI may be the earlier one in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set. This allows the multiplexed UCI to be transmitted faster than if the selected radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed UCI was later in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set, which can help meet latency requirements.

[0130] Fig.13 Schematically illustrated is a portion of an uplink radio resource grid representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis) of an example implementation of a method according to examples of the present disclosure. Fig.13 Schematically shows the time span across two time slots (in Fig.13 Indicated as time slots n and n+1) / four sub-time slots (in Fig.13The scheduled radio resources are used by the terminal device for UCI in the example scenario during a period (identified as subslots m to m+3 in time slot n). In this example, it is assumed that a first PUCCH (assumed to be for SR UCI in this example) is scheduled between time t2 and t5 (i.e., it crosses the boundary between subslots m and m+1 in time slot n), a second PUCCH (assumed to be for HARQ-ACK UCI in this example, labeled HARQ-ACK UCI 1) is scheduled between time t4 and t6 (which is in subslot m+1 in time slot n), and a third PUCCH (assumed to be for another HARQ-ACK UCI, labeled HARQ-ACK UCI 2 in this example) is scheduled between time t1 and t3 (which is in subslot m in time slot n). Since the radio resources defined by the first PUCCH for SR UCI and the radio resources defined by the second PUCCH for HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and the third PUCCH for HARQ-ACK UCI 2 overlap, the terminal device determines whether and how to multiplex SR UCI and the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 according to the principles disclosed in this document, and transmits the resulting multiplexed UCI using the radio resources of the corresponding PUCCH for the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2, which in this example is assumed to be the second PUCCH (for HARQ-ACK UCI 1), as schematically indicated by the surrounding dotted lines. Therefore, for some embodiments, when there is an overlap between the first radio resource set for the first UCI and the second radio resource set for the second UCI and the third radio resource set for the third UCI, the selected radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed UCI may be the later one in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set. This allows the multiplexed UCI to be transmitted later than if the selected radio resource set used to transmit the multiplexed UCI was earlier in time for the second and third radio resource sets. One application of this approach would be to select the third PUCCH instead of the second PUCCH to implicitly indicate SR priority. For example, if the SR priority is lower, the later third PUCCH may be used, but if the SR priority is higher, the earlier second PUCCH may be used instead. The network can then blindly decode the presence of the SR in the second and third PUCCHs.

[0131] Fig.14 Schematically illustrated is a portion of an uplink radio resource grid representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis) of an example implementation of a method according to examples of the present disclosure. Fig.14Schematically shows the time span across two time slots (in Fig.14 Indicated as time slots n and n+1) / four sub-time slots (in Fig.14 The scheduled radio resources are used by the terminal device for UCI in the example scenario during a period (identified as subslots m to m+3 in time slot n). In this example, it is assumed that the first PUCCH (assumed to be for SR UCI in this example) is scheduled between time t2 and t5 (i.e., it spans the boundary between subslots m and m+1 in time slot n), the second PUCCH (assumed to be for HARQ-ACK UCI, labeled HARQ-ACK UCI 1 in this example) is scheduled between time t4 and t6 (which is in subslot m+1 in time slot n and spans four symbols), and the third PUCCH (assumed to be for another HARQ-ACK UCI, labeled HARQ-ACK UCI 2 in this example) is scheduled between time t1 and t3 (which is in subslot m in time slot n and spans two symbols). Because the radio resources defined by the first PUCCH for SR UCI and the radio resources defined by the second PUCCH for HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and the third PUCCH for HARQ-ACK UCI 2 overlap, the terminal device determines whether and how to multiplex SR UCI and the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 according to the principles disclosed herein, and transmits the resulting multiplexed UCI using the radio resources of the corresponding PUCCH for the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2. In this example, as schematically indicated by the surrounding dotted lines, the corresponding PUCCH of the selected one is assumed to be the second PUCCH (for HARQ-ACK UCI 1), and the second PUCCH is assumed to be the third PUCCH (for HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2). Therefore, for some embodiments, when there is an overlap between the first radio resource set for the first UCI and the second radio resource set for the second UCI and the third radio resource set for the third UCI, the selected radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed UCI may be the radio resource set with the largest potential capacity for carrying the UCI. (As described above, each PUCCH resource is associated with a PUCCH format with a fixed or configurable maximum payload (i.e., potential capacity).) This allows the multiplexed UCI to be transmitted more reliably.

[0132] Reference above Fig.14In a variation of the discussed method, in another embodiment, the selected radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed UCI may be the radio resource set associated with the lowest code rate for its UCI, in the expectation that the radio resource set associated with the lowest code rate can more reliably accommodate the additional UCI.

[0133] Fig.15 Schematically illustrated is a portion of an uplink radio resource grid representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis) of an example implementation of a method according to examples of the present disclosure. Fig.15 Schematically shows the time span across two time slots (in Fig.15 Indicated as time slots n and n+1) / four sub-time slots (in Fig.15The scheduled radio resources are used by the terminal device for UCI in the example scenario during a period (identified as subslots m to m+3 in time slot n). In this example, it is assumed that the first PUCCH (assumed to be for SR UCI in this example) is scheduled between time t2 and t5 (i.e., it spans the boundary between subslots m and m+1 in time slot n), the second PUCCH (assumed to be for HARQ-ACK UCI, labeled HARQ-ACK UCI 1 in this example) is scheduled between time t4 and t6 (which is in subslot m+1 in time slot n and spans four symbols), and the third PUCCH (assumed to be for another HARQ-ACK UCI, labeled HARQ-ACK UCI 2 in this example) is scheduled between time t1 and t3 (which is in subslot m in time slot n and spans two symbols). Therefore, the radio resources defined by the first PUCCH for SR UC and the radio resources defined by the second PUCCH for HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and the third PUCCH for HARQ-ACK UCI 2 overlap. In some example embodiments, the terminal device may determine to multiplex both SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI 1 with HARQ-ACK UCI 2 according to the principles disclosed herein, and transmit the resulting multiplexed UCI using the radio resources of both the corresponding PUCCHs for HARQ-ACK UCI 1 with HARQ-ACK UCI 2, as schematically indicated by the surrounding dotted lines. Depending on the embodiment at hand, there are different ways in which the terminal device may multiplex both SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI 1 with HARQ-ACK UCI 2. For example, in some cases, SR UCI may be multiplexed independently with both HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2. That is, the same SR UCI may be selectively multiplexed with both HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2, respectively, to provide redundancy (duplication) for the transmission of the SR UCI.In some cases, this may result in the SR UCI being multiplexed with HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 in the same manner (e.g., effectively the same SR UCI bits are transmitted with HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2), for example, when HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 have the same priority, and in some cases, this may result in the SR UCI being multiplexed with HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 in a different manner (e.g., effectively different SR UCI bits are transmitted with HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2), for example, when HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 have different priorities, in which case there may be fewer bits used for the SR UCI to allow more bits to be used for the one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 with the highest priority. In other example embodiments, if the SRUCI includes multiple bits, a first portion of the SR UCI may be multiplexed with the HARQ-ACK UCI 1, and a second portion of the SR UCI may be multiplexed with the HARQ-ACK UCI 2 (i.e., the multiplexing of the SR UCI is separated across both the HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and the HARQ-ACK UCI 2, rather than being multiplexed with each independently). For example, multiple bits of the SR UCI may be multiplexed into the selected one of the HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and the HARQ-ACK UCI 2 until the maximum allowed code rate of the selected one of the HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and the HARQ-ACK UCI 2 is reached, and the remaining contents of the SR UCI are multiplexed into the other of the HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and the HARQ-ACK UCI 2. The selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 may be based on one of: the timing of the corresponding PUCCH, for example, the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 may be the earliest one; the remaining capacity of the radio resource set used for the corresponding one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2, for example, the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 may be the one with the largest free capacity; and the maximum potential capacity of the radio resource set used for the corresponding one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2, for example, the selected one of HARQ-ACK UCI 1 and HARQ-ACK UCI 2 may be the one with the highest maximum potential capacity.

[0134] (iii) Example method for selectively determining multiplexing of uplink control information

[0135] As described above, according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device may be configured to selectively multiplex first uplink control information (e.g., SR UCI) and second uplink control information (e.g., HARQ-ACK UCI) in a manner that takes into account their respective priorities. According to certain examples of the present disclosure, some general considerations for determining how to multiplex uplink control data include seeking to maintain acceptable levels of reliability and latency for the multiplexed UCI, for example, taking into account the reliability and latency requirements of the highest priority UCI.

[0136] According to an example scenario, a terminal device may determine that a first uplink control information associated with a first priority should be sent using a first radio resource set corresponding to a first uplink control information (PUCCH) (assumed in this example to include an SR UCI), and a second uplink control information associated with a second priority should be sent using a second radio resource set corresponding to a second PUCCH (assumed in this example to include an HARQ-ACK UCI), and there is an overlap in the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set. This scenario may occur according to normal operation of the terminal device, and the specific reasons for the occurrence of the scenario (e.g., in terms of the specific content of the UCI) are irrelevant to the principles discussed herein.

[0137] In one example, the decision on whether to multiplex the SR UCI and the HARQ-ACK UCI onto one or the other of the first PUCCH and the second PUCCH may take into account the resulting code rate of the multiplexed UCI on the selected PUCCH (which may be referred to herein as the multiplexed PUCCH). For example, if the code rate of the multiplexed PUCCH will be lower than or equal to a predetermined threshold code rate (i.e., the code rate to be applied to the third PUCCH after the multiplexing operation is lower than or equal to a predetermined value), the UCI may be multiplexed and transmitted on the PUCCH. In one example, the predetermined threshold code rate is the lower of the code rate associated with the SR UCI (if transmitted on the first PUCCH) and the code rate associated with the HARQ-ACK UCI (if it is transmitted on the first PUCCH). In the event that none of the PUCCHs are able to meet the code rate threshold, the terminal device may select a lower priority UCI to discard / compress.

[0138] In some examples, if transmitting SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI on the multiplexed PUCCH would exceed a predetermined threshold code rate, the terminal device can be configured to multiplex UCI in a manner that reduces the number of bits used for lower priority UCI (e.g., by discarding some bits used for lower priority UCI or by applying data compression to the bits used for lower priority UCI).

[0139] In one example, the decision on whether to multiplex the SR UCI and the HARQ-ACK UCI onto one or the other of the first PUCCH and the second PUCCH may take into account any subsequent delays in the transmission of the SR UCI and / or the HARQ-ACK UCI and refer to Fig.16 An example implementation scenario for this is discussed.

[0140] Fig.16 Schematically illustrated is a portion of an uplink radio resource grid representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis) of an example implementation of a method according to examples of the present disclosure. Fig.16 Schematically shows the time span across two time slots (in Fig.16 The scheduled radio resources are used by the terminal device for UCI in an example scenario during the period (identified as time slots n and n+1 in ). In this example, it is assumed that a first PUCCH (assumed in this example to be for SR UCI) is scheduled between time t1 and t3 (which is in time slot n), and a second PUCCH (assumed in this example to be for HARQ-ACK UCI) is scheduled between time t2 and t4 (which is again in time slot n). Since the radio resources defined by the corresponding PUCCHs for SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI overlap in time, the terminal device determines whether to multiplex the UCI. In this example, it can be seen that multiplexing the SR UCI into the HARQ-ACK UCI will result in the transmission of the SR UCI being completed at time t4, which is five symbols after the end of its originally scheduled transmission on the first PUCCH. Whether this is acceptable will depend on the latency requirements of the earliest UCI. Therefore, according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure, if the transmission delay of the SR UCI will be caused to be greater than a predetermined threshold delay, the terminal device will choose not to multiplex the SR UCI and the HARQ UCI. For example, if the allowed delay is three symbols of the SR UCI, the terminal device will choose not to multiplex the SR UCI to the HARQ UCI, and if the SR UCI has a higher priority than the HARQ UCI, the SR UCI will be transmitted on the first PUCCH, otherwise the HARQ UCI will be transmitted.

[0141] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the multiplexed PUCCH (i.e., the PUCCH used to transmit the multiplexed UCI) is the selected one of the first PUCCH and the second PUCCH, and is selected as the one that will cause the lowest delay. That is, the multiplexed PUCCH (the selected PUCCH) is the PUCCH that ends first in time. This method may be beneficial in a scenario where SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI have the same priority, and therefore the terminal device transmits these two UCIs by multiplexing instead of discarding one of them.

[0142] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the multiplexed PUCCH (i.e., the PUCCH used to transmit the multiplexed UCI) is selected from the first PUCCH and the second PUCCH, and is selected as the one that will result in the lowest code rate (highest reliability) for transmitting the multiplexed UCI. This method may be beneficial in a scenario where the SR UCI and the HARQ-ACK UCI have the same priority, and therefore the terminal transmits the two UCIs by multiplexing instead of discarding one of them.

[0143] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the multiplexed PUCCH (ie, the PUCCH for transmitting the multiplexed UCI) is not the selected one of the first PUCCH and the second PUCCH, but a different PUCCH associated with a different radio resource set, and with reference to Fig.17 Example implementation scenarios for this are discussed.

[0144] Fig.17 Schematically illustrated are two versions of a portion of an uplink radio resource grid representing radio resources in time (horizontal axis) and frequency (vertical axis) according to an example implementation of a method according to examples of the present disclosure. Fig.17 Schematically shows the time span across two time slots (in Fig.17 During the periods identified as time slots n and n+1 in , the scheduled radio resources are used by the terminal device for UCI in the example scenario. Fig.17 The left side of the portion of the uplink radio resource grid in FIG. 1 shows an example set of radio resources scheduled for transmission of two types of UCI, and Fig.17The right side of the portion of the uplink radio resource grid in is indicated indicating an example set of radio resources for transmitting two types of UCI in a multiplexed manner. Thus, in this example, it is assumed that a first PUCCH (assumed in this example to be for SR UCI) is scheduled between time t1 and t3 (which is in time slot n), and a second PUCCH (assumed in this example to be for HARQ-ACK UCI) is scheduled between time t2 and t5 (which is again in time slot n). Since the radio resources defined by the corresponding PUCCHs for SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI overlap in time, the terminal device determines that the UCI is multiplexed. However, and as Fig.17 The right side of the portion of the uplink radio resource grid in the figure indicates that, instead of using one or the other of the scheduled radio resource sets to transmit the SR UCI and the HARQ-ACK UCI, the terminal device uses a different set of radio resources to transmit the multiplexed SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI, and in particular for this example, uses a set of radio resources between t1 and t4. According to this example, the terminal device uses the PUCCH frequency resources and format of the most reliable PUCCH (in this case the second PUCCH), starting at the earliest start time of the first and second PUCCHs. This approach is beneficial in scenarios where the SR UCI and the HARQ-ACK UCI have the same priority, and therefore the terminal device is used to transmit both UCIs, rather than discarding one of them.

[0145] In some examples, the UCI associated with the highest priority is the SR UCI.

[0146] In some examples, if the condition for determining whether to multiplex UCI is not satisfied (ie, the multiplexing condition is not satisfied), the UCI having the lowest priority is not transmitted.

[0147] The multiplexing condition may depend on the transport format associated with the multiplexed PUCCH (i.e., the transport format associated with the radio resource set used to transmit the multiplexed UCI), as explained below. For this explanation, it will be assumed that there is an overlap in a first radio resource set associated with a first PUCCH used to transmit SR UCI and a second radio resource set associated with a second PUCCH used to transmit HARQ-ACK UCI.

[0148] PUCCH format 0

[0149] In some examples, if the SR is positive, if the second PUCCH uses PUCCH format 0, it is multiplexed with the HARQ-ACK UCI on the second PUCCH, regardless of the priority of the SR UCI. Therefore, the multiplexed UCI (SR+HARQ-ACK) is transmitted using the resources used for the second PUCCH. The method recognizes that since a positive, high priority SR is always transmitted, the detection reliability of the second PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 to carry HARQ-ACK can be expected to take into account the possibility of SR transmission. Therefore, whether the SR is high priority or low priority, it does not affect the detection reliability of the second PUCCH. Note that a negative SR is not transmitted, so it is not multiplexed with the second UCI (there is actually nothing to multiplex).

[0150] In another example, when a first PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 carries SR and a second PUCCH using format 0 carries a second UCI containing HARQ-ACK, and these PUCCHs collide in time, SR UCI and HARQ-ACK UCI are multiplexed to form a multiplexed UCI carried by the earliest one of the first and second PUCCHs. That is, if the first PUCCH is transmitted earlier than the second PUCCH, the multiplexed PUCCH is the first PUCCH, and if the second PUCCH is transmitted earlier than the first PUCCH, the multiplexed PUCCH is the second PUCCH. This method helps to allow SR and HARQ-ACK to be transmitted as soon as possible.

[0151] PUCCH format 1

[0152] In a conventional system, when a first PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 carries SR UCI and a second PUCCH using PUCCH format 1 carries a second UCI containing HARQ-ACK and these collide in time, the SR UCI is not transmitted. However, if the SR UCI is associated with a high priority service (e.g., a URLLC service), this behavior may not be appropriate due to the potential negative impact on latency.

[0153] Therefore, in some examples, when a first PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 carries a high priority positive SR and a second PUCCH using PUCCH format 1 carries a second UCI containing HARQ-ACK and these PUCCHs collide in time, if the second UCI has a low priority, only the SR using the first PUCCH is transmitted. For example, the low priority HARQ-ACK in the second UCI may belong to a delay-tolerant eMBB service.

[0154] In another example, when a first PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 carries a high priority positive SR and a second PUCCH using PUCCH format 1 carries a second UCI containing HARQ-ACK and these PUCCHs collide in time, then the positive SR is multiplexed with the HARQ-ACK and transmitted using the first PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 (i.e., the multiplexed PUCCH is the first PUCCH). For example, the multiplexed UCI can use different cyclic shifts to indicate different HARQ-ACK states and positive SR states, such as along the lines shown in Table 3 above. Although it can be seen that for this method, the cyclic shift M CS = 0 can represent {+ve SR}, {NACK, +ve SR} and {NACK, NACK, +ve SR}, which can be resolved at the network since the network will know the number of PUCCH collisions and expected HARQ-ACKs. It can be noted that the terminal device may miss a DL grant (and therefore is unaware that the network expects any corresponding ACK / NACK signaling), and in this case, M CS The cyclic shift does not allow the network to resolve whether the terminal device missed a DL grant or a PDSCH decoding failure. However, since PDCCH detection / decoding is expected to be configured for high reliability, such as 99.9999% reliability, it can be expected that such a scenario will be rare for high priority services. If the SR is negative, only the second PUCCH transmission HARQ-ACK UCI is used consistent with the legacy behavior. It should be noted that this approach can be used regardless of whether the HARQ-ACK UCI is associated with a high priority or low priority service.

[0155] In another example, when a first PUCCH using PUCCH format 0 carries a high priority positive SR and a second PUCCH using PUCCH format 1 carries a second UCI containing HARQ-ACK and these PUCCHs collide in time and the second UCI has a high priority, if the HARQ-ACKs in the second PUCCH are all ACK (positive acknowledgement), the SR UCI using the first PUCCH is transmitted. Otherwise, only the HARQ-ACK using the second PUCCH is transmitted. That is, the HARQ-ACK in the second PUCCH is bundled using a logical AND, so that (i) if the bundled HARQ-ACK is positive, only the positive SR is transmitted using the first PUCCH; and (ii) if the bundled HARQ-ACK is negative, only the HARQ-ACK is transmitted using the second PUCCH. The method recognizes that high priority (e.g., URLLC) PDSCH transmissions are very likely to be decoded correctly because they are configured to meet high reliability requirements and therefore their corresponding HARQ-ACKs are likely to be positive. It should also be noted that the network is aware of PUCCH conflicts and therefore a single positive SR transmission using the first PUCCH provides an indication to the network that all PDSCH transmissions are ACKs and that there is a positive SR. If the SR is negative, then only the second PUCCH is transmitted in accordance with conventional behavior. In some examples, if the network receives HARQ ACK signaling indicating at least some negative acknowledgments, the network can speculatively allocate PUSCH resources to the terminal device in the same manner as if it had received SR UCI signaling. As previously described, given that the URLLC PDSCH is highly reliable, it can be assumed that the likelihood of receiving a NACK via HARQ signaling is relatively low, and therefore the network will rarely need to perform such speculative PUSCH allocations. Therefore, the speculative allocation of PUSCH in this case can be expected to have no significant impact on spectral efficiency, but will help allow telecommunications networks to handle erroneous PDSCHs and schedule PUSCHs while making efficient use of PUCCH resources.

[0156] PUCCH format 2, format 3 or format 4

[0157] In the case where the second PUCCH uses PUCCH format 2, format 3 or format 4, the following method may be applied. As discussed above, indicating a K SR +1 entry in the SILT table index O SR bits may be appended to the second UCI carrying HARQ-ACK and / or CSI.

[0158] In one example approach, the size of SILT (SR indication lookup table) can be reduced. In this case, K is selected SR The subset of SRs, i.e., the number of SRs K SR-Reduced, to form a reduced SILT. The reduced SILT can be combined with less O SR bits usage, which will reduce the total UCI bits to be transmitted in the multiplexed UCI (N UCI ).

[0159] In some examples, K SR SRs are divided into SR priority groups, and the SR-IDs in a selected group may be used to form a reduced SILT. Fig.18 An illustrative example thereof is represented, in which an example is shown, in which 8 SR-IDs are configured by the network {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, where SR-ID {0, 1} is mapped to an LCID providing URLLC (or other relatively high priority) services, and SR-ID {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} is mapped to an LCID providing eMBB (or other relatively low priority) services. Now assume that in a specific time unit (e.g., in a specific time slot or sub-time slot), four of these SR-IDs {1, 4, 5, 7} collide because they are configured with time resources and periods that cause the conflict (note that in this context, conflict does not mean that all SRs must be positive and to be transmitted, but only that their PUCCH transmission opportunities collide in time), so K SR = 4. In the traditional method, SILT will have K SR +1 entry. However, according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure, these K SR SRs are divided into two groups - Group 1 and Group 2 - based on the priority of their LCIDs. For example, Group 1 may contain SR-IDs serving relatively high priority services (e.g., URLLC) and Group 2 may contain SR-IDs serving relatively low priority services (e.g., eMBB), such that Group 1 has a higher priority than Group 2. Thus, in this example, Group 1 consists of SR-ID {1} and Group 2 consists of SR-ID {4, 5, 7}. In this example, a reduced SILT is formed using the higher priority group, i.e., the reduced SILT consists only of SR-ID = 1, where K SR-Reduced = 1. Reduced SILT requires O SR =ceiling(log2(K SR-Reduced +1)) = 1 bit, as a comparison, traditional SILT requires O SR =ceiling(log2(K SR Therefore, in this embodiment, the number of bits attached to the second UCI can be reduced by discarding the low-priority SR-ID. SR The number of bits.

[0160] In another example, the selected subset of SRs may have SR-IDs with equal or higher priority than the second UCI.

[0161] In another example, if ceiling(log2(K SR +1))-ceiling(log2(K SR-Reduced +1))>T SR , then a reduced SILT can be used, where T SR is a predetermined threshold. That is, only when the SR bit is 0 SR SR-IDs are removed from the traditional SILT only when the number of SR-IDs is reduced by at least a threshold, otherwise there is no reduction in SR-IDs. For example, if we assume T SR =0, K SR =6 and K SR-Reduced =4. We have:

[0162] The number of SR bits in traditional SILT, O SR -Legacy=ceiling(log2(K SR +1)) = 3 bits, and the number of SR bits in the reduced SILT, O SR-Reduced =ceiling(log2(K SR-Reduced +1))=3 digits.

[0163] Because O SR-Legacy =O SR-Reduced =3 bits (i.e., the difference is not greater than T SR ), when reducing the number of entries, the number of SR bits is not reduced. Therefore, there is no benefit in removing any SR-ID, so all SR-IDs are included in SILT.

[0164] In another example, if the total number of UCI bits N UCI The multiplexed PUCCH exceeds the maximum code rate R UCI , then remove the SR-ID from the SILT. As described above, the terminal device can determine the number of RBs M used in the PUCCH with PUCCH format 2 or format 3 RB-PUCCH , and it is possible that M RB-PUCCH = M with a code rate exceeding the maximum code rate RB-MAXThat is, even with the maximum number of RBs, the PUCCH may not be able to fall below the maximum code rate limit. In conventional systems, the terminal device will transmit the PUCCH despite exceeding the maximum code rate. However, for some examples of the present disclosure, it is determined that this may not be acceptable for certain high priority services such as URLLC, where reliability is particularly important. Therefore, in some examples, the terminal device may remove some SR-IDs in the SILT to reduce the number of SR bits. SR , so as not to exceed the maximum bit rate. SR The number of digits in may decrease until the following conditions are met:

[0165] (O ACK +O SR +O CRC )≤(M RB-MAX ×N SC-RB ×N symbol-PUCCH ×Q m ×R UCI ),

[0166] (O ACK +O SR +O CRC )>((M RB-MAX -1)×N SC-RB ×N symbol-PUCCH ×Q m ×R UCI ),

[0167] The following methods can be used to reduce O SR bits, for example:

[0168] (i) Remove the SR-IDs associated with the lowest priority one by one until the bitrate requirement is met.

[0169] (ii) Remove a group of SR-IDs with the lowest priority until the bitrate requirement is met. This method may result in an excessive reduction in SR-IDs due to the removal of SR-ID groups.

[0170] (iii) Remove SR-IDs that are considered low priority, but keep SR-IDs that are considered high priority, even if they cause the maximum code rate to be exceeded.

[0171] In another example, the all-negative SR indication in the SILT may be removed. That is, if the terminal device does not have any positive SR, nothing is appended to the end of the second UCI. This reduces the SILT size by 1 entry. Thus, by not having any positive SR in the second UCI, the SILT size may be reduced by 1 entry. SR Bit (i.e. O SR=0) to indicate all negative SR, and the network can blindly decode any additional SR bits in the second UCI. That is, if none of the SR-IDs in the SILT is positive, no SR bits are transmitted.

[0172] In another example, if all negative SR indications in SILT result in O SR The total number of bits is reduced by removing the all-negative SR indication. That is, if ceiling(log2(K SR +1))>ceiling(log2(K SR )), all negative SR indications are removed.

[0173] In another example, O SR Always 1 bit. That is, the second UCI only adds 1 bit. If the highest priority SR-ID is positive, then SR The bit will represent K SR The SR-ID with the highest priority in the SD-ID. If the highest priority SR-ID is not positive, then: append "0" to the second UCI, or do not append anything to the second UCI.

[0174] In another example, O SR is always 1 bit, and it represents only a single SR-ID. That is, if K SR If this SR-ID does not exist in the SR-I DS, nothing is appended to the second UCI. The single SR-ID can be the SR-ID mapped to the URLLC (or other high priority) service. SR There is a single SR-ID in the SR-I DS and if it is positive, "1" is appended to the second UCI, otherwise, if the SR-ID is negative, "0" is appended to the second UCI, or nothing is appended to the second UCI.

[0175] For example, if SR-ID=2 is mapped to a URLLC service, and all other SR-IDs are mapped to other non-URLLC services, then assuming that at a particular point in time, K SR =4 and SR-ID in SILT = {3, 4, 5, 6}, then nothing is appended to the second UCI because none of these SR-IDs are associated with URLLC services. On the other hand, if SR-ID in SILT = {2, 3, 5, 6}, then 0 is appended to the second UCI. SR =1 bit, for example, if SR-ID=2 is negative, it may indicate "0", and if SR-ID=2 is positive, it may indicate "1".

[0176] Fig.19is a flow chart schematically illustrating some aspects of a method of operation for a terminal device in a wireless telecommunication system according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0177] In a first step S1 , the terminal device determines that a first uplink control information should occur using a first set of radio resources.

[0178] In a second step S2, the terminal device determines that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority.

[0179] In a third step S3 the terminal device determines that a second uplink control information should occur using a second set of radio resources.

[0180] In a fourth step S4, the terminal device determines that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority.

[0181] In the fifth step S5, the terminal device determines whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, selectively multiplexes the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering priorities corresponding to the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information.

[0182] In a sixth step S6 , the terminal device selects a radio resource set for transmitting the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and second uplink control information.

[0183] In a seventh step S7 , the terminal device transmits the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and second uplink control information using the selected set of radio resources.

[0184] Therefore, a method for operating a terminal device in a wireless telecommunication system has been described, the method comprising: determining that a first uplink control information should be sent using a first radio resource set; determining that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority; determining that a second uplink control information should be sent using a second radio resource set; determining that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority; determining whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, selectively multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering the respective priorities of the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; selecting a radio resource set for sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; and using the selected radio resource set to send the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information.

[0185] It should be understood that although the present disclosure in some aspects focuses on implementations in LTE and / or 5G networks for the purpose of providing specific examples, the same principles can be applied to other wireless telecommunication systems. Therefore, even though the terminology used herein is generally the same or similar to that of the LTE and 5G standards, the present teachings are not limited to current versions of LTE and 5G and can be equally applied to any suitable arrangement that is not based on LTE or 5G and / or complies with any other future versions of LTE, 5G or other standards.

[0186] It may be noted that the various example methods discussed herein may rely on information that is predetermined / predefined in the sense that it is known to both the base station and the terminal device. It should be appreciated that such predetermined / predefined information may typically be established, for example, by definition in an operating standard for the wireless telecommunications system or in signaling previously exchanged between the base station and the terminal device, for example, in system information signaling, or in association with radio resource control setup signaling. That is, the specific manner in which the relevant predefined information is established and shared between the various elements of the wireless telecommunications system is not important to the operating principles described herein.

[0187] It may also be noted that the various example methods discussed herein rely on information exchanged / communicated between various elements of a wireless telecommunications system, and it should be understood that such communication may generally be conducted in accordance with conventional techniques, e.g., in accordance with a particular signaling protocol and type of communication channel used, unless the context requires otherwise. That is, the specific manner in which relevant information is exchanged between the various elements of a wireless telecommunications system is not critical to the operating principles described herein.

[0188] The various features of the disclosure are defined by the following numbered paragraphs:

[0189] Paragraph 1. A method for operating a terminal device in a wireless telecommunication system, the method comprising: determining that a first uplink control information should be sent using a first radio resource set; determining that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority; determining that a second uplink control information should be sent using a second radio resource set; determining that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority; determining whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, selectively multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering the priorities corresponding to the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; selecting a radio resource set for sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; and sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information using the selected radio resource set.

[0190] Paragraph 2. The method according to paragraph 1, wherein the selected radio resource set for transmitting the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information is a selected one of the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set.

[0191] Paragraph 3. The method of paragraph 2, wherein the selected one of the first set of radio resources and the second set of radio resources is the one that completes earliest in time.

[0192] Paragraph 4. A method according to paragraph 2, wherein the selected one of the first set of radio resources and the second set of radio resources is the one that will result in the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information being transmitted at a lowest code rate.

[0193] Paragraph 5. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 4, wherein the radio resource set selected for sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information is a third radio resource set different from the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set.

[0194] Paragraph 6. A method according to paragraph 5, wherein the third set of radio resources is selected to start at the earliest start time of a start time of the first set of radio resources and a start time of the second set of radio resources.

[0195] Paragraph 7. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 6, wherein the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information are sent using a transmission format selected to match the transmission format associated with one of the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and the transmission format results in the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information being sent at a minimum code rate.

[0196] Paragraph 8. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 8, wherein the first uplink control information includes a scheduling request.

[0197] Paragraph 9. The method of paragraph 8, wherein the first priority is determined based on a scheduling request identifier of the scheduling request.

[0198] Paragraph 10. A method according to paragraph 9, wherein the first priority is determined based on a transmission period configured for the scheduling request identifier.

[0199] Paragraph 11. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 10, wherein the second uplink control information comprises confirmation signaling relative to previous downlink signaling.

[0200] Paragraph 12. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 11, wherein the second priority is determined according to an indication received in association with a resource allocation message for previous downlink signaling.

[0201] Paragraph 13. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 12, wherein the first priority is determined according to a service type of the first uplink control information and / or the second priority is determined according to a service type of the second uplink control information.

[0202] Paragraph 14. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 13, wherein the first priority is determined based on the first set of radio resources and / or the second priority is determined based on the second set of radio resources.

[0203] Paragraph 15. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 14, wherein the first uplink control information is classified as high priority data or low priority data based on a comparison of the first priority with a first predetermined threshold priority, and / or the second uplink control information is classified as high priority data or low priority data based on a comparison of the second priority with a second predetermined threshold priority.

[0204] Paragraph 16. The method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 15 also includes: determining the maximum allowed coding rate of the first uplink control information, and determining the first priority based on the maximum allowed coding rate of the first uplink control information; and / or determining the maximum allowed coding rate of the second uplink control information, and determining the second priority based on the maximum allowed coding rate of the second uplink control information.

[0205] Paragraph 17. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 16, wherein the first priority is determined according to a duration of the first set of radio resources, and / or the second priority is determined according to a duration of the second set of radio resources.

[0206] Paragraph 18. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 17, wherein the first priority is determined according to a transmission format of the first uplink control information and / or the second priority is determined according to a transmission format of the second uplink control information.

[0207] Paragraph 19. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 18, wherein a first priority is determined based on an indication received from a medium access control layer of a terminal device in association with first uplink control information, and / or a second priority is determined based on an indication received from a medium access control layer of a terminal device in association with second uplink control information.

[0208] Paragraph 20. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 19, wherein a first set of radio resources is associated with a first time granularity and a first priority is determined based on the first time granularity, and / or a second set of radio resources is associated with a second time granularity and a second priority is determined based on the second time granularity.

[0209] Paragraph 21. The method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 20 also includes: determining that a third uplink control information should be sent using a third radio resource set; determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is the earliest one in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set.

[0210] Paragraph 22. The method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 21 also includes: determining that a third uplink control information should be sent using a third radio resource set; determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is the latest one in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set.

[0211] Paragraph 23. The method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 22 also includes: determining that a third uplink control information should be sent using a third radio resource set; determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is the one with the largest capacity for sending uplink control information between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set.

[0212] Paragraph 24. The method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 23 also includes: determining that a third uplink control information should be sent using a third radio resource set; determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is one of the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set that is associated with the lowest code rate.

[0213] Paragraph 25. The method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 24 also includes: determining that a third uplink control information should be sent using a third radio resource set; determining whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, selectively multiplexing the first uplink control information and the third uplink control information; selecting a radio resource set for sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and third uplink control information; and sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and third uplink control information using the selected radio resource set.

[0214] Paragraph 26. The method of paragraph 25, wherein the first uplink control information is selectively multiplexed independently with both the second uplink control information and the third uplink control information.

[0215] Paragraph 27. A method according to paragraph 25, wherein a first part of the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information are selectively multiplexed, and a second part of the first uplink control information different from the first part and the third uplink control information are selectively multiplexed.

[0216] Paragraph 28. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 27, wherein selectively multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information includes: if the generated multiplexed uplink control information is associated with a code rate less than a predetermined threshold code rate when sent on the selected radio resource set, then multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information.

[0217] Paragraph 29. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 28, wherein selectively multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information includes: discarding and / or compressing some information bits associated with the lowest priority in the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information before multiplexing.

[0218] Paragraph 30. A method according to any one of paragraphs 1 to 29, wherein selectively multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information includes: if the transmission delay of the first uplink control information or the second uplink control information exceeds a predetermined threshold delay, the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information are not multiplexed together.

[0219] Paragraph 31. A terminal device for use in a wireless telecommunications system, wherein the terminal device includes a controller circuit and a transceiver circuit, and the controller circuit and the transceiver circuit are configured to operate together so that the terminal device can operate to: determine that a first uplink control information should be sent using a first radio resource set; determine that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority; determine that a second uplink control information should be sent using a second radio resource set; determine that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority; determine whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, selectively multiplex the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering the priorities corresponding to the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; select a radio resource set for sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; and use the selected radio resource set to send the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information.

[0220] Paragraph 32. A circuit of a terminal device for use in a wireless telecommunications system, wherein the circuit includes a controller circuit and a transceiver circuit, and the controller circuit and the transceiver circuit are configured to operate together so that the circuit can operate to enable the terminal device to: determine that a first uplink control information should be sent using a first radio resource set; determine that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority; determine that a second uplink control information should be sent using a second radio resource set; determine that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority; determine whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, selectively multiplex the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering the priorities corresponding to the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; select a radio resource set for sending the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; and use the selected radio resource set to send the selectively multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information.

[0221] Paragraph 33. A method for operating network infrastructure equipment in a wireless telecommunications system, the method comprising: receiving uplink control information sent using uplink radio resources from a terminal device, wherein the uplink control information includes confirmation signaling relative to one or more previously transmitted downlink signaling from the network infrastructure equipment to the terminal device; determining that the uplink control information indicates that the terminal device has not successfully received at least one of the one or more previously transmitted downlink signaling from the network infrastructure equipment to the terminal device; and, in response to not successfully receiving at least one of the one or more previously transmitted downlink signaling, allocating radio resources to the terminal device so that the terminal device sends uplink data in a manner as if the terminal device had sent uplink control information including a scheduling request.

[0222] Paragraph 34. According to the method of paragraph 33, the method includes: determining that the uplink radio resource overlaps with the second uplink radio resource allocated for the terminal device to transmit the second uplink control information, wherein, in response to determining that the uplink radio resource overlaps with the second uplink radio resource allocated for the terminal device to transmit the second uplink control information, the radio resource is allocated for the terminal device to send uplink data.

[0223] Paragraph 35. A network infrastructure device for use in a wireless telecommunications system, wherein the network infrastructure device includes a controller circuit and a transceiver circuit, and the controller circuit and the transceiver circuit are configured to operate together so that the network infrastructure device is able to operate to: receive uplink control information sent using uplink radio resources from a terminal device, wherein the uplink control information includes confirmation signaling relative to one or more previously transmitted downlink signaling from the network infrastructure device to the terminal device; determine that the uplink control information indicates that the terminal device has not successfully received at least one of the one or more previously transmitted downlink signaling from the network infrastructure device to the terminal device; and, in response to not successfully receiving at least one of the one or more previously transmitted downlink signaling, allocate radio resources to the terminal device so that the terminal device sends uplink data in a manner as if the terminal device had sent uplink control information including a scheduling request.

[0224] Paragraph 36. A circuit of network infrastructure equipment for use in a wireless telecommunications system, wherein the circuit comprises a controller circuit and a transceiver circuit, the controller circuit and the transceiver circuit being configured to operate together so that the circuit is operable to enable the network infrastructure equipment to: receive uplink control information sent using uplink radio resources from a terminal device, wherein the uplink control information comprises confirmation signalling relative to one or more previously transmitted downlink signalling from the network infrastructure equipment to the terminal device; determine that the uplink control information indicates that the terminal device has not successfully received at least one of the one or more previously transmitted downlink signalling from the network infrastructure equipment to the terminal device; and, in response to not having successfully received at least one of the one or more previously transmitted downlink signalling, allocate radio resources to the terminal device so that the terminal device sends uplink data in a manner as if the terminal device had sent uplink control information including a scheduling request.

[0225] Further particular and preferred aspects of the invention are set out in the accompanying independent and dependent claims. It will be appreciated that features of the dependent claims may be combined with features of the independent claims in combinations other than those explicitly set out in the claims.

[0226] refer to

[0227] [1]3GPP document RP-160671, "New SID Proposal: Study on New RadioAccess Technology," NTT DOCOMO,RAN#71,Gothenburg,Sweden,7 to 10 March 2016

[0228] [2]3GPP document RP-172834, "Work Item on New Radio(NR)AccessTechnology,"NTT DOCOMO,RAN#78,Lisbon,Portugal,18 to 21 December 2017

[0229] [3]3GPP document RP-182089,“New SID on Physical Layer Enhancementsfor NR Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communication(URLLC),”Huawei,HiSilicon,Nokia,Nokia Shanghai Bell,RAN#81,Gold Coast,Australia,10 to 13 September 2018

[0230] [4]3GPP document RP-190654,“Physical layer enhancements for NR ultra-reliable and low latency communication(URLLC),”Huawei,HiSilicon,RAN#89,Shenzhen,China,18 to 21 March 2019

[0231] [5]Holma H.and Toskala A,“LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA based radioaccess”,John Wiley and Sons,2009

[0232] [6]3GPP TS 38.211,“Physical channels and modulation(Release 15)”,v15.6.0(2019-06)

[0233] [7]3GPP TS 38.212,“Multiplexing and channel coding(Release 15)”,v15.6.0(2019-06)

[0234] [8]3GPP TS 38.213,“Physical layer procedures for control(Release15)”,v15.6.0(2019-06)

[0235] [9]3GPP TS 38.331,“Radio Resource Control(RRC)protocol specification(Release 15)”,V15.5.1(2019-04).

Claims

1. A method of operating a terminal device in a wireless telecommunications system, the method comprising: determining that first uplink control information should be sent using a first set of radio resources; determining that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority; determining that second uplink control information should be sent using a second set of radio resources; determining that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority; determining whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering respective priorities of the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information based on a transmission format associated with a radio resource set of the multiplexed uplink control information; selecting a radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; and transmitting the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information using the selected radio resource set, The method further includes: determining that third uplink control information should be sent using a third set of radio resources: determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is the latest in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set, The radio resource set used to transmit the multiplexed uplink control information is the later one in time of the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The radio resource set selected for transmitting the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information is a third radio resource set different from the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The third radio resource set is selected to start at an earliest start time of a start time of the first radio resource set and a start time of the second radio resource set.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information are sent using a transmission format selected to match a transmission format associated with one of the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, the transmission format resulting in the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information being sent at a minimum code rate.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first uplink control information includes a scheduling request.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein: The first priority is determined according to a scheduling request identifier of the scheduling request.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The first priority is determined according to a transmission period configured for the scheduling request identifier.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The second uplink control information includes confirmation signaling with respect to previous downlink signaling.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The second priority is determined according to an indication received in association with a resource allocation message for the previous downlink signaling.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first priority is determined according to a service type of the first uplink control information and / or the second priority is determined according to a service type of the second uplink control information.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first priority is determined according to the first set of radio resources and / or the second priority is determined according to the second set of radio resources.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Based on a comparison between the first priority and a first predetermined threshold priority, the first uplink control information is classified as high priority data or low priority data, and / or based on a comparison between the second priority and a second predetermined threshold priority, the second uplink control information is classified as high priority data or low priority data.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Determining a maximum allowed code rate of the first uplink control information, and determining the first priority according to the maximum allowed code rate of the first uplink control information; and / or determining a maximum allowed coding rate of the second uplink control information, and determining the second priority according to the maximum allowed coding rate of the second uplink control information.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first priority is determined according to a duration of the first radio resource set, and / or the second priority is determined according to a duration of the second radio resource set.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first priority is determined according to a transmission format of the first uplink control information and / or the second priority is determined according to a transmission format of the second uplink control information.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first priority is determined based on an indication received from a medium access control layer of the terminal device in association with the first uplink control information, and / or the second priority is determined based on an indication received from a medium access control layer of the terminal device in association with the second uplink control information.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first set of radio resources is associated with a first time granularity, and the first priority is determined according to the first time granularity; and / or the second set of radio resources is associated with a second time granularity, and the second priority is determined according to the second time granularity.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that third uplink control information should be sent using a third set of radio resources; Determine that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is the earliest one in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that third uplink control information should be sent using a third set of radio resources; Determine that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is the one with the largest capacity for sending uplink control information among the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that third uplink control information should be sent using a third set of radio resources; Determine that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is one of the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set that is associated with a lowest code rate.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that third uplink control information should be sent using a third set of radio resources; determining whether there is overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and whether there is overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and In response to determining that there is an overlap between the first set of radio resources and the second set of radio resources, and there is an overlap between the first set of radio resources and the third set of radio resources, multiplexing the first uplink control information and the third uplink control information; selecting a radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed first uplink control information and the third uplink control information; and The multiplexed first uplink control information and the third uplink control information are transmitted using the selected radio resource set.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein: The first uplink control information is multiplexed independently with both the second uplink control information and the third uplink control information.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein: A first part of the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information are multiplexed, and a second part of the first uplink control information different from the first part and the third uplink control information are multiplexed.

24. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information includes multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information if the generated multiplexed uplink control information is associated with a code rate less than a predetermined threshold code rate when sent on the selected radio resource set.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein: Multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information includes discarding and / or compressing some information bits associated with a lowest priority in the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information before multiplexing.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein: Multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information includes not multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information together if a transmission delay of the first uplink control information or the second uplink control information exceeding a predetermined threshold delay would be caused.

27. A terminal device for use in a wireless telecommunication system, wherein: The terminal device comprises a controller circuit and a transceiver circuit, the controller circuit and the transceiver circuit being configured to operate together such that the terminal device is operable to: determining that first uplink control information should be sent using a first set of radio resources; determining that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority; determining that second uplink control information should be sent using a second set of radio resources; determining that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority; determining whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering respective priorities of the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information based on a transmission format associated with a radio resource set of the multiplexed uplink control information; selecting a radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; and transmitting the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information using the selected radio resource set, Wherein, determining that a third uplink control information should be sent using a third radio resource set: determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is the latest in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set, The radio resource set used to transmit the multiplexed uplink control information is the later one in time of the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set.

28. A circuit for a terminal device for use in a wireless telecommunications system, wherein: The circuit comprises a controller circuit and a transceiver circuit, the controller circuit and the transceiver circuit being configured to operate together such that the circuit is operable to cause the terminal device to: determining that first uplink control information should be sent using a first set of radio resources; determining that the first uplink control information is associated with a first priority; determining that second uplink control information should be sent using a second set of radio resources; determining that the second uplink control information is associated with a second priority; determining whether there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and in response to determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, multiplexing the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information by considering respective priorities of the first uplink control information and the second uplink control information based on a transmission format associated with a radio resource set of the multiplexed uplink control information; selecting a radio resource set for transmitting the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information; and transmitting the multiplexed first uplink control information and the second uplink control information using the selected radio resource set, Wherein, determining that a third uplink control information should be sent using a third radio resource set: determining that there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the third radio resource set, and there is an overlap between the first radio resource set and the second radio resource set, and wherein the second radio resource set is the latest in time between the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set, The radio resource set used to transmit the multiplexed uplink control information is the later one in time of the second radio resource set and the third radio resource set.

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