Random access channel configuration in integrated access and backhaul networks

Abstract

Methods, systems, apparatus, and computer programs for transmitting a new random access channel (RACH) configuration for a node in an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message from an IAB node; determining a new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message; and in response to determining the new RACH configuration, initiating a random access procedure with the IAB node using the new RACH configuration.

Description

[0001] Priority claim

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 842,417, filed on May 2, 2019, entitled “SIGNALING MECHANISMS OF RACHCONFIGURATIONS FOR IAB NODES,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Background Art

[0003] User Equipment (UE) can transmit data wirelessly using a wireless communication network. To transmit data wirelessly, the UE connects to a node of a Radio Access Network (RAN) and synchronizes with the network. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present disclosure relates to methods, systems, apparatus, computer programs, or combinations thereof for communicating a new Random Access Channel (RACH) configuration to an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node.

[0005] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method in an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network includes receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message from an IAB node; determining a new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message; and in response to determining the new RACH configuration, initiating a random access procedure with the IAB node using the new RACH configuration.

[0006] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs for performing the actions of the method defined by the instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.These and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features.

[0007] In some implementations, determining the new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message includes determining a scaling factor based on the RRC message.

[0008] In some implementations, determining the new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message includes determining a frame-based offset based on the RRC message.

[0009] In some implementations, determining the new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message includes determining a slot / subframe based offset based on the RRC message.

[0010] In some embodiments, the scaling factor defines an adjustment to a periodicity included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node.

[0011] In some embodiments, the frame-based offset defines an adjustment to a frame number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the frame number identifies a frame containing backhaul traffic.

[0012] In some embodiments, the subframe-based offset defines an adjustment to a subframe number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the subframe number identifies a subframe containing backhaul traffic.

[0013] In some implementations, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message.

[0014] In some implementations, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message.

[0015] In some implementations, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

[0016] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, in an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network including an IAB node, a method includes determining a new random access channel (RACH) configuration of the IAB node; in response to determining the RACH configuration for the IAB node, generating a message including the new RACH configuration for the IAB node; and transmitting the RRC message to the IAB node.

[0017] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs for performing the actions of the method defined by the instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.These and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features.

[0018] In some implementations, the new RACH configuration includes a scaling factor.

[0019] In some implementations, the new RACH configuration includes a frame-based offset.

[0020] In some implementations, the new RACH configuration includes a slot / subframe based offset.

[0021] In some implementations, the message is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message.

[0022] In some implementations, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message.

[0023] In some implementations, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message.

[0024] In some implementations, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] Figure 1 is an exemplary integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0026] Figure 2A and Figure 2B Each shows an exemplary method according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0027] Figure 3 is an exemplary architecture of a system of networks according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0028] Figure 4 An exemplary architecture of a system including a CN according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.

[0029] Figure 5 is a block diagram of an example of infrastructure equipment according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0030] Figure 6 is a block diagram of an example of a platform according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0031] Figure 7 is a block diagram of an example of components of a baseband circuit and a radio front end module (RFEM) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0032] Figure 8 is a block diagram of various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0033] Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (eg, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0034] Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] The present disclosure relates to an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network, which is a feature that implements multi-hop routing (e.g., as described in 3GPP Release 16 (Rel-16)). The architecture of the IAB network generally includes an IAB donor that serves multiple IAB nodes that operate as relays. The IAB donor is a network node (e.g., a base station) that terminates a new generation (NG) interface. Specifically, the IAB donor can be used as an interface from a user equipment (UE) to a core network and / or can provide wireless backhaul functionality to multiple IAB nodes. Multiple IAB nodes can act as access nodes to the UE and can provide backhaul links to other IAB nodes.

[0036] The IAB network architecture implements a central unit-distributed unit (CU-DU) split. In this architecture, multiple IAB nodes terminate the DU function, and the IAB donor terminates the CU function. In addition, each IAB node may include a mobile terminal (MT) function. The IAB node may use the MT function to connect to the parent IAB node and / or the IAB donor. In addition, the IAB node may use the DU function to communicate with the MT of the UE and / or child IAB node. The signaling between the MT or UE of the IAB node and the CU of the IAB donor may use the radio resource control (RRC) protocol. The signaling between the DU of the IAB node and the CU of the IAB donor may use the F1-AP protocol.

[0037] Figure 1 is an exemplary IAB network 100 according to some embodiments. Figure 1 As shown, the IAB network 100 includes a parent node 102, an IAB node 110, and a child node 130. In the network 100, the parent node 102 is the parent node of the IAB node 110, and the IAB node 110 is the parent node of the UE 120 and the child node 130. Conversely, the IAB node 110 is the child node of the parent node 102, and the UE 120 is the child node of the IAB node 110. In the IAB network 100, the IAB node 110 and its parent node 102 (e.g., a donor IAB or another IAB node) can be connected to each other through an uplink (UL) backhaul (BH) link 104 and a downlink (DL) BH link 106. In addition, the child node 130 and the IAB node 110 (its parent node) can be connected to each other through an uplink UL BH link 112 and a DL BH link 114. In addition, in the IAB network 100 , the IAB node 110 and the child user equipment (UE) 120 may be connected to each other through access (AC) links 122 and 124 .

[0038] In the IAB network 100, a child node (e.g., 110) is synchronized with a parent node (e.g., 102) via a random access channel (RACH) between nodes. In the current 5G or New Radio (NR) specifications, the RACH configuration of the IAB node determines the physical RACH (PRACH) preamble format and its transmission timing used when performing a random access procedure with the parent IAB node. The new RACH configuration specific to the IAB node is derived using the existing Rel-15 RACH configuration obtained by extending the scaling factor λ (if any), the frame-based offset Δy (if any), and the slot / subframe-based offset Δs (if any), as described below.

[0039] The periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration in the frame is in the form of x_iab = x*λ, where: x is the periodicity of the existing RACH configuration, and λ is a scaling factor that uses a value in {1,2,4,8,16,32,64} according to the constraint x_iab≤64. The frame containing the backhaul RO is composed of (n SFN mod x_iab)=((y+Δy)modx_iab), where Δy represents the time offset in the frame taking a value in the range of 0 to x_iab–1. The subframe (time slot) number of the RO of the backhaul RACH configuration is identified by (Sn+Δs)mod L, where: Sn is the subframe (time slot) number of the existing RACH configuration, Δs represents the time offset in the subframe (time slot) taking a value in the range of 0 to L–1, where L is the number of subframes (time slots) in the frame.

[0040] The present invention discloses a method and system for transmitting a new RACH configuration including these parameters to an IAB node in an IAB network (e.g., IAB network 100). In one embodiment, the scaling factor λ (if any), the frame-based offset Δy (if any), the slot / subframe-based offset Δs (if any), and the PRACH configuration index (0-255) are determined in a centralized manner. New / additional RRC signaling is added to inform the IAB node of the RACH scaling factor and offset.

[0041] In one embodiment, additional fields are added to the RRC information element (IE) RACH-ConfigGeneric to convey the scaling factor, frame-based offset, and slot / subframe-based offset to the IAB node. The IE RACH-ConfigGeneric may be configured as shown in Table 1. The field descriptions of the fields used in the RRC signaling for per-DU configuration are shown in Table 2.

[0042] Table 1

[0043]

[0044] Table 2

[0045]

[0046]

[0047] In one embodiment, the cfra-IAB field may be added to the RRC IE RACH-ConfigDedicated to indicate the scaling factor, frame-based offset, and slot / subframe-based offset to the IAB node. A new RRC IE FRA-IAB may also be created to include detailed scaling factor and offset information. The IE RACH-ConfigDedicated may be configured as shown in Table 3. The IE RCFRA-IAB may be configured as shown in Table 4. Field descriptions of the fields used in RRC signaling are shown in Table 5 and Table 6.

[0048] Table 3

[0049]

[0050] Table 4

[0051]

[0052] Table 5

[0053] RACH-ConfigDedicated Field Description cfra-IAB: Indication of RACH configuration scaling factor and offset specific to the IAB node.

[0054] Table 6

[0055]

[0056] In one embodiment, the RACH configuration scaling factor and offset parameters are added to the RRC IE RACH-ConfigDedicated, as shown in Table 7 and Table 8.

[0057] Table 7

[0058]

[0059] Table 8

[0060]

[0061] In one embodiment, the rach-ConfigGeneric-IAB field may be added to the RRC IE RACH-ConfigCommon to indicate the scaling factor, frame-based offset, and slot / subframe-based offset to the IAB node. A new RRC IE RACH-ConfigGeneric-IAB may also be created to include detailed scaling factor and offset information. The IE RACH-ConfigCommon may be configured as shown in Table 9. The IE RACH-ConfigGeneric-IAB may be configured as shown in Table 10. Field descriptions of the fields used in RRC signaling are shown in Tables 11 and 12.

[0062] Table 9

[0063]

[0064]

[0065] Table 10

[0066]

[0067] Table 11

[0068]

[0069] Table 12

[0070]

[0071] In one embodiment, the RACH configuration scaling factor and offset parameters may also be added directly to RRC IERACH-ConfigCommon, as shown in Tables 13 and 14:

[0072] Table 13

[0073]

[0074] Table 14

[0075]

[0076]

[0077] Figure 2A and Figure 2B200 is a flowchart of an exemplary process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For clarity of presentation, the following description generally describes the process in the context of other figures in this specification. For example, process 200 may be performed by Figure 1 210 may be performed by a base station (e.g., an IAB donor) as shown in FIG. Figure 1 . However, it should be understood that these processes may be performed by any suitable system, environment, software and hardware or a combination of systems, environments, software and hardware as appropriate. In some embodiments, the various steps of the process may be run in parallel, in combination, in a loop or in any order.

[0078] Figure 2A 2 is a flow chart of an exemplary process 200 for communicating a new random access channel (RACH) configuration to an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node. At step 202, the process involves receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message from the IAB node. At step 204, the process involves determining a new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message. At step 206, the process involves, in response to determining the new RACH configuration, initiating a random access procedure with the IAB node using the new RACH configuration.

[0079] In some embodiments, determining the new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message includes: determining a scaling factor based on the RRC message. In some embodiments, determining the new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message includes determining a frame-based offset based on the RRC message. In some embodiments, determining the new random access channel (RACH) configuration based on the RRC message includes determining a slot / subframe-based offset based on the RRC message. In some embodiments, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message. In some embodiments, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message. In some embodiments, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

[0080] In some embodiments, the scaling factor defines an adjustment to a periodicity included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node. In some embodiments, the frame-based offset defines an adjustment to a frame number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the frame number identifies a frame containing backhaul traffic. In some embodiments, the subframe-based offset defines an adjustment to a subframe number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the subframe number identifies a subframe containing backhaul traffic.

[0081] Figure 2B2 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process 210. At step 212, the process involves determining a new random access channel (RACH) configuration for an IAB node. At step 214, the process involves, in response to determining the RACH configuration for the IAB node, generating a message including the new RACH configuration for the IAB node. At step 216, the process involves transmitting the message to the IAB node.

[0082] In some embodiments, the new RACH configuration includes a scaling factor. In some embodiments, the new RACH configuration includes a frame-based offset. In some embodiments, the new RACH configuration includes a slot / subframe-based offset. In some embodiments, the message is a radio resource control (RRC) message. In some embodiments, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message. In some embodiments, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message. In some embodiments, the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

[0083] Figure 2A and Figure 2B The exemplary processes shown in the drawings may be modified or reconfigured to include additional, fewer, or different steps ( Figure 2A and Figure 2B ), these steps may be performed in the order shown or in a different order.

[0084] Figure 3 An exemplary architecture of a system 300 of a network according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an example system 300 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this regard, and the embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), and the like.

[0085] like Figure 3As shown, system 300 includes UE 301a and UE 301b (collectively referred to as "UE 301" or "UE 301"). In this example, multiple UE 301 are shown as smart phones (e.g., handheld touch screen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing devices, such as consumer electronic devices, mobile phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument panels (ICs), head-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine control units (ECUs), electronic / engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, etc.

[0086] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 301 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. M2M or MTC data exchanges may be machine-initiated data exchanges. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0087] UE 301 may be configured, for example, to be communicatively coupled to RAN 310. In an embodiment, RAN 310 may be an NG RAN or 5G RAN, E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to RAN 310 operating in NR or 5G system 300, while the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 310 operating in LTE or 4G system 300. UE 301 utilizes connections (or channels) 303 and 304, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0088] In this example, connections 303 and 304 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, UE 301 may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 305. ProSe interface 305 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface 305, and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0089] UE 301b is shown as being configured to access AP 306 (also referred to as "WLAN node 306", "WLAN 306", "WLAN terminal 306", "WT 306", etc.) via connection 307. Connection 307 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 306 will include Wireless Fidelity. Router. In this example, the AP 306 shown is connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 301b, the RAN 310, and the AP 306 can be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. The LWA operation can involve the UE 301b in the RRC_CONNECTED state being configured by the RAN nodes 311a-b to utilize the radio resources of LTE and WLAN. The LWIP operation can involve the UE 301b using the WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 307) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through the connection 307. IPsec tunneling can include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0090] The RAN 310 may include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 311a and 311b (collectively referred to as "RAN node 311" or "RAN node 311") that enable connections 303 and 304. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functions for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP or TRP, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms "NG RAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 311 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 300, while the terms "E-UTRAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 311 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 300. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 311 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0091] In some embodiments, all or part of the multiple RAN nodes 311 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional splits, such as PDCP splits, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 311; MAC / PHY splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 311; or "lower PHY" splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and upper portions of the PHY layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while the lower portions of the PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 311. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the RAN nodes 311 to execute other virtualized applications. In some embodiments, separate RAN nodes 311 may represent separate RAN nodes 311 connected via separate F1 interfaces ( Figure 3 In these embodiments, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 5), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 310 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the multiple RAN nodes 311 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to multiple UEs 301 and is connected to the 5GC via an NG interface (discussed below).

[0092] In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 311 may be an RSU or act as an RSU. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" may refer to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, wherein an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side that provides connectivity support to a passing vehicle UE 301 (vUE 301). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications as well as other cellular communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Some or all of the computing device and the RSU's RF circuitry may be packaged in a weather-resistant enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or backhaul network.

[0093] Any of the RAN nodes 311 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 301. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 311 may fulfill various logical functions of the RAN 310, including but not limited to the functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0094] In an embodiment, multiple UEs 301 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of multiple RAN nodes 311 on a multi-carrier communication channel using OFDM communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0095] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 311 to the UE 301, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice, which makes wireless resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0096] According to various embodiments, UE 301 and RAN node 311 communicate data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) through a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed frequency band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed frequency band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz frequency band.

[0097] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 301 and the RAN node 311 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these embodiments, the UE 301 and the RAN node 311 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0098] LBT is a mechanism for equipment (e.g., UE 301, RAN node 311, etc.) to sense a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine whether other signals are present on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy over a period of time on an expected transmission band, and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0099] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs use a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 301, AP 306, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. In addition, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid conflicts. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS that increases exponentially when a conflict occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA / CA of WLAN. In some embodiments, the LBT process for a DL or UL transmission burst (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmission) may have a LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the CWS of LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmissions may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (eg, transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0100] The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC may have a bandwidth of 1.4MHz, 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20MHz, and up to five CCs may be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100MHz. In an FDD system, the number of aggregated carriers may be different for DL ​​and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth from other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0101] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell may provide the PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle activities related to RRC and NAS. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell may provide individual SCCs for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, and changing PCCs may require the UE 301 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in an unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by the PCells operating in the licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0102] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 301. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about the transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It can also inform the UE 301 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 301b within a cell) can be performed on any of the multiple RAN nodes 311 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the multiple UEs 301. Downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the UEs 301.

[0103] PDCCH uses CCE to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, respectively, called REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0104] Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may utilize EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as EREG. In some cases, ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0105] RAN nodes 311 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 312. In embodiments where system 300 is an LTE system (eg, when CN 320 is a Figure 4 420 in the EPC 420), the interface 312 may be an X2 interface 312. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 311 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 320, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 320. In some embodiments, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information about successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 301 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 301; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0106] In an embodiment where the system 300 is a 5G or NR system, the interface 312 may be an Xn interface 312. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 311 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 320, between a RAN node 311 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5GC 320, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 320. In some embodiments, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and service control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for the UE 301 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 311. The mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 311 to the new (target) serving RAN node 311; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 311 and the new (target) serving RAN node 311. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and / or IP layer for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other embodiments, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0107] RAN 310 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, a core network (CN) 320. CN 320 may include a plurality of network elements 322 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 301) connected to CN 320 via RAN 310. The components of CN 320 may be implemented in one physical node or in separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable medium or a computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN 320 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 320 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0108] Generally speaking, the application server 330 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 330 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for the UE 301 via the EPC 320 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0109] In an embodiment, CN 320 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 320" or the like), and RAN 310 may be connected to CN 320 via an NG interface 313. In an embodiment, NG interface 313 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 314, which carries service data between RAN node 311 and UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 315, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 311 and AMF.

[0110] In an embodiment, CN 320 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 320", etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 320 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 320 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 320", etc.), RAN 310 may be connected to CN 320 via an S1 interface 313. In an embodiment, S1 interface 313 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 314, which carries service data between RAN node 311 and S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 315, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 311 and MME.

[0111] Figure 4 FIG. 4 shows an exemplary architecture of a system 400 including a first CN 420 according to various embodiments. In this example, the system 400 may implement the LTE standard, wherein the CN 420 is a Figure 3 In addition, UE 401 can communicate with Figure 3 The UE 301 is the same as or similar to the UE 301, and the E-UTRAN 410 may be Figure 3 The CN 420 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 310 of the mobile station, and may include the RAN node 311 discussed previously. The CN 420 may include an MME 421, an S-GW 422, a P-GW 423, an HSS 424, and an SGSN 425.

[0112] The MME 421 may be similar in function to the control plane of a conventional SGSN, and may implement MM functions to keep track of the current location of the UE 401. The MME 421 may perform various MM procedures to manage mobility aspects in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as "EPS MM" or "EMM" in an E-UTRAN system) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc. for maintaining knowledge of the current location of the UE 401, providing user identity confidentiality to users / subscribers, and / or performing other similar services. Each UE 401 and the MME 421 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and an MM context may be established in the UE 401 and the MME 421 when the attach procedure is successfully completed. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of the UE 401. The MME 421 may be coupled to the HSS 424 via an S6a reference point, to the SGSN 425 via an S3 reference point, and to the S-GW 422 via an S11 reference point.

[0113] SGSN 425 may be a node that serves UE 401 by tracking the location of individual UE 401 and performing security functions. In addition, SGSN 425 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G / 3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 421; handling of UE 401 time zone capabilities as specified by MME 421; and MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between MME 421 and SGSN 425 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in an idle state and / or an active state.

[0114] The HSS 424 may include a database for network users, which includes subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. The EPC 420 may include one or several HSSs 424, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the devices, the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 424 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing solutions, location dependencies, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 424 and the MME 421 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing users to access the EPC 420 between the HSS 424 and the MME 421.

[0115] The S-GW 422 may terminate the S1 interface 313 towards the RAN 410 (at Figure 4 The S-GW 422 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and enforcement of certain policies. The S11 reference point between the S-GW 422 and the MME 421 may provide a control plane between the MME 421 and the S-GW 422. The S-GW 422 may be coupled to the P-GW 423 via the S5 reference point.

[0116] The P-GW 423 may terminate the SGi interface toward the PDN 430. The P-GW 423 may communicate with the PDN 430 via the IP interface 325 (see, e.g., Figure 3 ) routes data packets between EPC 420 and external networks such as a network including application server 330 (alternatively referred to as "AF"). In an embodiment, P-GW 423 can communicate via IP communication interface 325 (see, e.g. Figure 3 ) is communicatively coupled to an application server ( Figure 3 Application server 330 or Figure 4The S5 reference point between the P-GW 423 and the S-GW 422 can provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 423 and the S-GW 422. Due to the mobility of the UE 401 and whether the S-GW 422 needs to be connected to a non-colocated P-GW 423 for the required PDN connectivity, the S5 reference point can also be used for S-GW 422 relocation. The P-GW 423 can also include nodes for policy implementation and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF (not shown)). In addition, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 423 and the packet data network (PDN) 430 can be an operator-external public, private PDN, or an internal operator packet data network, for example, for providing IMS services. The P-GW 423 can be coupled to the PCRF 426 via the Gx reference point.

[0117] PCRF 426 is a policy and charging control element of EPC 420. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 426 in a domestic public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of UE 401. In a roaming scenario with local service breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of UE 401: a domestic PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). PCRF 426 may be communicatively coupled to application server 430 via P-GW 423. Application server 430 may signal PCRF 426 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate QoS and charging parameters. PCRF 426 may configure the rule to a PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which starts QoS and charging as specified by application server 430. The Gx reference point between PCRF 426 and P-GW 423 may allow for the transfer of QoS policies and charging rules from PCRF 426 to PCEF in P-GW 423. The Rx reference point may reside between PDN 430 (or "AF 430") and PCRF 426.

[0118] Figure 5 An example of infrastructure equipment 500 according to various embodiments is shown. Infrastructure equipment 500 (or "system 500") can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 311 and / or AP 306 shown and described previously), an application server 330, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, system 500 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0119] System 500 includes: application circuit 505, baseband circuit 510, one or more radio front end modules (RFEM) 515, memory circuit 520, power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 525, power tee circuit 530, network controller circuit 535, network interface connector 540, satellite positioning circuit 545 and user interface 550. In some embodiments, device 500 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory / storage, display, camera, sensor or input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, the following components may be included in more than one device. For example, the circuit may be included separately in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU or other similar embodiments.

[0120] The application circuit 505 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of the following: a low dropout regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, I2C or a general programmable serial interface module, a real-time clock (RTC), a timer-counter including an interval timer and a watchdog timer, a general input / output (I / O or IO), a memory card controller such as a secure digital (SD) multimedia card (MMC) or similar product, a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interface, and a joint test access group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 505 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element, and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 500. In some embodiments, the memory / storage element can be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0121] The processor of the application circuit 505 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 505 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating in accordance with various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 505 may include one or more Apple A series processors, Processor: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor, Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) or processors; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium(TM), Inc. and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior P-class processor; etc. In some embodiments, system 500 may not utilize application circuit 505, and instead may include a dedicated processor / controller to process IP data received, for example, from an EPC or 5GC.

[0122] In some embodiments, the application circuit 505 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 505 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 505 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data, etc. in a lookup table (LUT), etc.

[0123] Baseband circuit 510 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 7 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 510 are discussed.

[0124] The user interface circuit 550 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 500 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the system 500. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio transmitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0125] The radio front end module (RFEM) 515 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some embodiments, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Figure 7Antenna array 711), and RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative embodiment, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM515 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0126] The memory circuit 520 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory including a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as a "flash memory"), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with The memory circuit 520 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0127] The PMIC 525 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 530 may provide power extracted from a network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 500 using a single cable.

[0128] The network controller circuit 535 can provide a connection to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. A physical connection can be used to provide a network connection to / from the infrastructure equipment 500 via a network interface connector 540, which can be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 535 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some embodiments, the network controller circuit 535 may include multiple controllers for providing connections to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0129] The positioning circuit 545 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by a positioning network of a global satellite navigation system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., using the Indian constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbit Chart and Satellite Integrated Radio Positioning (DORIS), etc. for navigation), etc. The positioning circuit 545 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 545 may include a micro technology (micro PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and timing that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 545 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 510 and / or RFEM 515 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 545 may also provide location data and / or time data to the application circuit 505, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (e.g., RAN node 311, etc.), etc.

[0130] Figure 5 The components shown can communicate with each other using interface circuits that can include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX can be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0131] Figure 6 An example of a platform 600 (or "device 600") according to various embodiments is shown. In an embodiment, the computer platform 600 may be suitable for use as a UE 301, 401, an application server 330, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform 600 may include any combination of components shown in the example. The components of the platform 600 may be implemented as an integrated circuit (IC), part of an IC, a discrete electronic device, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computer platform 600, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. Figure 6The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of computer platform 600. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

[0132] The application circuit 605 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of the following: LDO, interrupt controller, serial interface (such as SPI), I2C or general programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer (including interval timer and watchdog timer), general I / O, memory card controller (such as SD MMC or similar controller), USB interface, MIPI interface, and JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 605 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 600. In some embodiments, the memory / storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0133] The processor of the application circuit 505 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 505 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein.

[0134] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 605 may include an Apple A series processor. The processor of the application circuit 1105 may also be one or more of the following: based on Architecture Core TM Processors such as Quark TM 、Atom TM , i3, i5, i7 or MCU-class processors, or can be purchased from Another such processor is Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA. Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Snapdragon by Technologies, Inc. TM Processor, Texas Instruments, Open Multimedia Applications Platform(OMAP) TM processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some embodiments, the application circuit 605 can be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which the application circuit 605 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package.

[0135] In addition or alternatively, the application circuit 605 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 605 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 605 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data, etc. in lookup tables (LUTs), etc.

[0136] Baseband circuit 610 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 7 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 610 are discussed.

[0137] The RFEM 615 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some embodiments, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Figure 7 Antenna array 711), and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative embodiment, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 615 combining both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0138] The memory circuit 620 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a quantitative system memory. For example, the memory circuit 620 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 620 may be developed according to the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) based low power double data rate (LPDDR) design such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 620 may be implemented as one or more of a solder-in package integrated circuit, a single die package (SDP), a dual die package (DDP), or a quad die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, and / or soldered to a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 620 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 605. In order to provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 620 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, among others, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive change memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory. For example, the computer platform 600 may be combined with a memory device obtained from and Three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory.

[0139] Removable memory circuitry 623 may include devices, circuitry, housings / casings, ports or receptacles, etc., for coupling portable data storage devices to platform 600. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD picture cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical disks, external HDDs, etc.

[0140] The platform 600 may further include an interface circuit (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 600. External devices connected to the platform 600 via the interface circuit include a sensor circuit 621 and an electromechanical component (EMC) 622, and a removable memory device coupled to a removable memory circuit 623.

[0141] Sensor circuitry 621 comprises a device, module, or subsystem that is intended to detect events or changes in its environment, and to send information about the detected events (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a level sensor; a traffic sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; etc.

[0142] EMC 622 includes devices, modules or subsystems that are intended to enable platform 600 to change its state, position and / or orientation or to move or control mechanisms or (sub) systems. In addition, EMC 622 can be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of platform 600 to indicate the current state of EMC 622. Examples of EMC 622 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMR) and / or solid-state relays (SSR)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks and / or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, platform 600 is configured to operate one or more EMC 622 based on one or more capture events and / or instructions or control signals received from service providers and / or various clients.

[0143] In some embodiments, the interface circuit may connect the platform 600 to the positioning circuit 645. The positioning circuit 645 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by the positioning network of the GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the GPS of the United States, the GLONASS of Russia, the Galileo system of the European Union, the Beidou navigation satellite system of China, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, QZSS of Japan, DORIS of France, etc.), etc. The positioning circuit 645 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communication) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 645 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 645 may also be part of the baseband circuit 510 and / or the RFEM 615 or interact with it to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry 645 may also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuitry 605 , which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio base stations) for turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0144] In some embodiments, the interface circuit may connect the platform 600 to a near field communication (NFC) circuit 640. The NFC circuit 640 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, wherein a magnetic field is sensed to enable communication between the NFC circuit 640 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 600. The NFC circuit 640 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 640 by executing an NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit a short-range RF signal. The RF signal may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 640, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 640 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) proximate to the platform 600.

[0145] The driver circuit 646 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 600. The driver circuit 646 may include various drivers to allow other components of the platform 600 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 600. For example, the driver circuit 646 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touch screen interface of the platform 600, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 621 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 621, an EMC driver for obtaining an actuator position of the EMC 622 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 622, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0146] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 625 (also referred to as “power management circuit 625”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 600. Specifically, the PMIC 625 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion relative to the baseband circuit 610. When the platform 600 is capable of being powered by a battery 630, for example, when the device is included in a UE 301, 401, the PMIC 625 may be generally included.

[0147] In some embodiments, the PMIC 625 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 600. For example, if the platform 600 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 600 may be powered off for short time intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the platform 600 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the device is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. are performed. The platform 600 enters a very low power state and performs paging, in which the device wakes up periodically again to listen to the network and then powers off again. The platform 600 may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may prevent the device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this time will be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0148] The battery 630 can power the platform 600, but in some examples, the platform 600 can be mounted in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to the grid. The battery 630 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some embodiments, such as in V2X applications, the battery 630 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0149] In some embodiments, the battery 630 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 600 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 630. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 630, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 630 to provide fault prediction. The BMS may transmit information of the battery 630 to the application circuit 605 or other components of the platform 600. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 605 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 630 or the current from the battery 630. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 600 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0150] A power block or other power source coupled to the grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 630. In some examples, the power block XS30 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 600. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of the battery 630 and therefore the current required. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standard published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance.

[0151] The user interface circuit 650 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 600, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 600 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to implement interaction with the peripheral components of the platform 600. The user interface circuit 650 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, in particular, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information). The output device circuitry may include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, including, among other things, one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where outputs of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. are generated or produced by the operation of the platform 600. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, etc. In some embodiments, the sensor circuitry 621 may be used as an input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing tactile feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuitry including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, non-volatile memory ports, USB ports, audio jacks, power interfaces, etc.

[0152] Although not shown, the components of platform 600 can communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which can include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, time-triggered protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX can be a proprietary bus / IX, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0153] Figure 7 7 shows exemplary components of a baseband circuit 710 and a radio front end module (RFEM) 715 according to various embodiments. The baseband circuit 710 corresponds to Figure 5 The baseband circuit 510 and Figure 6The baseband circuit 610. RFEM 715 respectively corresponds to Figure 5 RFEM 515 and Figure 6 RFEM 615. As shown, RFEM 715 may include radio frequency (RF) circuit 706, front end module (FEM) circuit 708, and antenna array 711 coupled together at least as shown.

[0154] The baseband circuit 710 includes circuits and / or control logic components that are configured to execute various radio / network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 706. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit 710 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 710 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. The implementation of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions is not limited to these examples, and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments. The baseband circuit 710 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 706 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 706. The baseband circuit 710 is configured to communicate with the application circuit 505 / 605 (see Figure 5 and Figure 6 ) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of RF circuit 706. Baseband circuit 710 may handle various radio control functions.

[0155] The aforementioned circuits and / or control logic components of the baseband circuit 710 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 704A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 704B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 704C, or some other baseband processors 704D for other existing generations, generations under development or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., the sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, part or all of the functions of the baseband processors 704A-704D may be included in a module stored in the memory 704G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 704E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 704A-704D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA, ASIC, etc.) loaded with an appropriate bitstream or logic block stored in a corresponding memory unit. In various embodiments, the memory 704G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which, when executed by the CPU 704E (or other baseband processor), will enable the CPU 704E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuit 710, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of RTOS may include: Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided TM , by Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided TM , by Mentor Versatile Real-TimeExecutive (VRTX) provided by Express Provided by ThreadX TM ,Depend on FreeRTOS and REX OS provided by Open Kernel (OK) OKL4 provided, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuit 710 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 704F. The audio DSP 704F includes elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.

[0156] In some embodiments, each of processors 704A-704E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to / receive data from memory 704G. Baseband circuit 710 may also include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling to other circuits / devices, such as an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to baseband circuit 710; an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuit; Figures 5 to 7An application circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from the application circuit 505 / 605; Figure 7 RF circuit 706 to send data / receive data from the RF circuit RF circuit interface; for receiving data from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, Low power consumption components, components, etc.) to send data / receive data from these wireless hardware elements; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to / receiving power or control signals from the PMIC625.

[0157] In an alternative embodiment (which can be combined with the above embodiment), the baseband circuit 710 includes one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, the audio subsystem and the interface subsystem via an interconnect subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem can also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, a point-to-point connector, a network on chip (NOC) structure and / or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include a DSP circuit, a buffer memory, a program memory, a voice processing accelerator circuit, a data converter circuit such as an analog-to-digital converter circuit and a digital-to-analog converter circuit, an analog circuit including one or more of an amplifier and a filter, and / or other similar components. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the baseband circuit 710 may include a protocol processing circuit with one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuit and / or the radio frequency circuit (e.g., the radio front end module 715).

[0158] although Figure 7Not shown, but in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 710 includes various processing devices (e.g., a "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") to operate one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices to implement PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuit operates or implements various protocol layers / entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, when the baseband circuit 710 and / or the RF circuit 706 are part of a millimeter wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuit may operate LTE protocol entities and / or 5G / NR protocol entities. In the first example, the protocol processing circuit will operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, when the baseband circuit 710 and / or the RF circuit 706 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuit may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In the second example, the protocol processing circuit will operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuit may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 704G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing program code and performing various operations using data. The baseband circuit 710 may also support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol.

[0159] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 710 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuit 710 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 710 and the RF circuit 706 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system on a chip (SoC) or a system-level package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 710 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 706 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 706). In yet another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 710 and the application circuit 505 / 605 may be implemented together as a separate SoC (e.g., a "multi-chip package") mounted to the same circuit board.

[0160] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 710 can provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 710 can support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMANs, WLANs, WPANs. Embodiments in which the baseband circuit 710 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol can be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0161] The RF circuit 706 may enable communication with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 706 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuit 706 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuits for down-converting RF signals received from the FEM circuit 708 and providing baseband signals to the baseband circuit 710. The RF circuit 706 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuits for up-converting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuit 710 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to the FEM circuit 708.

[0162] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 706 may include a mixer circuit 706a, an amplifier circuit 706b, and a filter circuit 706c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 706 may include a filter circuit 706c and a mixer circuit 706a. The RF circuit 706 may also include a synthesizer circuit 706d, which is used to synthesize the frequency used by the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 708 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 706d. The amplifier circuit 706b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 706c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF), which is configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 710 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not required.In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0163] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 706d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 708. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuit 710 and may be filtered by filter circuit 706c.

[0164] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and quadrature up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0165] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 706 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 710 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 706.

[0166] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0167] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 706d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 706d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0168] Synthesizer circuit 706d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by mixer circuit 706a of RF circuit 706. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 706d may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0169] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuit 710 or the application circuit 505 / 605 according to the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application circuit 505 / 605.

[0170] The synthesizer circuit 706d of the RF circuit 706 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a cascaded, tunable, delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop set. In these embodiments, the delay element may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0171] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 706d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and can be used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals with multiple different phases relative to each other at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 706 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0172] The FEM circuitry 708 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the antenna array 711, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 706 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 708 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided for transmission by the RF circuitry 706 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in the antenna array 711. In various embodiments, amplification by the transmit or receive signal paths may be accomplished only in the RF circuitry 706, only in the FEM circuitry 708, or in both the RF circuitry 706 and the FEM circuitry 708.

[0173] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 708 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit 708 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 708 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 706). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 708 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying the input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 706), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 711.

[0174] The antenna array 711 includes one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured to convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals. For example, the digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 710 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which is amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array 711 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed into a variety of arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 711 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 711 may be formed as a patch of metal foil of various shapes (e.g., a patch antenna) and may be coupled to the RF circuit 706 and / or the FEM circuit 708 using a metal transmission line or the like.

[0175] The processor of the application circuit 505 / 605 and the processor of the baseband circuit 710 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 710 can be used alone or in combination to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuit 505 / 605 can utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a PHY layer of a UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0176] Figure 8 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device according to various embodiments are shown. Specifically, Figure 8 An arrangement 800 is included to show the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. Various protocol layers / entities operating in conjunction with 5G / NR system standards and LTE system standards are provided. Figure 8The following description, but Figure 8 Some or all aspects of the present invention may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0177] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 800 may also include one or more of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, SDAP 847, RRC 855, and NAS layer 857. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Figure 8 Items 859, 856, 850, 849, 845, 835, 825 and 815), the one or more service access points can provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

[0178] PHY 810 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 805, which can be received or transmitted from one or more other communication devices to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 805 can include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 810 can also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and switching purposes) and other measurement items used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 855). PHY 810 can also further perform error detection on transmission channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transmission channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels and MIMO antenna processing. In an embodiment, an instance of PHY 810 can process a request from an instance of MAC 820 via one or more PHY-SAP 815 and provide an indication thereto. According to some embodiments, the request and indication transmitted via PHY-SAP 815 can include one or more transmission channels.

[0179] An instance of MAC 820 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of RLC 830 via one or more MAC-SAPs 825. These requests and indications transmitted via MAC-SAP 825 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 820 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY 810 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 810 via transport channels to one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0180] An instance of RLC 830 may process requests from an instance of PDCP 840 and provide indications thereto via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 835. These requests and indications transmitted via RLC-SAPs 835 may include one or more logical channels. RLC 830 may operate in a variety of operating modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 830 may perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 830 may also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0181] An instance of PDCP 840 may process requests from an instance of RRC 855 and / or an instance of SDAP 847 via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Points (PDCP-SAP) 845 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via PDCP-SAP 845 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 840 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-order delivery of upper layer PDUs when lower layers are reestablished, eliminate duplication of lower layers when reestablishing lower layer SDUs for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0182] An instance of SDAP 847 may process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities and provide indications thereto via one or more SDAP-SAPs 849. These requests and indications transmitted via SDAP-SAPs 849 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 847 may map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 847 may be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 310 may control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflective mapping or explicit mapping). For reflective mapping, the SDAP 847 of UE 301 may monitor the QFI of the DL packets of each DRB, and may apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For DRBs, the SDAP 847 of UE 301 may map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow corresponding to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of the DRB. To implement reflective mapping, NG-RAN may mark DL packets with QoS flow IDs over the Uu interface. Explicit mapping may involve RRC 855 configuring SDAP 847 with explicit mapping rules for QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by SDAP 847. In an embodiment, SDAP 847 may be used only in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

[0183] The RRC 855 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, and SDAP 847, via one or more Management Service Access Points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, an instance of the RRC 855 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 857 and provide instructions thereto via one or more RRC-SAPs 856. The main services and functions of the RRC 855 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a MIB or SIB related to NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of an RRC connection between the UE 301 and the RAN 310 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. These MIBs and SIBs may include one or more IEs, each of which may include a separate data field or data structure.

[0184] NAS 857 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 301 and AMF. NAS 857 may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 301 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 301 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0185] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of the arrangement 800 may be implemented in the UE 301, the RAN node 311, the AMF in the NR embodiment or the MME 421 in the LTE embodiment, the UPF in the NR embodiment or the S-GW 422 and P-GW 423 in the LTE embodiment, etc., for control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of the UE 301, the gNB 311, the AMF, etc. may communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities that may be implemented in or on another device (using the services of corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of the gNB 311 may host the RRC 855, SDAP 847, and PDCP 840 of the gNB that control the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of the gNB 311 may each host the RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810 of the gNB 311.

[0186] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 857, RRC 855, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810. In this example, an upper layer 860 may be built on top of NAS 857, which includes an IP layer 861, SCTP 862, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 863.

[0187] In an NR implementation, AP 863 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 863 for the NG interface 313 defined between the NG-RAN node 311 and the AMF, or AP 863 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 863 for the Xn interface 312 defined between two or more RAN nodes 311.

[0188] The NG-AP 863 may support the functionality of the NG interface 313 and may include a primary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN point 311 and the AMF. The NG-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 301) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 311 and the AMF). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 311 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF to establish, modify and / or release the UE context in the AMF and the NG-RAN node 311; a mobility function for the UE 301 in ECM-CONNECTED mode, for intra-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transmission function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 301 and the AMF; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF and the UE 301; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message sending function for providing a means for transmitting a warning message via the NG interface or cancelling an ongoing warning message broadcast; a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 311 via the CN 320; and / or other similar functions.

[0189] XnAP 863 may support the functionality of the Xn interface 312 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 311 (or E-UTRAN 410), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures unrelated to a specific UE 301, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0190] In an LTE implementation, the AP 863 may be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 for the S1 interface 313 defined between the E-UTRAN node 311 and the MME, or the AP 863 may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 863 for the X2 interface 312 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 311.

[0191] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 may support the functionality of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 311 and the MME 421 within the LTE CN 320. The S1-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0192] The X2AP 863 may support the functions of the X2 interface 312 and may include an X2AP basic mobility procedure and an X2AP global procedure. The X2AP basic mobility procedure may include a procedure for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 320, such as a handover preparation and cancellation procedure, an SN state transfer procedure, a UE context retrieval and a UE context release procedure, a RAN paging procedure, a procedure related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedure may include a procedure that is not related to a specific UE 301, such as an X2 interface setup and reset procedure, a load indication procedure, an error indication procedure, a cell activation procedure, etc.

[0193] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 862 can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). SCTP 862 can ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 311 and the AMF / MME 421 based in part on the IP protocol supported by IP 861. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 861 can be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some embodiments, the IP layer 861 can use point-to-point transport to deliver and transmit PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 311 can include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0194] In the second example, the user plane protocol stack may include SDAP 847, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810 in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 301, RAN node 311, and UPF in NR implementation, or communication between S-GW 422 and P-GW 423 in LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 851 may be built on top of SDAP 847 and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP / IP) 852, a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol layer (GTP-U) 853 for the user plane, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 863.

[0195] The transport network layer 854 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of the IP transport, and the GTP-U 853 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 852 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry the user plane PDU (UP-PDU). The IP layer (also referred to as the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets, for example, in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

[0196] GTP-U 853 can be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the transmitted user data can be a packet in any of the formats of IPv4, IPv6 or PPP. UDP / IP852 can provide a checksum for data integrity, a port number for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of the selected data stream. The RAN node 311 and the S-GW 422 can exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 810), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840 and / or SDAP847), a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853 using an S1-U interface. The S-GW 422 and the P-GW 423 can exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853 using an S5 / S8a interface. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support mobility and session management procedures of the UE 301 to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE 301 and the P-GW 423 .

[0197] In addition, despite Figure 8Not shown, but an application layer may exist above the AP 863 and / or transport network layer 854. The application layer may be a layer where a user of the UE 301, RAN node 311, or other network element interacts with, for example, a software application executed by the application circuitry 505 or the application circuitry 605, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with the communication system (such as the baseband circuitry 710) of the UE 301 or RAN node 311. In some embodiments, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide the same or similar functionality as layers 5 to 7 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, or portions thereof (e.g., OSI layer 7—application layer, OSI layer 6—presentation layer, and OSI layer 5—session layer).

[0198] Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Specifically, Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 900 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more memory / storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 940. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 900.

[0199] Processor 910 may include, for example, processor 912 and processor 914. Processor 910 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0200] The memory / storage device 920 may include a main memory, a disk storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 920 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a static random access memory (SRAM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a solid-state storage device, etc.

[0201] The communication resources 930 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 via the network 908. For example, the communication resources 930 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power consumption) components, components and other communication components.

[0202] The instructions 950 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 910 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 950 may reside completely or partially in at least one of the processors 910 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 920, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 950 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 900 from any combination of the peripheral device 904 or the database 906. Therefore, the memory of the processor 910, the memory / storage device 920, the peripheral device 904, and the database 906 are examples of computer-readable media and machine-readable media.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising: receiving a radio resource control, RRC, message from an integrated access and backhaul, IAB, node; determining a new random access channel (RACH) configuration based at least on the RRC message, the new RACH configuration comprising a slot offset or a subframe offset from the RRC message, a frame-based offset determined at least based on the RRC message, and a scaling factor determined at least based on the RRC message, wherein the scaling factor is selected from {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} based on a constraint that a periodicity of a backhaul RACH configuration is less than or equal to 64, and wherein the frame-based offset is a value in a range from 0 to the periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration minus 1; and In response to determining the new RACH configuration, initiating a random access procedure with the IAB node using the new RACH configuration with the time slot offset or the subframe offset and the scaling factor, the initiating comprising: Based at least on the time slot offset or the subframe offset, an existing time slot number or an existing subframe number for an existing RACH configuration, and the number of time slots or subframes in a frame, Determining a new timeslot number or a new subframe number for the new RACH configuration; and Based on the scaling factor, an adjustment to a periodicity included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node is determined.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the frame-based offset defines an adjustment to a frame number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the frame number identifies a frame containing backhaul traffic.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subframe-based offset defines an adjustment to a subframe number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the subframe number identifies a subframe containing backhaul traffic. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

7. A method of communication, comprising: Determine a new random access channel (RACH) configuration for an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, the new random access channel (RACH) configuration comprising a slot offset or a subframe offset, a frame-based offset, and a scaling factor, wherein the scaling factor is selected from {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} based on a constraint that a periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration is less than or equal to 64, and wherein the frame-based offset is a value in a range from 0 to a periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration minus 1; In response to determining the new RACH configuration for the IAB node, generating a message including the new RACH configuration for the IAB node, the new RACH configuration including the time slot offset or the subframe offset, and the scaling factor; and The message including the time slot offset or the subframe offset and the scaling factor is transmitted to the IAB node, so that the IAB node: Based at least on the time slot offset or the subframe offset, an existing time slot number or an existing subframe number for an existing RACH configuration, and the number of time slots or subframes in a frame, determining a new timeslot number or a new subframe number for the new RACH configuration; and Based on the scaling factor, an adjustment to a periodicity included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node is determined.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the frame-based offset defines an adjustment to a frame number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the frame number identifies a frame containing backhaul traffic.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the subframe-based offset defines an adjustment to a subframe number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the subframe number identifies a subframe containing backhaul traffic.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device in an integrated access and backhaul IAB network, the IAB network comprising an IAB node, the non-transitory computer-readable storage device having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by a data processing apparatus, causing the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising: Determine a new random access channel RACH configuration for the IAB node, the new RACH configuration comprising a time slot offset or a subframe offset, a frame-based offset, and a scaling factor, wherein: The scaling factor is selected from {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} based on a constraint that a periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration is less than or equal to 64, and wherein the frame-based offset is a value in a range from 0 to the periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration minus 1; In response to determining the new RACH configuration for the IAB node, generating a message including the new RACH configuration for the IAB node, the new RACH configuration including the time slot offset or the subframe offset, and the scaling factor; as well as The message including the time slot offset or the subframe offset and the scaling factor is transmitted to the IAB node, so that the IAB node: determining a new time slot number or a new subframe number for the new RACH configuration based at least on the time slot offset or the subframe offset, an existing time slot number or an existing subframe number for the existing RACH configuration, and a number of time slots or subframes in a frame; and Based on the scaling factor, an adjustment to a periodicity included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node is determined.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the frame-based offset defines an adjustment to a frame number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the frame number identifies a frame containing backhaul traffic.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the subframe-based offset defines an adjustment to a subframe number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the subframe number identifies a subframe containing backhaul traffic.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device in an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage device stores instructions, which, when executed by a data processing device, cause the data processing device to perform operations including: receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message from an IAB node; Determine a new random access channel RACH configuration based at least on the RRC message, the new RACH configuration comprising a timeslot offset or a subframe offset from the RRC message, a frame-based offset determined at least based on the RRC message, and a scaling factor determined at least based on the RRC message, wherein: The scaling factor is selected from {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} based on a constraint that a periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration is less than or equal to 64, and wherein the frame-based offset is a value in a range from 0 to the periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration minus 1; as well as In response to determining the new RACH configuration, initiating a random access procedure with the IAB node using the new RACH configuration with the time slot offset or the subframe offset and the scaling factor, the initiating comprising: Based at least on the time slot offset or the subframe offset, an existing time slot number or an existing subframe number for an existing RACH configuration, and the number of time slots or subframes in a frame, Determine a new time slot number or a new subframe number; as well as Based on the scaling factor, an adjustment to a periodicity included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node is determined.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the frame-based offset defines an adjustment to a frame number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the frame number identifies a frame containing backhaul traffic.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the subframe-based offset defines an adjustment to a subframe number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the subframe number identifies a subframe containing backhaul traffic.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message.

25. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message.

26. The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

27. An electronic device comprising: One or more processors configured to perform operations including: Determine a new random access channel (RACH) configuration for an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, the new RACH configuration comprising a slot offset or a subframe offset, a frame-based offset, and a scaling factor, wherein the scaling factor is selected from {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} based on a constraint that a periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration is less than or equal to 64, and wherein the frame-based offset is a value in a range from 0 to a periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration minus 1; In response to determining the new RACH configuration for the IAB node, generating a message including the new RACH configuration for the IAB node, the new RACH configuration including the time slot offset or the subframe offset, and the scaling factor; and The message including the time slot offset or the subframe offset and the scaling factor is transmitted to the IAB node, so that the IAB node: determining a new time slot number or a new subframe number for the new RACH configuration based at least on the time slot offset or the subframe offset, an existing time slot number or an existing subframe number for the existing RACH configuration, and a number of time slots or subframes in a frame; and Based on the scaling factor, an adjustment to a periodicity included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node is determined.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the frame-based offset defines an adjustment to a frame number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the frame number identifies a frame containing backhaul traffic.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the subframe-based offset defines an adjustment to a subframe number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the subframe number identifies a subframe containing backhaul traffic.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message.

32. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message.

33. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

34. An electronic device comprising: One or more processors configured to perform operations including: receiving a radio resource control, RRC, message from an integrated access and backhaul, IAB, node; determining a new random access channel (RACH) configuration based at least on the RRC message, the new RACH configuration comprising a slot offset or a subframe offset from the RRC message, a frame-based offset determined at least based on the RRC message, and a scaling factor determined at least based on the RRC message, wherein the scaling factor is selected from {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} based on a constraint that a periodicity of a backhaul RACH configuration is less than or equal to 64, and wherein the frame-based offset is a value in a range from 0 to the periodicity of the backhaul RACH configuration minus 1; and In response to determining the new RACH configuration, initiating a random access procedure with the IAB node using the new RACH configuration with the time slot offset or the subframe offset and the scaling factor, the initiating comprising: determining a new time slot number or a new subframe number based at least on the time slot offset or the subframe offset, an existing time slot number or an existing subframe number for an existing RACH configuration, and a number of time slots or subframes in a frame; and Based on the scaling factor, an adjustment to a periodicity included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node is determined.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the frame-based offset defines an adjustment to a frame number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the frame number identifies a frame containing backhaul traffic.

36. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the subframe-based offset defines an adjustment to a subframe number included in an existing RACH configuration associated with the IAB node, wherein the subframe number identifies a subframe containing backhaul traffic.

37. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigGeneric message.

38. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigDedicated message.

39. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the RRC message is a RACH-ConfigCommon message.

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