RACH procedure based on the downlink reception capability level of the user equipment

Abstract

In one aspect, the UE and the BS perform a RACH procedure whereby a preamble sequence group used for a preamble is associated with a downlink reception capability of the UE. In another aspect, the UE and the BS perform a RACH procedure whereby a preamble sequence group is associated with a group-specific RA‑RNTI used to scramble associated DCI communications. In another aspect, UEs performing a RACH procedure with a BS via different RO sets may monitor the same GC‑DCI scrambled with a common RA‑RNTI. In another aspect, the UE and the BS perform a 2-step RACH procedure whereby a Msg‑A payload includes information indicating a downlink reception capability level associated with the UE.

Description

Background of the Invention Technical Field

[0002] Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communications, and to techniques and apparatus related to a random access channel (RACH) procedure based on a downlink reception capability level of a user equipment (UE). Background Art

[0003] Wireless communication systems have evolved over many generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including transitional 2.5G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, wireless service with Internet capabilities, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE), WiMax). Currently, there are many different types of wireless communication systems in use, including cellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), global system for mobile access (GSM) variants of TDMA, and the like.

[0004] The fifth generation (5G) mobile standard calls for higher data transfer speeds, a greater number of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance, the 5G standard (also called "new radio" or "NR") is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, with 1 gigabit per second for dozens of workers on an office floor. To support large sensor deployments, hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported. Therefore, the spectrum efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly improved compared to the current 4G / LTE standards. In addition, signaling efficiency should be enhanced and latency should be substantially reduced compared to current standards. Summary of the invention

[0005] The following presents a simplified overview of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of these aspects. This overview is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is neither intended to identify key or important elements of all aspects, nor to delineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description that is presented later.

[0006] As described above, various device types can be characterized as UEs. Starting with 3GPP Rel.17, many of these UE types are assigned a new UE classification denoted as "NR-Light". Examples of UE types that fall under the NR-Light classification include wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, etc.), industrial sensors, cameras (e.g., surveillance cameras, etc.), etc. Typically, UE types grouped according to the NR-Light classification are associated with lower communication capacity. For example, relative to a "normal" UE (e.g., a UE that is not classified as NR-Light), an NR-Light UE may be limited in terms of maximum bandwidth (e.g., 5MHz, 10MHz, 20MHz, etc.), maximum transmit power (e.g., 20dBm, 14dBm, etc.), the number of receive antennas (e.g., 1 receive antenna, 2 receive antennas, etc.). Some NR-Light UEs may also be sensitive in terms of power consumption (e.g., requiring a long battery life, such as several years), and may be highly mobile. In addition, in some designs, it is generally expected that NR-Light UEs coexist with UEs implementing protocols such as eMBB, URLLC, LTE NB-IoT / MTC, etc.

[0007] Starting from 3GPP Rel.14, multi-user overlay transmission (MUST) is introduced to enhance PDSCH capacity in the symbol domain. In one example, the modulation order and power ratio between the pair of far UE and near UE can be indicated via DCI, and the near UE can use this information to perform cancellation of the far UE's signal. According to 3GPP Rel.14, the near UE will assume that a single far UE with the same modulation order performs MUST on its own signal within the entire PDSCH bandwidth.

[0008] In a scenario where the UE corresponds to a specific UE category such as an NR-Light UE, it is possible that a Msg-1 preamble or a Msg-A preamble is successfully received at the BS, but a RAR (e.g., Msg-2 or Msg-B RAR of 304) is not successfully received at the UE. For example, a so-called "premium" UE may include more receivers (e.g., 2, 4, etc.) than a low-level UE (e.g., an NR-Light UE, which may include 1 or 2 receivers). In this case, a low-level UE that requires RAR repetition may be paired with a high-level UE that does not require RAR repetition (or MUST be paired with a high-level UE that does not require RAR repetition).

[0009] One or more embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to various 2-step or 4-step RACH procedures, and in some designs may be used in scenarios where a UE belonging to a first UE category (e.g., an NR-Light UE or any UE with a number of receivers below a threshold) is considered a virtual far UE, and MUST be coupled to a UE belonging to a second UE category (e.g., an advanced UE or any UE with a number of receivers not below a threshold), which is considered a virtual near UE. In some designs, multiple preamble sequence groups have RO sets, such that each respective preamble sequence group is associated with a different repetition level of a downlink message (e.g., Msg-BRAR or Msg-3RAR). In some designs, the various embodiments described below are implemented for UEs belonging to a specific UE category (e.g., UEs with limited downlink reception capability, such as NR-Light UEs). As used herein, a "set" of ROs refers to a grouping of one or more ROs.

[0010] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a UE. The UE may identify a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set, wherein a preamble associated with a RACH process is sent through the first RACH opportunity (RO) set; based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, a first preamble sequence group is selected from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, the preamble is sent on the identified RO set, and a random access response (RAR) is received in response to the sent preamble.

[0011] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a base station. The base station may receive a preamble associated with a RACH process from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, receive the preamble through the RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and send a random access response (RAR) in response to the preamble.

[0012] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a UE. The UE may identify a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set, send a preamble associated with a RACH process through the first RACH opportunity (RO) set, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on the UE's downlink reception capability, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, send a preamble through the identified RO set, and monitor downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI.

[0013] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a base station. The base station may receive a preamble associated with a RACH process from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, receive the preamble through the RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and the second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and send a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI in response to the preamble.

[0014] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a UE. The UE may identify a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set, send a preamble associated with a RACH process through the first RACH opportunity (RO) set, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on the UE's downlink reception capability, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level, send a preamble in the identified RO set, and monitor a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-TI).

[0015] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a base station. The base station may receive a first preamble associated with a first RACH process from a first user equipment (UE) through a first RO set in a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the first RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, the first preamble is received through the first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the first plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group associated with a second RACH process is received from a second UE through a second RO set in the plurality of RO sets. A preamble, wherein a second RO set is associated with a third preamble sequence group in a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, a second preamble is received through the second RO set, wherein the third preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a fourth preamble sequence group in the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, and in response to the first preamble and the second preamble, a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) is sent to the first UE and the second UE, wherein the GC-DCI communication includes information targeted at both the first UE and the second UE.

[0016] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a UE. The UE may identify a set of random access channel (RACH) opportunities (RO), send a preamble associated with a RACH process through the set of RACH opportunities (RO), send the preamble on the identified set of ROs, and before receiving a response to the preamble, send an uplink message associated with the RACH process on a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunities (PO), wherein the uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE.

[0017] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a base station. The base station may receive a first preamble associated with a first RACH process from a first user equipment (UE) on a first RO set of multiple random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, and before sending a response to the preamble, receive an uplink message associated with the RACH process on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunity (PO) set, wherein the uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE.

[0018] Aspects generally include methods, apparatus, systems, computer program products, non-transitory computer-readable media, user equipment, cIoT user equipment, base stations, wireless communication devices, and / or processing systems as substantially described with reference to the accompanying drawings and description and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings and description.

[0019] The features and technical advantages of the examples according to the present disclosure have been outlined quite broadly above so that the following detailed description may be better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described below. The disclosed concepts and specific examples may be easily used as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for achieving the same purpose of the present disclosure. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the scope of the appended claims. The features of the concepts disclosed herein in terms of their organization and method of operation and the associated advantages will be better understood through the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Each of the drawings is provided for the purpose of illustration and description and not as a definition of limitations of the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication network.

[0021] Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a base station communicating with a UE in a wireless communication network.

[0022] Figure 3A 4-step physical random access channel (PRACH) procedure according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0023] Figure 4 A 2-step PRACH procedure according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0024] Figure 5 A 2-step PRACH process according to another embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0025] Figure 6 An example of a Msg-A mapping scheme according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0026] Figure 7 A MUST-based transmission according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0027] Figure 8 An exemplary process of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0028] Fig. 9 An exemplary process of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0029] Fig.10 An exemplary process of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0030] Fig.11 An exemplary process of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0031] Fig.12 An exemplary process of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0032] Fig.13 An exemplary process of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0033] Fig.14 An exemplary process of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0034] Fig.15 An exemplary process of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0035] Fig.16 The embodiment according to the present disclosure is illustrated Figure 8-15 Example implementations of one or more of the processes described herein.

[0036] Fig.17 The embodiment according to the present disclosure is illustrated Figure 8-15 Example implementations of one or more of the processes described herein.

[0037] Fig.18The embodiment according to the present disclosure is illustrated Figure 8-15 One or more alternative visualizations of the process.

[0038] Fig.19 is a conceptual data flow diagram illustrating the flow of data between different parts / components in an exemplary apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0039] Fig. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of an apparatus employing a processing system.

[0040] Fig.21 is a diagram illustrating another example of a hardware implementation of an apparatus employing a processing system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] The detailed description set forth below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some cases, well-known structures and components are illustrated in block diagram form to avoid obscuring these concepts.

[0042] Several aspects of telecommunication systems will now be presented with reference to various apparatus and methods. These apparatus and methods will be described in the following detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, modules, components, circuits, steps, processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as "elements"). These elements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or any combination thereof. Whether such elements are implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0043] For example, an element, or any part of an element, or any combination of elements can be implemented as a "processing system" including one or more processors. Examples of processors include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform various functions described throughout the present disclosure. One or more processors in a processing system can execute software. Whether software is referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language or other, software should be broadly interpreted as representing instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, execution threads, processes, functions, etc.

[0044] Therefore, in one or more example embodiments, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or codes, or encoded as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include computer storage media. Storage media may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. As an example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), compact disk ROM (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, combinations of the above types of computer-readable media, or any other medium that can be used to store computer executable code in the form of instructions or data structures that can be accessed by a computer.

[0045] It should be noted that although various aspects may be described herein using terminology generally associated with 3G and / or 4G wireless technologies, various aspects of the present disclosure may be applied in communication systems based on other generations, such as 5G and later generations, including 5G technology.

[0046] Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating a wireless network 100 in which various aspects of the present disclosure may be practiced. The wireless network 100 may be an LTE network or some other wireless network, such as a 5G network. The wireless network 100 may include a plurality of BSs 110 (illustrated as BS 110a, BS 110b, BS 110c, and BS 110d) and other network entities. A BS is an entity that communicates with a user equipment (UE) and may also be referred to as a base station, 5G BS, Node B, gNB, 5G NB, access point, transmit receive point (TRP), etc. Each BS may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term "cell" may refer to a coverage area of ​​a BS and / or a BS subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.

[0047] A BS may provide communication coverage for macro cells, pico cells, femto cells, and / or other types of cells. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access to UEs with service subscriptions. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access to UEs with service subscriptions. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access to UEs associated with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG)). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In Figure 1 In the example shown in , BS 110a may be a macro BS for macro cell 102a, BS 110b may be a pico BS for pico cell 102b, and BS 110c may be a femto BS for femto cell 102c. A BS may support one or more (e.g., three) cells. The terms "eNB", "base station", "5G BS", "gNB", "TRP", "AP", "Node B", "5G NB", and "cell" may be used interchangeably herein.

[0048] In some examples, the cell may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of ​​the cell may move according to the location of the mobile BS. In some examples, the BSs may be interconnected to each other and / or to one or more other BSs or network nodes (not shown) in the wireless network 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces (such as direct physical connections, virtual networks, etc.) using any suitable transmission network.

[0049] The wireless network 100 may also include a relay station. A relay station is an entity that can receive transmissions of data from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or UE) and transmissions of data to a downstream station (e.g., a UE or BS). A relay station may also be a UE that can relay transmissions for other UEs. Figure 1 In the example shown in FIG. 1 , a relay station 110 d may communicate with a macro BS 110 a and a UE 120 d to facilitate communication between the BS 110 a and the UE 120 d. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay base station, a relay, or the like.

[0050] The wireless network 100 may be a heterogeneous network including different types of BSs (e.g., macro BSs, pico BSs, femto BSs, relay BSs, etc.). These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different effects on interference in the wireless network 100. For example, a macro BS may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 5 to 40 watts), while a pico BS, a femto BS, and a relay BS may have a lower transmit power level (e.g., 0.1 to 2 watts).

[0051] A network controller 130 may be coupled to a set of BSs and may provide coordination and control for these BSs. The network controller 130 may communicate with the BSs via a backhaul. The BSs may also communicate with each other, directly or indirectly, for example, via a wireless or wired backhaul.

[0052] UE 120 (e.g., 120a, 120b, 120c) can be dispersed throughout the wireless network 100, and each UE can be stationary or mobile. UE can also be referred to as an access terminal, terminal, mobile station, subscriber unit, station, etc. UE can be a cellular phone (e.g., a smart phone), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet computer, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device or equipment, a biometric sensor / device, a wearable device (smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, smart wristband, smart jewelry (e.g., smart ring, smart bracelet)), an entertainment device (e.g., a music or video device, or a satellite radio), a vehicle-mounted component or sensor, a smart meter / sensor, industrial manufacturing equipment, a global positioning system device, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium.

[0053] Some UEs may be considered as machine type communication (MTC) or evolved or enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) UEs. "MTC" may refer to MTC or eMTC. MTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc., which may communicate with a base station, another device (e.g., a remote device), or some other entity. A wireless node may, for example, provide connectivity to a network (e.g., a wide area network, such as the Internet or a cellular network) or to the network via a wired or wireless communication link. Some UEs may be considered as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and / or may be implemented as NB-IoT (narrowband Internet of Things) devices. IoT UEs, eMTC UEs, coverage enhancement (CE) mode UEs, bandwidth limited (BL) UEs, and other types of UEs that operate using reduced power consumption relative to a baseline UE may be referred to herein as cellular IoT (cIoT) UEs. Some UEs may be considered as user premises equipment (CPE). UE 120 may be included inside a housing that accommodates components of UE 120, such as a processor component, a memory component, and the like.

[0054] Generally, any number of wireless networks can be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network can support a specific RAT and can operate on one or more frequencies. RAT can also be referred to as radio technology, air interface, etc. Frequency can also be referred to as carrier, frequency channel, etc. Each frequency can support a single RAT in a given geographic area to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, 5G RAT networks can be deployed.

[0055] In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, wherein a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) allocates resources for communications between some or all devices and equipment within a service area or cell of the scheduling entity. In the present disclosure, as further discussed below, a scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinate entities. That is, for scheduling communications, the subordinate entity utilizes resources allocated by the scheduled entity. For example, a unified access control (UAC) system may be used to control access to the air interface, in which a UE is associated with an access identifier (e.g., an access category, etc.), which may be intended to ensure that certain high priority UEs (e.g., emergency response UEs, mission critical UEs, etc.) can access the air interface even under congested conditions. Messages such as paging messages or direct indication information may be used to provide cIoT UEs with updates to UAC parameters (e.g., priority levels associated with access identifiers, which access identifiers are allowed to access the air interface, etc.), which may save battery power for the cIoT UE.

[0056] The base station is not the only entity that can be used as a scheduling entity. That is, in some examples, the UE can be used as a scheduling entity for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more other UEs) to schedule resources. In this example, the UE acts as a scheduling entity, and other UEs use the resources scheduled by the UE for wireless communication. The UE can be used as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and / or a mesh network. In the mesh network example, in addition to communicating with the scheduling entity, the UEs can also optionally communicate directly with each other.

[0057] Thus, in a wireless communication network using scheduled access to time-frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2P configuration, and a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one or more slave entities may communicate using the scheduled resources.

[0058] As mentioned above, Figure 1 are provided as examples. Other examples may differ from combining Figure 1 The content described.

[0059] Figure 2 Block diagram 200 shows a design of base station 110 and UE 120, which may be Figure 1 Base station 110 may be equipped with T antennas 234a through 234t, and UE 120 may be equipped with R antennas 252a through 252r, where in general, T≥1 and R≥1.

[0060] At the base station 110, the transmit processor 220 may receive data for one or more UEs from the data source 212, may select a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for each UE based at least in part on a channel quality indicator (CQI) received from the UE, may process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for each UE based at least in part on the MCS selected for the UE, and may provide data symbols for all UEs. The transmit processor 220 may also process system information (e.g., for semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI), etc.) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, upper layer signaling, etc.), and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. The transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., cell-specific reference signals) and synchronization signals (e.g., primary synchronization signals (PSS) and secondary synchronization signals (SSS)). The transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on ​​data symbols, control symbols, overhead symbols, and / or reference symbols, where applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232a to 232t. Each modulator 232 may process a corresponding output symbol stream (e.g., for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or the like) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 232 may also process the output sample stream (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) to obtain a downlink signal. The T downlink signals from modulators 232a to 232t may be transmitted via T antennas 234a to 234t, respectively. According to various aspects described in more detail below, position coding may be used to generate synchronization signals to convey additional information.

[0061] At the UE 120, antennas 252a to 252r can receive downlink signals from the base station 110 and / or other base stations, and can provide received signals to demodulators (DEMOD) 254a to 254r, respectively. Each demodulator 254 can condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) the received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 254 can also process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. The MIMO detector 256 can obtain received symbols from all R demodulators 254a to 254r, perform MIMO detection on these received symbols where applicable, and provide detected symbols. The receive (RX) processor 258 can process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 120 to the data sink 260, and provide decoded control information and system information to the controller / processor 280. The channel processor may determine a reference signal received power (RSRP), a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a channel quality indicator (CQI), and the like.

[0062] On the uplink, at the UE 120, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from a data source 262 and control information from a controller / processor 280 (e.g., for reports including RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc.). The transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals. The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266, if applicable, and further processed by modulators 254a through 254r (e.g., for DFT-s-OFDM, CP-OFDM, etc.), and transmitted to the base station 110. At the base station 110, uplink signals from the UE 120 as well as other UEs may be received by the antenna 234, processed by the demodulator 232, detected by the MIMO detector 236, if applicable, and further processed by the receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information transmitted by the UE 120. The receive processor 238 may provide decoded data to a data sink 239 and decoded control information to a controller / processor 240. The base station 110 may include a communication unit 244 and communicate with the network controller 130 via the communication unit 244. The network controller 130 may include a communication unit 294, a controller / processor 290, and a memory 292.

[0063] The controller / processor 240 of the base station 110, the controller / processor 280 of the UE 120, and / or Figure 2Any other component of the controller / processor 240 of the base station 110, the controller / processor 280 of the UE 120, and / or Figure 2 Any other components of the BS 110 may perform or direct the operation of the various processes as described herein. Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. Scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and / or uplink.

[0064] As mentioned above, Figure 2 are provided as examples only. Other examples may differ from those in combination with Figure 2 The content described.

[0065] As described above, various device types can be characterized as UEs. Starting with 3GPP Rel.17, many of these UE types are assigned a new UE classification denoted as "NR-Light". Examples of UE types that fall under the NR-Light classification include wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, etc.), industrial sensors, cameras (e.g., surveillance cameras, etc.), etc. Typically, UE types grouped according to the NR-Light classification are associated with lower communication capacity. For example, relative to a "normal" UE (e.g., a UE that is not classified as NR-Light), an NR-Light UE may be limited in terms of maximum bandwidth (e.g., 5MHz, 10MHz, 20MHz, etc.), maximum transmit power (e.g., 20dBm, 14dBm, etc.), the number of receive antennas (e.g., 1 receive antenna, 2 receive antennas, etc.). Some NR-Light UEs may also be sensitive in terms of power consumption (e.g., requiring a long battery life, such as several years), and may be highly mobile. In addition, in some designs, it is generally expected that NR-Light UEs coexist with UEs implementing protocols such as eMBB, URLLC, LTE NB-IoT / MTC, etc.

[0066] Figure 3 A 4-step physical random access channel (PRACH) procedure 300 is illustrated according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The 4-step PRACH procedure 300 is an initial access procedure by which a UE (eg, UE 120) may initiate communication with a BS (eg, BS 110).

[0067] refer to Figure 3, at 302, message 1 (“Msg-1”) of the 4-step PRACH procedure 300 is sent by UE 120 to BS 110. Msg-1 of 302 may be characterized herein as a PRACH preamble. In one example, Msg-1 of 302 may be implemented as a Zadoff-Chu sequence, which indicates the presence of a random access attempt and allows BS 110 to perform an estimation between BS 110 and UE 120.

[0068] refer to Figure 3 , at 304, message 2 ("Msg-2") of the 4-step PRACH procedure 300 is sent by BS 110 to UE 120. Msg-2 of 304 may be characterized herein as a random access response (RAR). For example, in response to the PRACH preamble (or Msg-1) detected at 302, BS 110 may send Msg-2 of 304 on a downlink (DL) shared channel (SCH) including any combination of the following:

[0069] The index of the detected PRACH preamble (or Msg-1) from 302,

[0070] Uplink timing correction for UE 120,

[0071] a scheduling grant indicating what resources UE 120 should use to send message 3 ("Msg-3") of the 4-step PRACH procedure 300, and

[0072] • A temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI) for further communication between the UE 120 and the BS 110.

[0073] In one example, Msg-2 of 304 may be scheduled on the SL SCH and may be indicated on the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) using an identifier (e.g., a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI) indicated by the time and frequency resources on which the PRACH preamble (or Msg-1) from 302 is sent).

[0074] refer to Figure 3, at 306, a message 3 ("Msg-3") including at least a UE identifier (ID) of UE 120 is sent by UE 120 to BS 110. In some designs, Msg-3 is sent over a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and may be referred to as Msg-3PUSCH. In an example, the Msg-3 sent at 306 may be sent via the UL SCH resources indicated by Msg-2 from 304. In some designs, at 306, device scrambling is used for the transmission of Msg-3 (e.g., scrambled based on the TC-RNTI assigned via Msg-2 from 304). In some designs, if UE 120 is in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state to which a C-RNTI has been assigned, then at 306, the C-RNTI may be used as the UE-ID in Msg-3. In some designs, if UE 120 is not in the RRC connected state, then at 306, a core network equipment identifier such as a 40-bit Serving Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (S-TMSI) may be used as the UE-ID in Msg-3.

[0075] refer to Figure 3 , at 308, another Msg-3 is optionally sent as a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment (ACK) to Msg-2 from 304. In some designs, Msg-3 is sent via PUCCH and may be referred to as Msg-3 PUCCH. In some designs, whether to send Msg-3 PUCCH at 308 may be configured via RRC signaling or via one or more information elements (IEs) in a system information block (SIB).

[0076] refer to Figure 3, at 308, message 4 ("Msg-4") of the 4-step PRACH procedure 300 is sent by BS 110 to UE 120. In some designs, Msg-4 of 308 includes a downlink message for contention resolution because there is some possibility of contention associated with the transmission of Msg-3 at 306-308. For example, if multiple UEs simultaneously transmit the same Msg-1 (302), then multiple UEs may react to the same Msg-2 (304), thereby causing a collision. In some designs, if UE 120 has been assigned a C-RNTI, contention resolution may be handled by addressing UE 120 on the PDCCH using the C-RNTI. In some designs, if UE 120 does not have a valid C-RNTI (e.g., UE 120 is RRC-Idle before 302), Msg-4 contention resolution may be handled by addressing UE 120 on the PDCCH using the TC-RNTI, wherein UE 120 compares (i) the UE-ID received within the PDSCH scheduled by the PDCCH of Msg-4 with (ii) the UE-ID sent in the Msg-3 PUSCH at 306 to determine that the 4-step PRACH procedure 300 is successful if a match is observed, after which the C-RNTI is confirmed as the C-RNTI. At 312, UE 120 and BS 110 may optionally exchange user data.

[0077] Figure 4 A 2-step PRACH procedure 400 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated. Similar to the 4-step PRACH procedure 300, the 2-step PRACH procedure 400 is an initial access procedure by which a UE (e.g., UE 120) can initiate communication with a BS (e.g., BS 110). However, in the 2-step PRACH procedure 400, Msg-1 and Msg-3 are sent to BS 110 before any response from BS 110 is sent as "Msg-A", and BS 110 sends "Msg-b" (e.g., including Msg-2 and Msg-4) back to UE 120.

[0078] refer to Figure 4 At 402, UE 120 sends Msg-A to BS 110 (e.g., PRACH preamble and associated UE ID information as in Msg-1 and Msg-3). At 404, BS 110 sends Msg-B to BS 110 (e.g., RAR along with contention resolution as in Msg-2 and Msg-4). At 406, UE 120 and BS 110 may optionally exchange user data. The processing of Msg-A and Msg-B may be similar to that described in other aspects. Figure 3The processing of Msg-1, Msg-2, Msg-3 and Msg-4 in the 4-step PRACH process 300 is equivalent.

[0079] Figure 5 FIG. 5 illustrates a 2-step PRACH process 500 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. In particular, the 2-step PRACH process 500 is Figure 5 A more detailed implementation of the 2-step PRACH process 400 is provided.

[0080] At 502, BS 110 sends information to UE 120, including a system synchronization block (SSB), a system information block (SIB), and a reference signal (RS). At 504, UE 120 performs downlink synchronization, system information (SI) decoding, and one or more measurements on the sent information. At 506, UE 120 sends the PRACH preamble component of Msg-A to BS 110. At 508, UE 120 sends the payload component of Msg-A to BS 110 (e.g., including UE ID information in Msg-3). At 510, BS 110 processes the PRACH preamble component of Msg-A. At 512, BS 110 processes the payload component of Msg-A. At 514, BS 110 sends RAR via PDCCH, similar to Msg-2. At 516, similar to Msg-4, BS 110 sends contention resolution information via PDCCH. At 518, UE 120 and BS 110 may optionally exchange user data.

[0081] Starting from 3GPP Rel.14, multi-user superposition transmission (MUST) is introduced to enhance the PDSCH capacity in the symbol domain. Figure 6 FIG. 1 illustrates an example of MUST-based symbol encoding according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 6 In , d1 represents the symbol spacing between modulation symbols targeting far UEs with lower channel gain, and d2 represents the symbol spacing between modulation symbols targeting near UEs with higher channel gain. Given the QoS requirements of the corresponding UEs, λ=d1 / d2 can be adjusted to allocate different power ratios between near UEs and far UEs.

[0082] Figure 7 A MUST-based transmission 700 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated. Figure 7, a near UE is located in an inner cell coverage area 702, and a far UE is located in an outer cell coverage area 704. As shown at 706, the symbol components of the near UE are transparent to the demodulation of the symbols of the far UE. Conversely, as shown at 708, the near UE can cancel the modulation signal of the far UE to decode its own signal. In one example, the modulation order and power ratio between the pairing of the far UE and the near UE can be indicated via DCI, and the near UE can use this information to perform cancellation of the far UE's signal. According to 3GPP Rel.14, the near UE will assume that a single far UE with the same modulation order MUST be performed on its own signal within the entire PDSCH bandwidth.

[0083] In a scenario where UE 120 corresponds to a specific category of UE (such as NR-Light UE), the Msg-1 preamble code of 302 is successfully received at BS 110 or Figure 4 The 402 Msg-A preamble or Figure 5 It is possible that 506 of 506 was received, but RAR (e.g., Msg-2 or Msg-B RAR on PDCCH) was not successfully received at the UE. For example, a so-called "advanced" UE may include more receivers (e.g., 2, 4, etc.) than a low-level UE (e.g., NR-Light UE, which may include 1 or 2 receivers). In this case, it is possible for a low-level UE that requires RAR repetition to be paired with (or MUST be paired with) an advanced UE that does not require RAR repetition.

[0084] One or more embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to various 2-step or 4-step RACH procedures, which, in some designs, may be used in the following scenario: a UE belonging to a first UE category (e.g., an NR-Light UE or any UE with a number of receivers below a threshold) is considered a virtual far UE, and MUST be communicated with a UE belonging to a second UE category (e.g., an advanced UE or any UE with a number of receivers not below a threshold), where the UE belonging to the second UE category is considered a virtual near UE. In some designs, multiple preamble sequence groups are associated with a RO set, whereby each respective preamble sequence group is associated with a different repetition level of a downlink message (e.g., Msg-B RAR or Msg-2RAR). For example, in some designs, orthogonal resources may be scheduled for NR-Light UEs that require DL repetition and advanced UEs that do not require DL repetition. In some designs, the various embodiments described below are implemented for UEs belonging to a specific UE category (e.g., UEs with limited downlink reception capability, such as NR-Light UEs). In some designs, one or more embodiments described below may be implemented for NR-Light UEs where UE-specific reference signals are not available. As used herein, a "set" of ROs refers to a grouping of one or more ROs.

[0085] Figure 8 An exemplary process 800 of wireless communications is illustrated in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure. Figure 8 The process 800 is performed by the UE 120. Figure 8 The UE of process 800 may belong to a first UE category (e.g., a UE category limited in downlink reception capability, such as an NR-Light UE with a number of receivers below a threshold) or a second UE category (e.g., a UE equipped with higher downlink reception capability, such as an advanced UE with a number of receivers at least equal to a threshold).

[0086] At 802, the UE 120 (e.g., the controller / processor 240) identifies an RO set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure (e.g., a Msg-1 preamble for a 4-step RACH procedure, or a Msg-A preamble for a 2-step RACH procedure) is transmitted. In one example, the identification at 802 may include selecting an RO set from a plurality of RO sets based on one or more signal reception quality measurements. For example, the plurality of RO sets may include a first RO set dedicated to a first UE category (e.g., a UE with limited downlink reception capability, such as an NR-Light UE) and a second RO set shared between the first UE category and a second UE category (e.g., a UE without downlink reception capability associated with the first UE category). In one example, the identification at 802 may include selection based on a relationship between one or more signal reception quality measurements and at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold. For example, at 802, if one or more signal reception quality measurements are less than at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold, the first RO set may be selected, and if one or more signal reception quality measurements are not less than at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold, the second RO set may be selected. In this case, in one example, a lower performance UE of the first UE category may select a first RO set, while a higher performance UE of the first UE category may select a second RO set. In some designs, at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold is predefined (e.g., in a relevant 3GPP standard), while in other designs, at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold is dynamically configured (e.g., via a SIB such as SIB1 or via RRC signaling). In other designs, the RO set may be identified in some other manner at 802 and need not be based on one or more signal reception quality measurements.

[0087] At 804, UE 120 (e.g., controller / processor 280) selects a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified RO set based on the UE's downlink reception capability, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level. In one example, the UE's downlink reception capability may be based on the number of associated receivers equipped on the UE relative to a receive antenna threshold (e.g., if the UE includes a number of receive antennas below the receive antenna threshold, one of the preamble sequence groups is selected, and if the UE includes a number of receive antennas not below the receive antenna threshold, another preamble sequence group is selected). In some designs, the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI. In one example, selection of the first preamble sequence group may trigger the RAR to scramble the preamble using the first RA-RNTI. In some designs, an association between each of the plurality of preamble sequence groups and its corresponding downlink reception capability for the RAR is predefined (e.g., in a relevant 3GPP standard). In other designs, information indicating an association between each of the plurality of preamble sequence groups and its corresponding downlink reception capability for the RAR is received from the base station (e.g., via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or SIB).

[0088] At 806, the UE 120 (e.g., antennas 252a ... 252r, TX MIMO processor 266, modulators 254a ... 254r, TX processor 264) sends a preamble on the identified RO group. In an example, the preamble sent at 806 may correspond to a Msg-A preamble of a 2-step PRACH process, or alternatively may correspond to a Msg-1 preamble of a 4-step PRACH process. In some designs, the preamble at 806 may be configured to indicate the UE's downlink reception capability to the base station (e.g., so that the appropriate number of RAR repetitions may be signaled to the UE).

[0089] At 808, UE 120 (e.g., 252a ... 252r, demodulator 254a ... 254r, MIMO detector 256, RX processor 258) receives the RAR in response to the transmitted preamble. In one example, the RAR may correspond to a Msg-A RAR on the PDDCH of a 2-step PRACH procedure, or alternatively to a Msg-2 RAR on the PDDCH of a 4-step PRACH procedure. In one example, if the UE corresponds to a first UE category (e.g., an NR-Light UE), the first preamble sequence group may be associated with a legacy RA-RNTI that is compatible with UEs associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level or a second UE downlink reception capability level. In an alternative example, if the UE corresponds to a second UE category (e.g., an advanced UE), the first preamble code sequence group can be associated with a new RA-RNTI that is compatible with UEs associated with the first UE downlink reception capability class and incompatible with UEs associated with the second UE downlink reception capability class.

[0090] Fig. 9 An exemplary process 900 for wireless communications is illustrated in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure. Fig. 9 The process 900 is performed by BS 110 .

[0091] At 902, the BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, demodulators 232a ... 232r, MIMO detector 236, RX processor 238) receives a preamble associated with a RACH process from a UE via one of a plurality of RO sets, wherein the RO set from which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level. In an example, the preamble received at 902 may correspond to a Msg-A preamble of a 2-step PRACH process, or alternatively to a Msg-1 preamble of a 4-step PRACH process. In some designs, the preamble at 902 may be configured to indicate the downlink reception capability of the UE to the base station (e.g., so that an appropriate number of RAR repetitions may be signaled to the UE). The UE from which the preamble is received may correspond to the first UE category or the second UE category.

[0092] At 904, BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, modulators 232a ... 232r, TX MIMO processor 230, TX processor 220) sends a RAR to the UE in response to the preamble. In one example, the RAR may correspond to Msg-ARAR on the PDDCH of a 2-step PRACH procedure, or alternatively to Msg-2RAR on the PDDCH of a 4-step PRACH procedure. In one example, if the UE corresponds to a first UE category (e.g., an NR-Light UE), the first preamble sequence group may be associated with a legacy RA-RNTI that is compatible with UEs associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level or a second UE downlink reception capability level. In an alternative example, if the UE corresponds to a second UE category (e.g., an advanced UE), the first preamble code sequence group can be associated with a new RA-RNTI that is compatible with UEs associated with the first UE downlink reception capability class and incompatible with UEs associated with the second UE downlink reception capability class.

[0093] refer to Figure 8-9 In some designs, the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, and each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups may be associated with a different RA-RNTI. In an example, the RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups (i.e., associated with the RO set identified at 802) may be the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

[0094] Fig.10 An exemplary process 1000 for wireless communications according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig.10 The process 1000 is performed by the UE 120. In one example, the execution Fig.10 The UE of process 1000 may belong to a second UE category (eg, a UE equipped with higher downlink reception capabilities, such as an advanced UE having a number of receivers at least equal to a threshold).

[0095] At 1002, UE 120 (e.g., controller / processor 240) identifies an RO set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure (e.g., a Msg-1 preamble for a 4-step RACH procedure, or a Msg-A preamble for a 2-step RACH procedure) is sent. In some designs, UE 120 may select an RO set associated with the second UE category (e.g., although the identified RO set may also be used by UEs in the first UE category that currently have good signal performance).

[0096] At 1004, the UE 120 (e.g., the controller / processor 280) selects a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on the UE's downlink reception capability. The first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level. Therefore, the UE selects the first preamble sequence group because Fig.10 In an example, UE 120 is an advanced UE belonging to a second UE category, such that the downlink reception capability is high (or above a threshold). The first preamble sequence group may also be associated with a first RA-RNTI, and the second preamble sequence group may be associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI. In an example, selection of the first preamble sequence group may trigger DCI communication and / or RAR of a preamble to be scrambled using the first RA-RNTI. In some designs, an association between each of a plurality of preamble sequence groups and its corresponding downlink reception capability for the RAR is predefined (e.g., in a relevant 3GPP standard). In other designs, information indicating an association between each of a plurality of preamble sequence groups and its corresponding downlink reception capability for the RAR is received from a base station (e.g., via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or SIB).

[0097] At 1006, the UE 120 (e.g., antennas 252a ... 252r, TX MIMO processor 266, modulators 254a ... 254r, TX processor 264) sends a preamble on the identified RO group. In an example, the preamble sent at 1006 may correspond to a Msg-A preamble of a 2-step PRACH process, or alternatively to a Msg-1 preamble of a 4-step PRACH process. In some designs, the preamble at 1006 may be configured to indicate the UE's downlink reception capability to the base station (e.g., so that the UE may be signaled an appropriate number of RAR repetitions).

[0098] At 1008, UE 120 (e.g., 252a...252r, demodulator 254a...254r, MIMO detector 256, RX processor 258) monitors DCI communications scrambled using a first RA-RNTI in response to the transmitted preamble. In an example, the DCI is a group common (GC)-DCI associated with a first RO set and a second RO set, and the GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for RARs of one or more UEs that transmit one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for RARs of one or more UEs that transmit one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set. In other examples, the first time domain resource set and the second time domain resource set may be indicated based on an offset associated with a time domain resource allocation of a corresponding RO set for transmitting the associated preamble. In other examples, the offset may be based on an initial RO index and an RO index associated with a corresponding RO set for transmitting the associated preamble. In other examples, the first RO set and the second RO set may overlap in frequency. In other examples, the DCI communication may include an interference parameter set for the PDSCH (e.g., a virtual far UE component for eliminating MUST-based RAR transmissions). In other examples, the interference parameter set may include a PDSCH signal power ratio between the UE and the interfering signal, a modulation order of the interfering signal, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) configuration of the UE, or any combination thereof.

[0099] Fig.11 An exemplary process 1100 for wireless communications according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig.11 The process 1100 is performed by BS 110.

[0100] At 1102, BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, demodulators 232a ... 232r, MIMO detector 236, RX processor 238) receives a preamble associated with a RACH process from a UE through one of a plurality of RO sets, wherein the RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, the preamble is received through the RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first RA-RNTI, and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI. In an example, the preamble received at 1102 may correspond to a Msg-A preamble of a 2-step PRACH process, or alternatively to a Msg-1 preamble of a 4-step PRACH process. In some designs, the preamble of 1102 may be configured to indicate to the base station the downlink reception capability of the UE (eg, so that an appropriate number of RAR repetitions may be signaled to the UE).

[0101] At 1104, BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, modulators 232a ... 232r, TX MIMO processor 230, TX processor 220) transmits a DCI communication scrambled using a first RA-RNTI in response to a preamble. In an example, the DCI is a group common GC-DCI associated with a first RO set and a second RO set, and the GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for RARs of one or more UEs that transmit one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for RARs of one or more UEs that transmit one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set. In other examples, the first time domain resource set and the second time domain resource set may be indicated based on an offset associated with a time domain resource allocation of a corresponding RO set for transmitting the associated preamble. In other examples, the offset may be based on an initial RO index and an RO index associated with a corresponding RO set for transmitting the associated preamble. In other examples, the first RO set and the second RO set may overlap in frequency. In other examples, the DCI communication may include an interference parameter set for the PDSCH (e.g., a virtual far UE component for eliminating MUST-based RAR transmission). In other examples, the interference parameter set may include a PDSCH signal power ratio between the UE and the interfering signal, a modulation order of the interfering signal, a DMRS configuration of the UE, or any combination thereof.

[0102] Fig.12An exemplary process 1200 for wireless communications according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig.12 The process 1200 is performed by the UE 120. In one example, the execution Fig.12 The UE of process 1200 may belong to a first UE category (e.g., an NR-Light UE or a UE equipped with lower downlink reception capability, such as a UE having a number of receivers less than an antenna receiver threshold).

[0103] At 1202, the UE 120 (e.g., the controller / processor 240) identifies an RO set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure (e.g., a Msg-1 preamble for a 4-step RACH procedure, or a Msg-A preamble for a 2-step RACH procedure) is transmitted. In one example, the identification of 1202 may include selecting an RO set from a plurality of RO sets based on one or more signal reception quality measurements. For example, the plurality of RO sets may include a first RO set dedicated to a first UE category (e.g., a UE with limited downlink reception capability, such as an NR-Light UE) and a second RO set shared between the first UE category and a second UE category (e.g., a UE without downlink reception capability associated with the first UE category). In one example, the identification of 1202 may include selection based on a relationship between one or more signal reception quality measurements and at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold. For example, at 1202, if the one or more signal reception quality measurements are less than the at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold, the first RO set may be selected, and if the one or more signal reception quality measurements are not less than the at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold, the second RO set may be selected. In this case, in one example, a lower performance UE of the first UE category may select a first RO set, while a higher performance UE of the first UE category may select a second RO set. In some designs, at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold is predefined (e.g., in a relevant 3GPP standard), while in other designs, at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold is dynamically configured (e.g., via a SIB such as SIB1 or via RRC signaling). In other designs, the RO set may be identified in some other manner at 1202 and need not be based on one or more signal reception quality measurements.

[0104] At 1204, UE 120 (e.g., controller / processor 280) selects a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on the UE's downlink reception capability, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level that is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level. In some designs, an association between each of the plurality of preamble sequence groups and its corresponding downlink reception capability for the RAR is predefined (e.g., in a relevant 3GPP standard). In other designs, information indicating an association between each of the plurality of preamble sequence groups and its corresponding downlink reception capability for the RAR is received from a base station (e.g., via RRC signaling or SIB).

[0105] At 1206, the UE 120 (e.g., antennas 252a ... 252r, TX MIMO processor 266, modulators 254a ... 254r, TX processor 264) sends a preamble on the identified RO group. In an example, the preamble sent at 1206 may correspond to a Msg-A preamble of a 2-step PRACH process, or alternatively to a Msg-1 preamble of a 4-step PRACH process. In some designs, the preamble at 1206 may be configured to indicate the UE's downlink reception capability to the base station (e.g., so that the appropriate number of RAR repetitions may be signaled to the UE).

[0106] At 1208, UE 120 (e.g., 252a ... 252r, demodulator 254a ... 254r, MIMO detector 256, RX processor 258) monitors group common GC-DCI communications scrambled using a common RA-RNTI. In some designs, the GC-DCI communications are also monitored by at least one other UE associated with the same downlink reception capability as the UE selecting the second RO set, based on sending at least one corresponding preamble through the second RO set.

[0107] Fig.13 An exemplary process 1300 for wireless communications according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig.11 The process 1300 is performed by BS 110.

[0108] At 1302, BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, demodulators 232a ... 232r, MIMO detector 236, RX processor 238) receives a first preamble associated with a RACH process from a first UE through a first RO set of a plurality of RO sets, wherein the first RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group of a plurality of preamble sequence groups, and the first preamble is received through the first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group of the first plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level. The first UE may belong to a first UE category (e.g., an NR-Light UE or a UE equipped with a lower downlink reception capability, such as a UE with a number of receivers less than an antenna receiver threshold). In an example, the preamble received at 1302 may correspond to a Msg-A preamble of a 2-step PRACH process, or alternatively to a Msg-1 preamble of a 4-step PRACH process. In some designs, the preamble of 1302 may be configured to indicate to the base station the downlink reception capability of the first UE (eg, so that an appropriate number of RAR repetitions may be signaled to the first UE).

[0109] At 1304, BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, demodulators 232a ... 232r, MIMO detector 236, RX processor 238) receives a second preamble associated with a second RACH process from a second UE on a second RO set of a plurality of RO sets, wherein the second RO set is associated with a third preamble sequence group in a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, and the second preamble is received through the second RO set, wherein the third preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a fourth preamble sequence group in the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level. The second UE may belong to a first UE category (e.g., an NR-Light UE or a UE equipped with a lower downlink reception capability, such as a UE with a number of receivers less than an antenna receiver threshold). In an example, the preamble received at 1304 may correspond to a Msg-A preamble of a 2-step PRACH process, or alternatively to a Msg-1 preamble of a 4-step PRACH process. In some designs, the preamble of 1304 may be configured to indicate to the base station the downlink reception capability of the second UE (eg, so that an appropriate number of RAR repetitions may be signaled to the second UE).

[0110] At 1306, BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, modulators 232a ... 232r, TX MIMO processor 230, TX processor 220) sends a GC-DCI communication scrambled with a common random RA-RNTI to the first UE and the second UE in response to the first preamble and the second preamble, wherein the GC-DCI communication includes information targeted to both the first UE and the second UE. In some designs, the GC-DCI indicates (i) a first set of time domain resources for the RAR for the first UE, and (ii) a second set of time domain resources for the RAR for the second UE.

[0111] Fig.14 An exemplary process 1400 for wireless communications according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig.14 The process 1400 is performed by the UE 120. In one example, the execution Fig.14 The UE of process 1400 may belong to a first UE category (e.g., a UE with limited downlink reception capability, such as an NR-Light UE) or a second UE category (e.g., a UE equipped with higher downlink reception capability, such as an advanced UE with a number of receivers at least equal to a threshold). Figure 8-13 The process that can correspond to the 2-step RACH process or the 4-step RACH process is different. Fig.14 The process 1400 specifically relates to a 2-step RACH process.

[0112] At 1402, the UE 120 (e.g., the controller / processor 240) identifies an RO set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure (e.g., a Msg-A preamble for a 2-step RACH procedure) is transmitted. In an example, the identification of 1402 may include selecting an RO set from a plurality of RO sets based on one or more signal reception quality measurements. For example, the plurality of RO sets may include a first RO set dedicated to a first UE category (e.g., a UE with limited downlink reception capability, such as an NR-Light UE) and a second RO set shared between the first UE category and a second UE category (e.g., a UE without downlink reception capability associated with the first UE category). In an example, the identification of 1402 may include selection based on a relationship between one or more signal reception quality measurements and at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold. For example, at 1402, if the one or more signal reception quality measurements are less than the at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold, the first RO set may be selected, and if the one or more signal reception quality measurements are not less than the at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold, the second RO set may be selected. In this case, in one example, lower performance UEs of the first UE category may select a first RO set, while higher performance UEs of the first UE category may select a second RO set. In some designs, at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold is predefined (e.g., in a relevant 3GPP standard), while in other designs, at least one signal reception quality measurement threshold is dynamically configured (e.g., via a SIB such as SIB1 or via RRC signaling). In other designs, the RO set may be identified in some other manner at 1402 and need not be based on one or more signal reception quality measurements.

[0113] At 1404, UE 120 (e.g., antennas 252a...252r, TX MIMO processor 266, modulators 254a...254r, TX processor 264) transmits a preamble on the identified RO group. In an example, the preamble transmitted at 1406 may correspond to a Msg-A preamble of a 2-step PRACH procedure.

[0114] At 1406, the UE 120 (e.g., antennas 252a ... 252r, TX MIMO processor 266, modulators 254a ... 254r, TX processor 264) transmits an uplink message associated with a RACH procedure on a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunities (POs) (e.g., where the number of POs corresponds to a repetition level of the uplink message) before receiving a response to the preamble. In an example, the uplink message transmitted at 1408 may correspond to a Msg-A payload of a 2-step PRACH procedure. The uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE. For example, the information may indicate the number of receive antennas associated with the UE, or may indicate whether the UE belongs to a first UE category or a second UE category, etc.

[0115] At 1408, UE 120 (e.g., 252a ... 252r, demodulators 254a ... 254r, MIMO detector 256, RX processor 258) optionally monitors DCI communications scrambled using a first RA-RNTI. For example, a first downlink reception capability level may be associated with a first RA-RNTI that is different from a second RA-RNTI associated with a second downlink reception capability level. In some designs, the DCI communication is a GC-DCI communication that includes information targeted to the UE and one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on a second RO set, the UE and the one or more UEs being associated with the first downlink reception capability level.

[0116] Fig.15

[00106] An exemplary process 1500 for wireless communications according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig.15 The process 1500 is performed by BS 110. Figure 8-13 The process that can correspond to the 2-step RACH process or the 4-step RACH process is different. Fig.15 The process 1500 specifically relates to a 2-step RACH process.

[0117] At 1502, BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, demodulators 232a ... 232r, MIMO detector 236, RX processor 238) receives a first preamble associated with a first RACH process (e.g., a 2-step RACH or PRACH process) from a first UE on a first RO set in a plurality of RO sets. In one example, the first UE may belong to a first UE category (e.g., a UE with limited downlink reception capability, such as an NR-LIGHT UE) or a second UE category (e.g., a UE equipped with higher downlink reception capability, such as an advanced UE with a number of receivers at least equal to a threshold). In one example, the first preamble received at 1502 may correspond to a first UE received at 1504. Fig.14 The preamble code sent at 1404.

[0118] At 1504, before sending a response to the preamble, BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a...234t, demodulators 232a...232r, MIMO detector 236, RX processor 238) receives an uplink message associated with a RACH process on the PO set. In one example, the uplink message sent at 1408 can correspond to a Msg-A payload of a 2-step PRACH process. The uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE. For example, the information can indicate the number of receive antennas associated with the UE, or can indicate whether the UE belongs to a first UE category or a second UE category, etc. In one example, the first uplink received at 1504 can correspond to a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE. Fig.14 The preamble code sent at 1406.

[0119] At 1506, the BS 110 (e.g., antennas 234a ... 234t, modulators 232a ... 232r, TX MIMO processor 230, TX processor 220) optionally sends a DCI communication scrambled using a first RA-RNTI based on the information in response to the preamble. In some designs, the first RA-RNTI is different from a second RA-RNTI associated with a second downlink reception capability level. In some designs, the DCI communication may be a group common GC-DCI communication, and the GC-DCI communication is also monitored by at least one other UE, the at least one other UE selects a second RO set, sends at least one corresponding preamble based on the second RO set, and the first UE and the second UE are both associated with the first downlink reception capability level.

[0120] Fig.16 The embodiment according to the present disclosure is illustrated Figure 8-15 An example implementation 1600 of one or more of the processes 800-1500 is provided. The process 1600 comprises Figure 4 The 2-step PRACH process 400 or Figure 5 A modified version of 500.

[0121] At 1602, BS 110 optionally sends RO configuration information and / or PO configuration information to UE 120 (e.g., via RMSI signaling, RRC signaling, or SIB1). At 1604, BS 110 optionally sends a downlink signal (e.g., PSS / SSS), and at 1606, UE 120 optionally receives and measures the downlink signal. At 1608, UE 120 identifies a RO set (e.g., via a selection based on downlink signal measurements from 1606). At 1610, UE 120 optionally selects a preamble sequence group to be used on the identified RO set based on the UE's downlink reception capabilities (e.g., associated with a PO set corresponding to a repetition level preference for an uplink message, such as a Msg-A payload). In one example, the preamble sequence group selection at 1610 is optional, at least because Figure 14-15 In the embodiment of the present invention, the downlink reception capability level may be indicated via information in the Msg-A payload rather than via the preamble sequence group selection associated with the Msg-A preamble.

[0122] At 1612, UE 120 sends a Msg-A preamble (or a PRACH preamble) to BS 110. At 1614, BS 110 identifies a PO set (e.g., corresponding to a Msg-A payload repetition level) from the Msg-A preamble of 1612 (e.g., based on which preamble sequence group is used, etc.). At 1616, UE 120 sends a Msg-A payload (e.g., one or more PUSCH repetitions, which may optionally include an indication such as Figure 14-15 At 1618, BS 110 processes the Msg-APRACH preamble from 1612. At 1620, BS 110 processes the Msg-A payload from 1616. At 1622, BS 110 sends a DCI (e.g., GC-DCI) to UE 120, which is scrambled with a RA-RNTI (e.g., which is specific to the preamble sequence group and / or the downlink reception capability level of the UE). At 1624, BS 110 sends Msg-B RAR via PDCCH (e.g., with a repetition level based on the downlink reception capability level of the UE). At 1626, BS 110 sends Msg-B contention resolution information via PDCCH. At 1628, UE 120 and BS 110 may optionally exchange user data.

[0123] Fig.17 The embodiment according to the present disclosure is illustrated Figure 8-13 An example implementation 1700 of one or more of the processes 800-1300 of FIG. The process 1700 constitutes Figure 3 A modified version of the 4-step PRACH procedure 300.

[0124] At 1702, BS 110 optionally sends RO configuration information and / or PO configuration information to UE 120 (e.g., via RMSI signaling, RRC signaling, or SIB1). At 1704, BS 110 optionally sends a downlink signal (e.g., PSS / SSS), and at 1706, UE 120 optionally receives and measures the downlink signal. At 1708, UE 120 identifies a RO set (e.g., via a selection based on downlink signal measurements from 1706). At 1710, UE 120 selects a preamble sequence group to be used on the identified RO set based on the UE's downlink reception capability (e.g., associated with a PO set corresponding to a repetition level preference for an uplink message, such as Msg-3 PUSCH and / or Msg-3 PUCCH).

[0125] At 1712, UE 120 sends a Msg-1 preamble (or a PRACH preamble) to BS 110. At 1714, BS 110 sends a DCI (e.g., GC-DCI) to UE 120, which is scrambled with a RA-RNTI (e.g., which is specific to the preamble sequence group and / or the downlink reception capability level of the UE). At 1716, BS 110 sends a Msg-2 RAR to UE 120 (e.g., one or more RAR repetitions based on the downlink reception capability level associated with the selected preamble sequence group). At 1718, UE 120 sends one or more Msg-3 PUSCHs to BS 110 (e.g., on a corresponding PO set corresponding to the Msg-3 repetition level). At 1720, UE 120 optionally sends one or more Msg-3 PUCCHs to BS 110 (e.g., on a corresponding PO set corresponding to the Msg-3 repetition level). At 1722, BS 110 sends Msg-4 Contention Resolution to UE 120. At 1724, UE 120 and BS 110 may optionally exchange user data.

[0126] Fig.18 The embodiment according to the present disclosure is illustrated Figure 8-Figure 15An alternative visualization 1800 of one or more of processes 800 to 1500 of . At 1802, RO#0 to #4 are each associated with two preamble sequence groups (one for advanced UEs and one for NR-Light UEs). In some designs, it should be understood that a high-performance NR-Light UE (e.g., an NR-Light UE very close to a serving base station with high channel gain, etc.) can use the preamble sequence group for advanced UEs. The NR-Light UE monitors DCI 1804 for the NR-Light UE (e.g., scrambled with a first RA-RNTI), which sends a preamble using the NR-Light preamble sequence group for any one of RO#1 to #4. The advanced UE monitors GC-DCI 1806 for the advanced UE (e.g., scrambled with a second RA-RNTI), which sends a preamble using the advanced UE preamble sequence group on any one of RO#1 to #4. GC-DCI 1806 may include interference cancellation information so that an advanced UE operating as a virtual near UE for MUST-based transmission may eliminate signaling notifications for an NR-Light UE operating as a corresponding virtual far UE. RAR transmission is shown at 1808, whereby RAR transmission to the NR-Light UE includes repetitions (e.g., 2, 4, etc.), while RAR transmission to the advanced UE does not include repetitions. In an example, different TD resources are used in GC-DCI 1806 to indicate advanced UEs associated with different ROs, wherein resource allocation for advanced UEs associated with different ROs is based on RO order. In an example, data unrelated to the RACH process may be sent to the advanced UE on the time domain resources used to send RAR repetitions to the NR-Light UE (e.g., configurable via GC-DCI 1806). A specific MUST-based transmission 1810 to the advanced UE (virtual near UE) and the NR-Light UE (virtual far UE) is depicted in the symbol domain.

[0127] refer to Fig.18 , advanced UEs associated with different ROs (e.g., RO#0, RO#1, etc.) are indicated in GC-DCI 1806 for different time domain resource allocations for RAR transmission at 1808 based on the corresponding RO. NR-Light UEs associated with these same ROs may be allocated time domain resources for RAR transmission with duplication at 1808, as indicated via DCI 1804. Thus, the time domain resources used for RAR transmission by the advanced UEs and the NR-Light UEs at 1808 may at least partially overlap (e.g., RAR transmission based on MUST), which may improve resource efficiency through the implementation of a power ratio carefully selected by the gNB.

[0128] Fig.19 1900 is a conceptual data flow diagram illustrating data flow between different parts / components in exemplary apparatuses 1902 and 1980 according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Apparatus 1902 may be a UE (eg, UE 120) communicating with apparatus 1980, which may be a base station (eg, base station 110).

[0129] The apparatus 1902 includes a sending component 1904, which may correspond to Figure 2 The transmitter circuit in the UE 120 depicted in FIG. 1 includes a controller / processor 280, antennas 252a ... 252r, modulators 254a ... 254r, a TX MIMO processor 266, and a TX processor 264. The apparatus 1902 also includes a RO / PO selection component 1906, which may correspond to the following: Figure 2 The processor circuit in the depicted UE 120 includes the controller / processor 280, etc. The apparatus 1902 also includes a receiving component 1908, which may correspond to Figure 2 Receiver circuitry in UE 120 depicted in , includes a controller / processor 280 , antennas 252 a . . . 252 r , demodulators 254 a . . . 254 r , a MIMO detector 256 , and an RX processor 258 .

[0130] The apparatus 1980 includes a receiving component 1982, which may correspond to Figure 2 The receiver circuit in BS 110 depicted in FIG. 1 includes a controller / processor 240, antennas 234a ... 234r, demodulators 232a ... 232r, a MIMO detector 236, an RX processor 238, and a communication unit 244. The device 1980 also optionally includes a RAR component 1984, which may correspond to the example Figure 2 The processor circuit in BS 110 depicted in FIG. 1 includes controller / processor 240. Apparatus 1980 also includes a sending component 1986, which may correspond to Figure 2 The transmitting circuit in BS 110 depicted in , includes, for example, a controller / processor 240, antennas 234a . . . 234r, modulators 232a . . . 232r, a Tx MIMO processor 230, a TX processor 220, and a communication unit 244.

[0131] refer to Fig.19, the transmitting component 1986 optionally transmits RO / PO configuration information to the receiving component 1908, which can be decomposed into RO / PO selection by the RO / PO selecting component 1906. The transmitting component 1904 can transmit the Msg-1 and / or Msg-APRACH preamble and the Msg-3 and / or Msg-A payload (e.g., PUSCH including UE identification information) to the receiving component 1982 (e.g., based on the RO / PO selection from the RO / PO selecting component 1906). The RAR component 1984 can determine the repetition level of the RAR (e.g., Msg-2 or Msg-B PDCCH) based on the preamble sequence group associated with the Msg-1 or Msg-APRACH preamble or alternatively based on information in the Msg-A payload. Transmitting component 1986 may transmit Msg-2 or Msg-B (PDCCH) and Msg-4 or Msg-B (PDSCH) in response to the transmission of Msg-1, Msg-3 or Msg-A. After the 2-step or 4-step PRACH process, transmitting component 1904 and receiving component 1982 may exchange user data, and transmitting component 1986 and receiving component 1908 may likewise exchange user data.

[0132] One or more components of apparatus 1902 and apparatus 1980 may perform the above Figure 8-17 Each box of the algorithm in the flowchart. Figure 8-17 Each block in the flowchart of can be performed by a component, and the device 1902 and the device 1980 may include one or more of these components. These components can be one or more hardware components that are specifically configured to perform the process / algorithm, implemented by a processor configured to perform the process / algorithm, stored in a computer-readable medium for implementation by a processor, or some combination of these.

[0133] Fig. 20 2000 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of an apparatus 1902 employing a processing system 2014. The processing system 2014 may be implemented with a bus structure, generally represented by a bus 2024. The bus 2024 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges, depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system 2014. The bus 2024 links together various circuits including one or more processors and / or hardware components represented by the processor 2004, components 1904, 1906, and 1908, and computer readable media / memory 2006. The bus 2024 may also link various other circuits known in the art, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, and therefore will not be described further.

[0134] The processing system 2014 may be coupled to the transceiver 2010. The transceiver 2010 is coupled to one or more antennas 2020. The transceiver 2010 provides components for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium. The transceiver 2010 receives signals from the one or more antennas 2020, extracts information from the received signals, and provides the extracted information to the processing system 2014, specifically to the receiving component 1908. In addition, the transceiver 2010 receives information from the processing system 2014 (specifically, from the transmitting component 1904), and based on the received information, generates a signal to be applied to the one or more antennas 2020. The processing system 2014 includes a processor 2004 coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory 2006. The processor 2004 is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory 2006. When executed by the processor 2004, the software causes the processing system 2014 to perform the various functions described above for any particular device. The computer-readable medium / memory 2006 may also be used to store data that is manipulated by the processor 2004 when executing software. The processing system 2014 also includes at least one of the components 1904, 1906, and 1908. The component may be a software component running in the processor 2004, a software component resident / stored in the computer-readable medium / memory 2006, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor 2004, or some combination thereof. The processing system 2014 may be Figure 2 280 and may include a memory 282 and / or at least one of the TX processor 264, the RX processor 258, and the controller / processor 280.

[0135] In one configuration, an apparatus 1902 (e.g., a UE) for wireless communication includes: a component for identifying a first RO set through which a preamble associated with a RACH process is sent; a component for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; a component for sending a preamble on the identified RO set; and a component for receiving a RAR in response to the sent preamble.

[0136] In another configuration, an apparatus 1902 (e.g., a UE) for wireless communication includes means for identifying a first RO set over which a preamble associated with a RACH process is transmitted, means for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, means for transmitting the preamble on the identified RO set, and means for monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI.

[0137] In another configuration, an apparatus 1902 for wireless communication (e.g., a UE) includes a component for identifying a first RO set, sending a preamble associated with a RACH process through the first RO set, a component for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level, a component for sending a preamble on the identified RO set, and a component for monitoring GC-DCI communications scrambled using a common random access RA-RNTI.

[0138] In another configuration, an apparatus 1902 for wireless communication (e.g., a UE) includes a component for identifying a first RO set, through which a preamble associated with a RACH process is sent, a component for sending the preamble on the identified RO set, and a component for sending an uplink message associated with the RACH process on the PO set before receiving a response to the preamble, wherein the uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE.

[0139] The aforementioned means may be one or more of the aforementioned components of the device 1902 and / or the processing system 2014 of the device 1902 configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. As described above, the processing system 2014 may include the TX processor 264, the RX processor 258, and the controller / processor 280.

[0140] Fig.21 21 is a diagram 2100 illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of an apparatus 1980 employing a processing system 2114. The processing system 2114 may be implemented with a bus structure, generally represented by a bus 2124. The bus 2124 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges, depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system 2114. The bus 2124 links together various circuits including one or more processors and / or hardware components represented by the processor 2104, components 1982, 1984, and 1986, and computer readable media / memory 2106. The bus 2124 may also link various other circuits known in the art, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, and therefore will not be described further.

[0141] The processing system 2114 may be coupled to the transceiver 2110. The transceiver 2110 is coupled to one or more antennas 2120. The transceiver 2110 provides components for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium. The transceiver 2110 receives signals from the one or more antennas 2120, extracts information from the received signals, and provides the extracted information to the processing system 2114, specifically, to the receiving component 1982. In addition, the transceiver 2110 receives information from the processing system 2114 (specifically, from the transmitting component 1986), and based on the received information, generates a signal to be applied to the one or more antennas 2120. The processing system 2114 includes a processor 2104 coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory 2106. The processor 2104 is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory 2106. When executed by the processor 2104, the software causes the processing system 2114 to perform the various functions described above for any particular device. The computer-readable medium / memory 2106 may also be used to store data that is manipulated by the processor 2104 when executing software. The processing system 2114 also includes at least one of the components 1982, 1984, and 1986. The component may be a software component running in the processor 2104, a software component resident / stored in the computer-readable medium / memory 2106, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor 2104, or some combination thereof. The processing system 2114 may be Figure 2 240, and may include a memory 242, and / or at least one of the TX processor 220, the RX processor 238, and the controller / processor 240.

[0142] In one configuration, an apparatus 1980 (e.g., a BS) for wireless communication includes a component for receiving a preamble associated with a RACH process from a UE through an RO set among multiple RO sets, wherein the RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group among multiple preamble sequence groups, receiving the preamble through the RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the multiple preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; and a component for sending a RAR in response to the preamble.

[0143] In another configuration, an apparatus 1980 (e.g., a BS) for wireless communication includes a component for receiving a preamble associated with a RACH process from a UE through an RO set among multiple RO sets, wherein the RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group among multiple preamble sequence groups, the preamble is received through the RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the multiple preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first RA-RNTI, and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; and a component for sending a DCI communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI in response to the preamble.

[0144] In another configuration, an apparatus 1980 for wireless communication (e.g., a BS) includes means for receiving a first preamble associated with a first RACH procedure from a first UE on a first RO set in a plurality of RO sets, wherein the first RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, the first preamble is received through the first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the first plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level that is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group associated with a second RACH procedure is received from a second UE through a second RO set in the plurality of RO sets. two preamble codes, wherein the second RO set is associated with the third preamble code sequence group in the second plurality of preamble code sequence groups, the second preamble code is received through the second RO set, wherein the third preamble code sequence group is associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level, and the fourth preamble code sequence group in the second preamble code sequence group is associated with the second UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the second preamble code sequence group is associated with the second UE downlink reception capability level; and in response to the first preamble code and the second preamble code, GC-DCI communication encrypted using a common random access RA-RNTI is sent to the first UE and the second UE, wherein the GC-DCI communication includes information targeted at both the first UE and the second UE.

[0145] In another configuration, an apparatus 1980 for wireless communication (e.g., a BS) includes a component for receiving a first preamble associated with a first RACH process from a first UE on a first RO set among multiple RO sets, and a component for receiving an uplink message associated with the RACH process on the PO set before sending a response to the preamble, wherein the uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE.

[0146] The aforementioned means may be one or more of the aforementioned components of the device 1980 and / or the processing system 1114 of the device 1980 configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. As described above, the processing system 2114 may include the TX processor 220, the RX processor 238, and the controller / processor 240.

[0147] As used herein, the term component is intended to be broadly interpreted as hardware, firmware, and / or a combination of hardware and software. As used herein, a processor is implemented with hardware, firmware, and / or a combination of hardware and software.

[0148] As used herein, satisfying a threshold may refer to being greater than a threshold, greater than or equal to a threshold, less than or equal to a threshold, equal to a threshold, not equal to a threshold, etc., depending on the context.

[0149] It will be apparent that the systems and / or methods described herein may be implemented in various forms of hardware, firmware, and / or a combination of hardware and software. The actual dedicated control hardware or software code used to implement these systems and / or methods does not limit the various aspects. Therefore, the operation and behavior of these systems and / or methods are described herein without reference to specific software code—it should be understood that software and hardware can be designed to implement these systems and / or methods based at least in part on the description herein.

[0150] Although specific feature combinations are described in the claims and / or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the disclosure of different aspects. In fact, many of these features can be combined in ways that are not specifically described in the claims and / or not disclosed in the specification. Although each dependent claim listed below can be directly subordinate to only one claim, the disclosure of different aspects includes each dependent claim combined with each other claim in this claim set. A phrase quoting "at least one of..." in a list of items refers to any combination of these items, including single members. As an example, "at least one of a, b or c" is intended to cover: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc and abc, as well as any combination with multiple identical elements (e.g., aa, aaa, aab, aac, abb, acc, bb, bbb, bbc, cc and ccc, or any other ordering of a, b and c).

[0151] Elements, actions or instructions used herein should not be interpreted as critical or necessary unless explicitly described as such. Moreover, as used herein, the articles "one" and "an" are intended to include one or more items and can be used interchangeably with "one or more". In addition, as used herein, the terms "set" and "group" are intended to include one or more items (e.g., related items, non-related items, a combination of related items and non-related items, etc.), and can be used interchangeably with "one or more". In the case of intending to have only one item, the phrase "only one" or similar language is used. Moreover, as used herein, the terms "having" and the like are intended to be open terms. In addition, the phrase "based on" is intended to mean "based at least in part on", unless otherwise explicitly stated.

Claims

1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level; and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas that is not less than the receiving antenna threshold.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI); and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The RAR is scrambled using the first RA-RNTI.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first preamble sequence group is associated with a legacy random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is compatible with a UE associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level or the second UE downlink reception capability level.

5. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level; and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI); and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; wherein the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, Each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a different RA-RNTI, and The RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups is the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

6. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level; and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE including a number of receive antennas not less than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than the receive antenna threshold.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The first preamble code sequence group is associated with a new random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is compatible with UEs associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level and incompatible with UEs associated with the second UE downlink reception capability level.

8. A method of operating a base station, comprising: Receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas that is not less than the receiving antenna threshold.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein: The RAR is scrambled using the first RA-RNTI.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The first preamble sequence group is associated with a legacy random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is compatible with a UE associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level or the second UE downlink reception capability level.

12. A method of operating a base station, comprising: Receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, wherein the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, Each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a different RA-RNTI, and The RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups is the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

13. A method of operating a base station, comprising: Receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas not less than a receiving antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than the receive antenna threshold.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein: The first preamble code sequence group is associated with a new random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is compatible with UEs associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level and incompatible with UEs associated with the second UE downlink reception capability level.

15. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI is a Group Common (GC)-DCI associated with the first RO set and the second RO set, and The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for a random access response (RAR) for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for a RAR for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The first time domain resource set and the second time domain resource set are indicated based on an offset associated with a time domain resource allocation of a corresponding RO set used to transmit the associated preamble.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein: The offset is based on an initial RO index and an RO index associated with the corresponding RO set used to send the associated preamble.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The first RO set and the second RO set overlap in frequency.

19. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, The DCI communication includes an interference parameter set of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein: The interference parameter set includes: The PDSCH signal power ratio between the UE and the interference signal, the modulation order of the interference signal, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) configuration of the UE, or Any combination thereof.

21. A method of operating a base station, comprising: Receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) via a first random access channel opportunity (RACH) set in a plurality of RO sets, wherein the first RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and sending, in response to the preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI is a Group Common (GC)-DCI associated with the first RO set and the second RO set, and The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for a random access response (RAR) for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for a RAR for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein: The first time domain resource set and the second time domain resource set are indicated based on an offset associated with a time domain resource allocation of a corresponding RO set used to transmit the associated preamble.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein: The offset is based on an initial RO index and an RO index associated with the corresponding RO set used to send the associated preamble.

24. The method according to claim 21, wherein: The first RO set and the second RO set overlap in frequency.

25. A method of operating a base station, comprising: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets of RO sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and sending, in response to the preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, The DCI communication includes an interference parameter set of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein: The interference parameter set includes: The PDSCH signal power ratio between the UE and the interference signal, the modulation order of the interference signal, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) configuration of the UE, or Any combination thereof.

27. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble code sequence group from a plurality of preamble code sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble code sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble code sequence group in the plurality of preamble code sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, and the second UE downlink reception capability level is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), The GC-DCI communication is also monitored by at least one other UE associated with the same downlink reception capability as the UE selecting a second RO set, wherein at least one corresponding preamble is sent based on the second RO set.

28. A method of operating a base station (BS), comprising: receiving a first preamble associated with a first random access channel (RACH) procedure from a first user equipment (UE) through a first RO set among a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the first RO set through which the first preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level that is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level; receiving a second preamble associated with a second RACH process from a second UE through a second RO set among the plurality of RO sets, wherein the second RO set through which the second preamble is received is associated with a third preamble sequence group among a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the third preamble sequence group is associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level, and a fourth preamble sequence group among the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with the second UE downlink reception capability level; and In response to the first preamble and the second preamble, a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) is sent to the first UE and the second UE, wherein the GC-DCI communication includes information targeted to both the first UE and the second UE.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein: The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first set of time domain resources for a random access response (RAR) to the first UE, and (ii) a second set of time domain resources for a random access response (RAR) to the second UE.

30. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying a set of random access channel (RACH) opportunities (RO) through which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; as well as prior to receiving a response to the preamble, sending an uplink message associated with the RACH procedure on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunity (PO) set, The uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE, The first downlink reception capability level is associated with a first access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), the first RA-RNTI being different from a second RA-RNTI associated with a second downlink reception capability level, and the method further comprises: Downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI are monitored.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein: The DCI communication is a group common (GC)-DCI communication, the GC-DCI communication including information targeted to the UE and one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on a second RO set, the UE and the one or more UEs being associated with the first downlink reception capability level.

32. A method of operating a base station (BS), comprising: receiving a first preamble associated with a first random access channel (RACH) procedure from a first user equipment (UE) via a first RO set of a plurality of RACH opportunity (RO) sets; Prior to sending a response to the first preamble, receiving an uplink message associated with the first RACH procedure on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunity (PO) set, wherein the uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the first UE; as well as In response to the first preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a first access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) based on the information is transmitted.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein: The first RA-RNTI is different from a second RA-RNTI associated with a second downlink reception capability level.

34. The method according to claim 32, in, The DCI communication is a Group Common (GC)-DCI communication, and The GC-DCI communication is also monitored by at least one second UE, and the at least one second UE selects a second RO set based on which to send at least one corresponding preamble code, and the first UE and the at least one second UE are both associated with the first downlink reception capability level.

35. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set over which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; means for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; means for transmitting said preamble on said identified RO set; and means for receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas that is not less than the receiving antenna threshold.

36. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set over which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; means for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level; and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; means for transmitting the preamble on the identified RO set; and means for receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI); and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; wherein the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, Each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a different RA-RNTI, and The RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups is the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

37. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set over which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; means for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level; and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; means for transmitting the preamble on the identified RO set; and means for receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas not less than a receiving antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than the receive antenna threshold.

38. A base station, comprising: means for receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and means for sending a random access response (RAR) in response to said preamble, The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas that is not less than the receiving antenna threshold.

39. A base station, comprising: means for receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and means for sending a random access response (RAR) in response to said preamble, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, wherein the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, Each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a different RA-RNTI, and The RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups is the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

40. A base station, comprising: means for receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and means for sending a random access response (RAR) in response to said preamble, The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas not less than a receiving antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than the receive antenna threshold.

41. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set over which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; means for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level and a second preamble sequence group of the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; means for transmitting said preamble on said identified RO set; and means for monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using said first RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI is a Group Common (GC)-DCI associated with the first RO set and the second RO set, and The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for a random access response (RAR) for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for a RAR for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set.

42. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set over which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; means for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level and a second preamble sequence group of the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; means for transmitting said preamble on said identified RO set; and means for monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using said first RA-RNTI, The DCI communication includes an interference parameter set of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

43. A base station, comprising: Means for receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through a first random access channel opportunity (RACH) set in a plurality of RO sets, wherein the first RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and means for transmitting, in response to the preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI is a Group Common (GC)-DCI associated with the first RO set and the second RO set, and The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for a random access response (RAR) for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for a RAR for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set.

44. A base station, comprising: Means for receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets of RO sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group of a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group of the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and means for transmitting, in response to the preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, The DCI communication includes an interference parameter set of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

45. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set over which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; means for selecting a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set based on a downlink reception capability of the UE, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level; means for transmitting said preamble on said identified RO set; and means for monitoring group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), The GC-DCI communication is also monitored by at least one other UE associated with the same downlink reception capability as the UE selecting a second RO set, wherein at least one corresponding preamble is sent based on the second RO set.

46. ​​A base station, comprising: means for receiving a first preamble associated with a first random access channel (RACH) procedure from a first user equipment (UE) through a first RO set among a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the first RO set through which the first preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level that is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level; means for receiving a second preamble associated with a second RACH process from a second UE through a second RO set among the plurality of RO sets, wherein the second RO set through which the second preamble is received is associated with a third preamble sequence group among a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the third preamble sequence group is associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level, and a fourth preamble sequence group among the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with the second UE downlink reception capability level; and Means for sending, in response to the first and second preambles, a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) to the first and second UEs, wherein the GC-DCI communication includes information targeted to both the first and second UEs.

47. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for identifying a set of random access channel (RACH) opportunities (RO) over which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; means for transmitting said preamble on the identified RO set; as well as means for transmitting an uplink message associated with the RACH procedure on a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunities (PO) prior to receiving a response to the preamble, The uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE, The first downlink reception capability level is associated with a first access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), the first RA-RNTI is different from a second RA-RNTI associated with a second downlink reception capability level, and the UE further includes: Means for monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI.

48. A base station, comprising: means for receiving a first preamble associated with a first random access channel (RACH) procedure from a first user equipment (UE) via a first RO set of a plurality of RACH opportunity (RO sets); as well as means for receiving an uplink message associated with the first RACH procedure on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunity (PO) set before transmitting a response to the first preamble, wherein the uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the first UE; as well as Means for transmitting, in response to the first preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a first access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) based on the information.

49. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas that is not less than the receiving antenna threshold.

50. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI); and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; wherein the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, Each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a different RA-RNTI, and The RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups is the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

51. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level; and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, the second UE downlink reception capability level being different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE including a number of receive antennas not less than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than the receive antenna threshold.

52. A base station, comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas that is not less than the receiving antenna threshold.

53. A base station, comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, wherein the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, Each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a different RA-RNTI, and The RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups is the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

54. A base station, comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: Receiving a preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas not less than a receiving antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than the receive antenna threshold.

55. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; transmitting the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI is a Group Common (GC)-DCI associated with the first RO set and the second RO set, and The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for a random access response (RAR) for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for a RAR for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set.

56. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, The DCI communication includes an interference parameter set of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

57. A base station, comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) via a first random access channel opportunity (RACH) set in a plurality of RO sets, wherein the first RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group in a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and sending, in response to the preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI is a Group Common (GC)-DCI associated with the first RO set and the second RO set, and The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for a random access response (RAR) for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for a RAR for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set.

58. A base station, comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) through one of a plurality of random access channel opportunity (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets of RO sets, wherein the RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and sending, in response to the preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, The DCI communication includes an interference parameter set of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

59. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble code sequence group from a plurality of preamble code sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble code sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble code sequence group in the plurality of preamble code sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, and the second UE downlink reception capability level is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), The GC-DCI communication is also monitored by at least one other UE associated with the same downlink reception capability as the UE selecting a second RO set, wherein at least one corresponding preamble is sent based on the second RO set.

60. A base station, comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: receiving a first preamble associated with a first random access channel (RACH) procedure from a first user equipment (UE) through a first RO set among a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein the first RO set through which the first preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level that is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level; receiving a second preamble associated with a second RACH process from a second UE through a second RO set among the multiple RO sets, wherein the second RO set through which the second preamble is received is associated with a third preamble sequence group among a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the third preamble sequence group is associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level, and a fourth preamble sequence group among the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with the second UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the first preamble and the second preamble, a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) is sent to the first UE and the second UE, wherein the GC-DCI communication includes information targeted to both the first UE and the second UE.

61. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: identifying a set of random access channel (RACH) opportunities (RO) through which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and prior to receiving a response to the preamble, sending an uplink message associated with the RACH procedure on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunity (PO) set, The uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE, The first downlink reception capability level is associated with a first access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), the first RA-RNTI being different from a second RA-RNTI associated with a second downlink reception capability level, and the at least one processor is further configured to: Downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI are monitored.

62. A base station, comprising: Memory; as well as at least one processor, coupled to the memory and configured to: receiving a first preamble associated with a first random access channel (RACH) procedure from a first user equipment (UE) via a first RO set of a plurality of RACH opportunity (RO) sets; and Prior to sending a response to the first preamble, receiving an uplink message associated with the first RACH procedure on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunity (PO) set, wherein the uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the first UE; as well as In response to the first preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a first access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) based on the information is transmitted.

63. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a user equipment (UE): identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas that is not less than the receiving antenna threshold.

64. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a user equipment (UE): identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, a first preamble sequence group is selected from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein: The first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI); and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; wherein the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, Each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a different RA-RNTI, and The RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups is the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

65. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a user equipment (UE): identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble sequence group from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group in the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and receiving a random access response (RAR) in response to the transmitted preamble, The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas not less than a receiving antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than the receive antenna threshold.

66. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a base station to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) via one of a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein: The RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than a receive antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas that is not less than the receiving antenna threshold.

67. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a base station to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) via one of a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein: The RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, wherein the second RO set is associated with a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, Each of the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a different RA-RNTI, and The RA-RNTI associated with the plurality of preamble sequence groups is the same as or different from the RA-RNTI associated with the second plurality of preamble sequence groups.

68. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a base station to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) via one of a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein: The RO set is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level different from the first UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the preamble, sending a random access response (RAR), The first preamble sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receiving antennas not less than a receiving antenna threshold, and The second preamble code sequence group is associated with a UE having a number of receive antennas lower than the receive antenna threshold.

69. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a user equipment (UE): identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, a first preamble sequence group is selected from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein: The first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI is a Group Common (GC)-DCI associated with the first RO set and the second RO set, and The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for a random access response (RAR) for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for a RAR for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set.

70. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a user equipment (UE): identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, a first preamble sequence group is selected from a plurality of preamble sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein: The first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring downlink control information (DCI) communications scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, The DCI communication includes an interference parameter set of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

71. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a base station to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) via a first RO set of a plurality of RACH opportunity (RO) sets, wherein: The first RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and sending, in response to the preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI is a Group Common (GC)-DCI associated with the first RO set and the second RO set, and The GC-DCI indicates (i) a first time domain resource set for a random access response (RAR) for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the first RO set, and (ii) a second time domain resource set for a RAR for one or more UEs sending one or more corresponding preambles on the second RO set.

72. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a base station to: A preamble associated with a random access channel (RACH) procedure is received from a user equipment (UE) via one of a plurality of random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) sets, wherein: The RO set through which the preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level lower than the first UE downlink reception capability level, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), and the second preamble sequence group is associated with a second RA-RNTI different from the first RA-RNTI, and sending, in response to the preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using the first RA-RNTI, The DCI communication includes an interference parameter set of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

73. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a user equipment (UE): identifying a first random access channel (RACH) opportunity (RO) set through which a preamble associated with a RACH procedure is transmitted; Based on the downlink reception capability of the UE, select a first preamble code sequence group from a plurality of preamble code sequence groups associated with the identified first RO set, wherein the first preamble code sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble code sequence group in the plurality of preamble code sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level, and the second UE downlink reception capability level is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and monitoring a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), The GC-DCI communication is also monitored by at least one other UE associated with the same downlink reception capability as the UE selecting a second RO set, wherein at least one corresponding preamble is sent based on the second RO set.

74. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a base station to: A first preamble associated with a first random access channel (RACH) process is received from a first user equipment (UE) via a first RO set of a plurality of RACH opportunity (RO) sets, wherein: The first RO set through which the first preamble is received is associated with a first preamble sequence group among a plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the first preamble sequence group is associated with a first UE downlink reception capability level, and a second preamble sequence group among the plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with a second UE downlink reception capability level that is higher than the first UE downlink reception capability level; receiving a second preamble associated with a second RACH process from a second UE through a second RO set among the multiple RO sets, wherein the second RO set through which the second preamble is received is associated with a third preamble sequence group among a second plurality of preamble sequence groups, wherein the third preamble sequence group is associated with the first UE downlink reception capability level, and a fourth preamble sequence group among the second plurality of preamble sequence groups is associated with the second UE downlink reception capability level, and In response to the first preamble and the second preamble, a group common (GC)-downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a common random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) is sent to the first UE and the second UE, wherein the GC-DCI communication includes information targeted to both the first UE and the second UE.

75. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a user equipment (UE): identifying a set of random access channel (RACH) opportunities (RO) through which to transmit a preamble associated with a RACH procedure; sending the preamble on the identified RO set; and prior to receiving a response to the preamble, sending an uplink message associated with the RACH procedure on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunity (PO) set, in, The uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the UE, The first downlink reception capability level is associated with a first access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), the first RA-RNTI is different from a second RA-RNTI associated with a second downlink reception capability level, and the instructions are also used to cause at least one processor in the UE to monitor downlink control information (DCI) communication encrypted using the first RA-RNTI.

76. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions for causing at least one processor in a base station to: receiving a first preamble associated with a first random access channel (RACH) procedure from a first user equipment (UE) via a first RO set of a plurality of RACH opportunity (RO) sets; and Prior to sending a response to the first preamble, receiving an uplink message associated with the first RACH procedure on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) opportunity (PO) set, wherein: The uplink message includes information indicating a first downlink reception capability level associated with the first UE; as well as In response to the first preamble, a downlink control information (DCI) communication scrambled using a first access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) based on the information is transmitted.

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