Mechanisms for efficient access and transmission in NR

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to mechanisms for efficient access and transmission in NR. Methods, systems, and devices for beamforming-based initial access, beam management, and beam-based mobility design for NR systems are described herein. Problems such as initial access, control channel design, eMBB and URLLC hybrid, and beam training are identified and solved.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of the patent application with international application number PCT / US2018 / 012585 and national application number 201880011504.X, entitled “Mechanism for Efficient Access and Transmission in NR”, filed on January 5, 2018.

[0002] Citation of Related Applications

[0003] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 443,497, filed on January 6, 2017, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 453,855, filed on February 2, 2017, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Background Art

[0004] 3GPP TR 38.913 "Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation Access Technologies" (Release 14, V0.2.0) defines the scenarios and requirements for New Radio (NR) technologies. For example, the key performance indicators (KPIs) for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine type communications (mMTC) devices are summarized in Table 1:

[0005] Table 1: KPIs

[0006]

[0007] Summary of the invention

[0008] This summary is provided to introduce some concepts in a simplified form, which will be further described in the following detailed description. This summary is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. The above needs are largely met by the methods, systems and devices described in this document for beamforming-based initial access, beam management and beam-based mobility design for NR systems. Problems such as initial access, micro-slots and control channel design, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) hybrid, and beam training and recovery are identified and solved.

[0009] With respect to the initial access problem, according to various example embodiments, the synchronization signal (SS) is multiplexed, and a timing index method of a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) is described herein. In one embodiment, the SSS may use a message-based aspect instead of a training sequence, and the CRC may be masked with a timing index. In another embodiment, the SS may have different settings in connected mode (e.g., on demand or configured by DCI / SIB or RRC). The discovery signal of the NR and the paging channel associated with the SS are also described herein.

[0010] In one aspect of the present application related to initial access, a method for designing an SS burst for a UE that does not require knowledge of the distribution of SS blocks is described. In an example, a device (e.g., a UE) may monitor a synchronization signal block burst containing multiple synchronization signal blocks. Based on the monitoring, the device may select a synchronization signal block from the synchronization signal block burst. The device may obtain a timing index from the selected synchronization signal block. Based on the timing index, the device may determine initial access information and then communicate with the network in accordance with the initial access information. The synchronization signal block may include at least one primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal, and the timing index may be embedded in the secondary synchronization signal. In another example, the timing index is embedded in a reference signal of the synchronization signal block. For example, the device may communicate with a cell of a network having an identifier and receive a reference signal that is a function of the identifier of the cell and the timing information associated with the synchronization signal block. In another example, the synchronization signal block has a position within the SS block burst, and the timing index is based on the position within the SS block burst. In addition, the device may receive a paging opportunity with a paging indication associated with the synchronization signal block.

[0011] In another embodiment, support for multi-beam transmission in the beam scanning SS block reduces the beam scanning time for initial access. If multiple beams are used in the scanning block, explicit beam ID signaling may be required. In an embodiment of this aspect, a method for carrying system information over NR-PBCH and other channels is described. The system information is carried by a broadcast channel. The broadcast channel includes resource allocation and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) design. In another step, the system information may be carried by NR-PDSCH. In addition, the system information may be carried by NR-PDCCH. In yet another embodiment of this aspect, an NR-PBCH timing indication method is adopted. In another embodiment of this aspect, when RAR is not received, a PRACH power boost and beam reselection method is adopted.

[0012] With respect to control channel design issues, in accordance with various embodiments, mini-slot types, indications of mini-slot configurations, and example mini-slot structures are described herein. With respect to eMBB and URLLC hybrids, in various example embodiments, issues related to URLLC transmissions superimposed on eMBB transmissions are addressed. In some cases, URLLC transmissions may be sent separately, and eMBB transmissions may not occur on those resources. In various examples, the eMBB UE may be aware of, delayed in understanding, or unaware of preemptive URLLC transmissions.

[0013] Another aspect of the present application is directed to control signaling and HARQ mechanisms. In one embodiment, downlink (DL) control signaling is used for resource allocation of group common PDCCH in NR. In another embodiment, uplink (UL) control signaling is used for resource allocation of short and long PUCCH. In another embodiment, HARQ mechanism is used for richer A / N transmission and UE capabilities. In another embodiment, URLLC transmission is used for compact PDCCH of URLLC.

[0014] With respect to beam training, new beamforming training methods are described herein. For example, according to various embodiments, the waiting time of the beamforming training processing time can be reduced. In one example, beamforming training only requires a single level / stage (beam scanning) to be performed in the beam training process, rather than two stages (sector-level scanning and beam optimization stage). Also described herein is an example beamforming training series design that can be used not only to mitigate adjacent training beams from the same or different TRPs, but also to identify transmit beamforming vectors associated with a predefined beamforming codebook. According to another example embodiment, a mechanism is described for estimating the direction of departure (DoD) and direction of arrival (DoA) from a received directional training beam, wherein the estimated DoD can be used as feedback instead of using finer beam scanning in the beam optimization stage.

[0015] Another aspect of the present application is directed to beam management, wherein a beam recovery process minimizes radio link failure declarations for multi-beam based NR networks. In an example, the first stage recovers the current serving beam. In another example, the current serving beam is replaced by an alternative beam. Mechanisms are employed to measure and evaluate the serving beam and other alternative beams. Various events and thresholds may trigger the beam recovery process. Transition rules between different stages of the beam and link recovery process are documented. In another embodiment of this aspect, a beam diversity transmission scheme for PDCCH is envisioned. Here, the UE may monitor multiple beams including activated and inactivated beams. The activated beam may be selected by the gNB from a subset of the monitored beams. In an example, when most of the monitored beams are downgraded, the beam candidate set is updated, and a new beam scan and beam optimization is started. UE-specific search space design and blind decoding mechanisms are also documented.

[0016] On the other hand, it is aimed at preemption. In the example, the device sends a first transmission and a second transmission, and the device can allocate the resources of the first transmission to the second transmission so that the second transmission can preempt the first transmission. The device can send control information to explicitly indicate that the second transmission should preempt the first transmission, and the control information can further indicate at least one resource for preemption. Alternatively, the device can send a reference signal indicating preemption information to implicitly indicate that the second transmission should preempt the first transmission. At the selected resource position of the first transmission, the first transmission can be overwritten by the second transmission. In some cases, the first transmission can skip the resources selected for the preemption of the second transmission. In addition, the device can send a control signal indicating that the first transmission should be preempted by the second transmission. The control signal can be sent in a micro-time slot that also carries the second transmission. Alternatively, the control signal can be sent in a time slot behind the micro-time slot that carries the second transmission.

[0017] This summary is provided to introduce some concepts in a simplified form, which will be further described in the detailed description below. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, the claimed subject matter is not limited to limitations that solve any or all deficiencies mentioned in any part of this disclosure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] Figure 1 An example of cell coverage with sector beams and multiple high-gain narrow beams is described.

[0019] Figure 2 Describing example multiplexing methods of synchronization signals (SS): (A) frequency division multiplexing (FDM), (B) time division multiplexing (TDM), and (C) hybrid.

[0020] Figure 3An example of repeated or multiple primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS) symbols in an SS block is described.

[0021] Figure 4 Shows the configured SS transmission in connected mode and the broadcast SS in idle mode according to the example.

[0022] Figure 5 A User Equipment (UE) method for on-demand SS transmission in connected mode according to an example embodiment is shown.

[0023] Figure 6 An example of a periodic discovery signal (DS) (NR-DS) in New Radio (NR) is shown.

[0024] Figure 7 An example of repeated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) design in SS blocks is shown.

[0025] Figure 8 Paging Occasion (PO) sharing for SS bursts in idle mode and connected mode according to an example is described.

[0026] Fig. 9 An example radio link failure in LTE is illustrated in accordance with one aspect of the present application.

[0027] Fig.10 An example continuous burst block design in a SS burst according to one aspect of the present application is illustrated.

[0028] Fig.11 An example non-contiguous burst block design in a SS burst according to one aspect of the present application is illustrated.

[0029] Fig.12 Illustrated is an example broadcast channel that carries remaining minimum system information (RMSI) and shares the same beam configuration as a defined SS burst in an initial access according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0030] Fig.13 Illustrated is an example broadcast channel carrying RMSI using an optimized beam based on SS bursts defined in initial access according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0031] Fig.14 An example physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for NR carrying SI (NR-PDCCH) using an optimized beam based on a SS burst defined in an initial access or similar beam is illustrated in accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0032] Fig.15An example search space for NR-PDCCH associated with beam ID and time-frequency resources according to one aspect of the present application is illustrated.

[0033] Fig.16 An example UE monitoring more than one beam in an initial access for a physical random access channel (PRACH) retransmission is illustrated in accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0034] Fig.17A and 17B An example of mini-slots according to example embodiments is described.

[0035] Fig.18 Represents a dynamic indication of mini-slot configuration according to an example embodiment.

[0036] Fig.19 An example of a mini-slot structure according to an example embodiment is described.

[0037] Fig. 20 Examples of preemptive ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) resource configurations over enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) transmissions are described: (A) distributed frequency resources, (B) contiguous frequency resources, and (C) frequency hopping resources.

[0038] Fig.21 Describes example parameter sets for URLLC transmission that are (A) the same as eMBB and (B) different from eMBB.

[0039] Fig. 22 is a flow chart showing an example of a method for an eMBB UE to decode its payload in the presence of a preemptive URLLC transmission with different modulation / parameter sets in accordance with an embodiment.

[0040] Fig.23 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for an eMBB UE to decode its payload in the presence of a preemptive URLLC transmission by using different reference signals for URLLC transmission in accordance with an embodiment.

[0041] Fig.24 Examples showing allocation of Physical Preemption Indicator Channel (PPIC) resources in different scenarios: (A) localized frequency resources, (B) distributed frequency resources, (C) multiple PPICs in a single eMBB DL grant, and (D) multi-symbol PPIC.

[0042] Fig.25 Describes an example control region in a mini-slot of a URLLC transmission indicating (A) distributed resources and (B) localized resources.

[0043] Fig.26Different mini-slot downlink control information (DCI) formats for eMBB UEs and URLL UEs indicating URLLC resources are described according to example embodiments.

[0044] Fig. 27 Represents a common mDCI format indicating the location of URLLC transmission according to an example embodiment.

[0045] Fig.28 Represents a common control region indicating a preemptive URLLC transmission according to an example embodiment.

[0046] Fig.29 Shows an example URLLC indication in a subsequent control region according to an example embodiment.

[0047] Fig.30 An example of a code block (CB) mapped onto multiple symbols of a resource grid is shown.

[0048] Fig.31 An example of continuous CB transmission is described.

[0049] Fig.32 An example of a pre-scheduled URLLC transmission indicated by a DCI shared with eMBB is shown according to an example embodiment.

[0050] Fig.33 An example of URLLC scheduled by mini-slots according to an example embodiment is shown.

[0051] Fig.34 The diagram illustrates an example of signaling a group-common PDCCH through a SS burst according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0052] Fig.35 The diagram illustrates an example of signaling a group-common PDCCH through DCI according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0053] Fig.36 Illustrated is an example short PUCCH resource allocation in a DL center subframe according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0054] Fig.37 Illustrated is an example short PUCCH resource allocation in a UL center subframe according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0055] Fig.38 Illustrated is an example PUCCH band with resources reserved for long PUCCH according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0056] Fig.39 Illustrating example PUCCH band selection for resource allocation for a UE according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0057] Fig.40 Illustrate example (ACK / NACK) (A / N) bit allocations per group of CBs according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0058] Fig.41 The diagram illustrates an example of URLLC puncturing eMBB transmission according to one aspect of the present application.

[0059] Fig.42 Illustrated are example hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmissions occurring at transmit time intervals (TTIs) for different parameter sets in accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0060] Fig.43 Examples of beam scanning bursts and blocks are described according to example embodiments.

[0061] Fig.44 The diagram illustrates beam recovery and radio link failure (RLF) at high frequency for new radio (HF-NR) according to one aspect of the present application.

[0062] Fig.45 An example process for updating beam monitoring and candidate sets according to one aspect of the present application is illustrated.

[0063] Fig.46 Illustrated is an example mapping between time-frequency (TF) resources and UE and beam IDs according to one aspect of the present application.

[0064] Fig.47A One embodiment of an example communication system is illustrated in which the methods and apparatus described and claimed herein may be embodied.

[0065] Fig.47B is a block diagram of an example device or apparatus configured for wireless communication according to embodiments illustrated herein.

[0066] Fig.47C is a system diagram of an example radio access network (RAN) and core network according to an example embodiment.

[0067] Fig.47D is another system diagram of a RAN and a core network according to yet another embodiment.

[0068] Fig.47E is another system diagram of a RAN and a core network according to another embodiment.

[0069] Fig.47F This can be reflected in Fig.47A and 47C -A block diagram of an example computing system 90 of one or more devices of a communication network illustrated in FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0070] The following detailed description of exemplary embodiments is made with reference to the various figures, embodiments and aspects of this document. Although the present description provides detailed examples of possible implementations, it should be understood that these details are examples and thus do not limit the scope of the present application.

[0071] References in this specification to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," "one or more embodiments," "an aspect," etc., mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in conjunction with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. In addition, the term "embodiment" in different places in this specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. That is, various features that may be exhibited by some embodiments but not by other embodiments are described.

[0072] Currently, 3GPP standardization work is underway to design a framework for beamforming access. The characteristics of wireless channels at higher frequencies are significantly different from the sub-6 GHz channels that LTE is currently deployed on. It is recognized that a key challenge in designing new radio access technologies (RATs) for higher frequencies will be to overcome the larger path loss at higher frequency bands. In addition to this larger path loss, higher frequencies also experience an unfavorable scattering environment due to blockage caused by poor diffraction. Then, MIMO / beamforming may be essential to ensure sufficient signal levels at the receiver end.

[0073] Relying solely on MIMO digital precoding used by digital BF to compensate for the additional path loss at higher frequencies may not be sufficient to provide coverage similar to that below 6 GHz. Thus, using analog beamforming to obtain additional gain may be an alternative in combination with digital beamforming. Sufficiently narrow beams can be formed using many antenna elements, which is likely to be completely different from what is envisioned for LTE evaluation. For large beamforming gains, the beamwidth tends to decrease accordingly, so that a beam with large directional antenna gain cannot cover the entire horizontal sector, especially in a 3-sector configuration. Limiting factors on the number of coexisting high-gain beams include, for example, the cost and complexity of the transceiver architecture.

[0074] Based on the above, in some cases, multiple transmissions of narrow coverage beams utilized in the time domain to cover different service areas may be required. Essentially, the analog beams of the subarrays may be steered in a single direction at the time resolution of an OFDM symbol, or at any appropriate time interval units defined for beam steering across different service areas within a cell, so that the number of subarrays may determine the number of beam directions and the corresponding coverage per OFDM symbol, or at time interval units defined for beam steering. In some cases, the provision of multiple narrow coverage beams for this purpose is referred to as "beam scanning". For analog and hybrid beamforming, beam scanning may be necessary to provide basic coverage in NR in some cases. Figure 1 This concept is illustrated in FIG, where coverage of a sector level cell 200 is achieved using sector beams 202a, 202b and multiple high gain narrow beams 204. Additionally, for analog and hybrid beamforming with massive MIMO, multiple transmissions in the time domain using narrow coverage beams to cover different service areas may be necessary in some cases to cover the entire coverage area within a service cell in NR.

[0075] A concept closely related to beam scanning is the concept of beam pairing, which is used to select the best beam pair between the UE and its serving cell, which can be used for control signaling or data transmission. For downlink transmission, the beam pair can consist of a user equipment (UE) receive (RX) beam and a new radio node (NR node) transmit (TX) beam. For uplink transmission, the beam pair can consist of a UE TX beam and an NR node RX beam.

[0076] Another related concept is the concept of beam training, which is used for beam optimization. Figure 1 As shown in the diagram, during the beam scanning and sector beam pairing process, coarser sector beamforming can be applied. Beam training is then performed, where, for example, the antenna weight vector is optimized, followed by pairing of high gain narrow beams between the UE and the NR node 201.

[0077] Issues regarding initial access are identified and addressed herein. In NR, for a UE in idle mode or connected mode, the initial access channel, such as a synchronization signal (SS), may have different settings. For beamforming systems, different SS signal settings involve multiple design parameters, such as the number of training beams, the number of SS symbols, and SS burst periodicity. In addition, it is recognized herein that since there is no training beam structure and support for different parameter sets in current Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, the SS for Discovery Reference Signal (DRS) in NR should be addressed.

[0078] Problems regarding control channel design are identified and addressed in this paper. Mini-slot design may be necessary to support different parameter sets in a subframe structure. How to optimize mini-slot design to efficiently use resources is an example problem addressed in this paper.

[0079] Issues regarding the hybrid of enhanced mobile broadband (eMMB) and ultra-reliable low latency communications are identified and addressed herein. To meet the latency requirements of URLLC, URLLC can be scheduled with ongoing eMBB transmissions. Techniques for providing resources to URLLC while minimally impacting eMBB performance are disclosed herein - this may affect the design of eMBB code blocks, eMBB and URLLC resource scheduling, and eMBB hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processing. In some cases, URLLC transmissions may be transparent to eMBB users; if not, it is recognized herein that techniques for indicating URLLC transmissions to eMBB UEs may be required.

[0080] Problems regarding beam training are identified and addressed herein. In 5G systems, it is recognized herein that the challenge of designing new wireless access technologies for higher frequencies will be to overcome the greater path loss at higher frequency bands. In addition to this greater path loss, higher frequencies also experience an unfavorable scattering environment due to blockage caused by poor diffraction. Thus, it is recognized herein that beamforming may be essential to ensure sufficient signal levels at the receiver end. The beam training process may be essential for a beamforming system. Typically, the beam training process may involve two stages. The first stage in beam training is to utilize coarse beam scanning, which is also referred to as sector-level scanning (SLS). In the SLS stage, a coarse beam is applied to the receiver to identify which scanned sector is the strongest sector (coarse beam). Once the receiver identifies the strongest coarse beam, it can then enter the beam optimization stage (BRP). In the beam optimization stage, the receiver can optimize the beamforming quality by repeatedly receiving optimized beams from the transmitter, which can be obtained from the coarse beams identified in the SLS stage. However, this method may require several tracking and beam searching between the transmitter and the receiver during the beam optimization phase. This may lead to an increase in the beam training latency during the beam training process. Therefore, it is recognized in this paper that a new mechanism may be needed to improve the beam training latency and enhance the beam training quality.

[0081] First, it should be noted that, unless otherwise stated, the mechanisms described in this document may be performed at an NR node, a transmit and receive point (TRP), or a remote radio head (RRH). Thus, NR nodes, TRPs, and RRHs may be used interchangeably herein without limitation, although for simplicity, NR nodes are most commonly used. In addition, unless otherwise stated, the time intervals containing downlink (DL) and / or uplink (UL) transmissions are flexible for different parameter sets and radio access network (RAN) slices, and may be statically or semi-statically configured. Such a time interval structure may be used for time slots or mini-slots within a subframe. The mechanisms proposed for the time interval structure may be applicable to time slots and / or mini-slots, but for exemplary purposes, time slots or mini-slots are described and / or illustrated.

[0082] Turning now to embodiments related to initial access, we now address the NR initial access design. The initial access synchronization signals include PSS and SSS with or without a physical broadcast channel (for simplicity, hereinafter, we refer to the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) as synchronization signals (SS)). The PSS may include a sequence for the UE to first perform time and frequency synchronization. The PSS may also include time boundaries, such as frame, subframe, or time slot boundaries. The SSS may include an identifier of a cell for the UE to select or reselect. In addition, in some cases, the combination of the PSS and the SSS may indicate an OFDM symbol boundary in time. In the following sections, we discuss example details of the SS design.

[0083] PSS and SSS can be multiplexed in various ways, such as frequency division multiplexing (FDM), time division multiplexing (TDM), or hybrid FDM / TDM. If PSS and SSS are multiplexed in the same orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, then PSS and SSS are multiplexed using FDM. If PSS and SSS are multiplexed in different OFDM symbols, then PSS and SSS are multiplexed using TDM. If PSS and SSS are multiplexed in the time domain and frequency domain (i.e., mixed into different OFDM symbols), then PSS and SSS can be multiplexed using hybrid FDM / TDM. Figure 2 These multiplexing SS methods are described in . In a beamforming system, SS symbols are sent using different beams, and each SS can be associated with a single beam or multiple beams in a beam scanning block. Each beam scanning SS block contains a single OFDM or multiple OFDM symbols, and multiple SS blocks constitute an SS block beam scanning burst. The periodicity of the SS block burst can have different periodicities. These supported periodicities can vary with frequency bands or different parameter sets. In order to enhance the detection probability of the SS in one SS block, the PSS and SSS can be repeated, or multiple PSS and SSS can be used and spanned into multiple OFDM symbols. Figure 3An example of repetition of PSS and SSS in the example SS block 300 is described in . The repetition of PSS and SSS can improve the frequency offset estimation in the initial access phase. In addition, the SSS sequence can carry a timing index to explicitly signal the timing difference from the symbol to the subframe boundary.

[0084] For example, if there are M SS blocks in an SS burst 302 or SS burst block burst 302, and each SS block 300 consists of N OFDM symbols, then when the SSS sequence is detected and the timing index in the SSS sequence is obtained, the symbol to subframe boundary can be calculated. The timing index can be signaled in various ways. In one example, the timing index represents the number of symbols to subframe boundaries, or the symbol index within a subframe. In another example, the timing index represents the SS block index within the SS burst. In some cases, the SS block index represents the position of the corresponding SS block within the first (e.g., first, second, third, etc.). Thus, the SS block may have a position in the SS burst, and the timing index may be based on the position within the burst. In the first example, once the timing index is obtained from the SSS sequence, the timing index can be directly used for the indication of the symbol to subframe boundary. In the second example, it may be necessary to transform the SS block index (timing) into a symbol timing index. Consider an example case in which the first OFDM symbol in the SS block is an SSS signal (symbol). If the UE detects a value m as the timing index carried in the SSS sequence, the symbol-to-subframe index may be calculated as m×N, 0≤m≤M-1 (where N is the number of OFDM symbols within the SS block 300).

[0085] Thus, as referenced Figure 3 As described, a device, such as a UE, may monitor a synchronization signal block burst comprising a plurality of synchronization signal blocks. Based on the monitoring, the device may select a synchronization signal block from the synchronization signal block burst. The device may obtain a timing index from the selected synchronization signal block. Based on the timing index, the device may determine initial access information and may communicate with the network in accordance with the initial access information. The synchronization signal block may include at least one primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal, and the timing index may be embedded in the secondary synchronization signal. In another example, the timing index is embedded in a reference signal of the synchronization signal block. For example, the device may communicate with an identified cell of the network and receive a reference signal that is a function of the identification of the cell and the timing information associated with the synchronization signal block. In another example, the synchronization signal block has a position within the burst, and the timing index is based on the position within the burst.

[0086] In some cases, the SSS may utilize a coding method to construct the SSS instead of utilizing an SSS sequence. The message-based SSS may be constructed by the following given as an example and not by way of limitation:

[0087] The payload of SSS can be expressed as d sss ={d 0 , d 1 ,...d N}, where N is the SSS payload length, d i is the SSS data bit.

[0088] The coded SSS can be expressed as C sss ={c 0 , c 1 , ...c M}, the encoding method can be selected as Reed-Muller or polar coding, where M is the channel encoder output length.

[0089] Coded SSS bits C sss Rate matching can be performed: R sss = {r 0 , r 1 ,...r O}, where O is the rate matching output bit.

[0090] SSS rate matching bit R sss Then it undergoes bit interleaving to form I sss ={i 0 ,i 1 ,...i O}, and append Q bits of CRC to form the transmitted bit D sss ={i 0 ,i 1 ,...i O , e 0 , e 1 , ..., e Q-1}.

[0091] ·D sss The demodulation reference signal is mapped to one or several OFDM symbols.

[0092] In an example, the additional Q bits of CRC can be masked with the timing index bit so that it can implicitly signal the timing index to the subframe boundary in the SS block. If the Q bits of CRC of each SSS message are masked with the timing index sequence, then the masked timing index bits can be used for implicit indication of the symbol to subframe index. The masked timing index can have various designs. According to an example, the timing index represents the number of symbols to subframe boundaries. Thus, the timing index can be directly used for the indication of the symbol to subframe boundary. According to another example, the timing index indicates which SS block in the SS burst. Thus, in this example, the UE may have to transform the block timing index into a symbol timing index, requiring the UE to know the SSS OFDM symbol position in the SS block.

[0093] Now turning to the example when the UE is in connected mode, see Figure 4 , NR nodes can be configured with different types of SSs compared to SSs in idle mode. There are some differences between idle mode and connected mode SSs. For example, when the UE is in connected mode, the eNB can allocate some physical resource blocks (PRBs), and these allocated PRBs may be farther away compared to the SS broadcast in idle mode. Thus, the UE can make measurements without simultaneously monitoring at least two different PRBs that are far away. For another example, in a beamforming network, the number of configured training beams, the SS burst periodicity, and the number of PSS, SSS symbols in an SS block may be different from the training beam broadcast for UE monitoring in idle mode. As another example, an SS in connected mode can be sent on demand (for example, when a synchronization request is received from the UE). Such an on-demand SS can be sent on demand. Figure 5 The example described in .

[0094] See also Figure 5, according to an example, at 502, a given UE determines whether it is in connected mode. If the UE is in connected mode, the process may proceed to 504, at which the UE determines whether a connected mode SS has been pre-configured, for example, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a system information block (SIB). If the SS has been pre-configured, the process may proceed to 505, at which the UE monitors the pre-configured SS at the assigned location. If the SS has not been pre-configured, the process may proceed to 506, at which the UE may send a request for SS broadcast to an eNB or the like using, for example, a random access channel or a NR physical uplink control channel (NR-PUCCH). At 508, once the eNB receives the UE request, the eNB may approve or reject the request. At 510, if the eNB approves the request for SS transmission in connected mode, the UE may monitor the SS. The transmission of the SS may be approved via a new radio downlink control channel (NR-PDCCH). The content of the configured SS information may include various information, such as the allocated PRBs, the number of training beams, the SS burst configuration, the SS burst periodicity, etc. The SS parameters may be configured by a semi-static method or a dynamic method. If at 510, the request is not approved, then at 512, the UE receives a message indicating that the request cannot be met. If (at 502) it is determined that the UE is not in connected mode, then the process may proceed to 503, at which the UE returns to a mechanism in other modes of non-connected mode.

[0095] In some cases, the UE may monitor bursts, such as SS in connected mode and broadcast SS in spatial mode. The monitoring may depend on UE capabilities or UE category. In some cases, the UE may monitor SS in connected mode only when the UE is in connected mode. Figure 4 An example of monitoring SS in connected mode and idle mode is described in , where there are different time intervals between SS bursts. As shown in the figure, there are different time intervals in idle mode (shown at the top) compared to connected mode (shown at the bottom).

[0096] Turning now to the discovery signal (DS), in accordance with an example embodiment, in an NR system, the NR discovery signal (NR-DS) may be used to enhance energy-efficient cell discovery of small cells, D2D, and operation in unlicensed bands (LAA) and other occasions. An example NR-DS occasion for a cell consists of a K signal with a K signal for licensed band operation. 1 ~K 2 consecutive subframes (e.g., frame structure types 1 and 2); and K in a non-blank subframe for frame structure type 3 nlOFDM symbols. The UE in the downlink subframe may assume the existence of a discovery signal. The discovery signal may consist of a cell-specific reference signal (here represented as X-RS) on one or more antenna ports that sweep across different beams (single beam or multiple beams). The antenna port may be predefined or defined by a parameter configured by a higher layer signaling. The number of beams to be swept may be a system parameter configured by a higher layer. The cell-specific reference signal may include a reference signal for phase tracking, a reference signal for time / frequency tracking, a reference signal for wireless link monitoring, a reference signal for RRM measurement, and the like. The cell-specific reference signal may also include a synchronization signal (SS) that sweeps across different beams (e.g., single beam or multiple beams). In some cases, the SS in the discovery signal sent in each beam direction may consist of PSS, SSS, and TSS. For each beam direction, PSS, SSS, and TSS may be mapped to the same OFDM symbol (but different subcarriers), or to different OFDM symbols.

[0097] The cell-specific reference signal may also include a non-zero power channel state information (CSI)-reference signal (CSI-RS) sent on one or more antenna ports across different beams (single beam or multi-beam) in 0 or more subframes during the discovery signal burst period. In some cases, up to K subframes as part of the discovery signal may be used to generate a CSI-RS signal. CSI The reserved CSI-RS resources are configured by higher layer signaling. CSI-RS may implicitly carry information such as TP index. The antenna port may be predefined or a parameter configured by higher layer signaling. The X-RS, SS, and CSI-RS (if any) in the discovery signal will sweep the same beam direction. The X-RS, SS, and CSI-RS (if any) sent in the same beam direction may be placed / mapped to the same OFDM symbol or different (adjacent) OFDM symbols.

[0098] For licensed band operation, NR-DS may be sent at a higher layer configured periodicity. Alternatively, NR-DS may be sent by the gNB on demand (e.g., upon receipt of a synchronization request from the UE). For unlicensed band operation, in example, the UE may assume that NR-DS is sent in any subframe within the discovery signal measurement timing configuration. Figure 6 An example of periodic NR-DS is shown in FIG. In this example, the UE may search for NR-DS for cell search or cell reselection, for example, based on the periodicity of the NR-DS burst specified or configured by the gNB.

[0099] In the example scenario where NR-DS is used for the intermittent transmission feature of a small cell, the UE can perform small cell measurements by detecting the NR-DS transmitted by the small cell according to the pre-configured timing and resource location. After detecting the cell (with a valid cell ID), the UE can measure the signal strength based on the cell-specific reference signal (X-RS) used for discovery. The UE can obtain the measurement reference signal power (RSRP) or received signal strength indication (RSSI) from the X-RS. The measurement value can be reported to the gNB for its mobility processing, or can be used by the UE for its autonomous mobility processing, or any other desired purpose.

[0100] Now turn to the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) design, see Figure 7 , PBCH 702 can be multiplexed with SS, such as SSS 704 and PSS 706, in SS block 701. In addition, PBCH 702 can also be multiplexed with SS in the same OFDM symbol. If a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) is used for PBCH demodulation, a DMRS sequence can be generated by combining two PN sequences, and the initialization seed of the PN sequence can be a function of the cell ID. For example, if the UE is in connected mode, the PBCH may not be sent / multiplexed in the SS block. In connected mode, the ability to turn on / off PBCH transmission with SS can be configured through RRC signaling, or can be dynamically configured through NR-PDCCH. In some cases, PBCH symbols can be repeated to enhance the detection probability in the SS block. If DMRS and PBCH utilize symbol repetition, then DMRS can be used for frequency offset estimation. Figure 7 An example PBCH design according to an embodiment is described in FIG.

[0101] Turning now to the paging channel, the paging beam scanning block used in this article can be considered as a unit of beam scanning time unit for the paging channel during idle mode. Each paging block may consist of at least one or more CP-OFDM symbols. Multiple blocks may form a paging beam scanning burst corresponding to a paging opportunity (PO) that may contain a paging indication (PI). Here, the length of the scanning burst refers to the number of paging beam scanning blocks in the burst. Thus, the UE can receive a paging opportunity with a paging indication associated with a synchronization signal block. For example, if the paging beam scanning burst length is equal to M, then there are M scanning blocks in the PO. Since paging can share the same beam burst structure as the synchronization signal (SS) block burst structure, paging can share a beam with the SS block. Figure 8In, an example of a paging scanning burst with SS blocks is described. For example, by sending, the paging beam scanning burst can be configured periodically or aperiodically. Each paging beam scanning block can be associated with a single beam or multiple beams, and the association method can utilize or not utilize downlink control information (DCI). In addition, paging can have different configurations. For example, if the paging does not involve any DCI indication, then the beam association method can utilize an initial access channel, such as NR-PSS / NR-SSS and / or NR-PBCH. If there is a configured SS block burst for a UE in connected mode, and in connected mode, the configured SS block burst has a different setting from the SS block burst in idle mode, then the paging can share the same beam structure with the configured SS block in connected mode. For example, see Figure 8 There is a configured SS block burst for UEs in connected mode, and paging is associated with each SS block in the configured SS burst. According to the illustrated example, the PO and SS blocks with paging indications can be frequency division multiplexed (FDM) in the same OFDM symbol, or time division multiplexed (TDM) in different OFDM symbols. Between SS blocks and paging cases, TDM and FDM can be applied to the same beam. In another example, for semi-static configuration, PO resources for paging indications can be allocated through RRC signaling.

[0102] Turning now to the synchronization signal (SS), the PSS sequence may include (i) a Golay complementary sequence; and (ii) a sonar sequence, a module sonar sequence, or a submodule sonar sequence. The NR-SS sequence may also include a NR-PSS, which may have a structured signal pattern in the time domain (TD) for fast compensation of frequency offset operation (CFO) acquisition and peak detection. Here, the signal structured pattern design may be performed within one OFDM symbol or multiple OFDM symbols. It may use a TD sequence for the NR-PSS. The signal structured pattern may consist of a single sequence or multiple sequences.

[0103] According to the embodiment, the example SS burst set is now described. Here, if there are high priority channels that need to be scheduled, and these high priority channels are allocated resources that overlap with the SS burst resources, then the SS bursts may not be evenly distributed in time. For example, the URLLC physical control, data channels (URLLC PDCCH, PDSCH) may be scheduled in the case of overlapping with the SS burst. In this case, the SS burst may be prohibited from being sent.

[0104] According to another embodiment of the SS burst set, an example SS burst block distribution in the burst set includes: (i) continuous burst blocks; and (ii) non-contiguous burst blocks. In non-contiguous burst blocks, in some examples, if all burst blocks in the burst are continuously allocated in the time domain, then this type of burst can be called a continuous burst block. Otherwise, the burst block can be a non-contiguous burst block. In addition, in some examples, if the burst length for the UE is given (or assumed) using an integer number of OFDM symbols or a number of sub-OFDM symbols, then the UE does not have to assume that the burst block distribution is continuous. Thus, if the beam burst length (expressed using an integer M symbols) is given to the UE, then the UE does not have to further assume whether the beam blocks within the beam burst are continuous. For example, if the beam burst has a duration equal to M=8 OFDM symbols, and the beam burst consists of 2 beam blocks, then each beam block in the beam burst uses 2 OFDM symbols. Thus, continuing with this example, in this example, there are 4 empty OFDM symbols between two beam blocks.

[0105] Fig.10 and 11 Describe an example of the distribution of SS burst blocks within a burst set. Fig.10 In the example described in , in one SS burst 1000, there are M=5 SS blocks 1002, and each SS block 1002 has N=4 OFDM symbols 1004. In this example, the SS burst has MN=20 OFDM symbols.

[0106] exist Fig.11 In the alternative example described in , there are M=5 SS blocks 1102 in a SS burst 1100, each SS block has N=4 OFDM symbols 1104, but it reserves O=2 OFDM symbols 1106 between each burst block 1104. In some cases, if the burst length is defined as MN+MO=20+10=30 symbols, then a given UE can detect SS signals without knowing the distribution of burst blocks in a given burst 1100. For example, if the burst length is known to the UE in terms of the number of OFDM or sub-OFDM symbols, then the UE can detect SS without knowing the distribution of SS blocks in the SS burst 1100.

[0107] Now turn to the SS burst periodicity, in the example, the SS burst periodicity affects the timing-frequency acquisition time. If the SS burst periodicity is set too long, it can be seen here that in order to avoid the synchronization time being too long, it may be necessary to increase the detection probability once.

[0108] In some cases, support for multi-beam transmission in a beam scanning SS block can reduce the beam scanning time. If multiple beams are used in the beam scanning block, then in some examples, beam ID signaling is required. For example, in an SS burst, if there are multiple simultaneous beams for NR-PSS, NR-SSS, and NR-PBCH transmissions, then additional beam training reference signals can be used to distinguish them from each other and / or signal the beam ID. The resource allocations for multi-beam transmissions of NR-PSS, NR-SSS, and NR-PBCH can be the same or different. For example, if 2 beams are transmitted simultaneously at the same burst block time, then each beam can utilize a different frequency domain allocation, or can share the same resources in the frequency domain of the burst block. In some examples, the beam reference signal can be configured based on the cell ID, beam ID, and / or SS burst timing index. That is, the beam reference sequence can be initialized as The function of c init is the initialization of the beam training sequence. The SS burst timing / time index and beam ID can be used to indicate the physical random access channel (PRACH) resources, such as the PRACH preamble and time-frequency allocation. In this way, the detection ambiguity of the UE can be avoided when there are multiple simultaneous beams for NR-PSS, NR-SSS and NR-PBCH transmissions. If a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for NR-PBCH demodulation is present in the SS burst, then the DMRS can be composed of the cell ID and / or by the SS burst timing index, that is, where c init It is the initialization of the DMRS sequence.

[0109] In some cases, different nodes or gNBs may not transmit the same number of beams because some beams may not be transmitted in an SS burst between gNBs. In an example, if each gNB transmits the same number of SS blocks in an SS burst, the UE can still detect SS from multiple gNBs. Thus, in some cases, each gNB may be configured with the same number of SS blocks in a burst, however, the decision to transmit or not transmit a beam in an SS burst may be determined by the gNB implementation.

[0110] Different transmit and receive points (TRPs) can be associated with the same cell (gNB), for example, code division multiplexing (CDM) can be used for multi-beam transmission in SS blocks to maintain beam orthogonality. In addition, if beam reference signals are applied with SS bursts, beam reference signals can use CDM to maintain beam orthogonality.

[0111] Now turning to the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), in one example, the NR-PBCH carries a portion of the minimum system information (SI), such as the master information block (NR-MIB), and the secondary broadcast channel carries the remaining minimum system information (RMSI). In some cases, for example, the NR-PBCH may carry NR-MIB information, and a resource indication of the remaining minimum system information (RMSI), where the PRB allocates the RMSI. For those secondary broadcast channels that carry RMSI, the channels can share SS burst sets, thereby saving beam scanning resources. These secondary broadcast channels can be FDM with SS bursts. These broadcast channel resources and demodulation reference signals can be indicated by the PBCH carrying the NR-PBCH with minimum SI and MIB. In some cases, the broadcast channel carrying RMSI may not always be sent. The demodulation reference signal can share the same port with the PBCH. Various methods can be used to derive the DMRS signal. In the example, if the beam ID is explicitly signaled for the SS burst block, the DMRS ID can be obtained for the SS burst block by the cell ID, beam ID, and port ID. In another example, if the beam ID is implicitly signaled from the SS burst block using the SS timing index, the DMRS ID can be obtained from the SS burst block through the cell ID, SS timing index and port ID.

[0112] See now Fig.12 In the example where the NR-PBCH carries part of the minimum SI and the secondary broadcast channels carry the RMSI, these broadcast channels can be TDMed with the SS burst 1202 in the initial access. The secondary broadcast channels 1204 can share the same transmit beam defined in the initial access SS burst 1202s. Those broadcast channel resources and demodulation reference signals can be indicated by the PBCH with the minimum SI and MIB, such as Fig.12 . The DMRS signal may be derived by utilizing various mechanisms. For example, if the beam ID is explicitly signaled from the SS burst block 1206, then the DMRS ID may be obtained from the SS burst block 1202 through the cell ID, beam ID, and port ID. If the beam ID is implicitly signaled from the SS burst block 1206 using the SS timing index, then the DMRS ID may be obtained from the SS burst block 1206 through the cell ID, SS timing index, and port ID.

[0113] See also Fig.13, in another example where the NR-PBCH carries a portion of the minimum SI and the secondary broadcast channel carries the RMSI, beam optimization can be associated with the secondary broadcast channels 1304 when carrying the RMSI. From the UE's perspective, in some examples, it can be assumed that the transmit beams of these secondary broadcast channels 1304 are based on the pre-configured SS burst sets 1302 in the initial access. These broadcast channels 1304 can be transmitted via second-level beam scanning bursts. The second-level beam scanning bursts can adopt finer beams than those coarse beams used in the initial access. For example, if those broadcast channel resources and corresponding optimized beam scanning burst information can be indicated with a PBCH carrying minimum SI and MIB, then after successful detection of the NR-PBCH carrying minimum SI and MIB, a given UE can perform a second stage of beam training, such as Fig.13 As shown in . In this case, the UE may receive multiple broadcast channels carrying the same information. The UE may select the best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in order to select the optimized beam for the beam correspondence. In addition, those broadcast channels may carry timing index information for implicit beam ID information. The DMRS signal may be derived using various mechanisms. For example, if the beam ID is explicitly signaled from the SS burst block 1306 by utilizing the beam training reference signal, then the DMRS ID (i.e., where c init is the initialization of the beam training sequence). If the beam ID is implicitly signaled from the SS burst block 1306 using the SS timing index, the DMRS ID can be obtained from the detected SS burst block 1306 through the cell ID, SS timing index, broadcast channel timing index and port ID.

[0114] In yet another example PBCH design according to yet another embodiment, the NR-PBCH may carry a portion of the minimum SI, such as the NR-MIB, and the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for new radio (NR-PDSCH) may carry the RMSI. The NR-PDSCH resources and demodulation reference signals (e.g., such as ports and sequences) used to carry SI may be signaled via the RACH response (RAR) message 4 in the case of RRC connection setup. The DMRS signal may be derived using various mechanisms. For example, if the beam ID is explicitly signaled from the SS burst block, the DMRS ID may be obtained from the RAR message via the cell ID, beam ID, UE ID, and port ID. In another example, if the beam ID is implicitly signaled from the SS burst block using the SS timing index, the DMRS ID may be obtained from the RAR message via the cell ID, SS timing index, UE ID, and port ID.

[0115] In another example PBCH design according to another embodiment, the NR-PBCH may carry a portion of the minimum SI, such as the NR-MIB, and the (cell-specific) physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for NR (NR-PDCCH) may carry the RMSI. The NR-PDCCH resources (or search spaces) and demodulation reference signals (such as ports and sequences) may be indicated by the PBCH carrying the NR-PBCH with the minimum SI and MIB. The demodulation reference signals for the NR-PDCCH may be composed of the same or different beams in the SS burst set for initial access. For example, a given UE may use the configured DMRS for demodulation of the NR-PDCCH, such as Fig.14 as shown in .

[0116] In some cases, the NR-PDCCH carrying RMSI may not always be sent. Various mechanisms may be used to derive the DMRS signal. For example, if the beam ID is explicitly signaled from the SS burst, then the DMRS ID may be obtained from the detected SS burst block using the cell ID, beam ID and port ID. If the beam ID is implicitly signaled from the detected SS burst block using the SS timing index, then the DMRS ID may be obtained from the SS burst block using the cell ID, SS timing index and port ID. The NR-PDCCH search space may be associated with the beam ID and the time-frequency resources. The beam ID may be explicitly signaled through an additional beam reference signal, or may be implicitly signaled through the timing index of the beam training scan burst. See, for example, Fig.14 , in initial access, the beam training scan burst may be the SS burst 1402 (or burst set). For NR-PDCCH, it may have its own beam scanning burst set definition. If NR-PDCCH has its own dedicated beam scanning burst / burst set, then the NR-PDCCH may carry a timing index for implicit beam ID signaling, or an additional beam reference signal may be used for beam ID indication, such as Fig.14 as shown in .

[0117] In the example, refer to Fig.15, NR-PDCCH 1502 may be sent via multiple beams 1503 and search spaces 1504. This may allow a given UE to monitor multiple different beams 1503 and their corresponding search spaces 1504 simultaneously or at different times for beam tracking or beam recovery. The UE may track at least one or more NR-PDCCH search spaces 1504 for beam recovery. The NR-PBCH timing indication may be implicit or explicit, where the SS burst timing index is signaled. In an example, the timing index may be used to mask the CRC, or a bit interleaver may be used for the indication of the timing index. A scrambling code may be used for the indication of the timing index. The SS burst timing (time) index may also be used to derive the PRACH resource.

[0118] According to another aspect regarding random access, techniques for RACH resource indication are described. Here, when PBCH signals PRACH resources, the PBCH may have a different periodicity than SS bursts. Techniques for RACH RAR power boost and beam reselection are also described. When the UE retransmits a preamble but does not receive a RAR, in some examples, the preamble may be reselected based on a monitored beam from an initial access (from a connected mode or idle mode SS). The RACH preamble may be selected from resources corresponding to the selected best initial access DL beam. Fig.16 An example of a DL initial access signal is shown in . In some examples, if there is still no RAR, the UE may increase the transmit power of the PRACH transmission when cyclically selecting the M best initial access beams (SS burst) in a certain time window.

[0119] Now, according to various embodiments, an example mechanism for controlling information is described. Fig.17A and 17B , an example mini-time slot is a scheduling or transmission interval within a subframe and / or time slot defined using a reference parameter set. For example, but not limited to, a mini-time slot can be used for:

[0120] Parameter set specific signals, control and / or data. For example, different subcarrier spacing and / or different symbol lengths may exist within a reference parameter set subframe and / or time slot (e.g., Fig.17A Mini-slots 1 and 2 in the

[0121] Beam-specific signals, control and / or data, e.g., resources allocated to one or more specific narrow beams (e.g., Fig. 17B Mini-slots 6 and 7 in the

[0122] PHY function-specific signals, control and / or data, e.g., specific or on-demand PHY functions or procedures for specific services or UEs, such as time and / or frequency synchronization or phase tracking; broadcast system information or paging; beam management (e.g., training, alignment or optimization); radio link and / or interference management; neighbor cell and / or TRP discovery, etc. (e.g., Fig. 17B Mini-slots 8 and 9 in the

[0123] Service-specific signals, control and / or data, e.g., for URLLC and / or mMTC services, and / or for services utilizing unlicensed UL transmissions (e.g., Fig.17A mini-slots 1 and 2 in ); and / or

[0124] UE or UE group specific signals, control and / or data, e.g. self-contained to a specific UE or UE group (e.g. Fig.17A mini-slots 3, 4 and 5).

[0125] For example, as shown below in Table 2 and Table 3, the example mini-slot configuration may be indicated statically via system information, semi-statically via RRC signaling or MAC CE. Fig.18 As shown in , the microslot configuration may also be dynamically indicated by referring to a DL control channel within a subframe or time slot of the parameter set (e.g., DCI in DL control of subframe 1 or time slot 1 for microslot 1, microslot 2, and repeated microslots 3 and 4, DCI in DL control of subframe 2 or time slot 2 for repeated microslots 3, 4, and aggregated microslots 5 and 6), or a specific DL control channel within a microslot (e.g., Mini-DCI in microslot 5 indicating aggregated microslot 6 after microslot 5). The DCI or Mini-DCI may include microslot configuration parameters as described in the example of Table 2, or microslot configuration indexes as described in the example of Table 3. It should be understood that unless otherwise specified, the slots illustrated in the figures, such as Fig.18 The gap 1802 in can also be configured statically, semi-statically or dynamically.

[0126] Table 2 Example of mini-slot configuration

[0127]

[0128]

[0129] Table 3 Example of mini-slot configuration index table

[0130]

[0131] Fig.19An example of a mini-slot structure is illustrated in FIG. It should be understood that for the purpose of the closed loop example, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) is used, and similar mechanisms can be used for other operations such as closed loop power control, CSI measurement, radio link adaptation, etc. Fig.19 As shown in, the Mini-DCI in the mini-time slot 1 of subframe i configures the mini-slot and UL control and / or data transmission; the Mini-DCI in the mini-time slot 2 of subframe i indicates the information of DL control and / or data transmission; the Mini-DCI in the mini-time slot 5 of subframe j indicates UL control and / or data transmission; the Mini-DCI in the mini-time slot 2 of subframe j indicates DL control and / or data transmission. In addition, as Fig.19 As shown in the example, the HARQ configuration of mini-slot 2 of subframe i uses Mini-DCI to configure the ACK / NACK feedback of the received DL control, or sends data on the micro UL control of mini-slot 2 of subframe i or the micro UL control of mini-slot 5 of subframe j.

[0132] An embodiment of sending URLLC via scheduled eMBB resources in DL is now described in detail. When URLLC resources take precedence over scheduled eMBB resources, there are multiple possibilities for allocating URLLC time-frequency resources. For example, URLLC transmissions may be superimposed on eMBB transmissions, or URLLC transmissions may be sent separately, and eMBB transmissions may not occur on these resources. Also disclosed below are design aspects regarding CB design and mapping for eMBB, MAC-level discovery of affected eMBB information, and indication of planned or unplanned transmissions to URLLC UEs.

[0133] In the example, Fig. 20 As shown in A and 20B, DL resources for URLLC UEs may be allocated in a continuous manner in a continuous portion of the spectrum or within a certain bandwidth. In addition, resources may be limited to a few symbols or fewer symbols (e.g., as few as 1 symbol) in time with respect to the eMBB parameter set to minimize latency. It is to be appreciated that in some cases, continuous symbols in time may be most beneficial for URLLC. Fig. 20 As shown in C, the resources can be frequency hopped between the allocated symbols.

[0134] In an example embodiment, reference signaling used by a URLLC UE to decode URLLC transmissions may be shared with eMBB transmissions (e.g., particularly if the eMBB and URLLC transmissions use the same precoder), or separate resources may be allocated for URLLC transmissions (e.g., particularly if the precoder is different from that of eMBB).

[0135] As described above, eMBB and URLLC transmissions may be superimposed within the same set of resources. In this case, in the example, the relative power offset between the eMBB and URLLC transmissions may be used to enable the eMBB UE to recover its information despite interference from the URLLC transmissions. The eMBB may utilize serial interference cancellation (SIC) to recover its information by detecting the URLLC data and eliminating the URLLC data from the received signal. It is assumed that the eMBB UE is signaled with information about the URLLC transmission. This information may include, for example, (but not limited to) the relative power of the URLLC transmission relative to the eMBB transmission, the code rate of the URLLC transmission, the modulation of the URLL transmission, and the time and frequency resources of the URLLC transmission. Generally, the solution described above for indicating URLLC information to the eMBB UE also applies here.

[0136] Turning now to dedicating eMBB resources to URLLC, URLLC can be preempted by redirecting eMBB resources exclusively for URLLC. This may impact eMBB transmissions. The example embodiments detailed below enable the eMBB system to recover the loss of resources in various scenarios, such as timely knowledge of preemptive URLLC transmissions, delayed knowledge of preemptive URLLC transmissions, or no knowledge of preemptive URLLC transmissions. Note that this scenario can be considered a special case of overlay, where the power allocated to eMBB is zero.

[0137] Now, the timely knowledge of the preemptive URLLC transmission is described. Before or during the reception of the eMBB TB, DL signaling may explicitly or implicitly provide the eMBB UE with knowledge of the preemptive URLLC transmission. For example, but not limited to, one or more of the following information may be implicitly or explicitly conveyed to the UE regarding the preemptive URLLC transmission:

[0138] The existence of preemptive URLLC transmission

[0139] Affected eMBB time-frequency resources, such as:

[0140] oRE allocated to URLLC transmission

[0141] o RBs allocated to URLLC for transmission

[0142] o Partially or fully allocated to the CB sent by URLLC

[0143] oPartial or full allocation of symbols sent by URLLC

[0144] o Mini-slots or timeslots that are partially or fully allocated to URLLC transmission

[0145] One or more of the URLLC transmission parameters, such as modulation type, reference signal, transmission mode, relative power level with respect to eMBB transmissions.

[0146] Knowledge of preempted resources can be implicitly signaled in various ways. In one example, eMBB and URLLC transmissions can use different modulations. The eMBB UE can blindly detect URLLC modulation and exclude these resources from the eMBB TB. For example, Figure 2 As shown in , URLLC resources are allocated in units of PRB. URLLC transmission can use the same parameter set as eMBB transmission ( Fig.21 A) or a different set of parameters ( Fig.21 B) shows that URLLC transmission occurs in a mini-slot of 2 symbols with respect to the eMBB parameter set, with resources allocated in blocks of PRBs distributed across the bandwidth. In some cases, URLLC transmission may also include a control signaling region.

[0147] If the eMBB fails its CB or TB CRC check, then in some cases it may blindly detect other modulations and allowed parameter sets in each PRB. The eMBB UE may decode the CB or TB again so that in the LDPC decoding process, the PRBs believed to belong to other modulations will be set to 0 LLR, such as in Fig. 22 As shown in the example UE method described in.

[0148] See also Fig. 22, according to the example shown in the diagram, at 2202, the eMBB UE receives without knowing the URLLC preemption. At 2204, the eMBB UE decodes the CB or TB by performing a CRC check on the CB or TB respectively. If the CRC check is successful, then the process proceeds to 2205, and at 2205, the UE issues an Ack. If step 2205: If the CRC check of the eMBB UE is successful, then it issues an Ack. If the CRC check of the eMBB UE fails, then the process may proceed to 2206, and at 2206, the UE checks possible assumptions about the existence of URLLC preemption. At 2208, the eMBB UE determines whether URLLC preemption is detected. If URLLC preemption is not detected, then at 2209, the eMBB UE may issue a Nack. If the eMBB UE detects a URLLC transmission, then according to this example, at 2210, the UE zeroes the LLRs of these resources and decodes the CB or TB again. At 2212, the eMBB UE determines whether there is a CRC match. If there is no match, the process may proceed to 2213, where the eMBB UE issues a Nack. If there is a match, such that the CRC succeeds, the process may proceed to 2214, where the UE issues an Ack. Thus, in the example case where the percentage of preempted resources is small, or the eMBB transmission has a lower code rate, the eMBB UE may successfully decode after clearing the preempted LLRs (e.g., setting to 0).

[0149] In some cases, the set of modulations and parameter sets to be blind detected may be configured through RRC signaling or through system information.

[0150] In another example embodiment, a unique reference signal of the URLLC may be utilized to identify the URLLC transmission, such as Fig.21 As shown in . The eMBB UE may be associated with the URLLC reference signal and detect a high correlation, so that the corresponding resource may be identified as a URLLC resource. The sequence of the URLLC reference signal may be specified or configured through system information or RRC, for example, but not limited to, one or more of the following:

[0151] Symbols within mini-slots / time slots / sub-frames / frames

[0152] RE within bandwidth

[0153] Parameter set sent by eMBB

[0154] Parameter set sent by URLLC

[0155] Transmitted beam ID

[0156] Cell ID

[0157] eMBB UE ID

[0158] Fig.23 An example of a corresponding UE process is shown in , where the RS sent by the URLLC is used as an identifier to indicate the associated URLLC resource.

[0159] See also Fig.23 According to the illustrated example, at 2302, the RS resource is used as an identifier to enable the eMBB UE to detect preemption. The eMBB UE may perform a correlation of the received transmission with the expected RS sequence in order to detect the presence of the RS associated with the preemption. When the eMBB UE cannot successfully decode the received CB or TB, it may perform this operation to determine whether the preemption resource exists. At 2304, the eMBB UE calculates a correlation index with respect to the RS of the candidate resource. It compares the index with a threshold to determine whether the preemption is detected. If the eMBB UE does not detect the preemption (e.g., if the index is not greater than the threshold), then at 2305, it may issue a Nack. If the eMBB UE detects preempted resources, then at 2306, it sets the LLRs of the received symbols corresponding to these resources to 0. At 2308, according to the illustrated example, the eMBB UE attempts to decode the CB or TB again using the updated LLRs to determine whether the CRC detection is successful. If the CRC detection of the eMBB UE is unsuccessful, then it sends Nack at 2309. If the CRC detection of the eMBB UE is successful, then it sends Ack at 2310.

[0160] Thus, as described herein, a device may issue a first transmission and a second transmission, and the device may allocate resources of the first transmission to the second transmission so as to preempt the first transmission with the second transmission. The device may issue control information so as to explicitly indicate that the second transmission should preempt the first transmission, and the control information may further indicate at least one preemptive resource. Alternatively, the device may send a reference signal indicating preemptive information so as to implicitly indicate that the second transmission should preempt the first transmission. In the selected resource position of the first transmission, the first transmission may be overwritten with the second transmission. In some cases, as further described below, the first transmission skips the resources selected for the preemption of the second transmission. In addition, the device may send a control signal indicating that the first transmission should be preempted by the second transmission. As described below, the control signal may be sent in a micro-time slot that also carries the second transmission. Alternatively, the control signal may be sent in a time slot after the micro-time slot that carries the second transmission.

[0161] In another embodiment, different CRC masks are used for CBs before or after the preempted time-frequency resources. When the TB is composed of CBs similar to LTE, each CB may have a CRC check to determine the success or failure of the CB. According to an example embodiment, it is proposed that URLLC information may be embedded in the CRC of the CB. For example, the CRC of one or more CBs before the CB or symbol punctured by URLLC may be masked with a signature known in advance to the eMBB UE. If the eMBB UE detects a CRC failure, it will detect a CB with a masked signature. If it passes, it knows that the subsequent CB is punctured. Alternatively, one or more CBs after the punctured CB may be masked with a signature indicating that the preceding CB is punctured.

[0162] Turning now to explicitly indicating the preempted resources to the eMBB UE, in one embodiment, the indication is made via the Physical Preemption Indication Channel (PPIC) in NR. For example, the PPIC may be specified to indicate the URLLC transmission and its resources to the eMBB UE. The PPIC is sent when there is a URLLC transmission on the eMBB. In some cases, if there is no URLLC transmission, then the PPIC will not be sent. Thus, in some examples, if there is no URLLC transmission, then resources are not wasted.

[0163] In an example, resources for PPIC may be allocated in REs configured for eMBB by the standard, or semi-statically by RRC, or dynamically by DCI which generates DL eMBB grants. The location may correspond to the number N of resources distributed by DL grants for eMBB.

[0164] The PPIC resource may appear in one or more symbols in each time slot, and each PPIC information may extend into one or more symbols. Each PPIC information may provide an indication of one or more preemptive URLLC transmissions.

[0165] Fig.24 Examples of allocation of PPIC resources under different scenarios are shown. Fig.24 A and 24B represent localized PPIC resources and distributed PPIC resources when one PPIC opportunity actually carries an indication of URLLC transmission. Other PPIC resources are used for eMBB transmission. Fig.24 C represents an example in which two PPICs are transmitted, indicating two URLLC transmissions. Fig.24 D represents an example where a PPIC may have resources distributed over multiple symbols.

[0166] In some cases, the eMBB UE may look for PPIC when it expects PPIC. When PPIC is detected, it identifies the resources for URLLC transmission. If the eMBB UE does not detect PPIC, the eMBB UE continues to decode the payload as if it does not contain PPIC and URLLC transmission.

[0167] For example, but not limited to, the PPIC may include one or more of the following information elements sent with respect to the URLLC:

[0168] Symbols within mini-slots / time slots / sub-frames / frames

[0169] REs within the eMBB DL authorization or a specified bandwidth

[0170] Parameter set sent by eMBB

[0171] Parameter set sent by URLLC

[0172] Reference signal for URLLC transmission

[0173] Transmitted beam ID

[0174] Cell ID

[0175] eMBB UE ID

[0176] In some cases, PPIC may utilize the same parameter set as eMBB, or may have a parameter set pre-configured via DCI or RRC for eMBB grant. Modulation regarding PPIC may be specified in the specification, or may be configurable via RRC or DCI.

[0177] A CRC may be appended to the PPIC information, which together may be encoded with an error correction code. The CRC may be masked with eMBB UE ID specific information.

[0178] In another embodiment, the existence and / or resources of URLLC transmission can be indicated by control signaling. This can be implemented in various ways according to various embodiments.

[0179] In one example, the control signaling area of ​​the mini-time slot carries URLLC transmission. Fig.25 As shown in , the micro-timeslot carrying the URLLC transmission may have a control region that may indicate the existence and resources of the preemptive URLLC transmission. The DCI carried in the control region of the micro-timeslot is called mDCI. The resources of the control region may be localized or distributed in frequency or time and may be multiplexed with the URLLC data.

[0180] The eMBB UE may be configured by the standard or RRC or its DCI regarding the control region of the mini-slot and / or the possible location of the mini-slot. Thus, the eMBB UE may check the control information. In the example, if the eMBB UE finds valid control information, it identifies the resources for the URLLC transmission. If the eMBB UE does not find any valid control information, it may assume, for example, that no URLLC transmission is preempted on its DL grant.

[0181] The control region of a mini-slot may consist of multiple DCIs, and the eMBB UE may have to blindly decode them to identify the DCI for URLLC transmission. In order to minimize the number of blind decodes, the eMBB UE may be required to monitor certain mini-slot positions that may be valid, and mini-slots that may not appear with high periodicity (such as every symbol).

[0182] The mDCI in the mini-slot may indicate to the eMBB UE the resources used for the URLLC transmission. The DCI may have a CRC masked by the cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) of the eMBB UE. Another DCI in the mini-slot may indicate to the URLLC UE the presence of the transmission, its resources, and all parameters regarding the URLLC DL authorization. The DCI may have a CRC masked by the C-RNTI of the URLLC UE. Fig.28 An example indicating the presence of 2 mDCIs in a mini-slot: mDCI-1 is used for eMBB UEs, indicating resources for URLLC transmission, and mDCI-2 is used for URLLC UEs, indicating signaling parameters and resources for receiving DL URLLC grants.

[0183] Alternatively, the control information may be encoded in such a way that both the eMBB UE and the URLLC UE may be able to share some or all of the control information. For example, a portion of the URLLC control information indicating the resources for URLLC transmission may be encoded separately with a signature that the eMBB and URLLC can use for decoding. For example, the CRC of the information may be masked with a signature configured for both the eMBB UE and the URLLC UE. The signature may be configured for both the eMBB UE and the URLLC UE via RRC. Alternatively, for the eMBB UE, the signature may be configured via the DCI that provides the DL authorization, and for the URLLC UE, the signature may be configured via the remainder of the control information in the mini-timeslot. The remainder of the DCI may also include other information specific to URLLC transmission, such as, but not limited to:

[0184] ·modulation

[0185] Bit rate

[0186] Parameter Set

[0187] Precoder information

[0188] Beam ID

[0189] Reference signal

[0190] like Fig. 27 As shown in FIG. 2 , the example mini-slot 2702 contains two mDCIs: an mDCI-c shared by both eMBB UEs and URLLC UEs, indicating resources for preemptive URLLC transmission, and an mDCI-u specific to the URLLC UE, providing other signaling information to the URLLC UE regarding its DL grant.

[0191] In another example, the NR may specify a common control region in certain resources. The eMBB UE may be configured to monitor one or more opportunities of the common control region to find DCI indicating URLLC transmission. Such DCI may typically indicate resources for one or more URLLC transmissions. The eMBB UE will check whether the indicated resources fall within its DL grant. If it finds URLLC resources within its grant, the eMBB UE may consider puncturing.

[0192] In another example, the control region of the mini-slot / time slot / subframe may follow the URLLC transmission (see, for example, Fig.28 ). Here, the eMBB UE may receive DCI in the next mini-slot or slot or subframe that the eMBB is configured to monitor. The control region may provide DCI indicating the presence of URLLC resources in past transmissions. Assuming the eMBB UE has appropriate buffering capabilities and can tolerate increased latency, it may use this information to appropriately decode the eMBB data.

[0193] See also Fig.29 According to an example embodiment, the knowledge of the preemptive URLLC transmission may be delayed. For example, the eMBB UE may learn about the preemptive URLLC transmission after the eMBB TB has been processed, i.e., the eMBB UE may not be able to process the payload again based on this knowledge alone, possibly due to latency considerations. In this case, HARQ retransmissions are an example way to recover from resource loss. The HARQ retransmission may include the resource location of the URLLC transmission (in the original transmission) at a finer or coarser level (in terms of actual REs or RBs or CBs or symbols), such that the eMBB UE may discard the indicated portion before combining with the retransmission.

[0194] In the example case where the retransmission is punctured by the URLLC transmission and the eMBB receiver cannot get timely knowledge, the reassembled HARQ retransmission may be corrupted. It is proposed here that the NR node either uses the immediate information for the retransmission or retransmits the information in a new HARQ process.

[0195] Turning now to the code block (CB) design for eMBB, in LTE, CBs are mapped to the resource grid in a frequency-first manner so that the code blocks (CBs) can be decoded with minimal latency. For robustness against puncturing, according to various example embodiments, CBs in NR may be designed using one or more of the following properties given as examples and not by way of limitation. For example, CBs may be mapped to more than one symbol. Frequency priority may be used. For example, this ensures that if symbols are punctured for URLLC, the loss of resources is spread over a large number of CBs. Fig.30 This concept is illustrated in , where the CB of a transport block (TB) 0 and CB 1 is mapped in 2 symbols. In an example, the CB may be contained in N symbols to keep the buffering and latency requirements acceptable. For example, N may be limited to the length of the mini-slot so that the impact of the puncturing affects only a limited set of CBs, i.e., the code blocks that fall in the area of ​​the mini-slot. If the amount of puncturing is quite large, then in some cases this solution may ensure that at least some CBs can be decoded correctly.

[0196] In another example, after reserving URLLC resources, eMBB CBs may be mapped continuously to the resource grid. For example, CBs may be mapped continuously on available resources. In some cases, any loss of resources may result in truncating the tail of the payload. This ensures that certain critical information, such as MAC CEs that are typically carried at the beginning of the eMBB payload, will be less likely to be punctured. Fig.31 FIG. 4 shows a simplified example in which an eMBB TB is composed of CBs 0 to 5. The symbol of CB is CB k,m Indicates, where k represents the CB number and m represents the symbol number within the CB. Fig.31 The left part of represents the mapping of CBs to available resource grids for eMBB. Fig.31 The middle part of shows an example where two symbols are punctured for URLLC resources. In this example, CB 2 and CB 3 Data is lost for the eMBB UE. Fig.31 The right part of the table indicates that after reserving URLLC resources, CB is mapped 2 and CB 3 In the example process, there is no CB available that cannot be sent. 4and CB 5 resources.

[0197] Turning now to MAC-level recovery of the affected eMBB information, in some cases, when the puncturing from URLLC is so severe as to prevent the eMBB UE from successfully decoding a TB or CB, the UE may rely on retransmission of the punctured data. Typically, retransmission of the punctured data may be performed via HARQ retransmissions. Here, another embodiment of recovering the punctured information is disclosed. Instead of HARQ retransmissions, the information bits corresponding to the punctured data may be sent in a new HARQ process, and the MAC will be responsible for reassembling the information together. The punctured CB may be sent in this manner via a new HARQ process, and rely on the MAC layer to reorder the data.

[0198] According to an example embodiment, URLLC transmission can be pre-scheduled or unscheduled. When it is unscheduled, it can be pre-empted on eMBB resources, and the solution described above is applicable.

[0199] In some cases, URLLC transmissions may also be pre-scheduled so that eMBB resources do not have to be punctured. For example, the DCI in the control signaling region of a slot / mini-slot may indicate a DL grant. In this case, the control signaling region may be shared by the eMBB UE and the URLLC UE, and the URLLC UE may blindly decode to identify its DCI. Fig.32 An example showing that the control region of a timeslot carries DCI for both eMBB transmissions and scheduled URLLC transmissions.

[0200] In another embodiment, the mini-slot may schedule URLLC DL grants. In this example, eMBB resources may not be punctured because they may end before the mini-slot begins. Here, the URLLC UE may decode the control region of the mini-slot to identify its grant, such as Fig.33 , where the mini-slot is configured to have 2 symbols, and the control resources are multiplexed with the data in the first symbol of the mini-slot. In the example, the URLLC UE is pre-configured by RRC to monitor certain mini-slot opportunities. When the URLLC UE detects a DCI for it, it obtains SL granted resources.

[0201] The control region of the mini-slot may have resources that are multiplexed between multiple URLLC UEs or eMBB UEs. In another example embodiment, for example, for regular high traffic use cases, a semi-permanent configuration is provided to send URLLC. In this case, RRC signaling may set a semi-permanent configuration indicating the received resources and periodicity, but DCI may turn off or on semi-permanent DL authorization for URLLC UEs.

[0202] The group-common PDCCH used here refers to a channel that carries information intended for a group of UEs. The group-common PDCCH can provide various information to the UE, such as: (i) frame or time slot structure (DL and UL parts, gaps); (ii) the number of control signals; (iii) the starting position of the data area; (iv) parameter sets of one or more PHY channels; (v) the operating bandwidth of the UEs in the group. (Considering power saving and hardware efficiency, a given UE can be configured to operate within a limited bandwidth. The bandwidth and its location can be indicated in the group-common PDCCH. The indication can be used for the control signaling area or the data area for DL ​​and UL operations. The indication for the control area can limit the number of blind decodings that need to be performed by the UE); (vi) the structure of the mini-slot, if any (the number of mini-slots, the number of symbols in each mini-slot); (vii) paging indication (indicating the presence of a paging message and / or the resources for sending a list of paged UEs); and (viii) paging message (list of paged UEs).

[0203] The modulation for the group-common PDCCH may be defined as, for example, QPSK, so that the UE does not need explicit instructions to demodulate it.

[0204] In some cases, multiple group-common PDCCHs may be signaled, each of which may be received by a UE configured with a corresponding "group-common RNTI" (gc-RNTI). A UE may have one or more configured gc-RNTIs. For example, a given UE may receive paging messages on one group-common PDCCH and slot structures on another PDCCH. A gc-RNTI may be shared by UEs for a specific use case, such as URLLC, or by UEs corresponding to a specific beam.

[0205] In some examples, group-common PDCCHs may be multiplexed in available resources and UEs may blindly decode them based on their gc-RNTI. In an example, the common group PDCCH may be an allocated resource within a SS burst. When the beam sweeps across a SS block, the beam may also sweep across the group-common PDCCH. Fig.34 This example is shown in , where a SS burst contains SS blocks that are swept by different beams. The SS blocks contain resources for the group-common PDCCH, as well as resources for PSS, SSS and PBCH.

[0206] A group-common PDCCH may also be allocated in resources designated for DL ​​control signaling and may appear with a certain periodicity within a frame. Fig.35 It shows that the group common PDCCH has resources in the 0th subframe and the 5th subframe of the frame ( Fig.35 A), and wherein the group-common PDCCH has resources only in the 0th subframe of the frame ( Fig.35B) example. The periodicity of the group-common PDCCH can be specified / predetermined, or can be set via the PBCH and updated semi-statically. In addition, different beams can be used to signal the symbols carrying the group-common PDCCH. In the example, the NR-PBCH may indicate the presence of the group-common PDDCH, and the number and location of resources used for the group-common PDCCH. In some cases, not all UEs are configured to receive the group-common PDCCH. In this case, the relevant configuration information can be signaled, for example, in the common control search space or the UE-specific search space.

[0207] Turning now to the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), in some examples, resources for short duration PUCCH can be assigned anywhere within the available spectrum. Especially for UL using CP-OFDM waveforms, short PUCCH can have resources distributed in the spectrum since there is no restriction on using contiguous REs.

[0208] Fig.36 Figure 1 shows different example ways to assign resources for short PUCCH in the DL center time slot. Here, the first symbol carries the resources for DL. UCI is a UL symbol ( Fig.36 B) or two UL symbols ( Fig.36 A). UCI can be multiplexed with data ( Fig.36 C). UCI can have frequency hopping between symbols ( Fig.36 D). For example, UCI may give contiguous or discontinuous resources, especially if deployed with CP-OFDM ( Fig.36 E).

[0209] Fig.37 In the UL center time slot, different ways of assigning resources for short PUCCH are shown. In the example, one or two symbols can be used to carry UCI, and resources can be present at the beginning of the UL signaling region ( Fig.37 A) or the end of the UL signaling area ( Fig.37 B) UCI ​​resources can be discontinuous, especially when used with CP-OFDM ( Fig.37 C), or the resource can hop between symbols ( Fig.37 D).

[0210] In some examples, the DCI enables the DL grant to implicitly or explicitly indicate the resources for the short PUCCH. In addition, within the UCI resources, one or more UEs may be code-division multiplexed, time-division multiplexed, or frequency-division multiplexed.

[0211] Now turning to long duration PUCCH, in some examples, long PUCCH can work with DFT-s-OFDM since it is a good candidate for UEs with limited UL power (e.g., UEs at the cell edge). Similar to the resources at the band edge for PUCCH in LTE, resources can be reserved for long PUCCH in a specific band. Fig.37 An example of how resources can be reserved for long PUCCH in the spectrum is shown. Here, 3 "PUCCH bands" are reserved for long PUCCH signaling. Resources can be allocated to the UE from one or more of these PUCCH bands, and frequency hopping can be used between PUCCH bands across symbols / mini-slots or time slots to improve frequency diversity. Depending on the maximum bandwidth that the UE can handle, the NR node can configure it with a subset of adjacent PUCCH bands to receive its long format PUCCH. This configuration can be done semi-statically through RRC, or dynamically through DCI.

[0212] Fig.39 An example of how resources can hop for long PUCCH is shown. Following this example, different UEs are allocated resources on different PUCCH bands. UE1 operates on PUCCH bands 0 and 1 and hops between them. UE2 operates on PUCCH bands 1 and 2 and hops between them. UE3 operates on all 3 PUCCH bands.

[0213] The hopping pattern can be associated with one or more of the following: (i) cell ID; (ii) beam ID of the associated DCI (generating granted or reserved UCI resources); (iii) beam ID of the UCI resources; (iv) C-RNTI; and (v) symbol / mini-slot / slot number in the subframe.

[0214] In some cases, the UE may be semi-statically configured to use short PUCCH or long PUCCH. In addition, dynamic override may be provided such that for a grant corresponding to the DCI, the short or long PUCCH configuration may be dynamically changed.

[0215] Turning now to the HARQ mechanism, a multi-bit A / N scheme is described here, where the UE sends more than 1 bit of A / N in response to the reception of a TB. A TB may consist of multiple CBs. Similar to LTE, the CBs may be encoded with a CRC. The UE may send an A / N for one or more of the decoded CRCs within the TB.

[0216] Fig.40Represents an example where CBs in a TB are divided into multiple groups and 1 A / N bit is sent for each group. For example, when URLLC is sent preemptively on eMBB, the eMBB UE may be configured to report a multi-bit A / N. The multiple bits in the A / N report may consist of a single bit A / N response for a group of CBs or each CB affected by URLLC. Fig.40 An example is shown in FIG, where the preemptive URLLC transmission punctures some REs of the eMBB UE in CB0, CB1, and CB2. In this case, the eMBB UE may be configured to report a richer A / N by reporting in one of the following ways given as examples: (i) A / N for each CB of the TB; (ii) 1 A / N for the TB, 1 A / N for the group of CBs {CB0, CB1, and CB2}; (iii) 1 A / N for the TB, 1 A / N for each of CB0, CB1, and CB2; and (iv) 1 A / N for the TB, 1 A / N for the group {CB1, CB2}, 1 A / N for CB0 (a good configuration to choose if the impact of puncturing on CB0 is very severe, but the impact on CB1 and CB2 is not too severe).

[0217] See now Fig.41 , URLLC may puncture eMBB transmissions so that CB0, CB1, and CB2 of the eMBB payload are affected. The number of A / N bits to be sent and information about how they can be CBs may be configured by the NR node, for example, depending on the traffic and use case. In some examples, the configuration may be done semi-statically or dynamically via DCI. For example, the NR-PDCCH carrying information about the HARQ process or A / N resource allocation for a TB may indicate the number of A / N bits for each TB.

[0218] It is to be appreciated that the HARQ process may need to handle multiple parameter sets and TTI lengths. In some examples, HARQ retransmissions may occur under different parameter sets and TTI lengths than the original transmission. Fig.42 Represents an example where retransmission occurs at a shorter TTI with different parameter sets. In some cases, different HARQ processes with different parameter sets and TI lengths can be configured for the UE. An example use case for such a configuration is a use case where some HARQ processes cater to eMBB and some HARQ processes cater to URLLC for the same UE.

[0219] Turning now to packet replication in NR-PDCP, in an example, packets may be replicated in NR-PDCP and in case of carrier aggregation, the replicas may be sent on different carriers. It is to be appreciated here that this may improve the reliability of the UE. For example, the UE may receive multiple copies of that packet and keep the copy without errors. If the UE fails to decode all the replicas correctly, then in some cases it may send an A / N corresponding to all component carriers serving the packet, or only a subset of them (e.g., only on the primary component carrier). By example, the replicated packets may also be sent over different beams from a single or different TRPs.

[0220] Turning now to UE capability indication, in some cases, the timing depends on the TB payload size (which determines the processing time, especially for the channel estimator and LDPC decoder), the use case (e.g., URLLC requires a very short time interval), and the UE capabilities (e.g., mMTC UEs may have slower processing capabilities). In the example, the UE is required to indicate its capability of minimum HARQ processing time to the NR node. The UE indicates its capabilities to the NR node by signaling various information. For example, the information may include the average time required to process TBs of size S1, S2, ... Sn (where n=>1) after reception of relevant data, reference signals, and control signals. The time may be indicated as a metric from a predefined digital scale. The UE may be calibrated for such information and used to program the UE for different carrier frequencies and sampling frequencies. Maximum supported sampling frequency. The UE may indicate to the NR node the highest sampling frequency it can support. The indication itself may be made via UL RRC and may be semi-statically configured. For example, if the UE moves to a different carrier frequency band, it may reconfigure its capabilities for that band.

[0221] When a UE is powered on and first connected to a cell, it may default to sending its A / N at a certain defined waiting time relative to DL reception. Alternatively, the NR node may configure it to send its A / N at a higher but acceptable waiting time. The UE then indicates its processing capabilities in an UL transmission, after which the NR node may dynamically or semi-statically configure the A / N waiting time appropriately.

[0222] Another way to inform the NR node of the UE's capabilities is when performing a RACH procedure. The RACH resources may be divided into multiple groups so that each group indicates a certain UE capability with respect to the A / N waiting time. The UE's selection of RACH resources indicates its capabilities to the NR node. Alternatively, the UE may piggyback a message over the PRACH to indicate its capabilities, or may include its capability information in the messaging of the RACH procedure.

[0223] Turning now to URLLC transmission, the NR-DCI for URLLC UEs can be designed compactly so that the resource requirements of the NR-PDCCH can be kept low at the required aggregation level (code rate), thereby also facilitating easier blind decoding. The HARQ information can be provided compactly. The starting PRB position can be associated with the HARQ process ID without the need for explicit signaling. Information about the DMRS, such as code and resource, can also be implicitly associated with certain other information, such as the starting PRB number.

[0224] URLLC may be limited to supporting only a subset of modulation (e.g., only QPSK) to support high reliability. This can reduce or eliminate the need to signal the modulation type. In some cases, TPC commands are not sent to URLLC UEs as part of the grant allocation. TPC commands can be sent separately to URLLC UEs in different DCI formats that may not necessarily meet high reliability and low latency.

[0225] According to the present application, it is to be understood that any or all of the systems, methods and processes described herein may be embodied in the form of computer executable instructions, such as program codes, stored on a computer readable storage medium, and when executed by a machine such as a computer, a server, an M2M terminal device, an M2M gateway device, a transport device, the instructions perform and / or implement the systems, methods and processes described herein. Specifically, any of the steps, operations or functions described above may be implemented in the form of such computer executable instructions. Computer readable storage media include volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for the storage of information, but such computer readable storage media do not include signals. Computer readable storage media include (but are not limited to) RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other storage technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disc (DVD) or other optical disk storage, cassettes, magnetic tapes, disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other physical medium that can be used to store the desired information and can be accessed by a computer.

[0226] According to another aspect of the present application, a non-transitory computer-readable or executable storage medium for storing computer-readable or executable instructions is disclosed. The medium may include one or more computer-executable instructions, such as the instructions disclosed above in one of the multiple call flows. The computer-executable instructions may be stored in a memory and executed by the following Fig.47B In one embodiment, a computer-implemented UE having a non-transitory memory and a processor operatively coupled to the memory is disclosed, as described below in Fig.47BAs described in. The UE includes a non-temporary memory having instructions for performing beam recovery processing stored thereon. The UE also includes a processor operatively coupled to the non-temporary memory. The processor is configured to execute instructions for providing a trigger for a serving beam to initiate a beam recovery process. The processor is also configured to execute instructions for detecting the occurrence of a trigger for a serving beam. The processor is also configured to execute instructions for performing a beam management protocol based on the detected occurrence of a trigger for a serving beam. In addition, the processor is configured to execute instructions for terminating the beam recovery process.

[0227] Turning now to beamforming training that can reduce the latency of beamforming training processing time, described below is an example beamforming training sequence design that can mitigate interference from other TRPs or other beams of the same TRP. Also described is an example process for detecting a desired beam, and a new DoD estimation method.

[0228] Consider a MIMO-OFDM beamforming system with K subcarriers, where the transmitter and receiver are equipped with N t transmit antennas and N r receive antennas. At the transmitter, for the beam scanning OFDM symbol, a beamforming vector v selected from a pre-designed codebook is applied. Here, we define a beam scanning block, which can be regarded as a unit of beam scanning time unit for broadcasting beam training OFDM symbols. Each beam scanning block may consist of one of multiple OFDM symbols. Multiple beam scanning blocks may form a beam scanning burst. The length of the scanning burst refers to the number of beam scanning blocks in the beam scanning burst, i.e., if the beam scanning burst length is equal to N, then there are N scanning blocks in the beam scanning burst. Fig.43 In, an example of a scanning burst is described. In this example, there are N=12 beam blocks in the beam scanning burst, and each beam block is equal to 1 OFDM symbol. In each beam scanning block, it sends a training beam diagram. Each training beam is associated with a unique training sequence. The Zadoff-Chu (ZC) training sequence is adopted as the beam training sequence. The ZC sequence has been widely used as a DL synchronization sequence, UL random access channel, demodulation reference, and sounding reference signal in LTE systems. There are several advantages to using the ZC sequence as a beam training sequence. For example, the ZC sequence has a low PAPR property. In addition, ZC sequences with the same root but different cyclic shifts can form multiple orthogonal training sequences. In the example described here, this orthogonality is used to mitigate other interfering training beams.

[0229] At the receiver, the received signal at the kth subcarrier and the qth receiving antenna can be expressed as:

[0230]

[0231] where for i=0, 1…M, v (i) and i (k) are the 1×N distances between the i-th transmitting antenna and the q-th receiving antenna of the receiver on the k-th subcarrier. t channel vector, the beamforming matrix of the i-th eNB, and the transmitted symbol of the i-th transmission on the k-th subcarrier. Note that interference can come from the same TRP using different beams. In practice, the maximum channel delay spread L≤L cp , where L cp represents the OFDM cyclic prefix length. Without loss of generality, we assume that s 0 (k) is the expected training sequence at subcarrier k, s i (k), i = 1, 2, ..., M is other interference training sequences. By collecting all subcarriers, the received signal in the frequency domain can be obtained.

[0232] in is a diagonal matrix as follows,

[0233]

[0234] It can also be rewritten as

[0235]

[0236] in

[0237]

[0238] as well as

[0239] make is the frequency domain channel response between the pth transmit antenna and the qth receive antenna at the ith eNB,

[0240]

[0241] Using these symbols, the channel vector can be rewritten as:

[0242]

[0243] From the time domain channel response between the pth transmit antenna and the qth receive antenna at the i-th eNB The channel vector can be obtained

[0244]

[0245] where F represents a K×K DFT matrix, in Time domain channel taps. By substituting (3) into (2), we get

[0246]

[0247] in is the effective channel in the time domain. By substituting the above formula into (1), we obtain the received frequency domain signal vector at the qth receiving antenna, which can be expressed as

[0248]

[0249] In order to distinguish the desired beam from the interference beam, according to an example, a ZC sequence is applied to the reference signal as follows: (0) =[s 0 (0),s 0 (1),…,s 0 (K 1)] T is a K-length ZC sequence, s (i) is a cyclic shift sequence, s (i) =c i s (0) ,,in

[0250]

[0251] c is the cyclic shift. Thus, the reference sequences of adjacent beams are different cyclic shifted versions of the same ZC sequence. As shown below, the interference caused by these adjacent beams can be separated from the time domain signal.

[0252] By substituting the above formula into (4), we obtain:

[0253]

[0254] Notice in It is original According to the circular shift of ic, we get

[0255]

[0256] Let the matrix D be S (0) The inverse of F, then we get the time domain signal

[0257]

[0258] As long as the cyclic shift c is larger than the time extension L, the Z q The first L rows of , estimate the effective channel

[0259]

[0260] By reorganizing the terms of (7), we obtain

[0261]

[0262] For each path l, l = 0, 1, ..., L-1, that is,

[0263]

[0264] According to an exemplary embodiment, the exemplary beam detection method can be summarized using the following steps, but it should be understood that the following list is given as an example rather than a limitation of the present invention:

[0265] 1. For the transmitter, each beam is assigned an ID which not only determines the ZC sequence but also points to the index of the beamforming vector v selected from a pre-designed codebook.

[0266] 2. Training sequence design:

[0267] a. For interfering beams from other TRPs: In each beam scanning block, beam reference signals from different transmitters are based on a ZC sequence with the same root but different cyclic shifts: 0, c, 2c, ... modulo K, where c is greater than the maximum channel delay spread L, and c = K / N, where N is an integer. The cyclic shift is assigned to each transmitter and is known to the receiver.

[0268] b. For interfering beams from the same TRP: In each beam scanning block, multiple beams from the same TRP can be sent, whose training sequences are based on ZC sequences with the same root but different cyclic shifts: 0, c, 2c, ... modulo K, where c is greater than the maximum channel delay spread L, and c = K / N, where N is an integer. Adjacent beams should be assigned different cyclic shifts to mitigate interference. For example, the beamforming codebook can use DFT beams of size 8. A ZC sequence of length 32 is selected for the beam training sequence, and the cyclic shift of the training sequence can be set to c = 8. The beams can be assigned cyclic shifts clockwise or counterclockwise according to 0, c, 2c modulo K. Thus, adjacent beams have different cyclic shifts, which ensures that interference can be eliminated. Beams assigned the same cyclic shift are separated by a large angle so that interference can be ignored.

[0269] 3. For each beam scanning block, the receiver receives the signal from the time domain and obtains the frequency domain signal y q ;

[0270] 4. For each possible reference signal sequence, put y qEach subcarrier of is multiplied by the inverse of the interference signal, and then IFFT is applied to obtain the time domain signal Z q ;

[0271] 5. Select Z q to eliminate interference from other transmitters and calculate the energy

[0272]

[0273] 6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for all possible reference signal sequences to find the reference signal sequence with the maximum energy (9). Obtain the beam ID from the detected reference signal sequence as the beam ID of the current beam scanning block.

[0274] 7. Repeat steps 3-6 for all beam scanning blocks and find the two beam scanning blocks with the largest and second largest energy (9).

[0275] 8. From the associated beam ID of the beam scanning block, obtain the best Q (e.g., Q=2) beamforming vectors v 1 , v 2 .

[0276] Once the best two training beams are identified, it is possible to proceed to estimate the DoA and DoD of the channel. Here, assuming that the channel at the lth tap, l=1, ..., L can be represented as

[0277]

[0278] in and is the channel complex gain. and θ l denote the channels with departure angle and arrival angle, respectively. According to equations (8) and (10), equation (8) can be rewritten as

[0279]

[0280] In addition, equation (11) can be expressed as

[0281]

[0282] in represents the Kronecker product matrix operator, is of size N r The identity matrix of , vec(·) is a matrix-to-vector operation. The DoD of the channel (i.e., ) can be expressed as

[0283] The condition is

[0284]

[0285] where v 1 and v 2 is the beamforming vector obtained from step 8, and the dictionary matrix A is formed in the following way:

[0286]

[0287] in

[0288]

[0289] Among them, respectively, is the dictionary length, is the resolution of DoD; N θ is the dictionary length and Δθ is the resolution of DoA.

[0290]

[0291] Due to the solution is a sparse solution in the matrix A, so this solution of equation (13) can be solved using the least absolute value shrinkage and selection method (also known as the LASSO method). Once it obtains the DoD of the channel, the DoD can be used as feedback for use by the transmitter.

[0292] 9. The detected best Q beam IDs with or without estimated DoD can be used for feedback to the transmitter. The transmitter can use the estimated DoD for beam optimization instead of using beam scanning method for beam optimization.

[0293] Turning now to the example of beam management, multiple beams may be used to provide larger cell coverage. Due to UE mobility, the quality and / or availability of the beam between the UE and the network may change frequently even if the UE turns slightly. Beam tracking and switching mechanisms are generally applied to select and reselect appropriate beams (e.g., beams with sufficient quality, such as beams with RSRP or RSRQ above a certain threshold) from a set of available beams so that the link connection between the UE and the network can be maintained. However, these conventional beam tracking and switching mechanisms are not enough in some cases where the quality of the beam suddenly decreases. For example, for a fast-moving UE, the beam quality degrades quickly and there is not enough time budget for beam switching. Or the network may not schedule enough resources for beam switching and realignment. Or sudden changes occur in the radio environment, such as beam blocking caused by moving obstacles.

[0294] Without an appropriate beam recovery mechanism, if the above sudden drop in beam quality persists, a radio link failure (RLF) may be declared as in a conventional LTE network. When RLF is declared, the UE may perform connection reestablishment and may initiate cell selection, which may result in considerable network signaling, latency, connection interruption, and power consumption. Additionally, in HF-NR, the degraded beam quality may rebound quickly and / or there may be other easy alternative beams available. Thus, in some cases, the declaration of RLF may be unnecessary and should be minimized.

[0295] Based on these considerations and others, in some cases, beam recovery processing should be performed when and after conventional beam tracking and switching processing fails to maintain link connectivity, but before RLF is declared. If beam recovery processing fails anyway (e.g., there are no alternative beams to restore link connectivity), then RLF may have to be declared eventually. Fig.44 An example of this is illustrated in , which uses LTE RLF as a baseline.

[0296] See now Fig.44 , an example is shown from the perspective of beam recovery, and an example is shown from the perspective of link recovery. In beam recovery, when a degradation in the quality of the serving beam is detected (e.g., out-of-sync, misalignment indication), the lower layers of the UE (e.g., PHY and / or MAC) may continuously monitor the serving beam (e.g., expecting the signal quality to rebound) and / or perform corresponding beam management processes (e.g., optimizing the alignment of the serving beam, such as high-speed precoding matrix, beamforming weights, etc.). If the serving beam is successfully recovered within phase 1, the beam recovery process may be terminated and the UE may return to normal operation. Otherwise, the process may report that a serving beam failure has been detected and phase 2 may be entered. The value of N1 may be based on a timer or other (e.g., counting) criteria. In beam recovery phase 2, in the example, the UE evaluates and switches to other candidate beams, if necessary. Note that each candidate beam may have a radio quality (e.g., SNR, RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI) that is higher than a pre-configured or dynamically configured absolute or relative (relative to the serving beam) threshold. If the candidate beam is successfully found and converted to the new serving beam, the beam recovery process is terminated and the UE returns to normal operation. Otherwise, the beam recovery is also terminated, and the radio link failure is declared, and the UE enters RL recovery phase 2.

[0297] From a link recovery perspective, the failure of Beam Recovery Phase 1 may trigger the start of RL Recovery Phase 1. Typically, the duration of Beam Recovery Phase 2 and RL Recovery Phase 1 are aligned, although this may not always be the case. This is because the two processes can be performed in parallel. The Link Recovery Phase may start evaluating other cells before Beam Recovery Phase 2 terminates, so that the UE can immediately perform cell reselection once Beam Recovery Phase 2 ends.

[0298] In summary, when a sudden serving beam quality degradation is detected, in some examples, a beam recovery process is first initiated. If beam recovery fails even after a timer or other (e.g., counting) criteria (N1 and N2), then in the example, a radio link failure is declared and the second phase of link recovery begins. In some cases, the behavior in the second phase is the same as LTE. It is important to recognize here that in a multi-beam based NR network, the UE may be under the coverage of multiple beams from the same or different TRPs / cells. When there are alternative beams for communication, the beam recovery process can quickly restore the link connection between the UE and the network without going through costly RLF declarations and unnecessary RRC connection reconstruction.

[0299] The proposed beam restoration mechanism for downlink beam management is discussed in more detail below. In order to adapt to fast channel / beam changes, UE-initiated beam restoration operations are considered, where the UE behavior (e.g., beam quality management, beam restoration triggering) can be configured by the network through explicit signaling. Network-initiated beam restoration is also possible (especially in the case of uplink-based beam management).

[0300] For beam management, idle mode or connected mode UEs may use the same or different synchronization signals (SS), where the periodicity of the idle mode SS is assumed to be known, while the continuous mode SS may depend on the configuration. Additional reference signals, such as a specific mobile reference signal (MRS) and a UE-specific CIS-RS, may also be available.

[0301] The measurements in the beam recovery process have multiple uses. One example use is to serve beam quality monitoring and assessment. The process can be used to quickly detect degradation in the quality of the serving beam. For different UE use cases and service requirements, the frequency with which this process is performed may need to be flexible and configurable to strike a balance between latency and power consumption. The process can also be used in beam recovery phase 1 so that the alignment of the serving beam can be properly optimized, for example, adjusting the precoding matrix, beamforming weights, etc. In addition, in case the quality of the serving beam becomes good enough again (for example, the RSRP value is above a certain threshold), based on the measurement results of the process, it may be necessary to terminate the beam recovery process. For example, in some cases, a moving obstacle appears and then disappears.

[0302] Another example use is for other candidate beam measurements and evaluation. For beam recovery, the UE may need to replace the deteriorated serving beam with a good quality alternative beam, so measurement-based evaluation of the candidate beams may be necessary. This process can be performed in beam recovery phase 2.

[0303] In some examples, the list of candidate beams may be saved based on previous measurements, may be statically pre-configured by the network, or may be dynamically reconfigured. The list of candidate beams may be provided by the PHY / MAC layer for fast access, or by the RRC layer based on online measurements, or explicitly signaled by the network. If a qualified beam is identified from the measurement and evaluation process applied to the candidate beams, then the normal beam switching and alignment process is performed and the recovery process terminates. Otherwise, if the beam is not selected within a predetermined time budget (e.g., Fig.11 If, within N2) in , the beam is not identified or switched / prepared for selection, the beam recovery fails and the radio link failure is declared to trigger the start of RL recovery phase 2, which is similar to the RLF recovery phase 2 of LTE.

[0304] In one embodiment, the conditions for triggering beam recovery processing are defined. For this definition, the following example conditions and related thresholds are included. The first is the triggering event and related threshold: (i) the service beam is detected to be misaligned and the synchronization is detected; (ii) the quality of the service beam is lower than a certain threshold, for example, RSRP, SNR, RSRQ, RSSI; (iii) the moving average and / or weighted average quality of the N best candidate beams is higher or lower than a certain threshold; (iv) the expected message (signal or data) is not received or is received with low SNR; (v) random access problems in MAC; and (vi) the newly detected beam has a quality threshold better than the service beam.

[0305] As described above, in one embodiment, only the downlink case of network configuration and UE-initiated beam recovery is considered. Here, the UE is configured with the trigger defined above. This configuration can be statically pre-configured or dynamically reconfigured via RRC signaling and / or MAC control elements. Fig.11 The different stages shown in FIG. 1 and 2 may be subjected to corresponding measurements as defined above to facilitate the triggering, switching and termination of the different stages. The beam recovery process may have two stages. The first example stage consists of Fig.44 The beam recovery stage 1 in is represented.

[0306] In this first phase, the lower layers of the UE (e.g., PHY and / or MAC) will continuously monitor the serving beam (e.g., expecting the signal quality to rebound), and / or perform corresponding beam management procedures (e.g., optimizing the alignment of the serving beam, such as adjusting the precoding matrix, beamforming weights, etc.). If the serving beam is successfully recovered within Phase 1, the beam recovery process terminates and the UE returns to normal operation. Otherwise, the process reports the detection of a serving beam failure and enters Phase 2. The duration of this Phase 1 is determined by the value of N1 based on a timer or other criteria (e.g., counting consecutive out-of-sync conditions). The information about N1 can be obtained from system information, or reconfigured by the network through explicit RRC or MAC CE signals, or pre-configured by the manufacturer or operator.

[0307] The second example stage consists of Fig.44The beam recovery phase 2 in is represented. Here, the UE evaluates and switches to other alternative beams, if necessary. Each qualified alternative beam may have a radio quality (e.g., SNR, RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI) above a pre-configured or dynamically configured absolute or relative (relative to the serving beam) threshold. Note that the alternative beams can be from the same TRP or different TRPs in the same cell or different cells. The beams can be identified by cell ID or beam ID or port ID. Switching between different alternative beams is handled at layer 1 / 2, and RRC may only provide the configuration of the alternative beams. The configuration of the alternative beams can be based on pre-saved measurements (e.g., PHY mobility sets), can be statically pre-configured by the manufacturer / operator, or dynamically reconfigured by the network through explicit RRC and MAC signaling (e.g., NR mobility sets). When measuring alternative beams, different reference signals may be available for UEs in idle, connected, or inactive modes. For idle mode UEs, SS bursts / SS burst sets can be used for common beam references. In addition, the cell-specific CSI-RS can also be used as a measurement reference signal if there is a configured or specific mobile reference signal (MRS) / beam reference signal (BRS). For inactive mode UEs, UE-specific CSI-RS and / or connected mode SS bursts can be used if the UE can be configured by the network. Otherwise, SS bursts and / or cell-specific CSI-RS are used. For connected mode UEs, connected mode SS, UE-specific CSI-RS and specific mobile reference signals (MRS) / beam reference signals (BRS) can be used. The transmission of reference signals can be on-demand or network-scheduled. In order to switch to an alternative beam, DL or UL signal transmission may be required for beam alignment with the network, such as RACH preamble sequences, DL / UL reference signals, control channels, etc. If necessary, resource allocation, such as RACH resources, may also be required. The RACH process for different states of the UE can use 2 steps or 4 steps. The RACH resources for idle mode can be determined by the SS burst (for example, signaled by PBCH and / or SS burst time index). In connected mode, RACH resources may be determined by RRC configuration or dynamically signaled via DCI (i.e., NR-PDCCH).

[0308] In some examples, if the link is successfully restored by switching to the new serving beam, the beam recovery process is terminated and the UE returns to normal operation. Otherwise, the beam recovery is also terminated, and a radio link failure is declared, and the UE enters RL recovery phase 2. Note that in the case where no alternative beam is available, it may be considered to transition directly to the second level link recovery process.

[0309] In another embodiment, there are two phases of link recovery processing. The first phase of the link recovery processing is to wait for the results of the second stage of the beam recovery processing. Generally, the duration of the first phase of the link recovery processing and the second stage of the beam recovery processing are exactly aligned, but this may not always be the case. This is because the two phases of processing can be performed in parallel. Before the second stage of the beam recovery processing is terminated, link recovery phase 1 can begin to evaluate other cells so that once the beam recovery phase 2 is completed, the UE can perform cell reselection.

[0310] In the second phase, in order to resume activity and avoid experiencing RRC_IDLE when the UE returns to the same cell, or when the UE selects a different cell from the same gNB, or when the UE selects a cell from a different gNB, the following procedures are applied: (i) the UE remains in the RRC_CONNECTED state; (ii) the UE accesses the cell through a random access procedure; and (iii) the UE identifier used for contention resolution in the random access procedure (i.e., the UE's LTE-like C RNTI in the cell where the RLF occurred + the physical layer identity of the cell + a short MAC-I based on the key of the cell) is used by the selected gNB to authenticate the UE and check whether it has a context saved for the UE: (a) if the gNB finds a context matching the UE's identity, or obtains the context from the previous serving gNB, the gNB indicates to the UE that its connection can be resumed; (b) if the context is not found, the RRC connection is released and the UE initiates the procedure to establish a new RRC connection. In this case, the UE needs to experience RRC_IDLE.

[0311] In another embodiment, on-demand transmission of measurement signals during the beam recovery process is provided. When the UE evaluates the serving beam or other candidate beams, on-demand transmission of measurement signals for these beams may be required in order to provide accurate measurement results. For the purpose of energy saving or avoiding interference, the beam that sends the on-demand measurement signal may initially be considered unavailable.

[0312] In the case where UE mobility occurs more frequently and beam restoration is performed frequently, it may be requested to send measurement signals in batches (repeatedly sending measurement signals multiple times within a certain time interval).

[0313] In another embodiment, the transition from beam recovery processing to link recovery processing is described. Depending on the UE use case, state, and requested service, the balance between energy efficiency and latency (data / signal transmission / reception interruption) needs to be considered. The time budget and behavior (e.g., measurement gaps, measurement objects) of the beam recovery processing need to be adjusted, such as timers or other (e.g., counting consecutive out-of-sync conditions) criteria (e.g., N1, N2, etc.), thresholds during measurements.

[0314] Turning now to beam diversity, the UE may be configured to monitor M>=1 beam pair links (BPLs) between the UE and the gNB. In the example, the BPL that the UE will monitor most frequently is defined as the activated BPL. Other BPLs in the monitored set may be monitored or detected at a longer duty cycle, denoted as inactive BPLs. These BPLs in the monitored BPL set may be sent by different gNBs, or different TRPs belonging to the same gNB, or the same TRP.

[0315] In some examples, the beam ID can be used together with other parameters (such as cell ID, time slot index, etc.) to scramble the DM-RS sequence of the NR-PDCCH to achieve beam diversity. Now for the purpose of illustration, an example is described below; however, the actual design is not limited to this example. For example, assume that the NR-PDCCH is transmitted using k antenna ports. For any antenna port p∈{n,n+1,...n+k-1}, the reference signal sequence r(m) is defined by the following formula:

[0316]

[0317] The pseudo-random sequence c(i) is the basic sequence for establishing the DM-RS sequence. The sequence c(i) can be a ZAZAC sequence, an M sequence, or other sequences. The pseudo-random sequence generator can be initialized as follows:

[0318] or

[0319]

[0320] Depending on the different situations of the location of the monitored beam transmitter (for example, the same or different cells, etc.), different NR-PDCCH designs may be adopted according to various embodiments. For NR-PDCCHs sent using different beams or BPLs of the same or different TRPs from the same cell, the content of activated and inactivated NR-PDCCHs may be the same. These NR-PDCCHs may use corresponding DM-RSs that use the beam ID as one of the scrambling parameters as described above. Or for NR-PDCCHs sent using different beams or BPLs from different cells, there may be different embodiments for NR-PDCCH content / information. In one example, the content of activated and inactivated NR-PDCCHs is the same. In this way, a cell that sends NR-PDCCH to a UE using an inactivated BPL may need to reserve the same physical channel resources as in a cell that sends NR-PDCCH to a UE using an activated BPL. In another example, the content of activated and inactivated NR-PDCCHs is different. For example, considering that the purpose of sending NR-PDCCH is to increase beam diversity in some cases, in one embodiment, NR-PDCCH is sent on an inactive BPL, which can be a UCI (uplink scheduling grant or the like) carrying information, including a UL resource indication for the UE to send a BPL switching command / handshake signaling or beam report feedback for an inactive BPL. The UE can monitor at least two beam pairing links (BPLs) to monitor the NR-PDCCH. In the example, one BPL is from an activated BPL and the other BPL is from an inactive BPL. In some cases, if the UE cannot successfully decode the NR-PDCCH from the activated BPL, but can successfully decode the NR-PDCCH from the inactive BPL, the UE can use the UL UCI to report the BPL switching command / handshake signaling or beam report feedback of the selected inactive BPL.

[0321] In the example, when the UE monitors a group of M BPLs according to the higher layer or MAC CE or physical control channel configuration, in addition to the conventional detection of NR-PDCCH on the activated BPL, it can also detect NR-PDCCH on one or several non-activated BPLs at a lower duty cycle. When the UE monitors the NR-PDCCH on the activated BPL and the NR-PDCCH on at least one non-activated BPL in the same subframe or TTI, it can follow various rules. For example, if the UE successfully decodes only the NR-PDCCH on the activated BPL, it can follow the transmission or reception operation indicated in the NR-PDCCH (which can be UCI or DCI or paging, etc.). In some examples, if the UE successfully decodes the NR-PDCCH on the activated BPL and at least one NR-PDCCH on the non-activated BPL, it can follow the transmission or reception operation indicated in the NR-PDCCH sent on the activated BPL (which can be UCI or DCI or paging, etc.), and ignore the NR-PDCCH sent on the non-activated BPL. In an example, if the UE successfully decodes only one NR-PDCCH on an inactive BPL, it may follow the transmission or reception operation indicated in the NR-PDCCH (which may be UCI or DCI or paging, etc.) transmitted on the inactive BPL. In this example where the decoded NR-PDCCH is DCI, the UE may perform data reception accordingly and feedback ACK / NACK for the received DL data with explicit or implicit signaling that it has switched to the inactive BPL (due to failure to detect a valid NR-PDCCH on the active BPL). An example of implicit signaling is that the transmitting cell dynamically allocates / configures the UL control channel resources for ACK / NACK feedback, and its resource index has a one-to-one mapping with respect to the parameters of the NR-PDCCH that allocates the corresponding data transmission (e.g., the index of the first CCE / REG of the NR-PDCCH) and the beam ID or BPL index. In some cases, if the UE successfully decodes more than one NR-PDCCH on an inactive BPL, it may follow a predefined tie-breaker rule to pick one NR-PDCCH for its transmit or receive operation. An example rule is one that selects the best SINR.

[0322] See also Fig.45, in an example UE-specific PDCCH, the UE sends a CSI report (at 4506) to the gNB in ​​connected mode after beam training, which includes beam scanning (at 4502) and beam optimization (at 4504). The CSI report at 4506 may include the quality of multiple beams and the beam ID of each reported beam. The beam ID may be explicitly or implicitly indicated using a symbol index and an antenna port index or a CSI-RS index. At 4508, the gNB may determine various sets of beams based on current and previous CSI reports. For example, the gNB may determine a beam monitoring set, which may include M beams. The UE may periodically monitor the quality of these beams by measuring the corresponding B-RS, M-RS, or CSI-RS. The gNB may also determine a candidate beam set, which may include N beams selected from the beam monitoring set, where N≤M. The gNB may select one or more beams from the set for PDCCH transmission. In some cases, the UE has to try all these beams and their corresponding search spaces for blind decoding of the PDCCH.

[0323] In the example, the ID of the beam in the beam monitoring set may be configured to the UE via RRC signaling. Subsequently, at 4510, the UE may monitor the quality of the beam in the beam monitoring set by measuring the corresponding B-RS, M-RS or CSI-RS, and may feedback a CSI report accordingly.

[0324] Based on the UE's CSI report, the gNB selects N beams from the beam monitoring set, where these N beams are candidates for PDCCH beam diversity transmission for the UE. The gNB may select the N beams with the best quality, for example, the beam with the largest rank or the beam with the highest CQI. In an example, the IDs of the N selected beams are configured to the UE via RRC signaling. In some cases, the gNB may dynamically select one or more beams from the set of candidate beams for PDCCH transmission, and the UE does not need to be informed of the selected beam IDs. However, in some examples, the number of selected beams may be signaled to the UE using RRC signaling or a common (or group) PDCCH, or may be transparent to the UE. When multiple beams are selected, the gNB may send the same DCI over these beams to achieve beam diversity. In an example, the DCI is scrambled with the UE's ID, which may be the UE's RNTI or other NR UE ID, so that after blind detection, the UE can identify whether the DCI belongs to itself. The gNB may update the candidate beam set based on the latest CSI report of the UE, for example, by changing some candidate beams with better quality beams in the monitoring set. In the event that a candidate beam is blocked, the gNB may change the candidate beam with a better beam in the monitoring set. If the gNB or UE determines that the number of beams in the monitoring set whose quality is higher than a given threshold is less than a predetermined number (at 4512), the process may return to 4502 and 4504, where the gNB or UE may request or initiate a new beam scanning and beam optimization process to form a new beam monitoring set. Alternatively, if the number of beams that reach a given threshold is greater than a predetermined number, the process may proceed to 4514, where the gNB updates the candidate beam set accordingly.

[0325] In an example, the UE-specific search space consists of the time-frequency (TF) resources of each beam in the candidate beam set, and each TF resource may contain one or more candidate PDCCHs. The UE-specific search space configuration may be based on the UE ID and the UE's current candidate beam set. Fig.46 As shown in , TF resources can be mapped to the UE ID and the candidate beam ID. The beam ID can be configured so that all beams in adjacent cells have different beam IDs. For the same UE, TF resources for different beams can be overlapped, and different UEs can share the same TF resources. In order to exploit frequency diversity, the UE-specific search space configuration can also be determined based on the time slot index, so that the UE-specific search space can be allocated to different subcarriers in different time slots.

[0326] Still see Fig.46In some cases, the UE only performs blind detection of PDCCHs for candidate PDCCHs in the search space. For each candidate PDCCH, a receive beam can be selected according to the transmit beam mapped to the candidate PDCCH to reduce complexity. For example, to decode the DCI in TF resource 7, UE-1 selects a receive beam according to transmit beam 10 in cell A.

[0327] UE-specific PDCCH can be sent in a subband to reduce the complexity of blind decoding. RRC signaling can be used to signal the UE the composition of the subband transmission. Multiple UEs can be configured to the same subband or overlapping subbands for PDCCH transmission, and frequency hopping patterns can be assigned to UEs in order to exploit frequency diversity.

[0328] The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) develops technical standards for cellular telecommunication network technologies, including radio access, core transport networks, and service capabilities - including work on codecs, security, and quality of service. Recent radio access technology (RAT) standards include WCDMA (commonly referred to as 3G), LTE (commonly referred to as 4G), and LTE-Advanced standards. 3GPP has begun work on the standardization of the next generation cellular technology called New Radio (NR) (also referred to as "5G"). 3GPP NR standard development is expected to include the definition of next generation radio access technology (new RAT), which is expected to include the provision of new flexible radio access below 6 GHz, and the provision of new ultra-mobile broadband radio access above 6 GHz. Flexible radio access is expected to consist of new non-backward compatible radio access in new spectrum below 6 GHz, and is expected to include different operating modes that can be multiplexed together in the same spectrum to address a wide range of 3GPP NR use cases with different requirements. Ultra-mobile broadband is expected to include cmWave and mmWave spectrum, which will provide opportunities for ultra-mobile broadband access for indoor applications and hotspots, for example. In particular, ultra-mobile broadband is expected to share a common design framework with sub-6 GHz flexible wireless access, with cmWave and mmWave-specific design optimizations.

[0329] 3GPP has identified a variety of use cases that NR is expected to support, resulting in a wide variety of user experience requirements for data rates, latency, and mobility. Use cases include the following general categories: enhanced mobile bandwidth (e.g., broadband access in dense areas, ultra-high broadband access indoors, broadband access in crowds, 50+Mbps everywhere, ultra-low-cost broadband access, mobile broadband in vehicles), emergency communications, massive machine-type communications, network operations (e.g., network slicing, routing, migration and interworking, energy saving), and enhanced vehicle-to-everything (eV2X) communications. Specific services and applications in these categories include, for example, surveillance and sensor networks, device remote control, two-way remote control, personal cloud computing, video streaming, wireless cloud office, first responder connectivity, car emergency calls, disaster alerts, real-time gaming, multi-person video calls, autonomous driving, augmented reality, tactile Internet, and virtual reality, to name a few. All of these and other use cases are contemplated herein.

[0330] Fig.47A The diagram illustrates one embodiment of an example communication system 100 in which the methods and apparatus described and claimed herein may be embodied. As shown, the example communication system 100 may include wireless transmit / receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, and / or 102d (which may be generally or collectively referred to as WTRUs 102), a radio access network (RAN) 103 / 104 / 105 / 103b / 104b / 105b, a core network 106 / 107 / 109, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110, and other networks 112, although it will be appreciated that the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, base stations, networks, and / or network elements. Each WTRU 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, 102e may be any type of device or apparatus configured to operate and / or communicate in a wireless environment. Although in the Figures 47A-47E In the figures, each WTRU 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, 102d is described as a handheld wireless communication device, but it is to be understood that for the various use cases envisioned for 5G wireless communications, each WTRU may include or be embodied in any type of device or apparatus configured to send and / or receive wireless signals, including, by way of example only, a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a pager, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a laptop, a tablet, a netbook, a notebook computer, a personal computer, a wireless sensor, a consumer electronic product, a wearable device such as a smart watch or smart clothing, a medical or e-health device, a robot, an industrial equipment, a drone, a vehicle such as a car, truck, train or airplane, and the like.

[0331] The communication system 100 may also include a base station 114a and a base station 114b. The base station 114a may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the core network 106 / 107 / 109, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. The base station 114b may be any type of device configured to wiredly and / or wirelessly interface with at least one of the RRHs (remote radio heads) 118a, 118b and / or TRPs (transmit and receive points) 119a, 119b to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the core network 106 / 107 / 109, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. The RRHs 118a, 118b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102c to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the core network 106 / 107 / 109, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. The TRPs 119a, 119b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102d to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the core network 106 / 107 / 109, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. For example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be base transceiver stations (BTS), Node Bs, eNode Bs, Home Node Bs, Home eNode Bs, site controllers, access points (APs), wireless routers, and the like. Although the base stations 114a, 114b are depicted as a single element, it is appreciated that the base stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and / or network elements.

[0332] The base station 114a may be part of the RAN 103 / 104 / 105, which may also include other base stations and / or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), a relay node, etc. The base station 114b may be part of the RAN 103b / 104b / 105b, which may also include other base stations and / or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), a relay node, etc. The base station 114a may be configured to send and / or receive wireless signals within a specific geographic area, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). The base station 114b may be configured to send and / or receive wired and / or wireless signals within a specific geographic area, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). The cell may be further divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with the base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in an embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, for example, one transceiver for each sector of the cell. In an embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology and may use multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell.

[0333] The base station 114a may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c via an air interface 115 / 116 / 117, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, cmWave, mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115 / 116 / 117 may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

[0334] The base station 114b may communicate with one or more of the RRHs 118a, 118b and / or TRPs 119a, 119b via a wired or air interface 115b / 116b / 117b, which may be any suitable wired (e.g., cable, optical fiber, etc.) or wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, cmWave, mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115b / 116b / 117b may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

[0335] The RRHs 118a, 118b and / or the TRPs 119a, 119b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102c, 102d via an air interface 115c / 116c / 117c, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, cmWave, mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115c / 116c / 117c may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

[0336] More specifically, as described above, the communication system 100 may be a multiple access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, etc. For example, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in the RAN 103 / 104 / 105, or the RRHs 118a, 118b and the TRPs 119a, 119b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d in the RAN 103b / 104b / 105b, may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), and UTRA may utilize Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) to establish the air interface 115 / 116 / 117 or 115c / 116c / 117c, respectively. WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA) and / or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and / or High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).

[0337] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, or the RRHs 118a, 118b and TRPs 119a, 119b in the RAN 103b / 104b / 105b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may utilize Long Term Evolution (LTE) and / or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) to establish the air interface 115 / 116 / 117 or 115c / 116c / 117c, respectively. In the future, the air interface 115 / 116 / 117 may implement 3GPP NR technology.

[0338] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in the RAN 103 / 104 / 105, or the RRHs 118a, 118b and the TRPs 119a, 119b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d in the RAN 103b / 104b / 105b may implement a wireless technology such as IEEE 802.16 (e.g., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN).

[0339] Fig.47A The base station 114c in the example may be, for example, a wireless router, a Home Node B, a Home eNode B, or an access point, and may utilize any appropriate RAT to facilitate wireless connectivity in a local area (such as a business location, a home, a vehicle, a campus, etc.). In an embodiment, the base station 114c and the WTRU 102e may implement wireless technologies such as IEEE 802.11 to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN). In an embodiment, the base station 114c and the WTRU 102d may implement wireless technologies such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). In another embodiment, the base station 114c and the WTRU 102e may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, etc.) to establish a pico cell or a femto cell. Fig.47A As shown in FIG, base station 114b may be directly connected to Internet 110. Thus, base station 114c may not be required to access Internet 110 via core network 106 / 107 / 109.

[0340] The RAN 103 / 104 / 105 and / or the RAN 103b / 104b / 105b may be in communication with a core network 106 / 107 / 109, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications, and / or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. For example, the core network 106 / 107 / 109 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paid calling, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and / or perform high-level security functions such as user authentication.

[0341] Although not in Fig.47A105b and / or the core network 106 / 107 / 109 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN 103 / 104 / 105 and / or the RAN 103b / 104b / 105b, or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 103 / 104 / 105 and / or the RAN 103b / 104b / 105b, which may utilize an E-UTRA radio technology, the core network 106 / 107 / 109 may also be in communication with other RANs (not shown) that employ a GSM radio technology.

[0342] The core network 106 / 107 / 109 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, 102e to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include a circuit-switched telephone network that provides plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that utilize common communication protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and the Internet Protocol (IP) in the TCP / IP Internet protocol suite. The networks 112 may include wired or wireless communication networks owned and / or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 112 may include another core network connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 103 / 104 / 105 and / or the RAN 103b / 104b / 105, or a different RAT.

[0343] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communication system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities. For example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, and 102e may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks via different wireless links. Fig.47A The WTRU 102e shown in FIG. 1 may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114c, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

[0344] Fig.47B 1 is a block diagram of an example device or apparatus, such as WTRU 102, configured for wireless communication according to embodiments illustrated herein. Fig.47BAs shown in , the example WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit / receive element 122, a speaker / microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display / touchpad / indicator 128, a non-removable memory 130, a removable memory 132, a power supply 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and other peripherals 138. It is to be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the above elements while still being consistent with the embodiment. In addition, the embodiment contemplates that the base stations 114a and 114b, and / or the nodes that the base stations 114a and 114b may represent, such as (but not limited to) base transceiver stations (BTS), node Bs, site controllers, access points (APs), home node Bs, evolved home node Bs (eNodeBs), home evolved node Bs (HeNBs), home evolved node B gateways and proxy nodes, etc., may be included in Fig.47B Some or all of the elements described in and illustrated herein.

[0345] The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, etc. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, and / or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit / receive element 122. Although Fig.47B The processor 118 and the transceiver 120 are depicted as separate components, although it is appreciated that the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or chip.

[0346] The transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit or receive signals to or from a base station (e.g., base station 114a) via the air interface 115 / 116 / 117. For example, in an embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit and / or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and / or receive RF signals. Fig.47A 103 / 104 / 105 and / or the core network 106 / 107 / 109 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN 103 / 104 / 105, or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 103 / 104 / 105, which may utilize an E-UTRA radio technology, the core network 106 / 107 / 109 may also be in communication with another RAN (not shown) that employs a GSM radio technology.

[0347] The core network 106 / 107 / 109 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and / or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include a line-switched circuit network that provides plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer systems and devices that utilize common communication protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and the Internet Protocol (IP) in the TCP / IP Internet protocol suite. The networks 112 may include wired or wireless communication networks owned and / or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 112 may include an additional core network connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 103 / 104 / 105, or a different RAT.

[0348] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communication system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities. For example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks via different wireless links. Fig.47A The WTRU 102c shown in FIG. 1 may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114b, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

[0349] Fig.47B 1 is a block diagram of an example device or apparatus, such as WTRU 102, configured for wireless communication according to embodiments illustrated herein. Fig.47B As shown in , the example WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit / receive element 122, a speaker / microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display / touchpad / indicator 128, a non-removable memory 130, a removable memory 132, a power supply 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and other peripherals 138. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the above elements while still being consistent with the embodiment. In addition, the embodiment contemplates that the base stations 114a and 114b, and / or the nodes that the base stations 114a and 114b may represent, such as (but not limited to) base transceiver stations (BTS), node Bs, site controllers, access points (APs), home node Bs, evolved home node Bs (eNodeBs), home evolved node Bs (HeNBs), home evolved node B gateways and proxy nodes, etc., may be included in Fig.47B Some or all of the elements described in and illustrated herein.

[0350] The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, etc. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, and / or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit / receive element 122. Although Fig.47B The processor 118 and the transceiver 120 are depicted as separate components, although it is appreciated that the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or chip.

[0351] The send / receive element 122 may be configured to send or receive signals to and from a base station (e.g., base station 114a) via an air interface 115 / 116 / 117. For example, in an embodiment, the send / receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to send and / or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, the send / receive element 122 may be a transmitter / detector configured to send and / or receive, for example, IR, UV, or visible light signals. For example, in another embodiment, the send / receive element 122 may be configured to send and receive both RF signals and optical signals. It is to be appreciated that the send / receive element 122 may be configured to send and / or receive any combination of wireless signals.

[0352] In addition, although the transmit / receive element 122 is Fig.47B Although described as a single element in the embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit / receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in an embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit / receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 115 / 116 / 117.

[0353] The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate signals to be transmitted by the transmit / receive element 122, and to demodulate signals received by the transmit / receive element 122. As described above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers that enable the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as UTRA and IEEE 802.11.

[0354] The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to a speaker / microphone 124, a keypad 126, and / or a display / touchpad / indicator 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit or an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display unit) so as to receive user input data therefrom. The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker / microphone 124, the keypad 126, and / or the display / touchpad / indicator 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access information from and store data in any type of suitable memory, such as a non-removable memory 130 and / or a removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 may include a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of storage device. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure data (SD) memory card, or the like. In an embodiment, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, memory that is not physically located in the WTRU 102, such as memory on a server or a home computer (not shown).

[0355] The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134 and may be configured to distribute power to and / or control power to the other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for providing power to the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cell batteries, solar cells, fuel cells, etc.

[0356] The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. The WTRU 102 may receive location information from a base station (e.g., base stations 114a, 114b) over the air interface 115 / 116 / 117 in addition to or in lieu of the information from the GPS chipset 136, and / or determine its location based on the timing of receiving signals from two or more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location information using any suitable location-determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0357] The processor 118 may be further coupled to other peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and / or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality, and / or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include various sensors such as accelerometers, biometric (e.g., fingerprint) sensors, electronic compasses, satellite transceivers, digital cameras (for photos or videos), universal serial bus (USB) ports or other interconnect interfaces, vibration devices, television transceivers, hands-free headsets, modules, FM radio units, digital music players, media players, video game player modules, internet browsers, etc.

[0358] The WTRU 102 may be embodied in other devices or apparatuses, such as sensors, consumer electronics, wearable devices such as smart watches or smart clothing, medical or e-health devices, robots, industrial equipment, drones, vehicles such as cars, trucks, trains, or airplanes. The WTRU 102 may be connected to other components, modules, or systems of such devices or apparatuses through one or more interconnect interfaces, such as an interconnect interface that may include one of the peripherals 138.

[0359] Fig.47C 1 is a system diagram of the RAN 103 and the core network 106 according to an embodiment. As described above, the RAN 103 may employ UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c over the air interface 115. The RAN 103 may also be in communication with the core network 106. Fig.47C As shown in FIG. 1 , the RAN 103 may include Node-Bs 140a, 140b, 140c, each of which may include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c over the air interface 115. The Node-Bs 140a, 140b, 140c may each be associated with a particular cell (not shown) within the RAN 103. The RAN 103 may also include RNCs 142a, 142b. It will be appreciated that the RAN 103 may include any number of Node-Bs and RNCs while still being consistent with an embodiment.

[0360] like Fig.47CAs shown in FIG. 1 , Node B 140a, 140b can communicate with RNC 142. In addition, Node B 140c can communicate with RNC 142b. Node B 140a, 140b, 140c can communicate with corresponding RNC 142a, 142b via Iub interface. RNC 142a, 142b can communicate with each other via Iur interface. Each RNC 142a, 142b can be configured to control the corresponding Node B 140a, 140b, 140c to which it is connected. In addition, each RNC 142a, 142b can be configured to perform or support other functions, such as outer loop power control, load control, admission control, packet scheduling, handover control, macro diversity, security functions, data encryption, etc.

[0361] Fig.47C The core network 106 shown in FIG. 1 may include a media gateway (MGW) 144, a mobile switching center (MSC) 146, a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) 148, and / or a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) 150. Although each of the above elements are described as being part of the core network 106, it is appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by an entity other than the core network operator.

[0362] The RNC 142a in the RAN 103 may be connected to the MSC 146 in the core network 106 via an IuCS interface. The MSC 146 may be connected to the MGW 144. The MSC 146 and the MGW 144 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and traditional land-line communications devices.

[0363] The RNC 142a in the RAN 103 may also be connected to the SGSN 148 in the core network 106 via an IuPS interface. The SGSN 148 may be connected to the GGSN 150. The SGSN 148 and the GGSN 150 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.

[0364] As described above, core network 106 may also be connected to networks 112, which may include other wired or wireless networks owned and / or operated by other service providers.

[0365] Fig.47D1 is a system diagram of the RAN 104 and the core network 107 in accordance with an embodiment. As described above, the RAN 104 may employ an E-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communication with the core network 107.

[0366] The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c, though it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In an embodiment, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, for example, the eNode-B 160a may use multiple antennas to send and receive wireless signals to and from the WTRU 102a.

[0367] Each eNode-B 160a, 160b, and 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in uplink and / or downlink, etc. Fig.47D As shown in FIG. , eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may communicate with each other via an X2 interface.

[0368] Fig.47D The core network 107 shown in FIG. 1 may include a mobility management gateway (MME) 162, a serving gateway 164, and a packet data network (PDN) gateway 166. Although each of the above elements are described as being part of the core network 107, it is appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by an entity other than the core network operator.

[0369] The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, and 160c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, bearer activation / deactivation, selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like. The MME 162 may also provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other wireless technologies, such as GSM or WCDMA.

[0370] The serving gateway 164 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, and 160c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface. The serving gateway 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to and from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. The serving gateway 164 may also perform other functions, such as anchoring the user plane during inter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when downlink data is available for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, managing and maintaining the context of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like.

[0371] The serving gateway 164 may also be connected to the PDN gateway 166, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.

[0372] The core network 107 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the core network 107 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and traditional land-based communications devices. For example, the core network 107 may include, or may be in communication with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the core network 107 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the core network 107 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the networks 112, which may include other wired or wireless networks owned and / or operated by other service providers.

[0373] Fig.47E 1 is a system diagram of the RAN 105 and the core network 109 according to an embodiment. The RAN 105 may be an access service network (ASN) that employs IEEE 802.16 radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c over the air interface 117. As further described below, the communication links between the different functional entities of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, the RAN 105, and the core network 109 may be defined as reference points.

[0374] like Fig.47EAs shown in the RAN 105, the RAN 105 may include base stations 180a, 180b, 180c and an ASN gateway 182, although it should be appreciated that the RAN 105 may include any number of base stations and ASN gateways while still being consistent with the embodiment. The base stations 180a, 180b, 180c may each be associated with a particular cell in the RAN 105 and may include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 117. In an embodiment, the base stations 180a, 180b, 180c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, for example, the base station 180a may utilize multiple antennas to send wireless signals to the WTRU 102a and receive wireless signals from the WTRU 102a. The base stations 180a, 180b, 180c may also provide mobility management functions, such as handover triggering, tunnel establishment, radio resource management, service classification, quality of service (QoS) policy enforcement, and the like. The ASN gateway 182 may act as a traffic aggregation point and may be responsible for paging, caching of subscriber profiles, routing to the core network 109, and the like.

[0375] The air interface 117 between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and the RAN 105 may be defined as an R1 reference point that implements the IEEE 802.16 specification. In addition, each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may establish a logical interface (not shown) with the core network 109. The logical interface between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and the core network 109 may be defined as an R2 reference point, which may be used for authentication, authorization, IP host configuration management, and / or mobility management.

[0376] The communication link between each of the base stations 180a, 180b, and 180c may be defined as an R8 reference point, which includes protocols that facilitate WTRU handovers and the transfer of data between base stations. The communication link between the base stations 180a, 180b, 180c and the ASN gateway 182 may be defined as an R6 reference point. The R6 reference point may include protocols that facilitate mobility management based on mobility events associated with each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c.

[0377] like Fig.47EAs shown in , the RAN 105 may be connected to a core network 109. The communication link between the RAN 105 and the core network 109 may be defined as an R3 reference point, which includes, for example, protocols that facilitate data transfer and mobility management capabilities. The core network 109 may include a mobile IP home agent (MIP-HA) 184, an authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA) server 186, and a gateway 188. Although each of the above elements are described as being part of the core network 109, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by an entity other than the core network operator.

[0378] The MIP-HA may be responsible for IP address management and may enable the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c to roam between different ASNs and / or different core networks. The MIP-HA 184 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c and IP-enabled devices. The AAA server 186 may be responsible for user authentication and supporting user services. The gateway 188 may facilitate interworking with other networks. For example, the gateway 188 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, and 102c and traditional land-line communication devices. In addition, the gateway 188 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the networks 112, which may include other wired or wireless networks that are owned and / or operated by other service providers.

[0379] Although not in Fig.47E 105 may be connected to other ASNs and the core network 109 may be connected to other core networks. The communication link between the RAN and the other ASNs may be defined as an R4 reference point, which may include protocols for coordinating the mobility of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c between the RAN 105 and the other ASNs. The communication link between the core network 109 and the other core networks may be defined as an R5 reference point, which may include protocols for facilitating interworking between home core networks and visited core networks.

[0380] Here it is described and Fig.47A , 47C The core network entities illustrated in 47D and 47E are identified using names given to those entities in certain existing 3GPP specifications, but it is understood that these entities and functions may be identified by other names in the future, and that certain entities or functions may be combined in future specifications released by 3GPP, including future 3GPP NR specifications. Fig.47A , 47B The specific network entities and functions described and illustrated in 47C, 47D and 47E are provided as examples only, and it is to be understood that the claimed subject matter disclosed herein may be embodied or implemented in any similar communication system (whether currently defined or defined in the future).

[0381] Fig.47F It can be specifically reflected in Fig.47A , 47C , 47D and 47E, such as certain nodes or functional entities in the RAN 103 / 104 / 105, the core network 106 / 107 / 109, the PSTN 108, the Internet 110 or other networks 112. The computing system 90 may include a computer or server and may be primarily controlled by computer-readable instructions, which may take the form of software, regardless of where such software is stored or accessed, or in any manner. Such computer-readable instructions may be executed in a processor 91 to cause the computing system 90 to operate. The processor 91 may be a general-purpose processor, a special-purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuit, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, etc. The processor 91 may perform signal encoding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, and / or any other function that enables the computing system 90 to operate in a communication network. The coprocessor 81 is an optional processor different from the main processor 91 that may perform additional functions or assist the processor 91. The processor 91 and / or the coprocessor 81 may receive, generate, and process data related to the methods and apparatus disclosed herein.

[0382] In operation, processor 91 retrieves, decodes, and executes instructions, and transfers information to and from other resources via the computing system's primary data transfer path, system bus 80. Such a system bus connects components in computing system 90 and defines the medium for data exchange. System bus 80 generally includes data lines for sending data, address lines for sending addresses, and control lines for sending interrupts and for manipulating the system bus. An example of such a system bus 80 is a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus.

[0383] The memory coupled to the system bus 80 includes a random access memory (RAM) 82 and a read-only memory (ROM) 93. Such memory includes circuits that allow information to be saved and retrieved. ROM 93 generally contains saved data that cannot be easily changed. The data saved in RAM 82 can be read or changed by the processor 91 or other hardware devices. Access to RAM 82 and / or ROM 93 can be controlled by a memory controller 92. The memory controller 92 can provide an address translation function that converts a virtual address into a physical address when an instruction is executed. The memory controller 92 can also provide a memory protection function that isolates processes within the system and isolates system processes from user processes. Thus, a program running in the first mode can only access memory mapped by its own process virtual address space; it cannot access memory in the virtual address space of other processes unless memory sharing between processes is established.

[0384] In addition, computing system 90 may include a peripheral controller 83 responsible for communicating instructions from processor 91 to peripherals such as printer 94 , keyboard 84 , mouse 95 , and disk drive 85 .

[0385] The display 86 controlled by the display controller 96 is used to display the visual output generated by the computing system 90. Such visual output may include text, graphics, animated graphics, and video. The visual output may be provided in the form of a graphical user interface (GUI). The display 86 may be implemented using a CRT-based video display, an LCD-based flat panel display, a gas plasma-based flat panel display, or a touch panel. The display controller 96 includes the electronic components required to generate the video signal sent to the display 86.

[0386] In addition, the computing system 90 may include a communication network that can be used to connect the computing system 90 to an external communication network, such as Fig.47A , 47B , RAN 103 / 104 / 105 of 47C, 47D and 47E, core network 106 / 107 / 109, PSTN 108, Internet 110 or other network 112 to enable the computing system 90 to communicate with other nodes or functional entities of these networks, such as communication circuits, such as network adapter 97. Alone or in combination with processor 91, the communication circuits can be used to perform the sending and receiving steps of certain devices, nodes or functional entities recorded in this document.

[0387] It is to be understood that any or all of the devices, systems, methods, and processes described herein may be embodied in the form of computer executable instructions (e.g., program code) stored on a computer-readable storage medium, which, when executed by a processor (e.g., processor 118 or 91), causes the processor to perform and / or implement the systems, methods, and processes described herein. Specifically, any steps, operations, or functions described herein may be implemented in the form of such computer executable instructions running on a processor of a device or computing system configured for wireless and / or wired network communications. Computer-readable storage media include volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any non-temporary (e.g., tangible or physical) method or technology for the storage of information, but such computer-readable storage media do not include signals. Computer-readable storage media include (but are not limited to) RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other storage technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, cassettes, tapes, disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other tangible or physical media that can be used to store the desired information and can be accessed by a computing system.

[0388] The following is a list of NR technology-related abbreviations that may appear in the above description: Unless otherwise specified, the abbreviations used in this article refer to the corresponding terms listed below.

[0389] AR Augmented Reality

[0390] AS Access Layer

[0391] BF-RS Beamforming Reference Signal

[0392] BT-RS Beamforming Training Reference Signal

[0393] CE Control Elements

[0394] CoMP Coordinated Multi-Point

[0395] CP Cyclic Prefix

[0396] CQI Channel Quality Indicator

[0397] CRS Cell-specific Reference Signal

[0398] CSI Channel State Information

[0399] CSI-RS Channel State Information Reference Signal

[0400] DCI Downlink Control Information

[0401] DL Downlink

[0402] DM-RS Demodulation Reference Signal

[0403] eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband

[0404] eNB Evolved Node B

[0405] ePDCCH enhanced physical downlink control channel

[0406] FD Full Dimension

[0407] FDD Frequency Division Duplex

[0408] FFS for further study

[0409] GUI Graphical User Interface

[0410] HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

[0411] ID Identifier

[0412] IMT International Mobile Telecommunications

[0413] KP Kronecker product

[0414] KPI Key Performance Indicator

[0415] LTE Long Term Evolution

[0416] MAC Media Access Control

[0417] MCL Maximum coupling loss

[0418] MCS modulation and coding method

[0419] MME Mobility Management Entity

[0420] MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output

[0421] NAS Non-Access Stratum

[0422] NB Narrow Beam

[0423] NDI New Data Indicators

[0424] NEO Network Operation

[0425] NR-Node New Radio Node

[0426] OCC Orthogonal Cover Code

[0427] OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

[0428] PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0429] PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0430] PMI precoding matrix indication

[0431] PRS Positioning Reference Signal

[0432] PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0433] PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

[0434] RAT Radio Access Technology

[0435] RB Resource Block

[0436] RE Resource Element

[0437] RI Rank Indicator

[0438] RRC Radio Resource Control

[0439] RRH Remote Radio Head

[0440] RS reference signal

[0441] RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator

[0442] RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

[0443] RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality

[0444] RV Redundancy Version

[0445] SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

[0446] SI System Information

[0447] SIB System Information Block

[0448] SISO Single Input Single Output

[0449] SRS Sounding Reference Signal

[0450] 2D Two Dimensions

[0451] 3D

[0452] TDD Time Division Duplex

[0453] TPC Transmit Power Control

[0454] TRP Send and Receive Points

[0455] TTI Transmit Time Interval

[0456] TXSS Transmit Sector Scan

[0457] UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

[0458] UE User Equipment

[0459] UL Uplink

[0460] URLLC Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications

[0461] VR Virtual Reality

[0462] WB Wide Beam

[0463] WRC Wireless Planning Coordination

[0464] This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable a person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any device or system, and performing any included method. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to a person skilled in the art. Such other examples are within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.

Claims

1. A device for wireless communication, comprising: a non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon; as well as A processor operably coupled to the non-transitory memory, configured to execute the following instructions: determining first scheduling information associated with the first transmission; determining second scheduling information associated with a second transmission, the second transmission preempting one or more resources associated with the first transmission; Issue the first send; issuing a second transmission; and Send out preemptive instructions through downlink control information, wherein the preemption indication indicates that one or more resources associated with the first transmission are preempted for the second transmission, and Wherein, the preemptive indication is issued in a public control area.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The public control area is associated with a group public wireless network temporary identifier.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The first transmission is associated with a first latency or a first priority, and the second transmission is associated with a second latency or a second priority, and The second waiting time is less than the first waiting time, and the second priority is higher than the first priority.

4. The device according to claim 3, wherein: The first transmission is related to enhanced mobile broadband eMBB, and The second transmission is related to Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications URLLC.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The preemptive indication is sent in a time distribution after the second sending.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein: The allocation of the preemptive indication is configured in a common monitoring area, and The common monitoring area is used for one or more UEs.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein: The configuration of the common monitoring area is indicated by a radio resource control message.

8. A device for wireless communication, comprising: a non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon; as well as A processor operably coupled to the non-transitory memory, configured to execute the following instructions: receiving scheduling information associated with the first transmission; receiving a preemption indication via downlink control information; and detecting and decoding the preemption indication, wherein the preemption indication indicates that one or more resources associated with the first transmission are preempted for the second transmission, and The preemptive indication is received in a public control area.

9. The device according to claim 8, wherein: The first transmission is associated with a first waiting time or a first priority, The second transmission is associated with a second latency or a second priority, and The second waiting time is less than the first waiting time, and the second priority is higher than the first priority.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein: The first transmission is related to eMBB and the second transmission is related to URLLC.

11. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein: The preemptive indication is received in a time distribution after the second transmission, The allocation of the preemptive indication is configured in a common monitoring area, and The common monitoring area is used for one or more UEs.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein The configuration of the common monitoring area is indicated by a radio resource control message.

13. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein: The processor is also configured to execute the following instructions: determining HARQ feedback based on the decoding; and Send HARQ feedback to the network node.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein: The HARQ feedback includes one or more bits for indicating an acknowledgement ACK or a negative acknowledgement NACK.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein: A plurality of bits for indicating ACK or NACK are respectively associated with a plurality of code blocks.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein: HARQ feedback is carried on the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), and The PUCCH is implicitly or explicitly indicated by downlink control information.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein: PUCCH is configured with a frequency hopping pattern.

18. A method for wireless communication, comprising: determining first scheduling information associated with the first transmission; determining second scheduling information associated with a second transmission, the second transmission preempting one or more resources associated with the first transmission; Issue the first send; issuing a second transmission; and Send out preemptive instructions through downlink control information, The preemption indication indicates that one or more resources associated with the first transmission are preempted for the second transmission.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein: the preemptive indication is issued in a publicly controlled area, and The public control area is associated with a group public wireless network temporary identifier.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein: The first transmission is associated with a first latency or a first priority, and the second transmission is associated with a second latency or a second priority, and The second waiting time is less than the first waiting time, and the second priority is higher than the first priority.

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