Method and apparatus for UE performance during SRS switching in TDD component carriers

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods for using carrier aggregation to provide measurement gaps for UEs to account for switching times for transmitting sounding reference signals. The UE sends a UE-EUTRA-Capability IE to the eNB in ​​RRC signaling, which indicates the UL and DL interruption times within a band pair during RF retuning for switching between band pairs to transmit SRS. The interruption times are expressed in OFDM symbols. When a UE is configured to use autonomous gaps for neighbor cell measurements and there is a conflict between autonomous gap measurements and SRS transmissions, the SRS transmission is skipped when the autonomous gap measurement has priority, and some or all autonomous gap measurements are skipped when the SRS transmission has priority.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application based on the Chinese invention patent application with application date of October 27, 2017, application number 2017800607783, and invention name “Device of user equipment and device of base station”. Technical Field

[0002] Embodiments relate to wireless access networks. Some embodiments relate to handover in cellular and wireless local area network (WLAN) networks, including Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) networks and LTE Advanced (LTE-A) networks, as well as fourth generation (4G) networks and fifth generation (5G) networks. Background Art

[0003] The use of 3GPP LTE systems (including LTE and LTE-A systems) has increased due to the increase in both the types of user equipment (UEs) using network resources and the amount of data and bandwidth being used by various applications operating on these UEs (e.g., video streaming). The latest generation (5G - also known as New Radio or NR) systems may continue to use various reference signals to provide feedback between the UE and the network. For example, among these reference signals, the sounding reference signal (SRS) may be used to indicate the uplink channel quality. The SRS may be sent periodically regardless of whether the UE has uplink data to send. In a time division duplex (TDD) system, the UE may spend a finite time switching between downlink and uplink transmissions. This may be exacerbated when carrier aggregation is used due to the possibility of transceiver chains switching frequencies and the inherent timing-related differences between the use of different cells. Summary of the Invention

[0004] A method includes: encoding radio resource control (RRC) signaling for transmission to a base station, the RRC signaling indicating an interruption time on an uplink (UL), the interruption time including an RF tuning time for performing RF retuning to transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the first carrier when the first carrier is configured without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the RF tuning time including a switching period from a second carrier to a first carrier; encoding the SRS on the first carrier configured without a PUSCH and with time division duplexing (TDD) for transmission to the base station; and not transmitting on the second carrier during the interruption time.

[0005] An apparatus includes a processor configured to enable a user equipment to implement a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0006] A method includes: receiving radio resource control (RRC) signaling from a user equipment (UE), the RRC signaling indicating an interruption time on an uplink (UL), the interruption time including an RF tuning time for performing RF retuning to send a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the first carrier when the first carrier is configured without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the RF tuning time including a switching period from a second carrier to a first carrier; receiving, from the UE, the SRS on the first carrier configured without a PUSCH and with time division duplexing (TDD); and not receiving from the UE on the second carrier during the interruption time. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] In the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numbers may describe like components in different views. Like numbers with different letter suffixes may represent different instances of the same component. As examples, the accompanying drawings generally illustrate various embodiments discussed in this document by way of illustration and not limitation.

[0008] Figure 1 The architecture of a system illustrating a network according to some embodiments.

[0009] Figure 2 Illustrative components of a device according to some embodiments are shown.

[0010] Figure 3 Shown are exemplary interfaces of baseband circuitry according to some embodiments.

[0011] Figure 4 is a diagram of a control plane protocol stack according to some embodiments.

[0012] Figure 5 is a diagram of a user plane protocol stack according to some embodiments.

[0013] Figure 6 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (eg, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments.

[0014] Figure 7 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between component carriers (CCs) according to some embodiments.

[0015] Figure 8 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between CCs according to some embodiments.

[0016] Figure 9 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between CCs according to some embodiments.

[0017] Figure 10 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between CCs according to some embodiments.

[0018] Figure 11 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between CCs according to some embodiments.

[0019] Figure 12 A flow chart associated with SRS transmission according to some embodiments is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] The following description and accompanying drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may include structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some exemplary embodiments may be included in or substituted for those of other embodiments. The embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0021] Figure 1 The architecture of a system 100 of a network according to some embodiments is shown. System 100 is shown to include user equipment (UE) 101 and UE 102. UEs 101 and 102 are shown as smartphones (e.g., handheld touch-screen mobile computing devices that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a personal data assistant (PDA), a pager, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a wireless handheld device, or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0022] In some embodiments, any of UEs 101 and 102 may include an Internet of Things (IoT) UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communication (MTC) to exchange data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), proximity-based services (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, a sensor network, or an IoT network. The M2M or MTC data exchange may be a machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-term connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0023] UEs 101 and 102 may be configured to connect (e.g., be communicatively coupled) to a radio access network (RAN) 110, which may be, for example, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. UEs 101 and 102 use connections 103 and 104, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, connections 103 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communicatively coupling and may conform to a cellular communication protocol, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a 5G protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, or the like.

[0024] In this embodiment, the UEs 101 and 102 may also directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 105. Optionally, the ProSe interface 105 may be referred to as a sidelink interface including one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), and a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH).

[0025] UE 102 is shown as being configured to access access point (AP) 106 via connection 107. Connection 107 may include a local wireless connection, such as one compliant with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where AP 106 would include Wi-Fi. In this example, AP 106 is shown connected to the Internet and not to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below).

[0026] The RAN 110 may include one or more access nodes that implement connections 103 and 104. These access nodes (ANs) may be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next-generation NodeBs (giga NodeBs—gNBs), RAN nodes, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN 110 may include one or more RAN nodes (e.g., macro RAN node 111) for providing macro cells and one or more RAN nodes (e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 112) for providing femto cells or pico cells (e.g., cells with smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than macro cells).

[0027] Any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UEs 101 and 102. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 may fulfill various logical functions, where the RAN 110 includes, but is not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions, such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling and mobility management.

[0028] According to some embodiments, UEs 101 and 102 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any one of RAN nodes 111 and 112 via a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication technologies, such as, but not limited to, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication technology (e.g., for downlink communication) or single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication technology (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), but the scope of the embodiments is not limited thereto. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0029] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from either RAN nodes 111 and 112 to UEs 101 and 102, while similar techniques can be used for uplink transmissions. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which represents the physical resources used in the downlink for each time slot. This time-frequency plane representation is common in OFDM systems and makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes multiple resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements in the frequency domain, which can represent the smallest quantum of resources that can be currently allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are communicated using such resource blocks.

[0030] The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) can carry user data and higher layer signaling to UEs 101 and 102. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) can carry, among other things, information about the transport format and resource allocation associated with the PDSCH channel. It can also inform UEs 101 and 102 of the transport format, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information associated with the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assignment of control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 102 within a cell) can be performed at either of RAN nodes 111 and 112 based on channel quality information fed back from either of UEs 101 and 102. Downlink resource assignment information can be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., assigned to) each of UEs 101 and 102.

[0031] PDCCH can use control channel elements (CCE) to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex symbols can first be organized into quadruples, which can then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called resource element groups (REGs). Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. Four or more different PDCCH formats can be defined in LTE, with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0032] Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may use an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH), which uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs) may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). In some cases, ECCEs may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0033] RAN 110 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 120 via an S1 interface 113. In an embodiment, CN 120 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment, S1 interface 113 is divided into two parts: an S1-U interface 114, which carries traffic data between RAN nodes 111 and 112 and a Serving Gateway (S-GW) 122; and an S1-Mobility Management Entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN nodes 111 and 112 and MME 121.

[0034] In this embodiment, CN 120 includes MME 121, S-GW 122, Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 124. MME 121 can be functionally similar to the control plane of a conventional Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN). MME 121 can manage mobility aspects of access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. HSS 124 can include a database of network users, including subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. CN 120 can include one or more HSSs 124, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the devices, the organization of the network, etc. For example, HSS 124 can provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing solutions, location dependencies, etc.

[0035] The S-GW 122 may terminate the S1 interface 113 towards the RAN 110 and route data packets between the RAN 110 and the CN 120. Additionally, the S-GW 122 may be the local mobility anchor point for handovers between RAN nodes and may also provide an anchor point for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0036] The P-GW 123 may terminate the SGi interface toward the PDN. The P-GW 123 may route data packets between the EPC network 123 and an external network, such as a network including an application server 130 (alternatively referred to as an application function (AF)), via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 125. In general, the application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with a core network (e.g., a UMTS packet service (PS) domain, an LTE PS data service, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW 123 is shown as being communicatively coupled to the application server 130 via the IP communication interface 125. The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 101 and 102 via the CN 120.

[0037] P-GW 123 may also be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 126 is the policy and charging control element of CN 120. In a non-roaming scenario, a single PCRF may exist in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with the UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local traffic splitting, two PCRFs may exist associated with the UE's IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within the HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within the Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). PCRF 126 may be communicatively coupled to application server 130 via P-GW 123. Application server 130 may signal PCRF 126 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate quality of service (QoS) and charging parameters. PCRF 126 may provide the rules to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate Traffic Flow Template (TFT) and QoS Class Identifier (QCI), which initiates the QoS and charging specified by application server 130 .

[0038] Figure 2Example components of a device 200 according to some embodiments are shown. In some embodiments, the device 200 may include application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, radio frequency (RF) circuitry 206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 208, one or more antennas 210, and power management circuitry (PCM) 212, coupled together at least as shown. The components of the device 200 shown may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 200 may include fewer elements (e.g., a RAN node may not use application circuitry 202, but instead include a processor / controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 200 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory / storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or input / output (I / O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device for a cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation).

[0039] The application circuitry 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core processors or multi-core processors. The processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and specialized processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled to or include memory / storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 200. In some embodiments, the processors of the application circuitry 202 may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

[0040] The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core processors or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. The baseband circuitry 204 may interface with the application circuitry 202 to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include a third-generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth-generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a 5G baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processors 204D for other existing, developing, or future generations (e.g., second-generation (2G), sixth-generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 204A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 204A-D may be included in modules stored in memory 204G and executed via central processing unit (CPU) 204E. Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency offset, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 204 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 204 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functionality. Embodiments of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

[0041] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 204F. The audio DSPs 204F may include components for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and in other embodiments may include other suitable processing elements. In some embodiments, the components of the baseband circuitry may be appropriately combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or provided on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together, such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0042] In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 204 can provide communications compatible with one or more wireless technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 204 can support communications with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), or Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). Embodiments in which baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multimode baseband circuitry.

[0043] The RF circuitry 206 may enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation over a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 206 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry for downconverting RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 and providing a baseband signal to the baseband circuitry 204. The RF circuitry 206 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry for upconverting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and providing an RF output signal to the FEM circuitry 208 for transmission.

[0044] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuitry 206 may include mixer circuitry 206A, amplifier circuitry 206B, and filter circuitry 206C. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 206 may include filter circuitry 206C and mixer circuitry 206A. RF circuitry 206 may also include synthesizer circuitry 206D for synthesizing the frequencies used by mixer circuitry 206A in the receive and transmit signal paths. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 206A in the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from FEM circuitry 208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 206D. Amplifier circuitry 206B may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and filter circuitry 206C may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 206A of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

[0045] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 206A of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 206D to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 208. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuit 204 and may be filtered by filter circuit 206C.

[0046] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206A of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206A of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0047] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, RF circuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with RF circuitry 206.

[0048] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

[0049] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206D may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard, as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 206D may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0050] Synthesizer circuit 206D may be configured to synthesize, based on the frequency input and the divider control input, an output frequency used by mixer circuit 206A of RF circuit 206. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206D may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0051] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. Depending on the desired output frequency, the divider control input may be provided by baseband circuitry 204 or application processor 202. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by application processor 202.

[0052] The synthesizer circuit 206D of the RF circuit 206 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual-mode divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0053] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206D can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency), and used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, RF circuit 206 can include an IQ / polar converter.

[0054] The FEM circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 210, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 206 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 210. In various embodiments, amplification by the transmit or receive signal paths may be performed only in the RF circuitry 206, only in the FEM 208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the FEM 208.

[0055] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 208 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit and receive modes of operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include an LNA to amplify a received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 206) and one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 210).

[0056] In some embodiments, PMC 212 can manage the power provided to baseband circuitry 204. Specifically, PMC 212 can control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When device 200 is capable of being powered by a battery, such as when the device is included in a UE, PMC 212 is typically included. PMC 212 can improve power conversion efficiency while providing desired implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0057] although Figure 2 PMC 212 is shown coupled only to baseband circuitry 204. However, in other embodiments, PMC 212 may additionally or alternatively be coupled to other components (such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 202, RF circuitry 206, or FEM 208) and perform similar power management operations for the other components.

[0058] In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms for the device 200. For example, if the device 200 is in the RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, it can enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 200 can be powered off for brief intervals, thereby saving power.

[0059] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the device 200 may transition to the RRC_Idle state. In the RRC_Idle state, the device 200 may disconnect from the network and avoid performing operations such as channel quality feedback, handovers, etc. The device 200 may enter a very low power state and perform paging, wherein the device 200 may periodically wake up to listen to the network and then power down again. To receive data, the device 200 may transition back to the RRC_Connected state.

[0060] An additional power saving mode can allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this period, the device is completely unable to access the network and may be completely powered off. Any data sent during this period will incur significant latency, assuming that latency is acceptable.

[0061] The processors of the application circuitry 202 and the processors of the baseband circuitry 204 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processors of the baseband circuitry 204 (alone or in combination) can be used to execute layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processors of the application circuitry 204 can utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further execute layer 4 functions (e.g., transport communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include a radio resource control (RRC) layer, which is described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, which are described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a physical (PHY) layer of a UE / RAN node, which is described in further detail below.

[0062] Figure 3 1 shows an exemplary interface of a baseband circuit according to some embodiments. As described above, Figure 2 The baseband circuit 204 may include processors 204A-204E and a memory 204G used by the processors. Each of the processors 204A-204E may include a memory interface 304A-304E, respectively, to send data to / receive data from the memory 204G.

[0063] The baseband circuit 204 may also include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuits / devices, such as a memory interface 312 (e.g., an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuit 204), an application circuit interface 314 (e.g., an interface for sending data to / from a memory external to the baseband circuit 204), and an application circuit interface 315 (e.g., an interface for sending data to / from a memory external to the baseband circuit 204). Figure 2 The application circuit 202 sends data to / from Figure 2 The application circuit 202 receives data from the interface), the RF circuit interface 316 (for example, Figure 2 The RF circuit 206 transmits data to / from Figure 2 an interface for receiving data from the RF circuit 206), a wireless hardware connection interface 318 (eg, for transmitting data to a near field communication (NFC) component, Components (e.g. ), components and other communication components) and a power management interface 320 (e.g., an interface for sending power or control signals to / from the PMC 212).

[0064] Figure 4 FIG4 is a diagram of a control plane protocol stack according to some embodiments. In this embodiment, the control plane 400 is shown as a communication protocol stack between UE 101 (or alternatively, UE 102), RAN node 111 (or alternatively, RAN node 112) and MME 121.

[0065] The PHY layer 401 may send or receive information over one or more air interfaces for use by the MAC layer 402. The PHY layer 401 may also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers such as the RRC layer 405. The PHY layer 401 may further perform error detection on transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transport channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna processing.

[0066] The MAC layer 402 can perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC service data units (SDUs) from one or more logical channels into transport blocks (TBs) to be delivered to the PHY via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs into one or more logical channels from transport blocks (TBs) delivered from the PHY via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs into TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and logical channel prioritization.

[0067] The RLC layer 403 can operate in multiple modes, including transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). The RLC layer 403 can perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. The RLC layer 403 can also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC reestablishment.

[0068] The PDCP layer 404 can perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs when reestablishing lower layers, eliminate duplicate lower layer SDUs when reestablishing lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0069] The main services and functions of the RRC layer 405 may include: broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a master information block (MIB) or system information block (SIB) related to the non-access stratum (NAS); broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS); paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of the RRC connection between the UE and the E-UTRAN (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release); establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers; security functions including key management, intra-radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIB and SIB may include one or more information elements (IEs), each of which may include a separate data field or data structure.

[0070] UE 101 and RAN node 111 may utilize a Uu interface (eg, LTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack including a PHY layer 401 , a MAC layer 402 , an RLC layer 403 , a PDCP layer 404 , and an RRC layer 405 .

[0071] Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocol 406 forms the highest layer of the control plane between UE 101 and MME 121. NAS protocol 406 supports mobility of UE 101 and session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between UE 101 and P-GW 123.

[0072] The S1 Application Protocol (S1-AP) layer 415 can support the functionality of the S1 interface and includes the Elementary Procedure (EP). The EP is the unit of interaction between the RAN node 111 and the CN 120. S1-AP layer services can include two groups: UE-related services and non-UE-related services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to, E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

[0073] The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 414 can ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 111 and the MME 121 based in part on the IP protocol supported by the IP layer 413. The L2 layer 412 and the L1 layer 411 can refer to communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) used by the RAN node and the MME to exchange information.

[0074] The RAN node 111 and the MME 121 may utilize an S1-MME interface to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer 411 , an L2 layer 412 , an IP layer 413 , an SCTP layer 414 , and an S1-AP layer 415 .

[0075] Figure 5 4 is a diagram of a user plane protocol stack according to some embodiments. In this embodiment, the user plane 500 is shown as a communication protocol stack between the UE 101 (or alternatively, the UE 102), the RAN node 111 (or alternatively, the RAN node 112), the S-GW 122, and the P-GW 123. The user plane 500 may utilize at least some of the same protocol layers as the control plane 400. For example, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including the PHY layer 401, the MAC layer 402, the RLC layer 403, and the PDCP layer 404.

[0076] The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for User Plane (GTP-U) layer 504 can be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the transmitted user data can be in any of IPv4, IPv6 and PPP formats. The UDP and IP Security (UDP / IP) layer 503 can provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data flows. The RAN node 111 and the S-GW 122 can utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including the L1 layer 411, the L2 layer 412, the UDP / IP layer 503 and the GTP-U layer 504. The S-GW 122 and the P-GW 123 can utilize the S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including the L1 layer 411, the L2 layer 412, the UDP / IP layer 503 and the GTP-U layer 504. As described above with respect to Figure 4 As discussed, the NAS protocol supports the mobility of UE 101 and session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between UE 101 and P-GW 123 .

[0077] Figure 6is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Figure 6 A diagram of hardware resources 600 is shown including one or more processors (or processor cores) 610, one or more memory / storage devices 620, and one or more communication resources 630, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 640. For embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., NFV), a hypervisor 602 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize hardware resources 600.

[0078] Processor 610 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) (such as a baseband processor), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), other processors, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processor 612 and processor 614.

[0079] The memory / storage device 620 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 620 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0080] The communication resources 630 may include interconnect or network interface components or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripheral devices 604 or one or more databases 606 via the network 608. For example, the communication resources 630 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via a universal serial bus (USB)), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, Components (e.g. ), components and other communication components.

[0081] The instructions 650 may include software, a program, an application, an applet, an application program, or other executable code for causing at least one of the processors 610 to implement any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 650 may reside, in whole or in part, within at least one of the processors 610 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 620, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the instructions 650 may reside on a tangible, non-volatile communication device-readable medium, which may include a single medium or multiple media. In addition, any portion of the instructions 650 may be transmitted to the hardware resource 600 from any combination of the peripheral device 604 or the database 606. Thus, the memory of the processor 610, the memory / storage device 620, the peripheral device 604, and the database 606 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0082] Carrier aggregation (CA) was introduced in LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) to increase the bandwidth of communications between eNB and UE, thereby increasing the bit rate. Each component carrier (CC) was initially designed in Release 8 / 9 with a bandwidth of up to 20 MHz and a maximum of five CC aggregations, which was increased to 32 CCs in Release 13. In some TDD embodiments, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC may be the same for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL). In other TDD embodiments, due to heavier downlink traffic loads, the number of DL CCs may be more than the uplink CCs. DL and UL CCs may be different and may or may not be contiguous.

[0083] As mentioned above, SRS was introduced to enable the eNB to determine channel quality by using reference signals transmitted by the UE. SRS switching can be used across different uplink carriers to obtain the desired amount of channel reciprocity gain from all uplink measurements. However, during SRS switching, the RF chain may switch between different frequencies. This can cause a disruption in the UE's UL / DL communications and may alter the current communication process between the UE and the eNB accordingly.

[0084] To eliminate the problems caused by the interruption caused by SRS switching, the SRS guard period is increased. Due to the timing involved in SRS switching, the subframes designed to be used as the guard period can change as the RF tuning time can be up to about 500μs. For example, this can depend on the configuration in each CC (e.g., FDD or TDD and frame structure). The interruption of network communications can be indicated by the UE. In addition to the tuning time associated with the retuning of the RF chain, the interruption can also include time related to the time advance. The time related to the time advance can indicate both the timing offset (Nta) and the fixed timing advance offset (Nta_offset) between the uplink and downlink radio frames at the UE, both of which are defined in clause 3.1 in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.211.

[0085] Figure 7 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between component carriers (CCs) according to some embodiments. The UE and eNB may be Figures 1 to 6 For convenience, only a few relevant subframes (SFs) of each of a pair of CCs are shown. Figure 7 The TDD (and FDD) UL / DL configurations in FIG are defined in 3GPP TS 36.211 as in other figures. Figure 7 UL and DL SFs at the UE and the eNB to which the UE is connected are shown. CC1 710 and CC2 720 are provided by the same eNB. The SFs shown may be, for example, SFs #5-8 of a frame.

[0086] exist Figure 7In the figure, the UE transmission (Tx) timing differences between CC1 710 and CC2 720 are not reflected. As shown in the figure, if the RF tuning time is 500 μs and the UE intends to send an SRS at UL SF #n+1 on CC2 720, the transmission is interrupted for the subsequent downlink pilot time slot (DwPts) 724 and uplink pilot time slot (UpPts) 726 on CC2 720, as well as a portion of DL SF #n on both CC1 710 and CC2 720. This occurs when the switching period 722 is greater than DwPts 724 and UpPts 726. In this case, the network (eNB and other network elements) can be aware of the switching period 722 and therefore cannot use DL SF #n+1 on CC1 710 and cannot receive UpPts on CC2 720. Similarly, the UE may be aware of DL SF #n+1 on CC1 710, and may not be able to receive DwPts 724 and a portion of DL SF #n on CC2 720, and may not be able to send UpPts 726 on CC2 720. Even though the network may attempt to minimize the impact of the outage, the network and the UE may still coordinate this behavior to avoid misscheduling or resource / power waste in transmission attempts. Therefore, it may be desirable for the network to know the exact RF tuning time (switching period) of the UE.

[0087] Figure 8 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between CCs according to some embodiments. As described above, each of the UE and the eNB may be Figures 1 to 6 One of the elements described in . Figure 8 UL and DL SFs of CC1 810 and CC2 820 at the UE and the eNB to which the UE is connected are shown.

[0088] As described above, the eNB and UE may know the RF tuning time, which may include the switching period 812 and Nta+Nta_offset 814. This may allow the UE and eNB to determine the number of SFs that the switching period 812 overlaps. Figure 8 In this case, the switching period 812+Nta+Nta_offset 814 is greater than 1 ms. In this case, the UE may not be able to receive DL SF #n+1 on CC1 810 and the end portion (e.g., the last one or two symbols) of DL SF #n on CC1 810. The behavior of the UE and the eNB may vary depending on whether the switching period 812 and Nta+Nta_offset 814 are greater than or less than 1 ms.

[0089] Figure 9 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between CCs according to some embodiments. As described above, each of the UE and the eNB may be Figures 1 to 6One of the elements described in . Figure 9 UL and DL SFs of CC1 910 and CC2 920 at the UE and the eNB to which the UE is connected are shown. Figure 8 and Figure 9 The timing diagram is different. Figure 9 In the embodiment of the present invention, CC1 910 and CC2 920 may operate using different communication schemes; in particular, CC1 910 may operate using an FDD communication scheme, while CC2 920 may operate using a TDD communication scheme.

[0090] like Figure 9 As shown, the UE can tune the RF chain from CC2 920 to another TDD CC, and the retuning can affect the UE's FDD CC 910. If Nta+Nta_offset 912 is greater than the switching period 922, only a portion of DL SF #n on CC1 910 can overlap with the switching period 922; otherwise, the end of DL SF #n and the beginning of DL SF #n+1 can overlap with the switching period 922. As described above, in order to determine the impact of SRS transmission and, thereby, the corresponding timing performance of both the eNB and the UE, both the eNB and the UE can determine whether (Nta+Nta_offset) 912 is greater than or less than the switching period 922.

[0091] exist Figures 7 to 9 In each of the embodiments shown in , the UE can determine the timing difference between CCs before communication occurs. This information can be provided from the UE to the eNB in ​​control information (such as RRC messaging). This can allow the UE and eNB to use the timing difference value to determine how the UE and eNB will behave. Based on the examples in the above figures, one or two subframes immediately before the UL subframe of the CC to which the UE switches can overlap with the RF tuning time, or one or two subframes immediately after the UL or DL ​​subframe of the CC from which the UE switches can overlap with the RF tuning time. An SRS guard period or interruption at the UE can be defined to align UE and eNB behavior. In various embodiments, depending on the RF tuning time, the UE can ignore the DL subframe or a portion of the DL subframe to ensure the entire UL SF transmission on the target carrier.

[0092] Various options may be used to indicate the network outage time. The UE may signal one or more different values ​​to the eNB. For example, the UE may signal the exact value of the RF tuning time to the eNB at some minimum granularity. The minimum granularity may be, for example, an OFDM symbol or a fraction of an OFDM symbol (e.g., 0.5 OFDM symbols). Alternatively or additionally, the UE may signal whether the amount (RF tuning time + Nta + Nta_offset) is greater than (or whether the amount is less than) the SF duration. In some embodiments, the SF duration may be 1 ms. Alternatively or additionally, the UE may signal whether the RF tuning time is greater than (or whether the RF tuning time is less than) Nta + Nta_offset. Reporting may be accomplished using RRC signaling or in-band signaling, such as using a MAC control element (CE) or a PDCP packet data unit (PDU). In the former case, the UE may transmit the RF tuning time during initial registration with the eNB, for example, via a UE-EUTRA-Capability information element (IE).

[0093] In some embodiments, the eNB may send a pre-scheduling request to the UE. The pre-scheduling request may be sent one or more SFs prior to the SRS transmission. In response, the UE may send an indication of the number of subframes affected by the SRS transmission. The eNB may then make a final scheduling decision to configure which subframe will be used to transmit the SRS on the target CC. The pre-scheduling request may indicate the UL SF on which the SRS will be transmitted. The eNB may use dedicated signaling, such as RRC signaling, or may use broadcast signaling, such as a System Information Block (SIB), to transmit the pre-scheduling request.

[0094] In some embodiments, SRS may be limited to be placed in the last symbol of the UL subframe and UpPts. Figure 10 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between CCs according to some embodiments. As described above, each of the UE and the eNB may be Figures 1 to 6 One of the elements described in . Figure 10 UL and DL SFs of CC1 1010 and CC2 1020 at the UE and the eNB to which the UE is connected are shown.

[0095] like Figure 10 As shown, the switching period 1022 in CC2 1020 may overlap with the end of DL SF#n, DwPts, and the beginning of UpPts. An SRS symbol 1024 is transmitted in the last symbol of UpPts of CC2 1020. Note that the UE Tx timing difference between CC1 and CC2 is not reflected. Figure 10In the embodiment shown, the RF tuning time is 500 μs. Therefore, the RF tuning time 1022 may interrupt the subsequent DwPts on CC2 and a portion of DL SF#n on both CC1 and CC2.

[0096] Therefore, the eNB, having been informed of the RF tuning time by the UE in an RRCConnectionRequest message (for example), can determine that DL SF #n+1 on CC1 cannot be used to send DL data to the UE. The UE can similarly determine that the UE cannot receive DL SF #n+1 on CC1, cannot receive DwPts and a portion of DL SF #n on CC2, and cannot send UpPts on CC2. Even if the eNB deliberately attempts to minimize the impact of the outage, it may be necessary to know the behavior of the eNB and UE to avoid misscheduling and resource / power waste; therefore, the eNB can be provided with the UE's exact RF tuning time (switching period).

[0097] Figure 11 A timing diagram illustrating a UE retuning between CCs according to some embodiments. As described above, each of the UE and the eNB may be Figures 1 to 6 One of the elements described in . Figure 11 UL and DL SFs of CC1 1110 and CC2 1120 at the UE and the eNB to which the UE is connected are shown.

[0098] exist Figure 11 In this example, the UE can be configured to transmit SRS symbols 1122 in UL SF #n+2 on CC2 1120. Therefore, the UE can complete RF tuning before the last symbol of UL SF #n+2 on CC2 1120. Here, the total time can be defined as RF tuning time 1122 + (Nta + Nta_offset) 1124 + normal OFDM symbol length (of the last OFDM symbol of UL SF #n+2) 1126. If the total time is greater than the subframe duration (e.g., 1 ms), DL SF #n+1 on CC1 1110 and DL SF #n+2 on CC2 1120 can overlap with the total time; otherwise, only DL SF #n+2 on CC1 can overlap. Therefore, the eNB and UE can determine which SFs are affected by SRS transmission based on the length of the total time (compared to the SF duration).

[0099] based on Figure 10 and Figure 11In a typical example, one or two SFs immediately preceding the SRS symbol of the CC being switched to (the CC to which the UE is switching) may overlap with the RF tuning time, or one or two subframes immediately following the UL or DL ​​SF of the CC being switched from (the CC to which the UE is switching) may overlap with the RF tuning time. To this end, an SRS guard period or interruption at the UE may be defined to align UE and eNB performance. The SFs for which the SRS guard period is set may vary depending on the total time. As described above, the eNB may send a pre-scheduling request before sending the SRS symbol.

[0100] As described above, a guard period can be created by the UE for SRS switching between TDD component carriers to mitigate the potential overlap issue described above. To create the guard period, in a first embodiment, the UE can avoid receiving the DL SF (e.g., SF #n-1) immediately preceding the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) on the CC to which it is switched from the same UE. This can occur on all configured CCs. Similarly, the UE can avoid transmitting the UL SF (e.g., SF #n-1) immediately preceding the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which it is switched from the same UE on all activated CCs. In addition, the UE can avoid receiving the DL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL or DL ​​SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which it is switched from the same UE on all configured CCs. Furthermore, the UE can avoid transmitting the UL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL or DL ​​SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which it is switched from the same UE on all activated CCs. The UE can create the guard period by avoiding some or all of the above operations.

[0101] To create another guard period, in a second embodiment, the UE may avoid receiving, on all configured CCs, the DL SF (e.g., SF #n-1) immediately preceding the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the same UE is switched. The UE may also avoid receiving, on all configured CCs, the last portion of the DL SF (e.g., SF #n-2) immediately preceding the SF (e.g., SF #n-1) preceding the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the same UE is switched. In addition, in addition to avoiding transmitting, on all activated CCs, the last portion of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n-2) immediately preceding the SF (e.g., SF #n-1) immediately preceding the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the same UE is switched, the UE may avoid transmitting, on all activated CCs, the UL SF (e.g., SF #n-1) immediately preceding the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the same UE is switched. In addition to avoiding receiving the first part of the DL SF (e.g., SF #n+2) immediately following the SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC switched from the same UE on all configured CCs, the UE may similarly avoid receiving the DL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC switched from the same UE on all configured CCs. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the UE may avoid transmitting the UL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC switched from the same UE on all activated CCs, and further avoid transmitting the first part of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n+2) immediately following the SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC switched from the same UE on all activated CCs. The UE may create a guard period by avoiding some or all of the above operations.

[0102] To create another guard period, in a third embodiment, the UE may avoid receiving the last part of the DL SF (e.g., SF #n-1) immediately preceding the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all configured CCs, and / or may avoid receiving the first part of the DL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all configured CCs. Furthermore, the UE may avoid transmitting the last part of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n-1) immediately preceding the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all activated CCs, and / or may avoid transmitting the first part of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all activated CCs. The UE may create a guard period by avoiding some or all of the above operations.

[0103] To create another guard period, in a fourth embodiment, the UE may avoid receiving a portion of the DL SF (e.g., SF #n) immediately preceding the SRS symbol of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all configured CCs, and / or may avoid receiving a DL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all configured CCs. Furthermore, the UE may avoid transmitting a portion of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) immediately preceding the SRS symbol of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all activated CCs, and / or may avoid transmitting a UL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all activated CCs. The UE may create a guard period by avoiding some or all of the above operations.

[0104] To create another guard period, in a fifth embodiment, the UE may avoid receiving, on all configured CCs, a portion of a DL SF (e.g., SF#n) immediately preceding the SRS symbol of the UL SF (e.g., SF#n) of the CC to which the UE is switched, and may avoid receiving, on all configured CCs, the last portion of a DL SF (e.g., SF#n−1) immediately preceding the SRS SF (e.g., SF#n) of the CC to which the UE is switched, and may avoid receiving, on all configured CCs, a DL SF (e.g., SF#n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF#n) of the CC to which the UE is switched, and / or may avoid receiving, on all configured CCs, the first portion of a DL SF (e.g., SF#n+2) immediately following the SF (e.g., SF#n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF#n) of the CC to which the UE is switched. In addition, the UE may avoid transmitting a portion of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) immediately preceding the SRS symbol of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switched, on all activated CCs, may avoid transmitting the last portion of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n-1) immediately preceding the SRS SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switched, on all activated CCs, may avoid transmitting the UL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switched, on all activated CCs, and / or may avoid transmitting the first portion of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n+2) immediately following the SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switched, on all activated CCs. The UE may create a guard period by avoiding some or all of the above operations.

[0105] To create another guard period, in a fifth embodiment, the UE may avoid receiving a portion of the DL SF (e.g., SF #n) immediately preceding the SRS symbol of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all configured CCs, and / or may avoid receiving the first portion of the DL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all configured CCs. Furthermore, the UE may avoid transmitting a portion of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) immediately preceding the SRS symbol of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all activated CCs, and / or may avoid transmitting the first portion of the UL SF (e.g., SF #n+1) immediately following the UL / DL SF (e.g., SF #n) of the CC to which the UE is switching, on all activated CCs. The UE may create a guard period by avoiding some or all of the above operations.

[0106] During the active time of PDCCH monitoring, if the SF is or is a part of an SRS switching protection subframe as indicated in one of the above embodiments, the UE may or may not monitor the PDCCH.

[0107] Figure 12 1200 is a flowchart associated with SRS transmission according to some embodiments. Figures 1 to 6 Both the UE and the eNB described in

[15] may be used. In some embodiments, some operations may not be used, while in other embodiments, other operations not shown may be present. A transmitting entity (UE or eNB) is configured to encode various signals for transmission over an interface, the transmitting entity is configured to communicate with a receiving entity (eNB or UE) over the interface, and the receiving entity is configured to decode the signals before further processing occurs.

[0108] In operation 1202, switching information may be reported from the UE to the network (eNB or another network entity). The switching information may include a numerical value of the RF tuning time with a minimum granularity x, where the unit of x may be Ts (e.g., 2048Ts) or 66.7μs or OFDM normal symbol length. Alternatively or additionally, the UE may use a single bit indicator to report whether the sum of (RF tuning time + Nta + Nta_offset) is greater than the SF duration (e.g., 1ms). Alternatively or additionally, the UE may use a single bit indicator to report whether the RF tuning time is greater than (Nta + Nta_offset). Alternatively or additionally, the UE may use a single bit indicator to report whether the sum of (RF tuning time + Nta + Nta_offset + OFDM symbol length for SRS transmission) is greater than the SF duration (e.g., 1ms). The UE may use RRC signaling or in-band signaling such as MAC CE or PDCP PDU to report some or all of the above information. In some embodiments,

[0109] In operation 1204, the UE may receive a pre-scheduling request from the eNB. The pre-scheduling request may be received one or more subframes prior to SRS transmission. The pre-scheduling request may also indicate on which UL SF the SRS will be transmitted. The eNB may use dedicated signaling for the UE, such as RRC signaling, or may use broadcast signaling (such as SIB) to send the pre-scheduling request.

[0110] In operation 1206, the UE may indicate in the SF impact information the number of subframes affected by the SRS transmission before the UL SF used for the SRS transmission. The NB may then determine a final schedule based on the information provided by the UE, which configures the UE on subframes in which the SRS will be transmitted on the target CC. The final schedule may be received and decoded at the UE.

[0111] At operation 1208, the UE may determine whether to perform measurements during the autonomous gap. The UE may indicate support for autonomous gaps in the UECapabilityInformation IE to the eNB. During the autonomous gap, the UE stops communication with the serving cell to perform measurements or read the MIB / SIB of a neighboring cell. The autonomous gap may be used to read the cell global identity (CGI) information of the cell. The UE may receive an indication from the eNB whether to use the autonomous gap.

[0112] If the eNB is not used, the UE may simply perform SRS transmission in operation 1218. The SRS transmission may occur based on the above-mentioned gap period.

[0113] When there is a conflict in the timing between the two procedures, depending on network rules, the UE behavior of using autonomous gap measurement and SRS transmission during the SRS carrier-based switching procedure may be different. In operation 1210, the UE may determine whether a conflict occurs between autonomous gap measurement and SRS transmission (when using autonomous gaps).

[0114] When a conflict occurs, the UE behavior may depend on the priority between autonomous gap measurement and SRS transmission. Therefore, in operation 1212, the UE may determine which has priority. As described above, this information may be provided via UE-specific signaling (such as RRC signaling) or cell or eNB-specific signaling (such as SIB).

[0115] At operation 1214, the UE may prioritize autonomous gap-based measurements. The UE may perform autonomous gap-based measurements, and if an SRS transmission collides with the autonomous gap-based measurements in the time domain, the UE may skip SRS carrier switching and SRS transmission. The autonomous gap-based measurements may be, for example, RSRP and / or RSRQ of the identified neighboring cells.

[0116] If the UE prioritizes SRS transmission in operation 1212, the UE performs SRS transmission in operation 1218. If the SRS transmission collides with the autonomous gap-based measurement in the time domain, the UE may skip part or all of the autonomous gap-based measurement. Thus, for example, if the SRS transmission completely overlaps with the autonomous gap-based measurement, the UE may completely skip the autonomous gap-based measurement, whereas if the SRS transmission only partially overlaps with the autonomous gap-based measurement, the UE may skip only the overlapping portion of the autonomous gap-based measurement and perform autonomous gap-based measurement for the remaining time. The partial measurement may include only one of RSRP and RSRQ measurements, limit the measurement to a specific channel of the neighboring cell, or read only the MIB (or SIB) of the neighboring cell, or limit the measurement to a smaller predetermined group of neighboring cells than the group measured in the entire autonomous gap-based measurement. The UE operation for autonomous gap-based measurement may be changed to:

[0117] T identify_CGI =T basic_identiiy_CGI +T margin

[0118] For intra-frequency and inter-frequency measurements. If the UE is configured to switch SRS carriers or SRS transmissions on some TDD carriers during the identification of a new CGI for an E-UTRA cell with autonomous gaps, the value T margin is the time delay caused by the switching based on the SRS carrier.

[0119] For intra-frequency measurements, the UE may not be provided with an explicit neighbor list identifying the new CGI of an E-UTRA cell, as neighboring cells use the same frequency. Instead, the UE may identify and report the CGI, as indicated by the reportCGI IE from the eNB, upon network request. According to clause 5.5.3.1 of TS 36.331, the UE may establish autonomous gaps for receiving MIB and SIB1 messages in both DL reception and UL transmission. Note that the UE may avoid using autonomous gaps if the si-RequestForHO IE from the eNB is set to false.

[0120] If autonomous gaps are used for measurement, the UE can identify the new CGI of the E-UTRA cell using the following formula, regardless of whether discontinuous reception (DRX) or eDRX CONN is used, or whether SCell is configured:

[0121] T identify_CGI,intra =T basic_identify_CGI,intra +T margin_intra

[0122] Among them, T basic_identify_CGi,intra = 150ms. This time period is used in the above equation, which defines the maximum allowed time for the UE to identify a new CGI of an E-UTRA cell, provided that the E-UTRA cell has been identified by the UE. margin_intra = x ms, where x is a non-negative value, for example, 10 or 20 or 40 or 50 or other values. If the UE is configured to transmit SRS on an SRS-only component carrier without PUSCH, the time delay caused by SRS carrier-based switching and / or SRS transmission on an SRS-only TDD component carrier without PUSCH on a secondary cell (SCell). The UE may transmit on a TDD CC with PUSCH in the primary cell (PCell), or may transmit on a TDD CC without PUSCH on the PCell. Otherwise, if SRS transmission is not configured on an SRS-only component carrier without PUSCH, T margin_intra =0ms.

[0123] Similarly, for inter-frequency measurements, the UE may not be provided with an explicit neighbor list identifying the new CGI for E-UTRA cells, as neighboring cells use the same frequency. Instead, the UE may identify and report the CGI, as indicated by the reportCGI IE from the eNB, upon network request. According to clause 5.5.3.1 of TS 36.331, the UE may establish autonomous gaps for receiving MIB and SIB1 messages in both DL reception and UL transmission. Note that the UE may avoid using autonomous gaps if the si-RequestForHO IE from the eNB is set to false.

[0124] If autonomous gaps are used for measurement, the UE can identify the new CGI of the E-UTRA cell using the following formula, regardless of whether discontinuous reception (DRX) or eDRX CONN is used, or whether SCell is configured:

[0125] T identify_CGI,inter =T basic_identify_CGI,inter +T margin_inter

[0126] Among them, T basic_identify_CGi,inter = 150ms. This time period is used in the above equation, which defines the maximum allowed time for the UE to identify a new CGI of an E-UTRA cell, provided that the E-UTRA cell has been identified by the UE. margin_inter = x ms, where x is a non-negative value, for example, 10 or 20 or 40 or 50 or other values. If the UE is configured to transmit SRS on an SRS-only component carrier without PUSCH, the time delay caused by SRS carrier-based switching and / or SRS transmission on an SRS-only component carrier without PUSCH. Otherwise, if SRS transmission is not configured on an SRS-only component carrier without PUSCH, T margin_inter =0ms.

[0127] Thus, both intra-frequency and inter-frequency measurements may have the same characteristics, such as timing. In other embodiments, identification times etc. may be different.

[0128] In some cases, autonomous gaps are used, but there may not be a conflict between autonomous gaps and SRS transmission. In this case, autonomous gap measurements may be performed by the UE in operation 1216. SRS transmission may then be performed in operation 1218.

[0129] Therefore, in TDD embodiments where the number of DL CCs can be greater than that of uplink CCs, TDD CCs can operate in the downlink without PUCCH / PUSCH. The UE can be configured with inter-CC SRS switching so that SRS can be transmitted on a TDD CC without PUCCH / PUSCH. When such SRS is transmitted on a TDD CC without PUCCH / PUSCH, the UE can transmit the SRS on the TDD CC or skip SRS transmission on the TDD CC based on the priority order of the inter-CC SRS switching operation.

[0130] Example

[0131] Example 1 is an apparatus of a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: an interface, the UE configured to communicate with an evolved NodeB (eNB) via the interface, the UE configured for time domain duplex (TDD) secondary cell (Scell) operation without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and processing circuitry arranged to: for transmission to the eNB via the interface, encode radio resource control (RRC) signaling including a UE-EUTRA-capability information element (IE), the UE-EUTRA-capability information element indicating At least one of: an interruption time in downlink (DL) reception within a frequency band pair during a radio frequency (RF) retuning for switching between frequency band pairs of a TDD component carrier (CC) of an SCell to send a sounding reference signal (SRS) on an SCell without PUSCH, and an interruption time in uplink (UL) reception within a frequency band pair during an RF retuning for switching between frequency band pairs to send SRS on an SCell without PUSCH; and encoding the SRS for transmission to the eNB via the interface after sending RRC signaling.

[0132] In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 includes, wherein: the RRC signaling indicates an interruption time on DL reception and an interruption time on UL reception in terms of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

[0133] In Example 3, the subject matter of Examples 1-2 includes, wherein: the RRC signaling indicates an interruption time on DL reception.

[0134] In Example 4, the subject matter of Examples 1-3 includes, wherein: the RRC signaling indicates an interruption time on UL reception.

[0135] In Example 5, the subject matter of Examples 1-4 includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: aggregate more downlink CCs than uplink CCs in TDD operation, at least one CC configured to operate in the downlink without at least one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a PUSCH, and configure SRS switching between CCs for SRS transmission on the at least one CC.

[0136] In Example 6, the subject matter of Example 5 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: configure SRS transmission or skip SRS transmission on at least one CC according to a priority order of operation of SRS switching between CCs.

[0137] In Example 7, the subject matter of Examples 1-6 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: decode a final schedule of SRS transmissions by the UE from the eNB; and, for transmission to the eNB, encode the SRS transmissions as indicated by the final schedule.

[0138] In Example 8, the subject matter of Example 7 includes, wherein: the processing circuit is further arranged to: after sending the RRC signaling, decode a pre-scheduling request from the eNB, the pre-scheduling request indicating on which UL subframe the SRS is to be sent; and, in response to the pre-scheduling request, for transmission to the eNB, encode impact information including the number of subframes affected by the SRS transmission before the UL subframe used for the SRS transmission, the final scheduling being based on the impact information.

[0139] In Example 9, the subject matter of Examples 1-8 includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: encode support for autonomous gaps in RRC signaling; in response to the indication of support for autonomous gaps, decode from the eNB an indication from the eNB to use the autonomous gaps, the indication from the eNB to use the autonomous gaps comprising an si-RequestForHO information element; and in response to the indication to use the autonomous gaps, cease communication with the serving cell and use the autonomous gaps by one of performing measurements on the neighboring cell and reading system information of the neighboring cell during the autonomous gaps.

[0140] In Example 10, the subject matter of Example 9 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: determine that there is a conflict between uses of the autonomous gaps; determine that use of the autonomous gaps takes precedence over SRS transmission; and skip SRS carrier switching and SRS transmission in response to determining that use of the autonomous gaps takes precedence over SRS transmission.

[0141] In Example 11, the subject matter of Examples 9-10 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: determine that there is a conflict between uses of the autonomous gaps; determine that SRS transmission takes precedence over use of the autonomous gaps; and skip at least a portion of use of the autonomous gaps in response to determining that SRS transmission takes precedence over use of the autonomous gaps.

[0142] In Example 12, the subject matter of Examples 1-11 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: for intra-frequency and inter-frequency measurements, use: Tidentify_CGI=Tbasic_identify_CGI+Tmargin, wherein, if the UE is configured to switch SRS carriers or SRS transmissions on a TDD carrier during identification of a new cell global identity (CGI) for a cell with an autonomous gap, then Tmargin is a time delay caused by the SRS carrier-based switching, and Tbasic_identify_CGI=a first predetermined period.

[0143] In Example 13, the subject matter of Examples 1-12 includes, wherein: the processing circuit comprises a baseband processor configured to encode transmissions to the eNB and decode transmissions from the eNB.

[0144] Example 14 is an apparatus of an evolved NodeB (eNB), the apparatus comprising: an interface, the eNB configured to communicate with a user equipment (UE) through the interface; and processing circuitry arranged to: decode radio resource control (RRC) signaling received from the UE through the interface, the RRC signaling indicating at least one of an interruption time on an uplink (UL) and an interruption time on a downlink (DL) within a frequency band pair during radio frequency (RF) retuning for switching a sounding reference signal (SRS) between frequency band pairs of a time domain duplex (TDD) component carrier (CC) to transmit the SRS; For transmission to a UE over an interface, encoding a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) formed according to a downlink control information (DCI) format, the DCI format indicating a request for an SRS transmission; and decoding the SRS transmission from the UE after transmitting the PDCCH, wherein more downlink CCs are aggregated than uplink CCs in TDD operation of the UE, and wherein at least one of the CCs of the frequency band pair is configured to operate without at least one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0145] In Example 15, the subject matter of Example 14 includes, wherein: the RRC signaling indicates at least one of the UL and DL interruption times in terms of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

[0146] In Example 16, the subject matter of Examples 14-15 includes, wherein at least one of the UL and DL interruption times is used to transmit the SRS on a secondary cell (SCell) without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0147] In Example 17, the subject matter of Examples 14-16 includes, wherein at least one of the UL and DL interruption times is indicated by a UE-EUTRA-Capability information element (IE) of RRC signaling.

[0148] In Example 18, the subject matter of Examples 14-17 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: configure SRS transmission or skip SRS transmission on at least one CC according to a priority order of operation of SRS switching between CCs.

[0149] In Example 19, the subject matter of Examples 14-18 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: decode the UE's final schedule of SRS transmissions from the eNB; and, for transmission to the eNB, encode the SRS transmissions as indicated by the final schedule.

[0150] In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19 includes, wherein: the processing circuit is further arranged to: after sending the RRC signaling, decode a pre-scheduling request from the eNB, the pre-scheduling request indicating on which UL subframe the SRS is to be sent; and, in response to the pre-scheduling request, for transmission to the eNB, encode impact information including the number of subframes affected by the SRS transmission before the UL subframe used for the SRS transmission, the final scheduling being based on the impact information.

[0151] In Example 21, the subject matter of Examples 14-20 includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: encode support for autonomous gaps in RRC signaling; in response to the indication of support for autonomous gaps, decode from the eNB an indication from the eNB to use the autonomous gaps, the indication from the eNB to use the autonomous gaps comprising an si-RequestForHO information element; and in response to the indication to use the autonomous gaps, cease communication with the serving cell and use the autonomous gaps by one of performing measurements on the neighboring cell and reading system information of the neighboring cell during the autonomous gaps.

[0152] In Example 22, the subject matter of Example 21 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: determine that there is a conflict between uses of the autonomous gaps; determine that use of the autonomous gaps takes precedence over SRS transmission; and skip SRS carrier switching and SRS transmission in response to determining that use of the autonomous gaps takes precedence over SRS transmission.

[0153] In Example 23, the subject matter of Examples 21-22 includes, wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to: determine that there is a conflict between uses of the autonomous gaps; determine that SRS transmission takes precedence over use of the autonomous gaps; and skip at least a portion of use of the autonomous gaps in response to determining that SRS transmission takes precedence over use of the autonomous gaps.

[0154] Example 24 is a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), the one or more processors being configured to, when executing the instructions, configure the UE to: send radio resource control (RRC) signaling to an evolved NodeB (eNB), the RRC signaling indicating at least one of an uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) interruption time within a frequency band pair during a radio frequency (RF) retuning for switching between frequency band pairs to send a sounding reference signal (SRS); receive a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) formed according to a downlink control information (DCI) format, the DCI format indicating a request for SRS transmission; and, after receiving the PDCCH, send an SRS transmission from the UE.

[0155] In Example 25, the subject matter of Example 24 includes, wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processors to configure the UE to: aggregate more downlink component carriers (CCs) than uplink component carriers (CCs) in time domain duplex (TDD) operation, at least one CC configured to operate in the downlink without at least one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and configure SRS switching between CCs for SRS transmission on the at least one CC.

[0156] In Example 26, the subject matter of Example 25 includes, wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processors to configure the UE to configure SRS transmission or skip SRS transmission on at least one CC according to a priority order of operation of SRS switching between CCs.

[0157] Example 27 is a method for providing a guard period in a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: sending radio resource control (RRC) signaling to an evolved NodeB (eNB), the RRC signaling indicating at least one of an uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) interruption time within a frequency band pair during a radio frequency (RF) retuning for switching between frequency band pairs to send a sounding reference signal (SRS); receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) formed according to a downlink control information (DCI) format, the DCI format indicating a request for SRS transmission; and sending the SRS transmission from the UE after receiving the PDCCH.

[0158] In Example 28, the subject matter of Example 27 includes aggregating more downlink component carriers (CCs) than uplink component carriers (CCs) in time domain duplex (TDD) operation, at least one CC configured to operate in the downlink without at least one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and configuring SRS switching between CCs for SRS transmission on the at least one CC.

[0159] In Example 29, the subject matter of Example 28 includes configuring SRS transmission or skipping SRS transmission on at least one CC according to a priority order of an operation of SRS switching between CCs.

[0160] Example 30 is a device of a user equipment (UE), comprising: a module for sending radio resource control (RRC) signaling to an evolved NodeB (eNB), the RRC signaling indicating at least one of uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) interruption times within a frequency band pair during a radio frequency (RF) retuning for switching between frequency band pairs to send a sounding reference signal (SRS); a module for receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) formed according to a downlink control information (DCI) format, the DCI format indicating a request for SRS transmission; and a module for sending an SRS transmission from the UE after receiving the PDCCH.

[0161] In Example 31, the subject matter of Example 30 includes means for aggregating more downlink component carriers (CCs) than uplink component carriers (CCs) in time domain duplex (TDD) operation, at least one CC configured to operate in the downlink without at least one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and means for configuring SRS switching between CCs for SRS transmission on the at least one CC.

[0162] In Example 32, the subject matter of Example 31 includes means for configuring SRS transmission or skipping SRS transmission on at least one CC according to a priority order of operation of SRS switching between CCs.

[0163] Example 33 is at least one machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing circuit, cause the processing circuit to perform operations for implementing any of Examples 1-32.

[0164] Example 34 is an apparatus comprising modules implementing any of Examples 1-32.

[0165] Example 35 is a system implementing any of Examples 1-32.

[0166] Example 36 is a method of implementing any of Examples 1-32.

[0167] Although the embodiments have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it is apparent that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the description and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative and not restrictive. The drawings forming a part thereof show, by way of illustration and not limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. The illustrated embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the disclosed teachings herein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom so that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, this detailed description should not be regarded as having a limiting meaning, and the scope of the various embodiments is limited only by the appended claims and the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

[0168] The subject matter of this document may be referred to individually and / or collectively by the term "embodiment" for convenience only, and in the case where multiple inventive concepts are in fact disclosed, it is not intended to actively limit the scope of this application to any single inventive concept. Therefore, although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be understood that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may replace the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all modifications or variations of the various embodiments. Combinations of the above embodiments, as well as other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the above description.

[0169] In this document, as is common in patent documents, the words "a" or "an" are used to include one or more, independent of any other instance or usage of "at least one" or "one or more." Unless otherwise noted, in this document, the word "or" is used to refer to non-exclusivity, or such that "A or B" includes "A, but not B," "B, but not A," and "A and B." In this document, the words "include" and "in which" are used as equivalents to the corresponding words "comprise" and "wherein." Moreover, in the appended claims, the words "include" and "comprising" are open-ended; that is, systems, UEs, articles, compositions, formulas, or processes that include elements other than those listed after such words in a claim are still considered to fall within the scope of the claim. In addition, in the appended claims, the words "first," "second," and "third," etc. are used merely as labels and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

[0170] The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with the requirement of 37 CFR §1.72(b) for an abstract that will enable the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Additionally, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, the inventive subject matter lies in less than all the features of a single disclosed embodiment. Accordingly, the claims appended hereto are included in the Detailed Description, each of which may stand on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising: encoding radio resource control (RRC) signaling for transmission to a base station, the RRC signaling indicating an interruption time on an uplink (UL), the interruption time including an RF tuning time for performing RF retuning to transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the first carrier when the first carrier is configured without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the RF tuning time including a switching period for switching from a second carrier to the first carrier; encoding the SRS on the first carrier configured without PUSCH and with time division duplexing (TDD) for transmission to the base station; as well as During the blackout time, no transmission is performed on the second carrier.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The RRC signaling indicates an interruption time on downlink DL reception.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: More downlink CCs than uplink component carriers CCs are aggregated in TDD operation, wherein at least one CC is configured to operate in downlink without at least one of a physical uplink control channel PUCCH or the PUSCH.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: Inter-CC SRS switching is configured on the at least one CC.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising: The SRS transmission is configured or skipped on the at least one CC without a PUCCH or a PUSCH according to a priority order of an operation of SRS switching between CCs.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: decoding a final schedule for SRS transmission from the base station; as well as The SRS transmission as indicated by the final schedule is encoded for transmission to the base station.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising: After sending the RRC signaling, decoding a pre-scheduling request from the base station, the pre-scheduling request indicating on which UL subframe the SRS is to be sent; as well as In response to the pre-scheduling request, encoding impact information for transmission to the base station, the impact information comprising a number of subframes affected by the SRS transmission before the UL subframe used for the SRS transmission, wherein the final scheduling is based on the impact information.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: encoding support for autonomous gaps in the RRC signaling; In response to the indication of support for the autonomous gaps, decoding from the base station an indication to use the autonomous gaps, the indication to use the autonomous gaps comprising an si-RequestForHO information element; and In response to the indication for using the autonomous gap, communication with the serving cell is stopped, and the autonomous gap is used by one of performing measurement on a neighboring cell and reading system information of the neighboring cell during the autonomous gap.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising: determining that a conflict exists between uses of the autonomous gaps; determining that use of the autonomous gap takes precedence over the SRS transmission; as well as SRS carrier switching and the SRS transmission are skipped in response to determining that use of the autonomous gap takes precedence over the SRS transmission.

10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising: determining that a conflict exists between uses of the autonomous gaps; determining that the SRS transmission takes precedence over use of the autonomous gap; as well as At least a portion of use of the autonomous gap is skipped in response to determining that the SRS transmission takes precedence over use of the autonomous gap.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: For intra-frequency and inter-frequency measurements, use: Tidentify_CGI=Tbasic_identify_CGI+Tmargin In response to a configuration for switching the SRS carrier or SRS transmission on a TDD carrier during identification of a new cell global identity (CGI) of a cell with an autonomous gap, Tmargin is the time delay caused by the switching of the SRS carrier, and Tbasic_identify_CGI=first predetermined period.

12. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising a processor configured to cause a user equipment device to implement the method according to any one of the preceding claims.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising a radio operatively coupled to the processor.

14. A method for wireless communication, comprising: receiving radio resource control (RRC) signaling from a user equipment (UE), the RRC signaling indicating an interruption time on an uplink (UL), the interruption time including an RF tuning time for performing RF retuning to send a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the first carrier when the first carrier is configured without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the RF tuning time including a switching period from a second carrier to the first carrier; receiving, from the UE, the SRS on the first carrier configured without a PUSCH and with time division duplexing (TDD); as well as During the outage time, no reception is performed from the UE on the second carrier.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein The RRC signaling indicates an interruption time on downlink DL reception.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising: More downlink CCs than uplink component carriers CCs are aggregated in TDD operation, wherein at least one CC is configured to operate in downlink without at least one of a physical uplink control channel PUCCH or the PUSCH.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising: Inter-CC SRS switching is configured on the at least one CC.

18. The method according to claim 14, further comprising: sending a final schedule for SRS transmission to the UE; as well as The SRS transmission as indicated by the final schedule is encoded for transmission to the base station.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising: After receiving the RRC signaling, sending a pre-scheduling request to the UE, where the pre-scheduling request indicates on which UL subframe the SRS is to be sent; as well as In response to the pre-scheduling request, impact information is received from the UE, the impact information including a number of subframes affected by the SRS transmission before the UL subframe used for the SRS transmission, wherein the final scheduling is based on the impact information.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising: receiving support for autonomous gaps in the RRC signaling; as well as In response to the indication of support for the autonomous gap, an indication for using the autonomous gap is sent to the UE, the indication for using the autonomous gap comprising an si-RequestForHO information element.

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