Apparatus and method for wireless communication, and wireless device

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to techniques for scheduling multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission in a wireless communication system. A wireless device may determine a beam configuration for receiving multiple downlink transport blocks scheduled by the single downlink control transmission. In some instances, the wireless device may be configured to skip one or more control channel monitoring opportunities that overlap with these downlink transport blocks. The wireless device may provide hybrid automatic repeat request feedback for these downlink transport blocks.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present patent application relates to wireless communications, and more particularly to systems, apparatus, and methods for scheduling multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission in a wireless communication system.

[0002] Description of Related Technology

[0003] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In recent years, wireless devices such as smartphones and tablets have become increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting phone calls, many mobile devices (i.e., user equipment devices or UEs) now also provide access to the Internet, email, text messaging, and navigation using the Global Positioning System (GPS), and are capable of operating complex and sophisticated applications that utilize these capabilities. In addition, there are many different wireless communication technologies and wireless communication standards. Some examples of wireless communication standards include GSM, UMTS (e.g., associated with WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, Advanced LTE (LTE-A), NR, HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN or Wi-Fi), BLUETOOTH™, etc.

[0004] The introduction of an ever-increasing number of features and functions in wireless communication devices also requires continuous improvements in wireless communication and improvements in wireless communication devices. Of particular importance is ensuring the accuracy of signals transmitted and received by user equipment (UE) devices (e.g., by wireless devices such as cellular phones, base stations, and relay stations used in wireless cellular communications). Furthermore, increasing the functionality of UE devices can place a significant strain on the battery life of the UE devices. Therefore, it is also very important to reduce the power requirements in UE device designs while allowing the UE devices to maintain good transmit and receive capabilities to improve communications. Therefore, improvements are desired in this area. Summary of the Invention

[0005]

[0014] Embodiments of apparatus, systems, and methods are presented herein for scheduling multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission in a wireless communication system.

[0006] The techniques presented herein include methods for determining a beam configuration for receiving multiple downlink transport blocks scheduled by a single downlink control transmission.

[0007] Additionally, techniques are presented herein for configuring a wireless device to skip one or more control channel monitoring opportunities that overlap in time with a group of multiple downlink transport blocks scheduled by a single downlink control transmission.

[0008] Also described herein are techniques for configuring opportunities to provide control information within a group of multiple downlink transport blocks scheduled by a single downlink control transmission, such as using a downlink shared channel instead of a downlink control channel.

[0009] Furthermore, techniques are presented herein for configuring and providing hybrid automatic repeat request feedback for a set of multiple downlink transport blocks scheduled by a single downlink control transmission, which can increase the likelihood that the hybrid automatic repeat request codebook size used for such transmissions is aligned between the wireless device and the cellular base station.

[0010] Note that the techniques described herein may be implemented and / or used with a number of different types of devices, including but not limited to base stations, access points, mobile phones, portable media players, tablet computers, wearable devices, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned flight controllers, automobiles and / or motor vehicles, and various other computing devices.

[0011] This summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the subject matter described in this document. Therefore, it should be understood that the above-described features are merely examples and should not be construed as narrowing the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the following detailed description, accompanying drawings, and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] A better understanding of the present subject matter may be obtained when the following detailed description of various embodiments is considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

[0013] Figure 1 An exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication system according to some embodiments is shown;

[0014] Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary base station in communication with an exemplary wireless user equipment (UE) device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0015] Figure 3 is an exemplary block diagram of a UE according to some embodiments;

[0016] Figure 4 is an exemplary block diagram of a base station according to some embodiments;

[0017] Figure 5 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of an exemplary possible method for scheduling multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission in a wireless communication system according to some embodiments;

[0018] Figures 6 and 7 illustrates exemplary possible aspects of a scenario in which a single downlink control transmission is used to schedule multiple downlink transmissions according to some embodiments;

[0019] Figures 8 and 9 Illustrative aspects of various possible methods for performing transmission control indicator selection in a scenario where multiple downlink transmissions are scheduled using a single downlink control transmission are shown according to some embodiments;

[0020] Figures 10 and 11 illustrates exemplary aspects of possible techniques for signaling a default transmission control indicator for downlink transmissions in scenarios where multiple downlink transmissions may be scheduled using a single downlink control transmission, according to some embodiments;

[0021] Figure 12 illustrates exemplary aspects of another possible technique for signaling a default transmission control indicator for downlink transmissions in a scenario where multiple downlink transmissions may be scheduled using a single downlink control transmission, according to some embodiments;

[0022] Figure 13 illustrates exemplary aspects of possible techniques for eliminating certain control signal monitoring opportunities in scenarios where multiple downlink transmissions can be scheduled using a single downlink control transmission, according to some embodiments;

[0023] Figures 14 to 21 illustrates exemplary aspects of further possible techniques for configuring skipping of certain control signal monitoring opportunities in scenarios where multiple downlink transmissions may be scheduled using a single downlink control transmission, according to some embodiments;

[0024] Figures 22 to 23 illustrates exemplary aspects of possible techniques for determining downlink control information formats and payload sizes in scenarios where a single downlink control transmission may be used to schedule multiple downlink transmissions, according to some embodiments;

[0025] Figures 24 to 26 illustrates exemplary aspects of various possible techniques for providing downlink control information on a downlink shared channel in scenarios where a single downlink control transmission may be used to schedule multiple downlink transmissions, according to some embodiments;

[0026] Figure 27 illustrates exemplary aspects of possible downlink assignment index designs for use in scenarios where a single downlink control transmission may be used to schedule multiple downlink transmissions, according to some embodiments;

[0027] Figure 28 illustrates exemplary aspects of scenarios in which such a downlink assignment index design may produce improved results compared to existing downlink assignment index designs, according to some embodiments; and

[0028] Figures 29 to 32

[0046] Example aspects of various possible techniques for signaling downlink assignment index configurations for scenarios where multiple downlink transmissions may be scheduled using a single downlink control transmission are shown in accordance with some embodiments.

[0029] While the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereof are not intended to limit this disclosure to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] Acronyms

[0031] Various acronyms are used throughout this disclosure. The definitions of the most prominent acronyms used that may appear throughout this disclosure are as follows:

[0032] UE: User Equipment

[0033] RF: Radio Frequency

[0034] BS: Base Station

[0035] GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

[0036] UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

[0037] LTE: Long Term Evolution

[0038] NR: New Radio

[0039] TX: Transmit

[0040] RX: Receive

[0041] RAT: Radio Access Technology

[0042] TRP: Transmission Reception Point

[0043] DCI: Downlink Control Information

[0044] CORESET: Control resource set

[0045] QCL: Quasi-co-location or quasi-co-location

[0046] the term

[0047] The following is a glossary of terms that will appear in this disclosure:

[0048] Memory medium—any of various types of non-transitory memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory medium" is intended to include installation media, such as CD-ROMs, floppy disks, or tape devices; computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory such as flash memory, magnetic media, for example, hard drives or optical storage devices; registers or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium may also include other types of non-transitory memory or a combination thereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in the first computer system executing the program, or may be located in a different second computer system connected to the first computer system via a network such as the Internet. In the latter example, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer system for execution. The term "memory medium" may include two or more memory media that may reside in different locations in different computer systems connected, for example, via a network. The memory medium may store program instructions (e.g., represented as a computer program) that may be executed by one or more processors.

[0049] Carrier Medium—storage media as described above and physical transmission media such as a bus, network, and / or other physical transmission media that transport signals such as electrical, electromagnetic, or digital signals.

[0050] Computer system (or computer) - any of various types of computing or processing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), a mainframe computer system, a workstation, a network appliance, an Internet appliance, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a television system, a grid computing system, or other devices or combinations of devices. In general, the term "computer system" can be broadly defined as any device (or combination of devices) that includes at least one processor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

[0051] User Equipment (UE) (or "UE device") - any of various types of computer systems or devices that are mobile or portable and that perform wireless communication. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smartphones (e.g., iPhones, TM , based on Android TM phones), tablets (e.g., iPad TM 、Samsung Galaxy TM ), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS TMPlayStation Portable TM 、Gameboy Advance TM , iPhone TM ), wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses), laptops, PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, other handheld devices, cars and / or motor vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (e.g., drones), UAV controllers (UACs), etc. In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" can be broadly defined to cover any electronic device, computing device, and / or telecommunication device (or combination of these devices) that is easily transportable by a user and capable of wireless communication.

[0052] Wireless Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform wireless communications. A wireless device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed in place. A UE is an example of a wireless device.

[0053] Communication Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communication, where the communication may be wired or wireless. A communication device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed in place. A wireless device is one example of a communication device. A UE is another example of a communication device.

[0054] Base Station (BS)—The term “base station” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone system or radio system.

[0055] Processing element (or processor) – refers to any element or combination of elements capable of performing functions in a device, such as a user equipment device or a cellular network device. A processing element may include, for example, a processor and associated memory, portions or circuits of individual processor cores, entire processor cores, processor arrays, circuits such as ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), programmable hardware elements such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and any combination thereof.

[0056] Wi-Fi - The term "Wi-Fi" has the full scope of its ordinary meaning and includes at least wireless communication networks, or RATs, that are served by wireless LAN (WLAN) access points and provide connectivity to the Internet through these access points. Most modern Wi-Fi networks (or WLAN networks) are based on the IEEE 802.11 standard and are marketed under the name "Wi-Fi." Wi-Fi (WLAN) networks are distinct from cellular networks.

[0057] Automatic—refers to an action or operation being performed by a computer system (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or a device (e.g., a circuit, a programmable hardware element, an ASIC, etc.) without requiring user input to directly specify or execute the action or operation. Thus, the term "automatic" is in contrast to manual execution or specification of an action by a user, where the user provides input to directly perform the action. An automatic process may be initiated by user-provided input, but subsequent actions performed "automatically" are not specified by the user, i.e., they are not performed "manually," where the user specifies each action to be performed. For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typing information, selecting checkboxes, radio selections, etc.) is manually filling out the form, even though the computer system must update the form in response to the user's actions. The form can be automatically filled out by a computer system, where the computer system (e.g., software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of the form and fills it out without requiring any user input to specify the answers to the fields. As indicated above, a user can invoke automatic filling of a form without participating in the actual filling out of the form (e.g., the user does not manually specify the answers to the fields; they are automatically completed). This specification provides various examples of operations that are automatically performed in response to actions that a user has taken.

[0058] Configured to - Various components may be described as being "configured to" perform one or more tasks. In such contexts, "configured to" is a broad statement that generally means "having the structure" to perform one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently performing the task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors can be configured to electrically connect a module to another module even when the two modules are not connected). In some contexts, "configured to" can be a broad statement that generally means "having the circuitry" to carry out one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently turned on. Generally, the circuitry that forms the structure corresponding to "configured to" may include hardware circuitry.

[0059] For ease of description, various components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such descriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase "configured to." Representing a component as being configured to perform one or more tasks expressly does not invoke the sixth paragraph of section 112 of title 35 of the United States Code for that component.

[0060] Figure 1 and Figure 2 -Exemplary Communication System

[0061] Figure 1 An exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication system is shown in which various aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented according to some embodiments. Figure 1 The system is only one example of a possible system, and the embodiment may be implemented in any of a variety of systems as desired.

[0062] As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a base station 102 that communicates with one or more (e.g., any number) user devices 106A, 106B, and so on through 106N via a transmission medium. Each user device may be referred to herein as a "user equipment" (UE) or a UE device. Accordingly, user device 106 is referred to as a UE or a UE device.

[0063] Base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site and may include hardware and / or software that enables wireless communication with UEs 106A to 106N. If base station 102 is implemented in the context of LTE, it may be referred to as an "eNodeB" or "eNB." If base station 102 is implemented in the context of 5G NR, it may alternatively be referred to as a "gNodeB" or "gNB." Base station 102 may also be equipped to communicate with network 100 (e.g., a core network of a cellular service provider, a telecommunications network such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, among various other possible networks). Thus, base station 102 may facilitate communication between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. The communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a "cell." Also as used herein, with respect to a UE, a base station may sometimes be considered to represent the network, taking into account the UE's uplink and downlink communications. Thus, a UE communicating with one or more base stations in a network may also be understood as a UE communicating with the network.

[0064] The base station 102 and the user equipment may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using any of a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), also known as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE, Advanced LTE (LTE-A), LAA / LTE-U, 5G NR, 3GPP2, CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, and the like.

[0065] Base station 102 and other similar base stations operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards may thus be provided as one or more cell networks that may provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UE 106 and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0066] Note that the UE 106 is capable of communicating using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using either or both of the 3GPP cellular communication standard or the 3GPP2 cellular communication standard. In some embodiments, the UE 106 may be configured to perform techniques for receiving multiple downlink transmissions scheduled using a single downlink control transmission in a wireless communication system, such as according to the various methods described herein. The UE 106 may also or alternatively be configured to use WLAN, BLUETOOTH, or a combination thereof. TM , one or more global navigation satellite systems (GNSS, such as GPS or GLONASS), one and / or more mobile television broadcast standards (e.g., ATSC-M / H), etc. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including more than two wireless communication standards) are also possible.

[0067] Figure 2 An exemplary user equipment 106 (e.g., one of devices 106A to 106N) in communication with a base station 102 according to some embodiments is shown. UE 106 can be a device with wireless network connectivity, such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, a wearable device, a computer or tablet, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an unmanned flight controller (UAC), a car, or virtually any type of wireless device. UE 106 may include a processor (processing element) configured to execute program instructions stored in a memory. UE 106 can execute any of the method embodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or in addition, UE 106 may include a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), an integrated circuit, and / or any of various other possible hardware components configured to execute (e.g., individually or in combination) any one of the method embodiments described herein or any part of any one of the method embodiments described herein. UE 106 can be configured to communicate using any one of a plurality of wireless communication protocols. For example, UE 106 may be configured to communicate using two or more of CDMA2000, LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, WLAN, or GNSS. Other combinations of wireless communication standards are also possible.

[0068] UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols according to one or more RAT standards. In some embodiments, UE 106 may share one or more portions of a receive chain and / or transmit chain between multiple wireless communication standards. The shared radio components may include a single antenna, or may include multiple antennas for performing wireless communication (e.g., for MIMO). Typically, the radio components may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog radio frequency (RF) signal processing circuits (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuits (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, the radio components may implement one or more receive chains and transmit chains using the aforementioned hardware.

[0069] In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include a separate transmit chain and / or receive chain (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol with which it is configured to communicate. As another possibility, the UE 106 may include one or more radio components shared between multiple wireless communication protocols, and one or more radio components used uniquely by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, the UE 106 may include shared radio components for communicating using any of LTE or CDMA2000 1xRTT (or LTE or NR, or LTE or GSM), and shared radio components for communicating using Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH. TM Each of the radio components communicates independently. Other configurations are also possible.

[0070] Figure 3 - Block diagram of an exemplary UE device

[0071] Figure 3A block diagram of an exemplary UE 106 according to some embodiments is shown. As shown, the UE 106 may include a system on a chip (SOC) 300, which may include components for various purposes. For example, as shown, the SOC 300 may include a processor 302 that can execute program instructions for the UE 106, and a display circuit 304 that can perform graphics processing and provide display signals to a display 360. The SOC 300 may also include sensor circuitry 370, which may include components for sensing or measuring any of various possible characteristics or parameters of the UE 106. For example, the sensor circuitry 370 may include motion sensing circuitry configured to detect the motion of the UE 106, for example, using a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and / or any of various other motion sensing components. As another possibility, the sensor circuitry 370 may include one or more temperature sensing components, for example, for measuring the temperature of each of one or more antenna panels and / or other components of the UE 106. Any of various other possible types of sensor circuitry may also or alternatively be included in the UE 106, as desired. Processor 302 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from processor 302 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read-only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310) and / or other circuits or devices, such as display circuitry 304, radio 330, connector I / F 320, and / or display 360. MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or setup. In some embodiments, MMU 340 may be included as part of processor 302.

[0072] As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE 106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g., including NAND flash memory 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for coupling to a computer system, a docking station, a charging station, etc.), a display 360, and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR, CDMA2000, BLUETOOTH, etc.). TM, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.). The UE device 106 may include at least one antenna (e.g., 335a), and may include multiple antennas (e.g., as shown by antennas 335a and 335b), for performing wireless communications with base stations and / or other devices. Antennas 335a and 335b are shown by way of example, and the UE device 106 may include fewer or more antennas. In general, the one or more antennas are collectively referred to as antennas 335. For example, the UE device 106 may use antennas 335 with the aid of radio circuitry 330 to perform wireless communications. As described above, in some embodiments, the UE may be configured to perform wireless communications using multiple wireless communication standards.

[0073] The UE 106 may include hardware and software components for implementing the method for the UE 106 to perform techniques for receiving multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission schedule in a wireless communication system, such as described further herein. The processor 302 of the UE device 106 may be configured to implement a portion or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments, the processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). In addition, the processor 302 may be coupled to a processor such as a processor 106. Figure 3 106 to perform techniques for receiving multiple downlink transmissions scheduled using a single downlink control transmission in a wireless communication system in accordance with various embodiments disclosed herein. The processor 302 may also implement various other applications and / or end-user applications running on the UE 106.

[0074] In some embodiments, radio 330 may include separate controllers dedicated to controlling communications for various corresponding RAT standards. Figure 3 As shown, the radio component 330 may include a Wi-Fi controller 352, a cellular controller (eg, an LTE and / or LTE-A controller) 354, and a BLUETOOTH controller. TM Controller 356, and in at least some embodiments, one or more or all of these controllers may be implemented as respective integrated circuits (ICs or chips) that communicate with each other and with SOC 300 (more specifically, with processor 302). For example, Wi-Fi controller 352 may communicate with cellular controller 354 via a cell-ISM link or WCI interface, and / or BLUETOOTH controller 354 may communicate with the cellular controller 354 via a cell-ISM link or WCI interface. TMThe controller 356 may communicate with the cellular controller 354 via a cell-ISM link, etc. Although three separate controllers are shown within the radio 330, other embodiments may be implemented in the UE device 106 having fewer or more similar controllers for various different RATs.

[0075] Additionally, embodiments are contemplated in which the controller can implement functionality associated with multiple radio access technologies. For example, according to some embodiments, in addition to hardware and / or software components for performing cellular communications, the cellular controller 354 can also include hardware and / or software components for performing one or more activities associated with Wi-Fi, such as Wi-Fi preamble detection, and / or generation and transmission of Wi-Fi physical layer preamble signals.

[0076] Figure 4 - Block diagram of an exemplary base station

[0077] Figure 4 1 shows a block diagram of an exemplary base station 102 according to some embodiments. Note that Figure 4 The base station 102 is only one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 or other circuit or device that may be configured to receive addresses from the processor 404 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450).

[0078] The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide access to the telephone network as described above. Figure 1 and Figure 2 The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a plurality of devices such as the UE device 106 to the telephone network described in the embodiment of the present invention. The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also or alternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, such as a core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to a plurality of devices such as the UE device 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may be coupled to the telephone network via the core network, and / or the core network may provide the telephone network (e.g., in other UE devices served by the cellular service provider).

[0079] Base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possibly multiple antennas. One or more antennas 434 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate with UE device 106 via radio 430. Antenna 434 communicates with radio 430 via communication chain 432. Communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain, or both. Radio 430 may be designed to communicate via various wireless telecommunication standards, including, but not limited to, NR, LTE, LTE-A WCDMA, CDMA2000, and the like. Processor 404 of base station 102 may be configured to implement and / or support implementation of some or all of the methods described herein, including, for example, scheduling multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), or a combination thereof. In the case of certain RATs (e.g., Wi-Fi), the base station 102 may be designed as an access point (AP), in which case the network port 470 may be implemented to provide access to a wide area network and / or one or more local area networks, for example, it may include at least one Ethernet port, and the radio component 430 may be designed to communicate according to the Wi-Fi standard.

[0080] Figure 5 - Scheduling multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission

[0081] According to cellular communication technology, a cellular base station can generally communicate wirelessly with a wireless device. Such communications can be scheduled using downlink control information (DCI), which can be provided using control signaling, such as on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) that can be transmitted in one or more control resource sets (CORESETs). A single DCI transmission can schedule a wireless device to receive information via a single instance (e.g., a time slot) of a downlink shared channel (e.g., a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)). Alternatively, according to the techniques described herein, a single DCI transmission can schedule a wireless device to receive information during multiple downlink shared channel instances. Among various possibilities, such techniques may have the potential to reduce wireless device power consumption and / or improve network resource utilization. At least according to some embodiments, such techniques may require and / or benefit from various supporting technologies to achieve efficient network and wireless device operation. Many such techniques are also described herein.

[0082] Figure 5is a communication flow diagram illustrating such a method for scheduling multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission in a wireless communication system, according to at least some embodiments.

[0083] Figure 5 Aspects of the methods of the present invention may be implemented by a wireless device, for example, in conjunction with one or more cellular base stations (such as the UE 106 and BS 102 shown and described with respect to the various figures herein), or more generally, as appropriate, in conjunction with any of the computer circuits, systems, devices, elements, or components shown in the above figures. For example, a processor (and / or other hardware) of such a device may be configured to cause the device to perform any combination of the illustrated method elements and / or other method elements.

[0084] It is noted that although the present invention is described in terms of using communication techniques and / or features associated with 3GPP and / or NR specification documents, Figure 5 However, this description is not intended to limit the present disclosure and may be used in any suitable wireless communication system as needed. Figure 5 In various embodiments, some of the elements of the method shown may be performed simultaneously in an order different from that shown, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may also be performed as needed. As shown in the figure, Figure 5 The method can be operated as follows.

[0085] In 502, the wireless device may establish a wireless link with a cellular base station. According to some embodiments, the wireless link may include a cellular link according to 5G NR. For example, the wireless device may establish a session with an AMF entity of the cellular network via one or more gNBs that provide radio access to the cellular network. As another possibility, the wireless link may include a cellular link according to LTE. For example, the wireless device may establish a session with a mobility management entity of the cellular network via an eNB that provides radio access to the cellular network. According to various embodiments, other types of cellular links are also possible, and the cellular network may also or alternatively operate according to another cellular communication technology (e.g., UMTS, CDMA2000, GSM, etc.).

[0086] Establishing the wireless link may include, at least according to some embodiments, establishing an RRC connection with a serving cellular base station. Establishing the first RRC connection may include configuring various parameters for communication between the wireless device and the cellular base station, establishing environmental information for the wireless device, and / or any of a variety of other possible features, for example, involving establishing an air interface of the wireless device for cellular communication with a cellular network associated with the cellular base station. After establishing the RRC connection, the wireless device may operate in an RRC connected state. In some instances, the RRC connection may also be released (e.g., after a certain period of inactivity relative to data communication), in which case the wireless device may operate in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state. In some cases, such as due to wireless device mobility, changes in wireless medium conditions, and / or any other variety of possible reasons, the wireless device may perform a handover (e.g., while in RRC connected mode) or a cell reselection (e.g., when in RRC idle mode or RRC inactive mode) to a new serving cell.

[0087] According to at least some embodiments, a wireless device may establish multiple wireless links, for example, with multiple TRPs of a cellular network, according to a multi-TRP configuration. In such a scenario, the wireless device may be configured (e.g., via RRC signaling) with one or more transmission control indicators (TCIs), which may correspond to various beams that may be used to communicate with the TRPs. In addition, there may be situations where one or more configured TCI states may be activated at a particular time by a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) of the wireless device.

[0088] At least in some cases, establishing the wireless link may include the wireless device providing capability information of the wireless device.Such capability information may include information related to any of a plurality of types of wireless device capabilities.

[0089] In 504, the wireless device may receive first downlink control information (DCI) scheduling multiple downlink transmissions (e.g., multiple downlink transport blocks). The first DCI may be received via a control channel (e.g., a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)), such as in a control resource set (CORESET) provided during a control channel monitoring opportunity (MO). In some embodiments, the first DCI may also be received via control signaling carried on a data or shared channel (e.g., a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)). For example, in some instances, according to certain embodiments described herein, a serving cell may provide "virtual DCI" (or V-DCI) in certain portions of a PDSCH transmission, and the first DCI may be received in such a V-DCI transmission.

[0090] In 506, the wireless device may receive a downlink transmission scheduled by the first DCI, for example based at least in part on the first DCI. The wireless device may select a receive beam for the downlink transmission and may use the selected receive beam to receive the downlink transmission. Note that, at least in some instances, the selected receive beam may be applied to receive a downlink transmission scheduled by the first downlink control information that has a time offset less than a configured time offset between the first downlink control information and a downlink transmission block, wherein the configured time offset is a quasi-co-location (QCL) duration threshold, such as may be configured using a "timeDurationForQCL" parameter.

[0091] In some examples, the receive beam selected for a downlink transmission can be determined based on an indication received from a cellular base station via RRC signaling. For example, the cellular base station can provide an indication of a TCI state (e.g., a default TCI state for a serving cell and a portion of the bandwidth used to provide the first DCI) via RRC, and the wireless device can select a receive beam based on the indicated TCI state.

[0092] As another possibility, the receive beam may be implicitly selected based on one or more fixed (e.g., specified) or configured conditions and / or considerations. For example, the wireless device may provide an indication of a preferred spatial QCL configuration to the cellular base station when performing beam reporting, and the receive beam may be implicitly selected based on the indication. For example, when multiple downlink transport blocks are scheduled together using a single DCI transmission, the wireless device and the cellular base station may each autonomously determine / use that configuration for the default TCI state. Another technique may include implicitly selecting the receive beam based on the TCI state with the lowest index in a TCI state list indicated by the cellular base station via RRC signaling. Yet another technique may include implicitly selecting the receive beam based on the TCI state of the CORESET associated with the monitored search space with the lowest index in the most recent timeslot in which one or more CORESETs are monitored by the wireless device (e.g., within the active BWP of the serving cell of the first DCI).

[0093] In some instances, a TCI state determination based on DCI may be used for beam selection. For example, a first receive beam may be selected based at least in part on a most recent indication of a TCI state in previously received downlink control information that scheduled a plurality of downlink transport blocks. In some instances, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for a downlink transport block scheduled by the previously received downlink control information is provided at least a threshold amount of time prior to receiving the first DCI, e.g., so that the network can confirm that the wireless device received the indication of the TCI state in the previously received DCI and that the wireless device and the cellular base station will use the same QCL assumption for the downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI.

[0094] In some examples, a multi-stage TCI state configuration method can be used. For example, a cellular base station can indicate a set of possible default TCI states via RRC signaling, and low-layer signaling can be used to dynamically select one of the configured default TCI states. As one such possibility, an indication of a default TCI state can be received via media access control (MAC) control element (CE) signaling, where the default TCI state is selected from an RRC-configured group TCI state. Thus, a receive beam for a downlink transport block scheduled by a first DCI can be selected based on the default TCI state indicated via MAC CE signaling. As another such possibility, an indication of a default TCI state can be received via group-common DCI signaling, where the default TCI state is selected from an RRC-configured group TCI state. Thus, a receive beam for a downlink transport block scheduled by a first DCI can be selected based on the default TCI state indicated via group-common signaling. As yet another possibility, an indication of a default TCI state can be received via dedicated DCI signaling, where the default TCI state is selected from an RRC-configured group TCI state. Therefore, the reception beam for the downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI may be selected based on the default TCI state indicated via dedicated DCI signaling.

[0095] Note that in some embodiments, one or more control channel monitoring opportunities may overlap in time with and / or occur between downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information, and further, in at least some instances, one or more such control channel monitoring opportunities may use a different beam configuration than a downlink transport block overlapping with, scheduled immediately before, and / or scheduled immediately after the control channel monitoring opportunity.

[0096] For example, as one possibility, a wireless device may monitor a control channel during a second control channel monitoring opportunity that occurs between receiving downlink transport blocks scheduled by a first DCI, where a different receive beam is used to monitor the control channel during the second control channel monitoring opportunity compared to at least the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first DCI that occur before the second control channel monitoring opportunity. In such a scenario, a switching gap may be applied before the second control channel monitoring opportunity, e.g., to allow the wireless device sufficient time to perform beam switching. In some instances, a switching gap may also be applied after the second control channel monitoring opportunity, e.g., if a downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI that occurs after the second control channel monitoring opportunity also uses a different receive beam than the second control channel monitoring opportunity. If one or more such switching gaps are used, the length of the switching gap may be fixed for all wireless devices, e.g., regardless of the subcarrier spacing configuration, or the length of the switching gap may be dependent on the subcarrier spacing configuration, e.g., such that, among other possibilities, a longer switching gap is used for a higher subcarrier spacing configuration.

[0097] In some instances, different beams may be used to receive different downlink transmissions scheduled by the first DCI. For example, as previously noted herein, in some instances, the wireless device may implicitly select a receive beam for a downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI based at least in part on the TCI state of the CORESET associated with the monitored search space having the lowest index in the most recent timeslot in which one or more CORESETs were monitored by the wireless device. Thus, in such a configuration, in the aforementioned scenario where a second control channel monitoring opportunity occurs between downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first DCI, the beam used for downlink transport blocks occurring after the second control channel monitoring opportunity may be the same beam used for control channel monitoring during the second control channel monitoring opportunity. In such a scenario, it may be the case that a switching gap is not required after the second control channel monitoring opportunity, for example, because the same beam may continue to be used for downlink transport blocks scheduled immediately after the second control channel monitoring opportunity.

[0098] According to some embodiments, it may be desirable to cancel some or all control channel monitoring opportunities that temporally overlap with a set of downlink transport blocks scheduled by a single DCI. For example, if downlink transport block reception is scheduled for multiple downlink transport blocks, not all such opportunities may be considered necessary, and / or it may be beneficial (e.g., for improved resource usage efficiency and / or power savings) to avoid the need for switching gaps to monitor CORESET resources, where the CORESET resources are configured with a different beam configuration than the scheduled downlink transport blocks. Therefore, in some embodiments, the cellular base station may provide an indication to the wireless device that one or more control channel monitoring opportunities that temporally overlap with a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information are canceled (e.g., at least to the wireless device). Such an indication may be provided in the first DCI and / or using any of a variety of other possible techniques. In some instances, such cancellation indication may apply to some or all control channel monitoring opportunities after a configured delay (e.g., to account for processing time and / or other considerations). In some instances, such a cancellation indication may apply to all control channel monitoring opportunities that temporally overlap with a downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI (e.g., after a configured delay), or to all control channel monitoring opportunities that temporally overlap with a downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI (e.g., after a configured delay) except for a certain number (e.g., the last 1, the last 2, etc.).

[0099] In some embodiments, a "skip" indication that instructs a wireless device to skip one or more control channel monitoring opportunities within a multi-slot set of a downlink transmission block can be configured additionally or alternatively as a control channel monitoring opportunity cancellation indication, for example, to reduce power consumption and / or improve resource utilization efficiency.

[0100] For example, in some instances, the first DCI may include an indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities. In some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities may indicate skipping of all control channel monitoring opportunities within a configured time window. In some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities may indicate skipping of a subset of control channel monitoring opportunities within the configured time window. For example, the subset of control channel monitoring opportunities within the configured time window to be skipped may include all control channel monitoring opportunities except for the configured number (e.g., last 1, last 2, etc.) and / or type (e.g., single-slot PDCCH monitoring opportunity and / or multi-slot PDCCH monitoring opportunity).

[0101] In some embodiments, the window for applying the skip indication may begin a configured number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols after the last OFDM symbol of the first control channel monitoring opportunity. According to some embodiments, the configured number of OFDM symbols may be selected to provide sufficient time for the wireless device to process and apply the skip indication. Other mechanisms for determining the start of the skip window (e.g., using different units of measurement to define the window, different considerations for determining when the window begins, etc.) are also possible.

[0102] In some embodiments, the configured window may end at the last OFDM symbol of the plurality of downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information. As another possibility, the configured time window may have a duration equal to the minimum or maximum total number of start and length indicators (SLIVs) configured for the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information. For example, if two time domain resource assignment (TDRA) combinations are configured via RRC, and those combinations include TDRA 1 / 2 / 3 or TDRA 4 / 5, it may be the case that the maximum number of TDRAs that can be scheduled by a single DCI is 3, and the minimum number of TDRAs that can be scheduled by a single DCI is 2. In such a scenario, whether to use the minimum number of SLIVs or the maximum number of SLIVs may be determined via higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling), fixed / predetermined (e.g., specified in a wireless communication technology specification), or in any of a variety of other possible ways. As yet another possibility, the skip window may be configured to end at the first OFDM symbol of the next control channel monitoring opportunity in the same search space set as the first control channel monitoring opportunity. As yet another possibility, the wireless device may receive an indication of a skip window duration (e.g., via RRC signaling, MAC CE signaling, DCI signaling, etc.) In some examples, at least according to various embodiments, the skip window duration may be indicated according to a set of possible skip window durations, which may include one or more explicitly configured skip window durations, one or more implicitly determined skip window durations (which may be determined using one or more techniques described herein for implicitly determining a skip window duration), or a combination thereof.

[0103] As previously noted herein, control information (V-DCI) may be dynamically transmitted as part of one or more of the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first DCI (and / or other DCI transmissions). For example, certain portions of certain downlink transport blocks may be configured (e.g., explicitly or implicitly) as potentially including V-DCI, the wireless device may be able to identify those portions, and the wireless device may monitor those portions for V-DCI. Note that the identified portions may or may not actually include V-DCI for the wireless device, e.g., depending on whether the serving cell has control information to provide to the wireless device (e.g., for scheduling subsequent downlink and / or uplink transmissions), e.g., similar to at least some downlink control channel monitoring opportunities, and thus may be referred to as V-DCI monitoring opportunities in some instances.

[0104] According to various embodiments, a V-DCI monitoring opportunity may be configured to occur periodically. As one possibility, a V-DCI monitoring opportunity may be present in each downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI. As another possibility, the wireless device may determine a set of periodic V-DCI monitoring opportunity configurations (e.g., such information may be received via RRC signaling or may be pre-configured with a set of periodic V-DCI monitoring opportunity configurations according to a wireless communication standard specification), and may receive information indicating a periodic V-DCI monitoring opportunity configuration selected from the configured set of periodic V-DCI monitoring opportunity configurations in the first DCI. For example, the set of periodic V-DCI monitoring opportunity configurations may include a set of applicable values ​​that represent, in units of time slots, the period of the V-DCI monitoring opportunity within the downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI, such as <1, 2, 4, 8>. For another example, the set of periodic V-DCI monitoring opportunity configurations may include a set of applicable values ​​representing a total number of V-DCI monitoring opportunities within a downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI, wherein the period over which the configured number of V-DCI monitoring opportunities occurs may be determined using a preconfigured equation based at least in part on the total number of downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first DCI.

[0105] In some embodiments, the V-DCI monitoring opportunity can be configured to occur non-periodically. As one such possibility, the wireless device can receive information configuring a set of virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmaps, for example, where each bit in the V-DCI monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap indicates whether a V-DCI monitoring opportunity exists in the downlink transport block represented by the bit. Among various possibilities, the set of virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmaps can be fixed / preconfigured (e.g., in a wireless communication standard specification) or configured via RRC signaling. The first DCI can indicate a V-DCI monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap selected from the configured set of V-DCI monitoring opportunity pattern bitmaps, and the wireless device can be able to determine in which downlink transport blocks the V-DCI monitoring opportunity exists based on the bitmap.

[0106] Note that, for example, at least according to some embodiments, in the event that the bitmap length is not equal to the number of downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first DCI, the bitmap may be truncated (e.g., if the bitmap contains more bits than downlink transport blocks) or repeated (e.g., if the bitmap contains fewer bits than downlink transport blocks) and may further be truncated (e.g., if the number of downlink transport blocks is not evenly divisible by the number of bits in the bitmap). For example, such truncation / repetition may be applied to the bitmap to obtain a one-to-one mapping between the effective length of the indicated V-DCI monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap and the number of downlink transport blocks to which the indicated V-DCI monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is to apply.

[0107] In at least some instances, the wireless device may be able to determine one or more V-DCI formats associated with a V-DCI monitoring opportunity. For example, in some instances, V-DCI format information for a V-DCI monitoring opportunity included in a downlink transmission block scheduled by a first DCI may be included in a field of the first DCI. For another example, in some instances, V-DCI format information for a V-DCI monitoring opportunity included in a downlink transmission block scheduled by the first DCI may be implicitly indicated by a scrambling sequence of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits used to scramble the first DCI. According to some embodiments, the V-DCI format information may include an indication of a pair of DCI formats to be used for the V-DCI, such as a DCI format to be used for scheduling uplink transmissions and a DCI format to be used for scheduling downlink transmissions. Among various possibilities, a set of possible DCI format pairs that can be indicated (e.g., explicitly or implicitly) by the first DCI may be fixed / preconfigured (e.g., in a wireless communication standard specification) or configured via RRC signaling. Note that if one of the DCI formats in a DCI format pair is shorter than the other DCI format in the DCI format pair, it may be the case that zero padding bits are appended to the shorter DCI format in the DCI format pair to match the payload size of the larger DCI format in the DCI format pair.

[0108] There may be multiple possibilities for determining how the V-DCI portion of a downlink transport block is channel coded, modulated, and / or which resources of the downlink transport block are associated with a V-DCI monitoring opportunity. For example, with respect to channel coding, polar codes may be used for the V-DCI portion of a downlink transport block, while low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes may be used for the downlink shared channel (DL-SCH) portion of the downlink transport block.

[0109] In some instances, it may be consistently assumed that the V-DCI resources are modulated using quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK). In such a scenario, it may be the case that the cellular base station indicates to the wireless device the amount of resources associated with the V-DCI monitoring opportunity. For example, the first DCI may indicate an aggregation level (AL) for V-DCI from a set of ALs, which may be fixed / preconfigured (e.g., in a wireless communication standard specification) or configured via RRC signaling, and the wireless device may be able to determine the amount of resources (e.g., in units of control channel elements (CCEs)) associated with the V-DCI monitoring opportunity based on these ALs. As another possibility, a CCE aggregation level may be configured via RRC signaling. As yet another possibility, MAC CE signaling may be used to indicate an AL for V-DCI from the configured set of ALs.

[0110] The mapping of V-DCI to downlink transport block resources may also be determined in any of a variety of possible ways. As one possibility, for a downlink transport block that includes a V-DCI monitoring opportunity scheduled by a first DCI, the V-DCI monitoring opportunity (and V-DCI (if present)) may be mapped to resource elements of the downlink transport block that are not reserved for other purposes in increasing order of frequency first and time second. As another possibility, the V-DCI monitoring opportunity (and V-DCI (if present)) may be mapped to resource elements of the downlink transport block that are distributed at the edges of the bandwidth of the downlink transport block; for example, half of the resources of the V-DCI may be mapped to resource elements on one edge of the downlink transport block bandwidth, while the other half of the resources of the V-DCI may be mapped to resource elements on the other edge of the downlink transport block bandwidth. As yet another possibility, the V-DCI monitoring opportunity (and V-DCI (if present)) may be mapped to resource elements that are interleaved with resources that are not associated with the V-DCI monitoring opportunity. Note that, at least according to some embodiments, an approach that maps V-DCI to resources distributed at the edges of the downlink transport block bandwidth and / or interleaved with non-V-DCI resources can achieve greater frequency diversity advantages than an approach that maps V-DCI to contiguous frequency resource blocks of a downlink transport block.

[0111] It should be noted that in some instances, the modulation order of the V-DCI may not be uniformly fixed. For example, it may be the case that the modulation order of the V-DCI included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI matches the modulation order of the downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI. In such a scenario, at least according to some embodiments, the wireless device can determine a scaling factor associated with the V-DCI. Among various possibilities, the value of the scaling factor can be fixed / preconfigured (e.g., in a wireless communication standard specification) or configured via RRC signaling. The wireless device can use the scaling factor to determine the number of coded modulation symbols for each layer of the V-DCI. Once the wireless device receives the downlink transport block scheduled by the first DCI, the wireless device can transmit HARQ acknowledgment feedback to the cellular base station, for example, to indicate whether the downlink transport block was successfully received. At least according to some embodiments, HARQ feedback can be provided based at least in part on the counter downlink assignment index (C-DAI) information and the total downlink assignment index (T-DAI) information included in the first DCI. For example, the wireless device may use C-DAI information and T-DAI information to determine a payload size for HARQ feedback (e.g., including selecting a HARQ codebook size), particularly in the case where carrier aggregation is configured and one or more missed DCI transmissions are provided on each of multiple component carriers (CCs) during a control channel monitoring opportunity to schedule multiple downlink transport blocks.

[0112] In some examples, a C-DAI design may be used such that the first DCI includes C-DAI information indicating the cumulative number of transport blocks up to the first transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information. Additionally or alternatively, a T-DAI design may be used such that the first DCI includes T-DAI information indicating the total number of transport blocks scheduled via the first control channel monitoring opportunity.

[0113] According to some embodiments, the size of the C-DAI information and / or the T-DAI information may be variable. In some instances, the size of one or both of the C-DAI information or the T-DAI information may be based at least in part on the (e.g., configured maximum) number of downlink transport blocks that can be scheduled by the downlink control information on the CC on which the first DCI was received. Thus, in such scenarios, at least according to some embodiments, if the wireless device is configured with<TB1 / 2 / 3 / 4、TB5 / 6> As a possible M-DCI downlink transport block scheduling option, the size of the C-DAI / T-DAI can be log(max(4,2))=log4=2 bits. As another possibility, an indication of the size of one or both of the C-DAI information or the T-DAI information can be received by the wireless device from the cellular base station, for example, in broadcast system information or in dedicated RRC signaling. As yet another possibility, the size of the C-DAI information and / or the T-DAI information can be fixed / preconfigured (e.g., in a wireless communication standard specification).

[0114] In some instances, the wireless device may determine a set of possible HARQ codebook sizes for HARQ feedback. As one possibility, the HARQ codebook size intervals in the set of possible HARQ codebook sizes may be uniformly quantized. In such a scenario, the wireless device may be able to determine the quantization step size for the set of possible HARQ codebook sizes in any of various possible ways. For example, among various possibilities, the wireless device may determine the quantization step size based on a fixed quantization step size parameter, an indication of the quantization step size parameter included in system information broadcast by a cellular base station, an indication of the quantization step size parameter provided to the wireless device by the cellular base station using RRC signaling, an indication of the quantization step size parameter included in a first DCI, or a number of downlink transport blocks that can be scheduled by the DCI (e.g., for the CC on which the first DCI is transmitted). As another possibility, the HARQ codebook size intervals in the set of possible HARQ codebook sizes may be non-uniformly quantized. For example, in some instances, when the HARQ codebook size exceeds a configured threshold, a larger quantization size may be used.

[0115] As previously noted herein, in some instances, it may be the case that multiple downlink transport blocks are scheduled by a DCI transmission on each of a plurality of CCs. For example, according to some embodiments, a first DCI and the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first DCI may be received via a first CC, and during a first control channel monitoring opportunity, a second DCI scheduling the multiple downlink transport blocks on a second CC may also be provided to the wireless device. The second DCI may include C-DAI information and a cumulative number of transport blocks up to the first transport block scheduled by the second DCI. The second DCI may also include T-DAI information indicating the total number of transport blocks scheduled via the first control channel monitoring opportunity.

[0116] For a set of possible HARQ codebook sizes (e.g., that can be configured in any of various possible ways, including using any of the various techniques described herein for configuring a set of possible HARQ codebook sizes), the set can be divided into multiple subgroups. The cellular base station can be able to indicate from which subgroup the HARQ codebook size is to be selected based on the ordering of the C-DAI information. For example, if the C-DAI information included in the first DCI and the second DCI is ordered in ascending order according to the CC index, one subgroup can be indicated, while if the C-DAI information included in the first DCI and the second DCI is ordered in descending order according to the CC index, another subgroup can be indicated. Thus, at least according to some embodiments, the wireless device can be able to determine a subgroup of a set of possible HARQ codebook sizes for HARQ feedback based at least in part on whether the C-DAI information included in the first DCI and the second DCI is ordered in ascending or descending order according to the CC index.

[0117] In some instances, a wireless device may provide an indication of a HARQ codebook size for providing HARQ feedback to a cellular base station. For example, in some instances, the indication of the HARQ codebook size may be appended to the HARQ feedback. Alternatively, the indication of the HARQ codebook size may be provided using a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) cyclic shift for uplink transmissions including HARQ feedback. For example, the wireless device may select a DMRS cyclic shift from a set of configured DMRS cyclic shifts, where each configured DMRS cyclic shift is associated with a different indicator value. Note that, among various possibilities, the indication of the HARQ codebook size may fully indicate the HARQ codebook size, or may include partial information from which the cellular base station may be able to infer the HARQ codebook size. For example, the indication may include 3 bits of information whose possible values ​​are associated with index values ​​between 1 and 8, where each index value is associated with a subset of all possible values, such that the cellular base station may be able to infer that the HARQ codebook size is one of the possible values ​​associated with the indicated index. Similarly, the indication can be provided by selecting one of six configured DMRS cyclic shifts, where each configured DMRS cyclic shift indicates an index value between 1 and 6, where each index value is associated with a subset of all possible values, such that the cellular base station can be able to infer that the HARQ codebook size is one of the possible values ​​associated with the indicated index. It is noted that, at least in some instances, multiple possible C-DAI and / or T-DAI designs can be used in a wireless communication system. Thus, at least according to some embodiments, it may be the case that the cellular base station provides an indication of the type of C-DAI information used by the cellular base station and / or an indication of the type of T-DAI information used (e.g., generally, such as via system information, or specifically for the wireless device, such as via dedicated RRC signaling, among various possibilities).

[0118] Thus, at least according to some embodiments, Figure 5 The method may be used by a cellular network to schedule multiple downlink transmissions using a single downlink control transmission, and for wireless devices receiving such transmissions, this may increase effectiveness and / or efficiency, which, in at least some instances, may be utilized to schedule and conduct wireless communications between a cellular base station and the wireless device.

[0119] Figures 6 to 32 and additional information

[0120] Figures 6 to 32 Shown can be combined if necessary Figure 5 However, it should be noted that in Figures 6 to 32The exemplary details shown in and described with respect to these figures are not intended to limit the disclosure as a whole: many variations and alternatives to the details provided below are possible and are to be considered within the scope of the disclosure.

[0121] Among the various possible features and improvements to 3GPP-based wireless communication technologies, one potential goal may include supporting multi-PDSCH scheduling operations, preferably in a manner that can be performed with minimal UE power consumption and improved resource utilization. Such techniques may be beneficial for operations in both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. According to at least some embodiments, unlicensed operation may particularly benefit from the potential to avoid multiple listen-before-talk (LBT) procedures for multiple PDCCH transmissions, thereby improving LBT efficiency.

[0122] Because NR operation can extend to the 71 GHz frequency range, beam management, especially for frequency bands >52.6 GHz (which may also be referred to herein as "Frequency Range 3" or "FR3"), may be particularly important, for example, because wireless communications on FR3 may tend to be highly susceptible to rapid channel variations and may suffer from severe free-space path loss and atmospheric absorption.

[0123] As part of determining how to perform such beam management, it may be useful to provide a framework for the UE and BS to determine / agree on a quasi co-location (QCL) assumption that the UE should apply to each PDSCH instance when multiple PDSCH instances are scheduled by a single DCI instance. In some instances, a "timeDurationForQCL" parameter may be defined and configured for the UE using RRC signaling. It may be useful to provide techniques for beam management that can handle scenarios where all PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI have a scheduling offset that is less than the timeDurationForQCL parameter, and that can also handle scenarios where some or all PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI have a scheduling offset that is equal to or greater than the timeDurationForQCL parameter. Figure 6 Aspects of such exemplary possible scenarios according to some embodiments are shown.

[0124] DCI that schedules multiple PDSCHs or multiple PUSCHs may also be referred to as M-DCI in this article. Considering the scenarios described previously, PDSCHs scheduled by M-DCI can be classified into multiple types. For example, "Type 1 PDSCH" may refer to a PDSCH where the time offset between M-DCI and PDSCH is less than the threshold timeDurationForQCL, while "Type 2 PDSCH" may refer to a PDSCH where the time offset between M-DCI and PDSCH is equal to or greater than the threshold timeDurationForQCL. Figure 7 Exemplary aspects of such a classification scheme are shown. Note that a similar classification scheme can also be used to classify PUSCH scheduled by M-DCI into multiple types if desired.

[0125] There may be multiple possible methods to determine QCL information for PDSCH transmissions in a multiple PDSCH scheduling configuration. One possible method to determine QCL information for Type 1 PDSCH may include the network explicitly configuring (e.g., via higher layer signaling such as dedicated RRC signaling) a TCI state to be applied to Type 1 PDSCH reception on a per bandwidth part (BWP) per component carrier (CC) basis, where the QCL information may be introduced for larger subcarrier spacing (SCS), such as 480kHz SCS or 960kHz SCS. At least according to some embodiments, such an approach may be beneficial in allowing the gNB to select the best beam for Type 1 PDSCH based on the most recent beam report, for example, regardless of the TCI state of the overlapping control resource sets (CORESETs). However, in such scenarios, the UE may still be required to monitor all PDCCH candidates in all configured CORESETs even if the corresponding TCI state is different from the default TCI state configured by higher layers. Exemplary aspects of such an approach are as follows: Figure 8 As shown, at least in some instances, when the TCI state of one or more Type 1 PDSCHs is different from the TCI state of the CORESET associated with a subsequent PDCCH monitoring opportunity (MO), a switching gap may be introduced and applied. As one possibility, a common switching gap may be defined (e.g., in an SCS-agnostic manner) as, for example, a parameter T c , and applies to all SCSs in a given frequency band. As another possibility, different switching gaps (X) (e.g., in symbols) can be defined for different SCSs. Such different switching gaps can be selected based at least in part on the different symbol durations used for different SCS configurations, e.g., so that a larger switching gap can be configured for an SCS configuration with a shorter symbol duration, thereby allowing the UE to have sufficient time to perform beam switching. For example, as one possibility, values ​​of X=0 for a 120kHz SCS, X=1 for a 480kHz SCS, and X=2 for a 960kHz SCS can be used; other values ​​are also possible.

[0126] It may be the case that the UE is not expected to transmit or receive in the switching gap before T0-X, where T0 is the start time of the first symbol of the CORESET associated with PDCCH MO. As another possibility, any PDSCH symbols overlapping with the switching gap may be omitted or punctured by the UE to facilitate performing beam switching to monitor the PDCCH on the corresponding CORESET.

[0127] like Figure 8 As shown in the exemplary scenario shown, a single default TCI state A, which may be configured via higher layer signaling, may be applied to all Type 1 PDSCH transmissions 830, 840, 850. Due to the different TCI states configured for CORESET transmissions (i.e., TCI state B and TCI state C, respectively) compared to the default TCI state A for Type 1 PDSCH, a switching gap of length X = 1 may be applied before and after the CORESET 810, 820 transmissions.

[0128] Another approach may include providing a framework whereby a default TCI state may be determined without the need for explicit configuration, for example, instead of explicitly configuring the default TCI state for Type 1 PDSCH transmissions within a multi-PDSCH transport block scheduled by an M-DCI transmission. As one such possibility, a preferred beam configuration (e.g., spatial QCL assumption) may be included in the UE's beam report, which the gNB and UE may then implicitly use as the default TCI state for Type 1 PDSCH transmissions. As another such possibility, the TCI state with the lowest index in a TCI state list configured by RRC signaling may be used by the UE as the default downlink receive beam for Type 1 PDSCH transmissions. As yet another possibility, the TCI state of the CORESET associated with the monitored search space with the lowest controlResourceSetId in the most recent slot in which the UE monitors one or more CORESETs within the active BWP of the serving cell may be used as the default TCI state for Type 1 PDSCH transmissions to the UE. Note that in such cases, where different TCI states are configured between Type 1 PDSCH and subsequent PDCCH MO, a switching gap (for beam switching) may only be applied before CORESET, e.g., because the UE may be able to continue using its current beam configuration if one or more additional Type 1 PDSCH transmissions are scheduled after PDCCH MO.

[0129] As another possible approach, DCI-based TCI state determination for type 1 PDSCH transmission can be used in multi-PDSCH scheduling scenarios. For example, the most recent TCI state signaled by the most recent M-DCI that schedules the previous multi-PDSCH reception can be used as the default TCI for subsequent type 1 PDSCH reception. For another example, if the most recent previous M-DCI with HARQ-ACK feedback is received within M time slots before the M-DCI that schedules the type 1 PDSCH transmission, the TCI state indicated by the most recent previous M-DCI can be used; otherwise, the default DCI state determined by RRC configuration or implicitly (in various possibilities, for example, using one of the techniques previously described herein) can be applied. Note that if the gap between the HARQ-ACK feedback associated with the previous multi-PDSCH transmission scheduled by the previous M-DCI and the current M-DCI that schedules the current type 1 multi-PDSCH transmission is equal to or greater than a certain threshold ("N" symbols), the previous M-DCI can be considered valid. The value of either or both M or N may be reported as part of the UE capabilities, configured through RRC or other signaling, specified in 3GPP standard documents, or can be determined in any of a variety of other possible ways.

[0130] Figure 9 An exemplary possible aspect of such an approach is shown. In the scenario shown, it can be assumed that a default TCI state A is provided to the UE via RRC signaling or via any of a variety of possible techniques for implicitly determining the default TCI state for type-1 multiple PDSCH transmissions. The UE may be scheduled by M-DCI 910 with three type-1 PDSCHs 920. The M-DCI 910 may indicate the use of TCI state B for subsequent multiple PDSCH transmissions. Since there was no previous DCI transmission, the UE may apply TCI state 1 to the type-1 PDSCH 920 and may feedback HARQ-ACK 950 accordingly. The UE may continue to monitor the PDCCH to receive M-DCI 930, which may schedule four type-1 PDSCHs 940. The gap 970 between the HARQ-ACK 950 associated with the PDSCH 920 scheduled by the previous M-DCI 910 and the PDCCH for the M-DCI 930 may be equal to or greater than a threshold N. The gap 960 between the detected M-DCI 910 and the MO of the M-DCI 930 may be equal to or greater than the threshold M. Therefore, the TCI state B indicated by the previous M-DCI 910 may be applied to the Type 1 PDSCH reception 940 scheduled by the M-DCI 930 .

[0131] Another possible approach may include using RRC signaling to configure possible default TCI states for type 1 multiple PDSCH transmissions and using low-layer signaling to quickly update the actual default TCI state for type 1 multiple PDSCH transmissions. For example, a TCI state list may be configured via RRC signaling to construct a default TCI state list that may be subsequently used for default TCI state update purposes. The following RRC signaling may be used to add or remove TCI states:

[0132] default-tci-StatesToAddModList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofDefualtTCI-States))OF TCI-State

[0133] default-tci-StatesToReleaseList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofDefualtTCI-States))OF TCI-StateId

[0134] Figure 10 A table representing one possible example of a default TCI state list that may be constructed by such RRC signaling is shown, for example, assuming maxNrofDefaultTCI-States is equal to 2.

[0135] As one possibility for low-layer signaling that can be used to update the default TCI, a new "Default TCI Update" MAC CE can be introduced (e.g., in 3GPP Release 17), which can be identified by a MAC subheader with a dedicated LCID that can be defined in the 3GPP technical specifications. Figure 11 Example aspects of a MAC CE that may include such signaling are shown. The default TCI-ID field or information element of the MAC CE may indicate one TCI state in a TCI state list that is configured for PDSCH or a dedicated default-tci-StateToAddModList for type 1 PDSCH reception. Upon receipt of a default TCI-ID update MAC CE in time slot n, the corresponding default TCI-ID for type 1 PDSCH may be applied from the beginning of downlink time slot n+k+1, where k may be selected to provide sufficient time for beam switching to the new default TCI state for type 1 PDSCH. Among various possibilities, the parameter k may be reported as part of the UE capability information, configured by the network, or fixed for all UEs in the 3GPP technical specification.

[0136] As another possibility for low-layer signaling that can be used to update the default TCI, a new group-common DCI format can be introduced to update the default TCI state of type 1 PDSCH, for example to reduce overhead. According to some embodiments, the new DCI format may include an indication of the default TCI state (DTS) 1, DTS 2, ..., DTS n with a CRC scrambled by a dedicated TCI-RNTI. The UE may be provided with a device for determining the index of the DTS number of the serving cell by high-layer signaling. It is possible that the number of information bits in the new format may be equal to or less than the payload size of format 1_0 monitored in the common search space (CSS) of the same serving cell. If the number of information bits in the new format is less than the payload size of format 1_0 monitored in the CSS in the same serving cell, it is possible that zeros are appended until the payload size is equal to the size of format 1_0 monitored in the CSS in the same serving cell.

[0137] As another possibility for low layer signaling that can be used to update the default TCI, the new default TCI state can be provided in a dedicated field / information element of the DCI format used to schedule multiple PDSCH transmissions. It is noted that one code state of the dedicated field can be reserved (e.g. all 0s, as a possibility) to indicate that the default TCI state has not changed. After receiving a DCI format with an updated TCI-ID in time slot n, the associated new TCI-ID for type 1 PDSCH can be applied from the beginning of downlink time slot n+k+1, where k can be selected to provide enough time for beam switching to the new default TCI state for type 1 PDSCH. Among various possibilities, the parameter k can be reported as part of the UE capability information, configured by the network, or fixed for all UEs in the 3GPP technical specification. Figure 12 A possible example of a default TCI update using such a framework is shown. As shown, in the scenario shown, the default TCI state is updated from TCI state A to TCI state B using M DCI 1210, which can be applied after the configured gap 1220. Since type 1 PDSCHs 1230, 1240, 1250 are scheduled before the TCI state update takes effect, the UE can receive those PDSCH transmissions using the default TCI state A.

[0138] As noted herein, according to various possible implementations, in some instances, a UE may be configured to use a different TCI state for Type 1 multiple PDSCH transmissions than for PDCCH monitoring occasions that occur between at least some scheduled PDSCH instances. To potentially avoid the need to switch TCI states for those PDCCH monitoring occasions, a mechanism may be provided for canceling PDCCH monitoring associated with CORESETs that overlap with PDSCHs scheduled by M-DCI and that are configured with a TCI state that is different from the TCI state of the scheduled PDSCHs. For example, a new 1-bit "Cancel Indicator" (CI) field may be defined and included in an M-DCI transmission to indicate whether to cancel monitoring of such overlapping MOs (e.g., using CI=0, as one possibility) or to continue monitoring such overlapping MOs (e.g., using CI=1, as one possibility).

[0139] In some instances, for DCI received in slot n, it may be the case that the corresponding CI is applied starting from the beginning of the next downlink symbol after n+δ symbols, among other possibilities, where the parameter δ may be reported as part of the UE capability information, configured by the network, or fixed for all UEs in the 3GPP technical specification. This may allow the gNB to keep the UE using a single beam during most or all multi-PDSCH transmissions without beam switching, which may improve resource usage efficiency. Figure 13 1300. An exemplary possible aspect of a scenario in which such a technique is applied is shown. As shown, in the illustrated scenario, PDSCHs 1340, 1350, 1360, 1370 are scheduled by a single M-DCI 1300, where TCI state A has been determined (e.g., using any of the various possible techniques described herein) as the TCI state for the PDSCHs 1340, 1350, 1360, 1370. In the illustrated scenario, three PDCCH MOs 1310, 1320, 1330 with TCI state B overlap with the PDSCHs 1340, 1350, 1360, 1370. The M-DCI 1300 may indicate CI=0 to cancel the overlapping PDCCH MOs. Thus, as shown, the UE may monitor MO 1310 (e.g., because it may appear before the configured CI is applied), but may cancel MOs 1320, 1330. Therefore, the UE may be able to avoid beam switching for MO 1320, 1330, and resources that would otherwise be unavailable during beam switching and PDCCH monitoring may be used for PDSCH transmission.

[0140] Another possible aspect of NR operation, up to 71 GHz and other aspects, for licensed and / or unlicensed operation, may include support for multi-slot span PDCCH monitoring. In at least some instances, multi-slot span PDCCH monitoring may be particularly beneficial in scenarios where the OFDM symbol duration is relatively short, such as for large SCS scenarios. For example, the OFDM symbol duration at a 960 kHz SCS may be 1 / 8 of that at a 120 kHz SCS. Multi-slot PDCCH monitoring may shorten the period of PDCCH monitoring at the UE and may allow the UE more time to process PDCCH candidates, although this may come at the expense of scheduling flexibility and latency. Since scheduling flexibility and latency may also be very important in at least some scenarios (e.g., for ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) traffic), in some instances, it may be beneficial to support multi-slot monitoring as well as single-slot monitoring, and / or to provide other techniques to compensate for the potential lack of scheduling flexibility of the multi-slot monitoring configuration with at least some additional scheduling flexibility support.

[0141] Thus, various possible techniques for efficiently managing / switching between multi-slot PDCCH monitoring and single-slot PDCCH monitoring are described herein, particularly in conjunction with multi-slot PDSCH scheduling techniques.

[0142] According to some embodiments, a UE configured with multi-slot PDSCH scheduling may also be configured with UEs with different PDCCH monitoring periodicities P i The search space set may, for example, include P0=1 (single-slot PDCCH monitoring) and P1>1 (multi-slot PDCCH monitoring) as possible configurations. Various approaches are possible to reduce the number of PDCCH MOs at a UE to balance the potential tradeoff between scheduling delay and power consumption.

[0143] As one possibility, a field can be included in a DCI format that schedules multiple PDSCH transmissions (e.g., M-DCI), which can be a 1-bit skip indication. This field can indicate whether all PDCCH MOs within the window can be skipped, or a subset of PDCCH MOs (e.g., if the flag is set to 0, as one possibility), or whether PDCCH MOs within the window should not be skipped (e.g., if the flag is set to 1, as one possibility). If the flag value indicates that a subset of PDCCH MOs within the window should be skipped, there are several possibilities for determining which subset of PDCCH MOs to skip. As one possibility, the subset of PDCCH MOs can include all MOs except those configured with a DCI format for scheduling PUSCH or CSS. This can also provide the gNB with the flexibility to use a fallback DCI format to schedule delay-sensitive packets in the CSS, if desired. As another possibility, among various possibilities, the subset of PDCCH MOs can include all MOs except the last N PDCCH MOs in the window, where N can be configured by the network or defined in the 3GPP technical specifications. For example, N=1, N=2, or any of various other values ​​of N may be used, depending on various possible design frameworks.

[0144] The window over which the skip indication applies can be defined or determined in any of a variety of possible ways. As one possibility, the start of the window can be defined as the first symbol or the first slot / subslot (e.g., depending on the desired granularity) that is at least Δ symbols after the last symbol of the PDCCH with the M-DCI including the skip indication. Among the various possibilities, the value of Δ can be reported as part of the UE capability information, configured by the network, or fixed for all UEs in the 3GPP technical specification, and can be selected such as to allow the UE sufficient time to process the M-DCI and apply potential MO skipping operations.

[0145] In some instances, the window may be configured to end at the last symbol of the last PDSCH in the set of multiple PDSCHs scheduled by the M-DCI. As another possibility, the window length (WL) may be determined implicitly, for example:

[0146] WL=min(S i )or

[0147] WL=max(S i ),

[0148] Among them S iis the number of start and length indicators (SLIVs) configured for each multi-PDSCH scheduling via RRC signaling. As another possibility, the window length may be configured by a higher layer, for example, on a per-UE basis. For example, the window length may be implemented by defining a timer with a configurable length via RRC signaling. In some instances, the window length may be further updated by activating / selecting a value by the MAC CE from a set of values, which are configured via RRC signaling or implicitly determined (for example, using one of the techniques described herein or any of various other possible techniques). As another possibility, the window may end at the first symbol of the next PDCCH MO in the search space set in which the UE detects M-DCI. As another possibility, the window length may be signaled as part of the M-DCI payload, for example, by pointing to one of multiple possible values ​​that can be configured via RRC signaling. Note that in some instances, multiple such possibilities may also be combined; for example, the possible window lengths configured via RRC may include one or more fixed values ​​and / or one or more of the implicit techniques described herein. As one such possibility, a set of window lengths including <4, 8, until the first symbol of the next PDCCH MO of the search space set of the M-DCI> can be configured through RRC signaling for a given UE. In such a scenario, the 2-bit skip field of the M-DCI can be used to indicate one of these three values ​​or a "no skip" option (e.g., using coding state 00).

[0149] Figures 14 to 16 Examples of various possible such schemes for skipping at least some PDCCH MOs in conjunction with multi-PDSCH scheduling operation are shown. In the scenario shown, it may be the case that the UE is configured with single-slot and multi-slot PDCCH search spaces, where the number of PDCCH MOs for multi-slot PDCCH is 4 (in Figures 14 and 15 in) and 8 (in Figure 16 In all the scenarios shown, the M-DCI may include a skip indication value set to instruct the UE to skip at least a subset of the PDCCH MOs of the configured window, and the M-DCI may schedule 6 PDSCHs over six time slots.

[0150] exist Figure 14In the skip window, the window may be configured such that the skip window ends at the last symbol of the last PDSCH scheduled by M-DCI 1405. Correspondingly, the UE may skip single-slot MOs (e.g., starting from MO 1410 and ending with MO 1420) that appear at least Δ after M-DCI 1405 within the window. Note that the UE may or may not skip MO 1435, e.g., depending on the configuration, because it may be an MO in the search space where the UE detects M-DCI 1405. The UE may resume PDCCH monitoring for MO 1430, e.g., because it may be after the configured skip window.

[0151] exist Figure 15 , the window may be configured such that the skip window ends at the first symbol of the next PDCCH MO of the search space set in which the UE detects M-DCI 1545. Therefore, since P=4 for this MO, the UE skips both MOs 1540, 1550 and resumes PDCCH monitoring for MO 1555.

[0152] Similarly, in Figure 16 , the window may be configured such that the skip window ends at the first symbol of the next PDCCH MO of the search space set in which the UE detects M-DCI 1645. Therefore, since P=8 for this MO, the UE skips the MO starting from MO 1660 and ending at MO 1670 and resumes PDCCH monitoring for MO 1690.

[0153] Note that, at least according to some embodiments, such an approach may provide the network with the flexibility to select a search space with a specific periodicity, which in turn effectively controls which MOs the UE skips to potentially manage how to balance scheduling delays and power saving gains.

[0154] Another approach to PDCCH monitoring may include configuring only multi-slot PDCCH monitoring for the UE. To mitigate the latency issues of such an approach, downlink control information may be dynamically transmitted as part of the multi-PDSCH payload scheduled by M-DCI. In at least some instances, such downlink control information not carried by PDCCH may be referred to herein as virtual DCI (or V-DCI).

[0155] Various options for determining a PDSCH index within multiple PDSCHs where a V-DCI may be transmitted. Figures 17 to 21 Examples of various possible such schemes for providing dynamic V-DCI monitoring opportunities in conjunction with multiple PDSCH scheduling operation are shown.

[0156] As one possibility, if enabled, V-DCI may be present in every PDSCH scheduled by a single M-DCI, except for the slot in which the M-DCI is detected. In such a scenario, the enabling or disabling of V-DCI may be indicated by a 1-bit flag / information element in the M DCI, e.g., with states "1" or "0", respectively. Figure 17 Such a scenario is shown, for example, where V-DCI is present in each scheduled PDSCH within the M-PDSCH.

[0157] As another possibility, a list of periodic V-DCI monitoring configurations may be provided via RRC signaling, which may include multiple period options. In some instances, a set of applicable values, such as <1, 2, 4, 8>, may be explicitly configured in units of time slots via RRC signaling. Figure 18 By indicating P=2, such a scenario is illustrated, for example, where the V-DCI is located in PDSCH #2, #4, and #6.

[0158] As another possibility, the list of MO numbers K of V-DCI within M-PDSCH can be configured through RRC signaling. In such a case, the following equation can be used to implicitly determine the V-DCI monitoring opportunity (in addition to the time slot in which M-DCI is detected):

[0159]

[0160] Where M is the total number of PDSCHs within a given M-PDSCH transmission. Reference point S0 may represent a time slot of a period to which the configuration is applied, and may be configured as a time slot in which the M-DCI is detected, or the first PDSCH in an M-PDSCH set scheduled by the M-DCI. Figure 19 Such a scenario is shown, for example, where K=2 V-DCI opportunities are configured within the M-PDSCH, and the UE can implicitly determine that these opportunities occur in PDSCH #3 and #6 based on the configured equations.

[0161] As yet another possibility, a set of MO modes can be configured via RRC signaling using a bitmap-based approach. One of these modes (e.g., an index value associated with the selected mode) can be dynamically signaled by M-DCI using a dedicated field. For example, a 2-bit field can be used to dynamically indicate one of the 4 MO modes configured via RRC signaling. In some instances, if the length of the signaled bitmap (B) is greater than the number of PDSCHs scheduled in the M-PDSCH (M), the bitmap can be truncated to M most significant bits (MSBs) to determine the actual V-DCI MO within the M-PDSCH. If the length of the bitmap is less than the number of PDSCHs scheduled in the M-PDSCH, the bitmap can be repeated to extend it to determine the actual V-DCI MO within the M-PDSCH. The UE can use mod(M,B) MSBs or least significant bits (LSBs) for the last mod(M,B) PDSCHs within the M-PDSCH. Alternatively, the bitmap signaled in the M-DCI may only apply to the last B slots or PDSCHs within the M-PDSCH. In such a scenario, the UE may assume that no V-DCI is present in the other PDSCHs of the M-PDSCH.

[0162] Figure 20 A scenario is shown in which the bitmap "0000111" is indicated so that the last three PDSCHs #5, #6, and #7 of the M-PDSCH can be used to carry V-DCI. In at least some instances, such an aperiodic MO configuration can be used to provide more MOs toward the end of the M-PDSCH than toward the beginning of the M-PDSCH. Figure 21 A scenario is shown in which a bitmap of "0011" is indicated, based on which PDSCHs #3, #4, and #7 can be used to carry V-DCI.

[0163] It may be useful to provide techniques for determining DCI formats and corresponding payload sizes in conjunction with the various embodiments described herein, such as for configuring V-DCI carried in M-PDSCH scheduled by M-DCI. As one possible such technique, a set of DCI format pairs for PUSCH and PDSCH scheduling may be configured via dedicated RRC signaling or may be fixed / predefined in the 3GPP specifications. Figure 22An exemplary table of possible such DCI format pairs that can be predefined or configured via RRC is shown in FIG. A DCI format pair can then be dynamically indicated by the M-DCI scheduling the M-PDSCH. As an option, a new field can be defined in the M-DCI to indicate a DCI format pair from such a set of format pairs. As another option, the DCI format pair information can be indicated by selecting a scrambling sequence [ω0, ω1, ..., ω23] to scramble the CRC bits of the M-DCI. Figure 23 One such possible mapping between different scrambling code sequences and DCI format pair indices is shown, among other possibilities, which can be compared with Figure 22 Note that, at least in some instances, it is understood that for the DCI format in each pair with the smaller payload size (e.g., Figure 22 0_1) in pair 1 of the table shown in , appends zero padding bits until the payload size is equal to the other DCI format in the same pair.

[0164] In some instances, separate channel coding can be applied to V-DCI and DL-SCH channels in the same PDSCH with separate CRC bits. For example, polar codes can be used for V-DCI and low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes can be used for DL-SCH. Various methods can be used to determine the number of per-layer coded symbols used for V-DCI transmission, denoted as QV-DCI' as shown below.

[0165] As a first option, the UE can assume that these V-DCI bits are QPSK modulated. The number of resource elements (REs) used for V-DCI can be indicated in units of control channel elements (CCEs). This indication can be dynamically signaled by the associated M-DCI, for example, by selecting an AL from a set of aggregation levels (ALs), which can be configured by RRC signaling for each UE, or can be fixed / predefined in the 3GPP specification. Alternatively, a CCE aggregation level can be configured by RRC signaling. As another possibility, a new MAC CE can be defined to update the number of CCEs for V-DCI. The V-DCI symbol sequence and the modulated DL-SCH sequence can be concatenated sequentially starting from the V-DCI symbol. Different alternative forms can be considered for RE mapping of V-DCI symbols. As a possibility, the concatenated symbol sequence can be mapped to allocated REs that are not reserved for other purposes in an increasing order of frequency first and time second. As another possibility, a 1-bit flag field may be included in the M-DCI to indicate whether the CCEs of the V-DCI are distributed over RBs at the edge of the bandwidth allocated for PDSCH transmission. As yet another possibility, the 1-bit flag field may indicate whether (e.g., predefined or configured) "interleaved" mapping or "non-interleaved" mapping is used for V-DCI transmission, for example, by considering the BW of the PDSCH as the CORESET RB and a fixed or predefined value as the CORESET duration.

[0166] Figures 24 to 26 Several possible methods of V-DCI RE mapping are shown, for example, according to the various options described herein. In the example shown, it can be assumed that 25 PRBs are allocated for a given PDSCH within the M-PDSCH. Furthermore, it can be assumed that for each V-DCI transmitted within the scheduled M-PDSCH, the M-DCI signals 2 CCEs. Figure 24 A scenario is shown in which 2 CCEs (12 PRBs) are sequentially mapped starting from the lowest PRB and the first symbol allocated for PDSCH. Figure 25 A scenario is shown in which 12 PRBs used for V-DCI are divided into two subgroups, each with 6 PRBs, and then mapped to edge RBs allocated to PDSCH. Figure 26 A scenario is shown where 12 PRBs are divided into 3 subgroups, each with 2 2-PRB bundles. In such a scenario, REG bundles = 2, interleaving parameter L = 2, and interleaver size R = 2 can be configured via RRC signaling. At least according to some embodiments, it is possible that, for example, Figure 24 Compared to the scenario shown in , such an approach can improve V-DCI decoding performance by, for example, exploiting the frequency diversity gain across PRBs.

[0167] According to some embodiments, instead of assuming that the V-DCI bits are QPSK modulated, the modulation order signaled by M-DCI for the corresponding PDSCH can be used for V-DCI. Taking into account the potentially different block error rate (BLER) requirements of the V-DcI and PDSCH channels, a scaling factor parameter can be introduced to determine the number of REs used for V-DCI symbols. A set of values ​​for the scaling factor βi,i=0,1... can be fixed or predefined in the 3GPP specification, or configured on a per-UE basis via RRC signaling. If the candidate values ​​are fixed or predefined, RRC signaling can be used to preconfigure the βI value. Alternatively, a value can be updated / selected by MAC CE signaling or dynamically selected by M-DCI, for example, based on the most recent channel conditions. The following equation can be used to determine the number of coded modulation symbols for each layer of QV-DCI for V-DCI transmission:

[0168]

[0169] in:

[0170] 0 V-DCI : the number of HARQ-ACK bits;

[0171] C DL-SCH : The number of DL-SCH code blocks transmitted by PDSCH;

[0172] The number of resource elements in OFDM symbol l that can be used to transmit V-DCI;

[0173] a: Configured by higher layers, for example, to manage spectrum efficiency;

[0174] The total number of OFDM symbols for PDSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS; and

[0175] l O : The symbol index of the first OFDM symbol that does not carry DMRS after the first DMRS symbol in PDSCH transmission.

[0176] When designing a multi-PDSCH scheduling framework using M-DCI, one consideration may include how to handle HARQ-ACK feedback. In particular, because the number of scheduled PDSCHs per CC can vary dynamically based on the most recent downlink buffer status on the network (e.g., gNB) side (e.g., to improve resource efficiency), the variable number of scheduled PDSCHs in multi-PDSCH scheduling may be more susceptible to misalignment between the gNB and the UE regarding HARQ-ACK payload size, such as in the case of a missed scheduled DCI on the UE side. For multi-PDSCH scheduling operation, missing the "last grant" may be a more significant issue (e.g., compared to single PDSCH scheduling). For single PDSCH scheduling, some gNB-specific implementations can be leveraged, such as using blind detection by assuming different HARQ-ACK codebook sizes with increased receiver complexity to avoid missing the last grant. For multi-PDSCH scheduling and multiple CCs, relying on gNB assumptions for detection would significantly increase receiver complexity (e.g., due to the potentially large number of assumptions about the number of CCs and the number of scheduled PDSCHs per CC). Therefore, it may be beneficial to provide improved techniques for robust HARQ-ACK feedback for M-PDSCH operation.

[0177] One such possible technique may include modifying the design of downlink assignment index (DAI) fields, such as counter DAI (C-DAI) and total DAI (T-DAI) fields used as part of HARQ-ACK operations. For example, as one possibility, at least according to some embodiments, the meaning of the C-DAI and T-DAI fields in at least some DCI formats may be redefined to represent the cumulative number and total number of {serving cell, PDSCH opportunity} pairs for the first scheduled PDSCH up to the current PDCCH monitoring opportunity, for example, rather than the currently defined {serving cell, PDCCH opportunity} pairs. Figure 27The figure shows how such an approach might differ in an example scenario where three CCs are configured. As shown, for CC#2, using the existing definition, (C-DAI, T-DAI) can be set to (2, 3) because the cumulative number of {serving cell, PDCCH opportunity} pairs for CC#2 can be 2, and the total number of {serving cell, PDCCH opportunity} pairs can be 3. In contrast, according to the proposed definition, (C-DAI, T-DAI) can be set to (7, 13) because the cumulative number of {serving cell, PDSCH opportunity} pairs for CC#2 can be 7 (because 6 PDSCHs have been scheduled in CC#1 and therefore accumulated for CC#2's C-DAI value), and the total number of {serving cell, PDSCH opportunity} pairs can be 13 (because a total of 13 PDSCH opportunities are scheduled across CC#1, CC#2, and CC#3).

[0178] To indicate a higher C-DAI / T-DAI value than 4, such as might be Figure 27 As may occur in the illustrated scenario of , part of such a redesign may also include increasing the number of bits used to signal the C-DAI and / or T-DAI fields (e.g., from 2 to "N"). The value of N may be determined using any of a variety of possible methods.

[0179] As one possibility, the value of N may be determined based on the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be scheduled by multiple TTIDCI formats, ie:

[0180]

[0181] For example, in some instances, the following functions may be used:

[0182]

[0183] Due to the 2-bit DAI field size, according to the current specification, K = 4. Therefore, as an example, assume that:

[0184]

[0185] but:

[0186] N=log2(8*4)=5

[0187] According to at least some embodiments, such an approach can achieve the same level of reliability for HARQ-ACK code size at the expense of increased DCI overhead.

[0188] As another possibility, the value of N may be configured solely by higher layers, eg, broadcast in a system information block (SIB) or indicated using dedicated RRC signaling (eg, independent of the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled by M-DCI).

[0189] As yet another possibility, the number of bits in the "extended" C-DAI and T-DAI fields as described herein may be fixed in the 3GPP specifications and applied to all UEs without signaling.

[0190] In some instances, such DAI design extensions for improved HARQ-ACK reliability for M-PDSCH operation can be configurable, for example, under the control of a gNB scheduler, e.g., on a per-UE basis. For example, the gNB can enable or disable such DAI design / size extensions or fall back to legacy DAI design / size based on any of UE location, signal strength, and / or various other reasons. As one such possibility, dynamic deactivation of such features can be used to reduce downlink signaling overhead and HARQ-ACK payload for cell-center UEs that are less likely to require additional robustness, and / or dynamic activation of such features can be used to minimize uplink overhead and UE transmit power for cell-edge UEs that are more likely to require additional robustness.

[0191] It is also noted that two separate field length values, "N1" and "N2," can be applied for C-DAI and T-DAI field extensions, respectively, e.g., to account for their different functions. For example, it may be desirable to apply the bit width extension to only one of the two fields (e.g., N1=2 or N2=2), rather than both, to reduce the impact on signaling overhead. As another possibility, the values ​​of both N1 and N2 can be increased, but to different values. For example, since the total DAI can be used to indicate the total number of PDSCHs scheduled across the CCS, T-DAI misalignment between the UE and the gNB may result in the gNB being unable to correctly decode the entire HARQ-ACK codebook, necessitating the transmission of all PDSCHs. Therefore, at least in some instances, it is possible to select / apply a larger bit width increase for N2 than for N1, e.g., such that N2>N1>2. As an example, N2=5 bits and N1=3 bits can be selected.

[0192] Figure 28This paper illustrates aspects of an example scenario in which the existing DAI design framework can lead to a mismatch in HARQ-ACK codebook size between the UE and the gNB, but the extended DAI design framework described herein can mitigate the possibility of such a mismatch. As shown, in the illustrated scenario, five DL CCs may be configured, and the gNB may transmit four TBs on DL CC #1, eight TBs on DL CC #2, and six TBs on DL CC #4. If the existing 2-bit DAI design is used, the UE may incorrectly determine that four TBs are provided on DL CC #3, or another possible incorrect interpretation may be employed. In contrast, if the extended DAI design framework described herein is used, the UE can correctly determine the number of missed TBs to be eight and provide HARQ-ACK feedback using the correct HARQ-ACK codebook size.

[0193] According to some embodiments, a set of HARQ-ACK codebook sizes may be determined for M-PDSCH HARQ-ACK feedback. <CB0 、 CB1, ..., CBk-1>. The size of the HARQ-ACK codebook used for feedback can be selected as the minimum value in a predefined set that is larger than the total DAI detected at the UE side. There may be several options for configuring the possible codebook sizes.

[0194] As one such option, uniform quantization can be used to determine the codebook size group. For example, in one set of embodiments, CB i=i*Δ, where Δ represents the quantization step of the HARQ-ACK codebook size. There may also be multiple possible ways to determine the value of Δ. For example, the value of Δ can be fixed in the 3GPP specification so that if Δ=8, the HARQ-ACK codebook size will be <8, 16, 24, 32, ...> accordingly. For another example, the value of Δ can be broadcast in the SIB of all UEs. For another example, the value of Δ can be configured on a per-UE basis through dedicated RRC signaling, for example, to balance the possible trade-off between UL HARQ-ACK feedback overhead and DL control signaling overhead (e.g., aggregation level); for example, if necessary, a smaller Δ value can be configured for cell center UEs with a higher PDCCH detection probability. For another example, a set of Δ values ​​can be configured on a per-UE basis, and one of these Δ values ​​can also be dynamically configured (e.g., by scheduling DCI) for HARQ-ACK feedback. It should be noted that in order to ensure the reliability of Δ value detection in such scenarios, it may be the case that the UE uses the same Δ value in all DCI formats that are associated with the same PUCCH opportunity (i.e., HARQ-ACK window) for HARQ-ACK feedback. For another example, the value of Δ can be determined at least in part based on the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be scheduled by M-DCI. For example, the value of Δ can be determined using the following equation as one possibility:

[0195]

[0196] where M may be a parameter determined using any of the techniques just described herein for determining the value of Δ.

[0197] As another option, non-uniform quantization can be used to determine the HARQ-ACK codebook size group. For example, when the HARQ-ACK codebook size exceeds one or more thresholds, a larger quantization size can be used.

[0198] One technique that can be used to potentially reduce the HARQ-ACK codebook size without increasing downlink control signaling overhead may include dividing the (uniform or non-uniform) HARQ-ACK codebook sizes in the set of HARQ-ACK codebook sizes into two subgroups, and implicitly determining which subgroup to select the HARQ-ACK codebook size from based on the DAI sorting direction.

[0199] For example, as one possibility, if for a given PDCCH monitoring opportunity, the UE detects that the C-DAI is sorted in ascending order (for example, if the C-DAI is sorted starting from the CC with the lowest index), the UE can be configured to determine that the HARQ-ACK codebook size is selected from the first subset of HARQ-ACK codebook sizes, and if for a given PDCCH monitoring opportunity, the UE detects that the C-DAI is sorted in descending order (for example, if the C-DAI is sorted starting from the CC with the highest index), the UE can be configured to determine that the HARQ-ACK codebook size is selected from the second subset of HARQ-ACK codebook sizes. Figure 29 One possible exemplary scenario in which such an approach may be used according to some embodiments is shown. As shown, in the scenario shown, subgroup #1 may include <32, 48, 64, ...>, and subgroup #2 may include <40, 56, 72, ...>.

[0200] As a first example, if the total number of scheduled PDSCHs is 43 (i.e., T-DAI=43), the gNB may use ascending C-DAI ordering across CCs, and correspondingly, the UE may determine the HARQ-ACK codebook size to be the closest minimum value in subgroup #1 that is greater than the detected T-DAI. Thus, 48 ​​HARQ-ACK bits may be generated and provided as feedback to the gNB.

[0201] As a second example, if the total number of scheduled PDSCHs is 70 (i.e., T-DAI=70), the gNB may use descending C-DAI ordering across CCs, and correspondingly, the UE may determine the HARQ-ACK codebook size to be the closest minimum value in subgroup #2 that is greater than the detected T-DAI. Thus, 72 HARQ-ACK bits may be generated and provided as feedback to the gNB.

[0202] Note that such techniques can be used to enhance the robustness of the HARQ-ACK codebook size compared to the non-grouping approach. For example, assuming again that the gNB schedules 70 PDSCHs (i.e., T-DAI = 70), but the UE misses the last DCI format with T-DAI = 70 and detects T-DAI = 63, without subgrouping, the UE will feedback a 64-bit HARQ-ACK and misalignment issues will occur. However, with the subgrouping approach, the total number of HARQ-ACK bits can be determined to be 72, and the potential misalignment issues that may occur if subgrouping is not used can be avoided.

[0203] According to some embodiments, when reporting HARQ-ACK bits, an indication of the HARQ-ACK codebook size may be provided by the UE. For example, as one possibility, the reported number of HARQ-ACK bits, "Y," may be appended to the end of the HARQ-ACK payload using X bits and sent from the UE to the gNB. Figure 30 Exemplary aspects of such techniques according to some embodiments are shown.

[0204] In some examples, the parameter K can be defined as K = mod (Y, 2 X ), and the value of K can be appended to the end of the HARQ-ACK payload using X bits. According to at least some embodiments, such an approach can reduce additional overhead while still providing the gNB with sufficient information to determine the HARQ-ACK codebook size in most scenarios. Figure 31 is a table showing one possible exemplary mapping between K and Y assuming X=3, according to some embodiments.

[0205] As yet another possibility, in some designs of PUCCH format 3, the PUCCH DMRS cyclic shift can be used to implicitly signal the value of Y. Note that CS=0 can be used for DMRS in PUCCH format 3 in the current design. Even with a single PRB PUCCH transmission, a total of 12 cyclic shifts are possible. Therefore, at least in some instances, on the UE side, the DMRS cyclic shift value to be used can be determined based on the HARQ-ACK payload size Y. On the gNB side, the PUCCH DMRS cyclic shift may need to be detected (e.g., based on correlation and energy detection), and the gNB can then perform PUCCH channel estimation and payload decoding. Figure 32 is a table showing one possible exemplary mapping between the possible total HARQ-ACK bits (Y) and the 6 DMRS cyclic shift values ​​according to some embodiments.

[0206] In the following, additional exemplary embodiments are provided.

[0207] A set of embodiments may include an apparatus comprising: a processor configured to cause a wireless device to: establish a wireless link with a cellular base station; receive first downlink control information during a first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the first downlink control information schedules a plurality of downlink transport blocks, wherein the first downlink control information includes an indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities; and skip one or more control channel monitoring opportunities based at least in part on the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities.

[0208] According to some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities indicates skipping of all control channel monitoring opportunities within a configured time window.

[0209] According to some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities indicates skipping a subset of control channel monitoring opportunities within a configured time window.

[0210] In some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities is associated with a configured time window, wherein the configured time window starts a configured number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols after the last OFDM symbol of the first control channel monitoring opportunity, and wherein the configured window ends at the last OFDM symbol of multiple downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information.

[0211] In some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities is associated with a configured time window, wherein the configured time window starts a configured number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols after the last OFDM symbol of the first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the configured time window has a duration equal to the minimum or maximum total number of start and length indicators (SLIVs) configured for downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information.

[0212] In some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities is associated with a configured time window, wherein the configured time window begins a configured number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols after the last OFDM symbol of the first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: receive information indicating the duration of the configured time window.

[0213] In some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities is associated with a configured time window, wherein the configured time window starts a configured number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols after the last OFDM symbol of a first control channel monitoring opportunity, and wherein the configured window ends at a first OFDM symbol of a next control channel monitoring opportunity in the same search space set as the first control channel monitoring opportunity.

[0214] In some embodiments, the indication to skip one or more subsequent control channel monitoring opportunities is associated with a configured time window, wherein the configured time window begins a configured number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols after the last OFDM symbol of the first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: receive information configuring a set of possible time window durations; and receive information indicating a duration selected from the configured set of possible time window durations in the first control information.

[0215] Another set of embodiments may include an apparatus comprising: a processor configured to cause a wireless device to: establish a wireless link with a cellular base station; receive first downlink control information during a first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the first downlink control information schedules a plurality of downlink transport blocks; determine that one or more portions of the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information are configured as virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities; and monitor the determined one or more portions of the downlink transport blocks for the virtual downlink control information.

[0216] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine that a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity exists in each downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information.

[0217] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: receive information configuring a set of periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configurations; and receive information indicating a periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configuration in the first control information, wherein the indicated periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configuration is selected from the configuration group of periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configurations.

[0218] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: receive information configuring a set of virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity mode bitmaps; and receive information indicating a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity mode bitmap in the first control information, wherein the indicated virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity mode bitmap is selected from the configured set of virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity mode bitmaps.

[0219] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: truncate the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap if the number of bits in the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is greater than the number of downlink transmission blocks scheduled by the first control information.

[0220] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: extend the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap if the number of bits in the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is less than the number of downlink transmission blocks scheduled by the first control information, wherein the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is repeated to extend the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap.

[0221] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: receive virtual downlink control information format information in the first downlink control information, wherein the virtual downlink control information format information indicates one or more downlink control information formats associated with virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities in a downlink transmission block scheduled by the first downlink control information.

[0222] In accordance with some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine virtual downlink control information format information indicating one or more downlink control information formats associated with virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities in a downlink transmission block scheduled by the first downlink control information based at least in part on a scrambling sequence of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits used to scramble the first downlink control information.

[0223] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine that the virtual downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information is modulated by quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK); receive information indicating the aggregation level of the virtual downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information; and determine, based at least in part on the information indicating the aggregation level of the virtual downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information, an amount of resources associated with each virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information.

[0224] In accordance with some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine that virtual downlink control information included in a downlink transmission block scheduled by the first downlink control information is modulated by quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK); and receive information indicating an amount of resources associated with the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity.

[0225] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine that for a downlink transmission block scheduled by a first downlink control information including a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is mapped to resource elements of the downlink transmission block that are not reserved for other purposes in an ascending order of frequency first and time second.

[0226] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine, for a downlink transmission block scheduled by the first control information including a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity being mapped to resource elements distributed at edges of the bandwidth of the downlink transmission block.

[0227] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine that for a downlink transmission block scheduled by the first control information including a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is mapped to a resource element interleaved with resources not associated with the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity.

[0228] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine that a modulation order of virtual downlink control information included in a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information matches a modulation order of the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information; receive an indication of a scaling factor associated with the virtual downlink control information; and determine a number of coded modulation symbols per layer for the virtual downlink control information based at least in part on the indicated scaling factor.

[0229] Another set of embodiments may include a method comprising: by a wireless device: establishing a wireless link with a cellular base station; receiving first downlink control information during a first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the first downlink control information schedules multiple downlink transport blocks, wherein the first downlink control information includes counter downlink assignment index (C-DAI) information, the C-DAI information indicating a cumulative number of transport blocks up to a first transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information; wherein the downlink control information includes total downlink assignment index (T-DAI) information, the T-DAI information indicating a total number of transport blocks scheduled through the first control channel monitoring opportunity; receiving the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information; and transmitting hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback to the cellular base station based at least in part on the C-DAI information and the T-DAI information.

[0230] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises determining a size of one or more of the C-DAI information or the T-DAI information based at least in part on a number of downlink transport blocks that can be scheduled by the downlink control information.

[0231] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: receiving an indication of a size of one or more of the C-DAI information or the T-DAI information from a cellular base station.

[0232] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises determining a set of possible HARQ-ACK codebook sizes for the HARQ-ACK feedback, wherein HARQ-ACK codebook size intervals in the set of possible HARQ-ACK codebook sizes are uniformly quantized.

[0233] According to some embodiments, a quantization step size for the set of possible HARQ-ACK codebook sizes is determined based on one of: a fixed quantization step size parameter; an indication of the quantization step size parameter included in system information broadcast by a cellular base station; an indication of the quantization step size parameter provided to the wireless device by the cellular base station using radio resource control (RRC) signaling; an indication of the quantization step size parameter included in the first downlink control information; a number of downlink transport blocks that can be scheduled by the downlink control information.

[0234] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises determining a set of possible HARQ-ACK codebook sizes for the HARQ-ACK feedback, wherein HARQ-ACK codebook size intervals in the set of possible HARQ-ACK codebook sizes are non-uniformly quantized.

[0235] According to some embodiments, the first downlink control information is associated with a first component carrier, wherein the method further includes: receiving second downlink control information associated with a second component carrier during the first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the second downlink control information schedules multiple downlink transport blocks, wherein the second downlink control information includes (C-DAI) information, and the C-DAI information indicates the cumulative number of transport blocks up to the first transport block scheduled by the second downlink control information; and determining a subset of a set of possible HARQ-ACK codebook sizes for HARQ-ACK feedback based at least in part on whether the component carrier index is sorted in ascending or descending order based on the C-DAI information included in the first downlink control information and the second downlink control information.

[0236] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises transmitting an indication of a HARQ-ACK codebook size of the HARQ-ACK feedback to the cellular base station, wherein the indication of the HARQ-ACK codebook size is appended to the HARQ-ACK feedback.

[0237] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises selecting a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) cyclic shift for an uplink transmission including the HARQ-ACK feedback based at least in part on a HARQ-ACK codebook size of the HARQ-ACK feedback, wherein the selected DMRS cyclic shift provides an indication of the HARQ-ACK codebook size of the HARQ-ACK feedback.

[0238] Another set of embodiments may include a method comprising: by a wireless device: establishing a wireless link with a cellular base station; receiving first downlink control information during a first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the first downlink control information schedules a plurality of downlink transport blocks; selecting a first receive beam for the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information; and receiving the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information using the first receive beam.

[0239] According to some embodiments, a time offset between the first downlink control information and a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information is less than a quasi co-location (QCL) duration threshold.

[0240] According to some embodiments, the method further includes receiving, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, an indication of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state associated with a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information, wherein the first receive beam is selected at least in part based on the indication of the TCI state associated with the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information.

[0241] According to some embodiments, the method further includes: monitoring a control channel during a second control channel monitoring opportunity, the second control channel monitoring opportunity occurring between reception of downlink transmission blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information, wherein a second receive beam is used to monitor the control channel during the second control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the second receive beam is a different beam from the first receive beam, and wherein a first switching gap for switching from the first receive beam to the second receive beam occurs before the second control channel monitoring opportunity.

[0242] According to some embodiments, a second switching gap for switching from the second receive beam to the first receive beam occurs after the second control channel monitoring opportunity.

[0243] According to some embodiments, the length of the first switching gap is determined based at least in part on a subcarrier spacing configuration.

[0244] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises providing an indication of a preferred spatial quasi co-location (QCL) configuration to the cellular base station, wherein the first receive beam is selected based at least in part on the indication of the preferred spatial QCL configuration.

[0245] According to some embodiments, the first receive beam is selected based at least in part on a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state having a lowest index in a TCI state list indicated by the cellular base station via radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0246] In accordance with some embodiments, the first receive beam is selected based at least in part on a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state of a control resource set (CORESET) associated with a monitored search space having a lowest index in a most recent timeslot in which one or more CORESETs were monitored by the wireless device.

[0247] According to some embodiments, the first receive beam is selected based at least in part on a most recent indication of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state in previously received downlink control information scheduling a plurality of downlink transport blocks.

[0248] In some embodiments, the method further includes providing hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for a downlink transport block scheduled by the previously received downlink control information at least a threshold amount of time before receiving the first downlink control information, wherein the first receive beam is further selected at least in part based on the HARQ feedback provided at least the threshold amount of time before receiving the first downlink control information.

[0249] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving an indication of a set of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, wherein the first receive beam is selected based on the set of TCI states.

[0250] According to some embodiments, the method further includes receiving an indication of a default TCI state via media access control (MAC) control element (CE) signaling, wherein the default TCI state is selected from the group of TCI states, and wherein the first receive beam is selected based on the default TCI state.

[0251] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving an indication of a default TCI state via group common downlink control information signaling, wherein the default TCI state is selected from the group of TCI states, wherein the first receive beam is selected based on the default TCI state.

[0252] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving an indication of a default TCI state via dedicated downlink control information signaling, wherein the default TCI state is selected from the set of TCI states, wherein the first receive beam is selected based on the default TCI state.

[0253] According to some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving an indication that one or more control channel monitoring opportunities that temporally overlap with a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information are cancelled.

[0254] Yet another example embodiment may include a method comprising performing, by a device, any or all of the foregoing examples.

[0255] Another example embodiment may include a device comprising: an antenna; a radio coupled to the antenna; and a processing element operatively coupled to the radio, wherein the device is configured to implement any or all of the foregoing examples.

[0256] Another exemplary set of embodiments may include a non-transitory computer-accessible memory medium including program instructions that, when executed at a device, cause the device to implement any or all portions of any of the foregoing examples.

[0257] Another exemplary set of embodiments may include a computer program comprising instructions for performing any or all portions of any of the foregoing examples.

[0258] Another exemplary set of embodiments may include an apparatus comprising means for performing any or all of the elements of any of the preceding examples.

[0259] Another exemplary set of embodiments may include an apparatus comprising a processing element configured to cause a wireless device to perform any or all elements of any of the foregoing examples.

[0260] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0261] By interpreting each message / signal X received by a user equipment (UE) in the downlink as a message / signal X transmitted by the base station, and interpreting each message / signal Y transmitted by the UE in the uplink as a message / signal Y received by the base station, any of the methods for operating a UE described herein may become the basis for the corresponding method for operating a base station.

[0262] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of forms. For example, in some embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented as a computer-implemented method, a computer-readable storage medium, or a computer system. In other embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented using one or more custom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. In other embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented using one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs.

[0263] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory memory element) may be configured such that it stores program instructions and / or data, wherein the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method, such as any of the method embodiments described herein, or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset of any method embodiments described herein, or any combination of such subsets.

[0264] In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may be configured to include a processor (or a group of processors) and a memory medium (or a memory element), wherein the memory medium stores program instructions, wherein the processor is configured to read and execute the program instructions from the memory medium, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement any of the various method implementations described herein (or any combination of the method implementations described herein, or any subset of any method implementations described herein, or any combination of such subsets). The device may be implemented in any of various forms.

[0265] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to encompass all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: a processor configured to cause the wireless device to: Establishing a wireless link with a cellular base station; receiving first downlink control information during a first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the first downlink control information schedules a plurality of downlink transport blocks, determining that one or more portions of the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information are configured as virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities, wherein the virtual downlink control information is downlink control information not carried by a control channel; as well as The determined one or more portions of the downlink transport block are monitored for dummy downlink control information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: A virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is determined to exist in each of the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: receiving information configuring a set of periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configurations; and Information indicating a periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configuration in the first downlink control information is received, wherein the indicated periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configuration is selected from the configured set of periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configurations.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: receiving information configuring a set of virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmaps; and Information indicating a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap in the first downlink control information is received, wherein the indicated virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is selected from the configured set of virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmaps.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: If the number of bits in the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is greater than the number of downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information, truncating the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: If the number of bits in the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is less than the number of downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information, the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is extended, wherein the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is repeated to extend the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: Virtual downlink control information format information is received in the first downlink control information, wherein the virtual downlink control information format information indicates one or more downlink control information formats associated with virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: Determine virtual downlink control information format information indicating one or more downlink control information formats associated with virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information based at least in part on a scrambling sequence of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits used to scramble the first downlink control information.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determining that dummy downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information is Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulated; receiving information indicating an aggregation level of dummy downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information; as well as and determining, based at least in part on the information indicating the aggregation level of the virtual downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information, an amount of resources associated with each virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determining that dummy downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information is Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulated; and Information indicative of an amount of resources associated with a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is received.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: Determining that for a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information including a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is mapped to resource elements of the downlink transport block that are not reserved for other purposes in an increasing order of frequency first and time second.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: It is determined that for a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information including virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities are mapped to resource elements distributed at edges of a bandwidth of the downlink transport block.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: It is determined that for a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information including a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is mapped to a resource element of a resource interlace not associated with the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determining that a modulation order of dummy downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information matches a modulation order of the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information; receiving an indication of a scaling factor associated with the virtual downlink control information; and A number of coded modulation symbols per layer for dummy downlink control information is determined based at least in part on the indicated scaling factor.

15. A method for wireless communication, comprising: Establishing a wireless link with a cellular base station; receiving first downlink control information during a first control channel monitoring opportunity, wherein the first downlink control information schedules a plurality of downlink transport blocks, determining that one or more portions of the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information are configured as virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities, wherein the virtual downlink control information is downlink control information not carried by a control channel; as well as The determined one or more portions of the downlink transport block are monitored for dummy downlink control information.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising: A virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is determined to exist in each of the downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information.

17. The method according to claim 15, further comprising: receiving information configuring a set of periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configurations; as well as Information indicating a periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configuration in the first downlink control information is received, wherein the indicated periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configuration is selected from the configured set of periodic virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity configurations.

18. The method according to claim 15, further comprising: receiving information for configuring a set of virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmaps; as well as Information indicating a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap in the first downlink control information is received, wherein the indicated virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is selected from the configured set of virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmaps.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising: If the number of bits in the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is greater than the number of downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information, truncating the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising: If the number of bits in the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is less than the number of downlink transport blocks scheduled by the first downlink control information, the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is extended, wherein the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap is repeated to extend the selected virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity pattern bitmap.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising: Virtual downlink control information format information is received in the first downlink control information, wherein the virtual downlink control information format information indicates one or more downlink control information formats associated with virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising: Determine virtual downlink control information format information indicating one or more downlink control information formats associated with virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information based at least in part on a scrambling sequence of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits used to scramble the first downlink control information.

23. The method of claim 15, further comprising: determining that dummy downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information is Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulated; receiving information indicating an aggregation level of dummy downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information; as well as and determining, based at least in part on the information indicating the aggregation level of the virtual downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information, an amount of resources associated with each virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising: determining that dummy downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information is Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulated; as well as Information indicative of an amount of resources associated with a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is received.

25. The method of claim 15, further comprising: Determining that for a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information including a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is mapped to resource elements of the downlink transport block that are not reserved for other purposes in an increasing order of frequency first and time second.

26. The method of claim 15, further comprising: It is determined that for a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information including virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunities are mapped to resource elements distributed at edges of a bandwidth of the downlink transport block.

27. The method of claim 15, further comprising: It is determined that for a downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information including a virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity, the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity is mapped to a resource element of a resource interlace not associated with the virtual downlink control information monitoring opportunity.

28. The method of claim 15, further comprising: determining that a modulation order of dummy downlink control information included in the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information matches a modulation order of the downlink transport block scheduled by the first downlink control information; receiving an indication of a scaling factor associated with the virtual downlink control information; and A number of coded modulation symbols per layer for dummy downlink control information is determined based at least in part on the indicated scaling factor.

29. A wireless device comprising: radio equipment, and A processor communicatively coupled to the radio, wherein the wireless device is configured to perform the method of any one of claims 15-28.

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