Configuration for resource-efficient data transmission in shared spectrum channel access

Abstract

A system, method, apparatus, or computer-readable medium for configuring resource-saving transmission in shared spectrum channel access is provided. A first device may receive configuration information for resource-saving transmission from a second device. The first device may determine whether to use resource-saving transmission in an unlicensed spectrum based on the received configuration information for resource-saving transmission.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, including but not limited to systems and methods for configuration of resource-efficient data transmission in shared spectrum channel access. Background Art

[0002] The third generation partnership project (3GPP), a standardization organization, is currently specifying a new radio interface called 5G New Radio (5G NR) and the next generation packet core network (NG-CN or NGC). 5G NR will have three main components: 5G access network (5G-AN), 5G core network (5GC) and user equipment (UE). To facilitate the enablement of different data services and requirements, the elements of 5GC (also known as network functions) have been simplified, and some of them are software-based so that they can be adjusted as needed. Summary of the invention

[0003] The exemplary embodiments disclosed herein are intended to solve problems related to one or more problems existing in the prior art, as well as to provide additional features, which will become apparent by reference to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. According to various embodiments, exemplary systems, methods, devices, and computer program products are disclosed herein. However, it should be understood that these embodiments are presented by way of example rather than limitation, and it is apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art who read this disclosure that various modifications may be made to the disclosed embodiments while remaining within the scope of this disclosure.

[0004] At least one aspect relates to a system, method, apparatus, or computer-readable medium. A first device may receive configuration information for resource-saving transmission from a second device. The first device may determine whether to use resource-saving transmission in an unlicensed spectrum based on the received configuration information for resource-saving transmission.

[0005] In some embodiments, the first device may include a user equipment (UE), and the second device may include a base station or a next generation node B (gNB). In some embodiments, the first device may include a base station or a next generation node B (gNB), and the second device may include a core network entity.

[0006] In some embodiments, the core network entity includes an operation maintenance management (OAM) entity or an access and mobility management function (AMF). In some embodiments, the first device may include a distributed unit (DU) of a next generation Node B (gNB), and the second device may include a centralized unit (CU) of the next generation Node B (gNB).

[0007] In some embodiments, the first device may receive configuration information from the second device via a system information block (SIB). The configuration information may include enabling information for resource-saving transmission. In some embodiments, the first device may receive configuration information from the second device via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0008] In some embodiments, the first device may receive configuration information from the second device via an F1 Application Protocol (F1AP) message. The first device may include a distributed unit (DU), and the second device may include a centralized unit (CU). In some embodiments, the first device may send a message to the second device in response to the received configuration information.

[0009] In some embodiments, the configuration information may include at least one condition. In some embodiments, the first device may determine that the at least one condition is satisfied. In some embodiments, in response to satisfying the at least one condition, the first device may determine to use resource-saving transmissions in an unlicensed spectrum.

[0010] In some embodiments, the configuration information includes at least one of the following: enabling information for downlink resource saving transmissions for each corresponding bandwidth part (BWP); enabling information for downlink resource saving transmissions for all BWPs; enabling information for uplink resource saving transmissions for each corresponding BWP; enabling information for uplink resource saving transmissions for all BWPs; enabling information for uplink resource saving transmissions for each corresponding BWP used by the first device group; enabling information for uplink resource saving transmissions for all BWPs used by the first device group; a minimum number of subbands allowed, each subband having a successful priority for downlink or uplink resource saving transmissions. listen-and-talk (LBT) operations; the maximum allowed number of subbands, each with a failed LBT operation for downlink or uplink resource saving transmission; the allowed minimum ratio of the number of subbands with successful LBT operations to the number of all subbands for downlink or uplink resource saving transmission; the allowed maximum ratio of the number of subbands with failed LBT operations to the number of all subbands for downlink or uplink resource saving transmission; the total number of failed LBT operations in all subbands within a specified time period for downlink or uplink resource saving transmission; or the index of an anchor subband whose LBT result determines whether to perform downlink or uplink resource saving transmission.

[0011] In some embodiments, the configuration information may be included in at least one information element, including: BWP-UplinkCommon, BWP-UplinkDedicated, BWP-DownlinkCommon, BWP-DownlinkDedicated, PUSCH-Config, PUSCH-ConfigCommon, PDSCH-Config or PDSCH-ConfigCommon information element.

[0012] In some embodiments, a higher layer of a first device may receive an indication of a subband listen-before-talk (LBT) failure from a lower layer of the first device. In some embodiments, the higher layer of the first device may determine data to be transmitted based on the indication of the subband LBT failure. In some embodiments, the indication of the subband LBT failure may include at least one of the following: the number of subbands with LBT failures, at least one index of subbands with failed LBT operations, a total amount of data sent in one or more subbands with successful LBT operations, or an index of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a subband involved in a resource-saving transmission.

[0013] At least one aspect relates to a system, method, apparatus, or computer-readable medium. To a first device, a second device may transmit configuration information for resource-saving transmission. The first device may cause a determination of whether to use resource-saving transmission in an unlicensed spectrum based on the configuration information for resource-saving transmission.

[0014] In some embodiments, the first device may include a user equipment (UE), and the second device may include a base station or a next generation node B (gNB). In some embodiments, the first device may include a base station or a next generation node B (gNB), and the second device may include a core network entity.

[0015] In some embodiments, the core network entity may include an operation maintenance management (OAM) entity or an access and mobility management function (AMF). In some embodiments, the first device may include a distributed unit (DU) of a next generation Node B (gNB), and the second device may include a centralized unit (CU) of the next generation Node B (gNB).

[0016] In some embodiments, the second device may transmit configuration information to the first device via a system information block (SIB). The configuration information may include enabling information for resource-saving transmission. In some embodiments, the second device may transmit configuration information to the first device via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0017] In some embodiments, the second device may transmit configuration information to the first device via an F1 Application Protocol (F1AP) message. The first device may include a distributed unit (DU), and the second device may include a centralized unit (CU). In some embodiments, the second device may receive a message from the first device in response to the transmitted configuration information.

[0018] In some embodiments, the configuration information may include at least one of the following: enabling information for downlink resource saving transmissions for each corresponding bandwidth part (BWP); enabling information for downlink resource saving transmissions for all BWPs; enabling information for uplink resource saving transmissions for each corresponding BWP; enabling information for uplink resource saving transmissions for all BWPs; enabling information for uplink resource saving transmissions for each corresponding BWP used by the first device group; enabling information for uplink resource saving transmissions for all BWPs used by the first device group; a minimum number of subbands allowed, each subband having a successful downlink or uplink resource saving transmission listen-before-talk (LBT) operations; the maximum allowed number of subbands, each with failed LBT operations for downlink or uplink resource saving transmissions; the allowed minimum ratio of the number of subbands with successful LBT operations to the number of all subbands for downlink or uplink resource saving transmissions; the allowed maximum ratio of the number of subbands with failed LBT operations to the number of all subbands for downlink or uplink resource saving transmissions; the total number of failed LBT operations in all subbands within a specified time period for downlink or uplink resource saving transmissions; or the index of an anchor subband whose LBT result determines whether to perform downlink or uplink resource saving transmissions.

[0019] In some embodiments, the configuration information may be included in at least one information element, including: BWP-UplinkCommon, BWP-UplinkDedicated, BWP-DownlinkCommon, BWP-DownlinkDedicated, PUSCH-Config, PUSCH-ConfigCommon, PDSCH-Config or PDSCH-ConfigCommon information element. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] Various example embodiments of the present solution are described in detail below with reference to the following figures or drawings. The drawings are provided for illustrative purposes only and only depict example embodiments of the present solution to facilitate the reader's understanding of the present solution. Therefore, the drawings should not be considered to limit the breadth, scope or applicability of the present solution. It should be noted that for clarity and ease of illustration, these drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

[0021] Figure 1 An example cellular communication network is shown in which the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0022] Figure 2 A block diagram showing an example base station and user equipment according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0023] Figure 3 A block diagram showing data transmission after successful listen-before-talk (LBT) in each subband;

[0024] Figure 4 A block diagram showing data transmission after a listen-before-talk (LBT) failure in one of the subbands;

[0025] Figure 5 A block diagram showing data transmission in a sub-band where Listen Before Talk (LBT) is successful;

[0026] Figure 6 A sequence diagram showing a data flow for a resource-saving data transmission configuration enabled by a system information block (SIB);

[0027] Figure 7 A sequence diagram showing a data flow for a data transmission configuration using dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling for resource saving;

[0028] Figure 8 A sequence diagram illustrating data flow between a medium access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer in a resource-saving data transmission configuration; and

[0029] Fig. 9 A flow chart illustrating a method for configuration of resource-saving data transmission in shared spectrum channel access. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] Various example embodiments of the present solution are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the present solution. It will be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art that, after reading this disclosure, various changes or modifications may be made to the examples described herein without departing from the scope of the present solution. Therefore, the present solution is not limited to the example embodiments and applications described and illustrated herein. In addition, the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed herein are merely example methods. Based on design preferences, the specific order or hierarchy of steps of the disclosed methods or processes may be rearranged while remaining within the scope disclosed in the present solution. Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the methods and techniques disclosed herein present various steps or actions in a sample order, and unless otherwise expressly stated, the present solution is not limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

[0031] The following acronyms are used throughout this disclosure:

[0032]

[0033]

[0034]

[0035] 1. Mobile communication technology and environment

[0036] Figure 1 An example wireless communication network and / or system 100 is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, in which the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented. In the following discussion, the wireless communication network 100 may be any wireless network, such as a cellular network or a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network, and is referred to herein as "network 100." Such an example network 100 includes a base station 102 (hereinafter referred to as "BS 102," also referred to as a wireless communication node) and a user equipment 104 (hereinafter referred to as "UE 104," also referred to as a wireless communication device), which may communicate with each other via a communication link 110 (e.g., a wireless communication channel), and includes cell clusters 126, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, and 140 covering a geographic area 101. In Figure 1 1, BS 102 and UE 104 are contained within the respective geographic boundaries of cell 126. Each of the other cells 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, and 140 may include at least one base station operating over its allocated bandwidth to provide adequate wireless coverage to its intended users.

[0037] For example, BS 102 may operate under an allocated channel transmission bandwidth to provide sufficient coverage to UE 104. BS 102 and UE 104 may communicate via downlink radio frames 118 and uplink radio frames 124, respectively. Each radio frame 118 / 124 may be further divided into subframes 120 / 127, which may include data symbols 122 / 128. In the present disclosure, BS 102 and UE 104 are described herein as non-limiting examples of "communication nodes", which may generally implement the methods disclosed herein. According to various embodiments of the present solution, such communication nodes are capable of wireless and / or wired communication.

[0038] Figure 2A block diagram of an example wireless communication system 200 for sending and receiving wireless communication signals (e.g., OFDM / OFDMA signals) according to some embodiments of the present solution is shown. The system 200 may include components and elements configured to support known or conventional operating features that need not be described in detail herein. In an illustrative embodiment, as described above, the system 200 may be used in applications such as Figure 1 The wireless communication environment 100 may be used to transmit (eg, send and receive) data symbols.

[0039] The system 200 generally includes a base station 202 (hereinafter referred to as "BS 202") and a user equipment 204 (hereinafter referred to as "UE 204"). The BS 202 includes a BS (base station) transceiver module 210, a BS antenna 212, a BS processor module 214, a BS memory module 216, and a network communication module 218, each of which is coupled and interconnected to each other via a data communication bus 220 as needed. The UE 204 includes a UE (user equipment) transceiver module 230, a UE antenna 232, a UE memory module 234, and a UE processor module 236, each of which is coupled and interconnected to each other via a data communication bus 240 as needed. The BS 202 communicates with the UE 204 via a communication channel 250, which can be any wireless channel or other medium suitable for data transmission as described herein.

[0040] As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the system 200 may also include Figure 2 Any number of modules outside the modules shown. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the various illustrative blocks, modules, circuits, and processing logic described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in hardware, computer-readable software, firmware, or any actual combination thereof. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability and compatibility of hardware, firmware, and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are generally described according to their functions. Whether such functions are implemented in hardware, firmware, or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the entire system. People familiar with the concepts described herein can implement such functions in an appropriate manner for each specific application, but such implementation decision should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.

[0041] According to some embodiments, the UE transceiver 230 may be referred to herein as an "uplink" transceiver 230, which includes a radio frequency (RF) transmitter and an RF receiver, each of which includes circuitry coupled to an antenna 232. A duplex switch (not shown) may alternatively couple the uplink transmitter or receiver to the uplink antenna in a time duplex manner. Similarly, according to some embodiments, the BS transceiver 210 may be referred to herein as a "downlink" transceiver 210, which includes an RF transmitter and an RF receiver, each of which includes circuitry coupled to an antenna 212. The downlink duplex switch may alternatively couple the downlink transmitter or receiver to the downlink antenna 212 in a time duplex manner. The operation of the two transceiver modules 210 and 230 may be coordinated in time such that the uplink receiver circuit is coupled to the uplink antenna 232 to receive transmissions over the wireless transmission link 250 while the downlink transmitter is coupled to the downlink antenna 212. Instead, the operation of the two transceivers 210 and 230 may be coordinated in time such that while the uplink transmitter is coupled to the uplink antenna 232, the downlink receiver is coupled to the downlink antenna 212 to receive transmissions over the wireless transmission link 250. In some embodiments, there is tight time synchronization with minimal guard times between changes in duplex direction.

[0042] The UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 are configured to communicate via a wireless data communication link 250 and cooperate with an appropriately configured RF antenna arrangement 212 / 232 that can support a specific wireless communication protocol and modulation scheme. In some illustrative embodiments, the UE transceiver 210 and the base station transceiver 210 are configured to support industry standards such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and emerging 5G standards. However, it should be understood that the present disclosure is not necessarily limited to specific standards and related protocols in application. Instead, the UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 can be configured to support alternative or additional wireless data communication protocols, including future standards or variations thereof.

[0043] According to various embodiments, BS 202 may be an evolved Node B (eNB), a serving eNB, a target eNB, a femtocell or a microcell. In some embodiments, UE 204 may be embodied in various types of user equipment, such as a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a wearable computing device, etc. Processor modules 214 and 236 may be implemented or implemented using a general purpose processor, a content addressable memory, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, any suitable programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, in order to perform the functions described herein. In this manner, the processor may be implemented as a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a state machine, etc. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a combination of multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors and a digital signal processor core, or any other such configuration.

[0044] In addition, the steps of the methods or algorithms described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein may be directly embodied in hardware, firmware, software modules executed by the processor modules 214 and 236, respectively, or in any practical combination thereof. The memory modules 216 and 234 may be implemented as RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. In this regard, the memory modules 216 and 234 may be coupled to the processor modules 210 and 230, respectively, so that the processor modules 210 and 230 can read information from and write information to the memory modules 216 and 234, respectively. The memory modules 216 and 234 may also be integrated into the respective processor modules 210 and 230. In some embodiments, the memory modules 216 and 234 may each include a cache for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during the execution of instructions to be executed by the processor modules 210 and 230, respectively. Memory modules 216 and 234 may also each include non-volatile memory for storing instructions to be executed by processor modules 210 and 230, respectively.

[0045] The network communication module 218 generally represents the hardware, software, firmware, processing logic and / or other components of the base station 202, which implement bidirectional communication between the base station transceiver 210 and other network components and communication nodes configured to communicate with the base station 202. For example, the network communication module 218 can be configured to support Internet or WiMAX traffic. In a typical deployment, without limitation, the network communication module 218 provides an 802.3 Ethernet interface so that the base station transceiver 210 can communicate with a conventional Ethernet-based computer network. In this way, the network communication module 218 can include a physical interface for connecting to a computer network (e.g., a mobile switching center (MSC)). The terms "configured for", "configured to" and their conjunctions, as used herein with respect to a specified operation or function, refer to a device, component, circuit, structure, machine, signal, etc. that is physically constructed, programmed, formatted and / or arranged to perform a specified operation or function.

[0046] The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (referred to herein as the "Open Systems Interconnection Model") is a conceptual and logical layout that defines network communications used by systems (e.g., wireless communication devices, wireless communication nodes) that are open to interconnection and communication with other systems. The model is divided into seven subcomponents or layers, each of which represents a conceptual set of services provided to its upper and lower layers. The OSI model also defines a logical network and effectively describes computer packet transmission by using different layer protocols. The OSI model may also be referred to as a seven-layer OSI model or a seven-layer model. In some embodiments, the first layer may be a physical layer. In some embodiments, the second layer may be a medium access control (MAC) layer. In some embodiments, the third layer may be a radio link control (RLC) layer. In some embodiments, the fourth layer may be a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer. In some embodiments, the fifth layer may be a radio resource control (RRC) layer. In some embodiments, the sixth layer may be a non-access stratum (NAS) layer or an Internet Protocol (IP) layer, and the seventh layer is another layer.

[0047] 2. System and method for configuration of resource-saving data transmission in shared spectrum channel access

[0048] In communications over a shared spectrum (e.g., NR-U), there may be technical challenges regarding how to decide whether to transmit data in a BWP or an allocated resource containing multiple LBT subbands and how to perform the relevant configuration in the NR-U system. In the NR-U system, a listen-before-talk (LBT) failure may have to be reported from the PHY layer to the MAC layer so that the MAC layer can schedule subsequent data transmission based on resource allocation information. At the PHY layer, real-time LBT measurements (e.g., CCA measurements) may be performed on each LBT subband (e.g., in a 20 MHz band or RB set), and LBT failures in each subband may be determined based on detailed criteria in the PHY layer as specified in the 3GPP specification.

[0049] However, the resources allocated to each UE in the BWP at the MAC layer may contain multiple LBT subbands. It should also be decided first whether data can be transmitted if LBT succeeds in some subbands but fails in other subbands. 3GPP Rel-16 specifies that once LBT fails in one of the subbands in the allocated resources, data will not be transmitted, such as Figure 3 and Figure 4 This may result in a large waste of resources because once the LBT of one of the sub-bands fails, data may not be transmitted on these sub-bands even if the LBT succeeds in these sub-bands.

[0050] Reference now Figure 5 , showing a resource-saving data transmission mode. In this configuration, data can be transmitted on the subband where LBT succeeds even if LBT fails in some other subbands. Proposed herein is a system and method for achieving resource-saving data transmission (or efficient data transmission). To this end, the configuration information may include or include one or more of the following:

[0051] · Transmission enabling information for DL ​​resource saving of all BWPs (e.g., transmitted from a CN entity to the gNB, where the CN entity may be an OAM entity, AMF or other CN entity);

[0052] Transmission enabling information for DL ​​resource saving for each corresponding BWP (e.g., transmitted from a CN entity to the gNB, where the CN entity may be an OAM entity, AMF or other CN entity);

[0053] Transmission of activation information for DL ​​resource saving for all BWPs (e.g., transmitted from gNB CU to gNB DU);

[0054] Transmitted enabling information for DL ​​resource saving per corresponding BWP (e.g., transmitted from gNB CU to gNB DU);

[0055] Transmission of activation information for UL resource saving for all BWPs from the gNB to all UEs;

[0056] Transmission of enabling information for UL resource saving per corresponding BWP (e.g., transmitted from the gNB to all UEs);

[0057] Transmission of activation information for UL resource saving for all BWPs (e.g., from the gNB CU to a UE or UE class);

[0058] Transmission enabling information for UL resource saving per corresponding BWP (e.g., transmitted from the gNB CU to the UE or UE class);

[0059] Minimum number of subbands allowed, each with successful LBT operation for transmission with DL / UL resource saving;

[0060] Maximum number of subbands allowed, each with LBT for failed transmission for DL / UL resource saving;

[0061] The allowed minimum ratio of the number of subbands with successful LBT to the number of all subbands for transmission with DL / UL resource saving;

[0062] The allowed maximum ratio of the number of subbands with LBT failures to the number of all subbands for transmission with DL / UL resource saving;

[0063] The total number of LBT failures in all included subbands within a specified time period for transmissions used for DL / UL resource saving; and

[0064] The index of the anchor subband, whose LBT result will determine whether to perform DL / UL resource saving transmission.

[0065] In addition, the above configuration information may be transmitted or included in the following signaling:

[0066] System information from the gNB, such as the System Information Block (SIB);

[0067] Dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; and

[0068] • DU configuration signaling in F1 Application Protocol (F1AP) in case of Centralized Unit / Distributed Unit (CU / DU) split.

[0069] In addition, the above configuration information may be included in the following IE in dedicated RRC signaling:

[0070] ·BWP-UplinkCommon

[0071] ·BWP-UplinkDedicated

[0072] BWP-DownlinkCommon

[0073] ·BWP-DownlinkDedicated

[0074] PUSCH-Config

[0075] PUSCH-ConfigCommon

[0076] PDSCH-Config

[0077] PDSCH-ConfigCommon

[0078] In order to achieve the above-mentioned resource-saving data transmission, after receiving the above-mentioned configuration information, the above-mentioned configuration information can also be notified to the PHY layer. If the conditions in the configuration information are met, the PHY layer can perform resource-saving transmission. Otherwise, when LBT succeeds in all subbands included in the transmission resource block, the PHY layer can transmit data (for example, as defined in 3GPP Rel-16).

[0079] After data transmission at the PHY layer, the PHY layer can provide the following information to the MAC layer:

[0080] Sub-band LBT fault indication; and

[0081] Overall LBT fault indication when conventional transmission mode is selected.

[0082] In addition, the sub-band LBT fault indication may include the following information:

[0083] · Number of subbands with LBT failures;

[0084] One or more subband indices of LBT failures;

[0085] The BWP index of the subband involved; and

[0086] The total amount of data sent in the sub-bands where LBT succeeded.

[0087] Reference now Figure 6 , depicts a sequence diagram of a data flow 600 for a resource-saving data transmission configuration enabled by a system information block (SIB). As depicted, enabling information may be communicated from a gNB to a UE. After the UE receives the enabling information, the UE may enable a resource-saving transmission mode in NR-U (e.g., as Figure 5 Otherwise, the conventional transmission mode may be applied and once LBT fails in one of the subbands in the allocated resources (e.g., Figure 3 and4 At 605, the gNB may broadcast a system information block (SIB). The SIB may include enabling information for resource-saving transmission. At 610, the UE may detect the enabling information contained in the SIB and use resource-saving transmission in the following NR-U data transmission.

[0088] Reference now Figure 7 , depicts a sequence diagram of a data flow 700 for resource-saving data transmission configuration using dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling. As depicted, a set of configuration information for resource-saving data transmission can be delivered from the gNB to the UE via dedicated RRC signaling. After the UE receives the configuration information, the UE can enable the resource-saving transmission mode based on the received configuration information. In the configuration information, one or more conditions can be included. When the conditions are met, the UE can apply the resource-saving data transmission mode. Otherwise, the traditional transmission mode can be applied and once LBT fails in one of the subbands in the allocated resources (for example, in Figure 3 and Figure 4 The data will not be transmitted.

[0089] At 705, the gNB may send dedicated RRC signaling (e.g., an RRC reconfiguration message) to the UE. Configuration information for resource-saving transmission is included. The configuration information may include one or more of the following information:

[0090] · Transmission enabling information for DL ​​resource saving of all BWPs (e.g., transmitted from a CN entity to the gNB, where the CN entity may be an OAM entity, AMF or other CN entity);

[0091] Transmission enabling information for DL ​​resource saving for each corresponding BWP (e.g., transmitted from a CN entity to the gNB, where the CN entity may be an OAM entity, AMF or other CN entity);

[0092] Transmission of activation information for DL ​​resource saving for all BWPs (e.g., transmitted from gNB CU to gNB DU);

[0093] Transmitted enabling information for DL ​​resource saving per corresponding BWP (e.g., transmitted from gNB CU to gNB DU);

[0094] Transmission of activation information for UL resource saving for all BWPs from the gNB to all UEs;

[0095] Transmission of enabling information for UL resource saving per corresponding BWP (e.g., transmitted from the gNB to all UEs);

[0096] Transmission of activation information for UL resource saving for all BWPs (e.g., from the gNB CU to a UE or UE class);

[0097] Transmission enabling information for UL resource saving per corresponding BWP (e.g., transmitted from the gNB CU to the UE or UE class);

[0098] Minimum number of subbands allowed, each with successful LBT operation for transmission with DL / UL resource saving;

[0099] Maximum number of subbands allowed, each with LBT for failed transmission for DL / UL resource saving;

[0100] The allowed minimum ratio of the number of subbands with successful LBT to the number of all subbands for transmission with DL / UL resource saving;

[0101] The allowed maximum ratio of the number of subbands with LBT failures to the number of all subbands for transmission with DL / UL resource saving;

[0102] The total number of LBT failures in all included subbands within a specified time period for transmissions used for DL / UL resource saving; and

[0103] v Index of the anchor subband, whose LBT result will determine whether to perform DL / UL resource saving transmission.

[0104] In addition, the above configuration information may be included in the following IE in dedicated RRC signaling:

[0105] ·BWP-UplinkCommon

[0106] ·BWP-UplinkDedicated

[0107] BWP-DownlinkCommon

[0108] ·BWP-DownlinkDedicated

[0109] PUSCH-Config

[0110] PUSCH-ConfigCommon

[0111] PDSCH-Config

[0112] PDSCH-ConfigCommon

[0113] For example, for UL transmission at the UE, new parameters as shown below may be added in the IE PUSCH-Config as shown below: IE PUSCH-Config may be used to configure UE-specific PUSCH parameters applicable to a specific BWP.

[0114] PUSCH-Config information element:

[0115] --ASN1START

[0116] --TAG-PUSCH-CONFIG-START

[0117] PUSCH-Config::=SEQUENCE{

[0118] resourceSavingTxConfig OPTIONAL,--Need R

[0119] }

[0120] ResourceSavingTxConfig::=SEQUENCE{

[0121] EnablingDL BOOLEAN

[0122] EnablingUL BOOLEAN

[0123] allowedMaxNumofLBTFailDL INTEGER(0..10)OPTIONAL,--Need R

[0124] allowedMaxNumofLBTFailUL INTEGER(0..10)OPTIONAL,--Need R

[0125] allowedMinNumofLBTSuccessDL INTEGER(0..10)OPTIONAL,--Need R

[0126] allowedMinNumofLBTSuccessUL INTEGER(0..10)OPTIONAL,--Need R

[0127] }

[0128] TAG-REPORTCONFIGINTERRAT-STOP

[0129] ASN1STOP

[0130] At 710, the UE sends an RRC response message (e.g., an RRC reconfiguration complete message) to confirm receipt of the RRC message from the gNB. At 715, the UE may initiate a resource-saving transmission mode according to the configuration information in a subsequent NR-U data transmission. In the configuration information, one or more conditions may be included. When the conditions are met, the UE may apply the resource-saving data transmission mode (e.g., Figure 5 Otherwise, the conventional transmission mode will be applied (e.g. Figure 3 and 4 depicted).

[0131] Reference now Figure 8 , depicts a sequence diagram of a data flow 800 between a medium access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer in a resource-saving data transmission configuration. As depicted, the interaction between the MAC and the PHY is described when resource-saving data transmission is applied. Configuration information for resource-saving data transmission can be passed to the PHY layer. Upon receipt, the PHY layer can decide whether to use the configuration information based on the LBT results for each subband in the allocated resource block. At 805, the MAC layer can send one or more MAC PDUs for a resource block having multiple subbands to the PHY layer.

[0132] At 810, the PHY layer may perform conventional data transmission (e.g., Figure 3 or 4) or perform resource-saving data transmission according to configuration information for resource-saving data transmission (for example, as shown in Figure 5 As depicted). For example, if the "minimum number of subbands allowed for LBT success for transmission with DL / UL resource saving" is included in the configuration information, the PHY layer may perform transmission with DL / UL resource saving only when the number of subbands for LBT success is greater than the minimum number allowed. Otherwise, the conventional transmission mode will be applied. In another example, if the "maximum number of subbands allowed for LBT failure for transmission with DL / UL resource saving" is included in the configuration information, the PHY layer may perform transmission with DL / UL resource saving when the number of subbands for LBT failure is less than the maximum number allowed. Otherwise, the conventional transmission mode may be applied and data may not be transmitted at all.

[0133] At 815, after performing resource-saving data transmission at the PHY layer, the PHY layer may send a sub-band LBT failure indication to the MAC layer. Alternatively, when the conventional transmission mode is selected based on the configuration information for resource-saving data transmission, an overall LBT failure indication indicating LBT failure or success may be provided to the MAC layer. In addition, the sub-band LBT failure indication may include the following information:

[0134] Number of subbands with LBT failures

[0135] Subband index of LBT failure

[0136] The total amount of data sent in the sub-band where LBT succeeded

[0137] The BWP index of the subband involved

[0138] At 820, the MAC layer may decide the following data to be transmitted based on the sub-band LBT failure indication or the overall LBT failure indication received from the PHY layer.

[0139] Reference now Fig. 9 , depicts a flow chart of a method 900 for configuring resource-saving data transmission in shared spectrum channel access. The method 900 can be implemented or performed using any component (e.g., as described herein in conjunction with Figure 1-8 In short, a transmitting device may transmit configuration information for resource-saving transmission to a receiving device (905). A receiving device may receive configuration information for resource-saving transmission from a transmitting device (910). The receiving device may determine whether to use resource-saving transmission in a shared spectrum (915). If it is determined not to use resource-saving transmission, the receiving device may operate in a conventional transmission mode (920). Otherwise, if it is determined to use resource-saving transmission, the receiving device may operate in a resource-saving transmission mode (925).

[0140] The receiving device and the transmitting device may correspond to one or more components in the system 100 or the wireless communication system 200, etc. The receiving device may generally be referred to as the first device herein, and the transmitting device may generally be referred to as the second device herein. In some embodiments, the receiving device may be, correspond to, or include a user equipment (UE), and the transmitting device may be, correspond to, or include a base station or a next generation node B (gNB). In some embodiments, the receiving device may be, correspond to, or include a base station or a next generation node B (gNB), etc., and the second device may be, correspond to, or include a core network (CN) entity. In some embodiments, the CN entity may be, correspond to, or include an operation maintenance management (OAM) entity or an access and mobility management function (AMF), etc. In some embodiments, the receiving device may be, correspond to, or include a distributed unit (DU) of a next generation node B (gNB), and the transmitting device may be, correspond to, or include a centralized unit (CU) of a next generation node B (gNB).

[0141] In more detail, the transmitting device may provide, send, or otherwise communicate configuration information (905) for resource-saving transmission (also referred to herein as efficient data transmission) to the receiving device. In some embodiments, the transmitting device may identify or generate the configuration information before transmitting to the receiving device. The configuration information may include enabling information for resource-saving transmission. In some embodiments, the transmitting device may send, provide, or transmit the configuration information via a system information block (SIB) (e.g., 605). The SIB may be generated to include enabling information for transmission to the receiving device as a system information (SI) message. In some embodiments, the transmitting device may send, provide, or transmit the configuration information via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling (e.g., RRC reconfiguration message 705). RRC signaling may be generated to include configuration information to be provided to the receiving device. In some embodiments, the transmitting device (e.g., a CU in a gNB) may send, provide, or transmit the configuration information to the receiving device (e.g., a DU in a gNB) via an F1 application protocol (F1AP) message. The F1AP message may be communicated via an F1 interface between the transmitting device and the receiving device.

[0142] The receiving device may retrieve, identify, or receive configuration information for resource-saving transmission from the transmitting device (910). In some embodiments, the receiving device may retrieve, identify, or receive the configuration information via a SIB transmitted by the transmitting device. In some embodiments, the receiving device may retrieve, identify, or receive the configuration information via dedicated RRC signaling (e.g., RRC reconfiguration message 705) transmitted by the transmitting device. In some embodiments, the receiving device (e.g., a DU in a gNB) may retrieve, identify, or receive the configuration information via a F1AP message transmitted by a transmitting device (e.g., a CU in a gNB).

[0143] The configuration information may define, identify, or otherwise include one or more conditions under which resource-saving transmissions are used or not used. In some embodiments, the configuration information may identify, define, or otherwise include information for enabling or performing resource-saving transmissions. The configuration information may include enabling information for downlink resource-saving transmissions for each corresponding bandwidth part (BWP). The enabling information may be used for DL ​​resource-saving transmissions for each BWP from a transmitting device (e.g., a gNB or CU) to a receiving device (e.g., a DU or CN entity such as an OAM entity or AFM). The configuration information may include enabling information for downlink resource-saving transmissions for all BWPs. The enabling information may be used for DL ​​resource-saving transmissions for all BWPs from a transmitting device (e.g., a gNB or CU) to a receiving device (e.g., a DU or CN entity such as an OAM entity or AFM). The configuration information may include enabling information for uplink resource-saving transmissions for each corresponding BWP. The enabling information may be used for UL resource-saving transmissions for each BWP from a transmitting device (e.g., a gNB) to a receiving device (e.g., a UE). The configuration information may include enabling information for transmission of uplink resource saving for all BWPs. The enabling information may be used for transmission of UL resource saving for all BWPs from a transmitting device (e.g., a gNB) to a receiving device (e.g., a UE). The configuration information may include enabling information for transmission of uplink resource saving for each respective BWP for use by a group of receiving devices (e.g., UEs connected to a gNB corresponding to the transmitting device). The configuration information may include enabling information for transmission of uplink resource saving for all BWPs for use by a group of receiving devices (e.g., UEs connected to a gNB corresponding to the transmitting device).

[0144] In some embodiments, the configuration information may include conditions specifying the allowed characteristics of LBT operations for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving. Each subband may correspond to or be associated with an independent LBT operation. The configuration information may include the minimum number of subbands allowed, each of which has a successful listen-before-talk (LBT) operation for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving. The configuration information may include the maximum number of subbands allowed, each of which has a failed LBT operation for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving. The configuration information may include the minimum ratio allowed for each subband number with successful LBT operations to the number of all subbands for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving. The configuration information may include the maximum ratio allowed for each subband number with failed LBT operations to the number of all subbands for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving. The configuration information may include the total number of failed LBT operations in all subbands within a specified time period for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving. The configuration information may include an index to an anchor subband, whose LBT result determines whether to perform transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving.

[0145] In some embodiments, the configuration information may be included in one or more information elements (e.g., of RRC signaling), such as:

[0146] BWP-UplinkCommon,

[0147] BWP-UplinkDedicated,

[0148] BWP-DownlinkCommon,

[0149] BWP-DownlinkDedicated,

[0150] PUSCH-Config,

[0151] PUSCH-ConfigCommon,

[0152] PDSCH-Config, or

[0153] PDSCH-ConfigCommon information element.

[0154] The receiving device may identify or determine whether to use resource-saving transmission in the shared spectrum (915). Whether to perform resource-saving transmission may be determined based on configuration information. When determining, the receiving device may identify one or more characteristics (e.g., regarding LBT operation) to compare with one or more conditions of the configuration information to determine whether any or all are met. For example, the conditions may include: the minimum number of subbands allowed for each transmission with successful listen-before-talk (LBT) operation for downlink or uplink resource saving; the maximum number of subbands for each transmission with failed LBT operation for downlink or uplink resource saving; the minimum ratio allowed for each subband number with successful LBT operation to the number of all subbands for downlink or uplink resource saving; the maximum ratio allowed for each subband number with failed LBT operation to the number of all subbands for downlink or uplink resource saving; the total number of failed LBT operations in all subbands within a specified time period for downlink or uplink resource saving transmission; and the index of the anchor subband whose LBT result determines whether to perform downlink or uplink resource saving transmission, etc.

[0155] The receiving device may determine that none of the conditions defined by the configuration information is satisfied. When any of the conditions are not satisfied, the receiving device may determine not to use resource-saving transmission. If it is determined not to use resource-saving transmission, the receiving device may transmit the message in a conventional transmission mode (e.g., Figure 3 and 4 On the other hand, the receiving device may determine that at least one condition is satisfied. If at least one condition is satisfied, the receiving device may determine to use resource-saving transmission in a shared spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum (NR-U). In some embodiments, in response to the configuration information, the receiving device may send, provide, or transmit a message to the sending device (e.g., RRC reconfiguration complete 710 or a G1AP response message in a CU-DU architecture). The transmission of the message may be in response to a determination to use resource-saving transmission. Sending a message may receive a message from a receiving device.

[0156] Otherwise, if it is determined that resource-saving transmission is to be used, the receiving device may operate in a resource-saving transmission mode (925). The operation of resource-saving transmission may be performed according to the configuration information. In some embodiments, the receiving device may provide data (e.g., MAC PDU 805) from a lower layer (e.g., MAC) to a higher layer (e.g., PHY) for one or more resource blocks having multiple subbands. The data may include configuration information. In some embodiments, the higher layer of the receiving device may further perform resource-saving transmission based on the data and monitor subband LBT failures in each subband. In some embodiments, the higher layer of the receiving device may retrieve, identify, or receive an indication of a subband LBT failure from the lower layer. In response to detecting a subband LBT failure, an indication of a subband LBT failure may be generated from the lower layer. In some embodiments, the indication of a subband failure may include one or more of the following:

[0157] The number of subbands with LBT failures,

[0158] at least one index of a subband with a failed LBT operation,

[0159] v The total amount of data transmitted in one or more subbands with successful LBT operation, or

[0160] • Bandwidth part (BWP) index of the subband involved in the resource-saving transmission.

[0161] In some embodiments, the higher layers of the receiving device may determine the data to be transmitted based on the indication of the sub-band LBT failure. The determination may also be made based on configuration information.

[0162] Although various embodiments of the present solution have been described above, it should be understood that they are presented only in an exemplary and not limiting manner. Similarly, various figures may depict example architectures or configurations, which are provided so that those of ordinary skill in the art can understand the example features and functions of the present solution. However, such personnel will understand that the present solution is not limited to the example architectures or configurations shown, but may use a variety of alternative architectures and configurations to implement the present solution. In addition, as those of ordinary skill in the art will understand, one or more features of an embodiment may be combined with one or more features of another embodiment described herein. Therefore, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to any of the above-mentioned illustrative embodiments.

[0163] It should also be understood that any reference to an element herein using names such as "first," "second," etc. does not generally limit the number or order of those elements. Rather, these names may be used herein as a convenient means of distinguishing between two or more elements or examples of elements. Thus, a reference to a first and a second element does not mean that only two elements may be used, or that the first element must be located before the second element in some manner.

[0164] In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, and symbols such as those referenced in the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0165] It will be further understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that any of the various schematic logic blocks, modules, processors, devices, circuits, methods, and functions described in conjunction with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented by electronic hardware (e.g., digital implementations, analog implementations, or a combination of the two), firmware, various forms of design code or programs containing instructions (for convenience, may be referred to herein as "software" or "software modules"), or any combination of these technologies. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware, firmware, and software, various schematic components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally according to their functions. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware, firmware, or software, or a combination of these technologies, depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. Technicians may implement the described functionality in various ways for each specific application, but such implementation decisions will not result in a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0166] In addition, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the various illustrative logic blocks, modules, devices, components, and circuits described herein may be implemented within or performed by an integrated circuit (IC), which may include: a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof. The logic blocks, modules, and circuits may further include antennas and / or transceivers to communicate with various components within a network or within a device. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but alternatively, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a DSP core, or any other suitable configuration to perform the functions described herein.

[0167] If the function is implemented in software, the function can be stored as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Therefore, the steps of the method or algorithm disclosed herein can be implemented as software stored on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, and communication media include any media that can enable a computer program or code to be transferred from one place to another. The storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access. By way of example and in a non-limiting manner, such a computer-readable medium may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage devices, magnetic disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to store desired program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer.

[0168] In this document, the term "module" as used herein refers to software, firmware, hardware, and any combination of these elements for performing the associated functions described herein. In addition, for the purpose of discussion, various modules are described as discrete modules; however, it is obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art that two or more modules can be combined to form a single module that performs the associated functions according to an embodiment of the present solution.

[0169] In addition, memory or other storage devices and communication components can be adopted in the embodiment of the present solution.It should be understood that, for the sake of clarity, the above description has described the embodiment of the present solution with reference to different functional units and processors.However, it will be apparent that, without departing from the present solution, any appropriate functional distribution between different functional units, processing logic elements or domains can be used.For example, the function that is illustrated as being performed by a separate processing logic element or controller can be performed by the same processing logic element or controller.Therefore, reference to a specific functional unit is only a reference to an appropriate device for providing the described function, rather than indicating a strict logical or physical structure or organization.

[0170] Various modifications to the embodiments described in the present disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is to be given the widest scope consistent with the novel features and principles disclosed herein, as set forth in the claims below.

Claims

1. A method comprising: Receiving, by the first device from the second device, configuration information for resource-saving transmission; determining, by the first device, based on the received configuration information for resource-saving transmission, that the resource-saving transmission is to be used to transmit data on one or more subbands of a plurality of subbands in which listen-before-talk (LBT) is successful in an unlicensed spectrum; receiving, by a higher layer of the first device from a lower layer of the first device, an indication of an LBT failure for one or more of the plurality of subbands; determining, by a higher layer of the first device, data to be transmitted on a plurality of subbands for which LBT was successful based on the indication of the LBT failure; as well as The resource-saving transmission is performed by the higher layer to transmit the data on multiple subbands where LBT is successful.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first device comprises a user equipment (UE), and the second device comprises a base station or a next generation Node B (gNB).

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first device comprises a base station or a next generation Node B (gNB), and the second device comprises a core network entity.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein: The core network entity includes an Operation Maintenance Management (OAM) entity or an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF).

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first device includes a distributed unit (DU) of a next generation Node B (gNB), and the second device includes a centralized unit (CU) of the next generation Node B (gNB).

6. The method according to claim 1, comprising the first device receiving the configuration information from the second device via a system information block (SIB), wherein The configuration information includes enabling information for the resource-saving transmission.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising the first device receiving the configuration information from the second device via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising the first device receiving the configuration information from the second device via an F1 Application Protocol (F1AP) message, wherein: The first device comprises a distributed unit (DU) and the second device comprises a centralized unit (CU).

9. The method of claim 1, comprising the first device sending a message to the second device in response to the received configuration information.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The configuration information includes at least one condition, and the method includes: determining, by the first device, that the at least one condition is satisfied; and Determining, by the first device, to utilize the resource-saving transmission in the unlicensed spectrum is responsive to satisfying the at least one condition.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The configuration information includes at least one of the following: enabling information for transmission of downlink resource saving for each respective bandwidth part (BWP); Transmission activation information for downlink resource saving for all BWPs; Transmission enabling information for uplink resource saving for each corresponding BWP; Transmission activation information for uplink resource saving for all BWPs; enabling information for use by the first device group for transmission of uplink resource savings for each respective BWP; or Enabling information for transmission of uplink resource saving for all BWPs for use by the first device group.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The configuration information includes an indication of at least one of the following: The minimum number of subbands allowed, each with successful listen-before-talk (LBT) operation for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving; The maximum number of subbands allowed, each with failed LBT operation for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving; The allowed minimum ratio of the number of each subband with successful LBT operation to the number of all subbands for transmission for downlink or uplink resource saving; The allowed maximum ratio of the number of subbands per LBT operation with failure to the number of all subbands for transmission for downlink or uplink resource saving; The total number of failed LBT operations in all subbands within a specified time period for downlink or uplink resource-saving transmissions; or The index of the anchor subband whose LBT result determines whether to perform downlink or uplink resource saving transmission.

13. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The configuration information is included in at least one information element, including: BWP-UplinkCommon, BWP-UplinkDedicated, BWP-DownlinkCommon, BWP-DownlinkDedicated, PUSCH-Config, PUSCH-ConfigCommon, PDSCH-Config, or PDSCH-ConfigCommon information element.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The indication of the subband LBT failure includes at least one of the following: the number of subbands with LBT failures, at least one index of the subband with failed LBT operations, the total amount of data sent in one or more subbands with successful LBT operations, or an index of the bandwidth part (BWP) of the subband involved in the resource-saving transmission.

15. A method comprising: Transmitting, by the second device to the first device, configuration information for resource-saving transmission; and Make the first device: determining, based on the configuration information for the resource-saving transmission, that the resource-saving transmission is to be used to transmit data on one or more subbands of a plurality of subbands in which listen-before-talk (LBT) is successful in an unlicensed spectrum; receiving, by a higher layer of the first device from a lower layer of the first device, an indication of an LBT failure for a sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands; determining, by a higher layer of the first device, data to be transmitted on a plurality of subbands for which LBT was successful based on the indication of the LBT failure; and The resource-saving transmission is performed via the higher layer to transmit the data on a plurality of subbands for which LBT is successful.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The first device comprises a user equipment (UE), and the second device comprises a base station or a next generation Node B (gNB).

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The first device comprises a base station or a next generation Node B (gNB), and the second device comprises a core network entity.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein: The core network entity includes an Operation Maintenance Management (OAM) entity or an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF).

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The first device includes a distributed unit (DU) of a next generation Node B (gNB), and the second device includes a centralized unit (CU) of the next generation Node B (gNB).

20. The method of claim 15, comprising the second device transmitting the configuration information to the first device via a system information block (SIB), wherein The configuration information includes enabling information for the resource-saving transmission.

21. The method of claim 15, comprising the second device transmitting the configuration information to the first device via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

22. The method of claim 15, comprising the second device transmitting the configuration information to the first device via an F1 Application Protocol (F1AP) message, wherein: The first device comprises a distributed unit (DU) and the second device comprises a centralized unit (CU).

23. The method of claim 15, comprising the second device receiving a message from the first device in response to the transmitted configuration information.

24. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The configuration information includes at least one of the following: enabling information for transmission of downlink resource saving for each respective bandwidth part (BWP); Transmission activation information for downlink resource saving for all BWPs; Transmission enabling information for uplink resource saving for each corresponding BWP; Transmission activation information for uplink resource saving for all BWPs; enabling information for use by the first device group for transmission of uplink resource savings for each respective BWP; or Enabling information for transmission of uplink resource saving for all BWPs for use by the first device group.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein: The configuration information includes an indication of at least one of the following: The minimum number of subbands allowed, each with successful listen-before-talk (LBT) operation for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving; The maximum number of subbands allowed, each with failed LBT operation for transmissions for downlink or uplink resource saving; The allowed minimum ratio of the number of each subband with successful LBT operation to the number of all subbands for transmission for downlink or uplink resource saving; The allowed maximum ratio of the number of subbands per LBT operation with failure to the number of all subbands for transmission for downlink or uplink resource saving; The total number of failed LBT operations in all subbands within a specified time period for downlink or uplink resource-saving transmissions; or The index of the anchor subband whose LBT result determines whether to perform downlink or uplink resource saving transmission.

26. The method according to claim 21, wherein: The configuration information is included in at least one information element, including: BWP-UplinkCommon, BWP-UplinkDedicated, BWP-DownlinkCommon, BWP-DownlinkDedicated, PUSCH-Config, PUSCH-ConfigCommon, PDSCH-Config, or PDSCH-ConfigCommon information element.

27. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by one or more processors can cause the one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-26.

28. An apparatus comprising: one or more processors; and A memory storing executable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method according to any one of claims 1-26.

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