Enhanced uplink transmission in wireless communications

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) or other network component may be operable to configure different resource sets including different sequence lengths for an uplink (UL) transmission via an UL channel. A first length or at least one of different second lengths may be selected to configure the UL transmission based on one or more conditions, the one or more conditions including a coexisting radio access technology (RAT), UE capabilities, occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), UL transmission type, etc. For example, the UL transmission may be based on at least one of the following: a first sequence length or a second sequence length, such as for an initial access procedure based on the coexisting RAT and the OCB.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to wireless technologies, including enhancing uplink (UL) transmissions in wireless communications. Background Art

[0002] Mobile communications in 5G, the next generation of wireless communication systems, or New Radio (NR) networks, will provide ubiquitous connectivity and access to information and the ability to share data globally. 5G networks and network slicing will be a unified, service-based framework that will target common and sometimes conflicting performance standards and provide services for a wide range of application domains, from enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) to massive machine-type communications (mMTC), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and other communications. Generally speaking, NR will evolve based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced technology and additional enhanced radio access technologies (RATs) to achieve seamless and faster wireless connectivity solutions.

[0003] Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice-based systems to today's highly complex, integrated communications platforms. The next-generation wireless communication system, 5G or New Radio (NR), will provide ubiquitous access to information and data sharing for a wide range of users and applications. NR is expected to be a unified network / system designed to meet distinct and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. These diverse, multi-dimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications. Generally speaking, NR will evolve based on 3GPP LTE-Advanced, with the addition of potential new air access technologies (RATs), enriching people's lives with improved, simple, and seamless wireless connectivity solutions. NR will enable everything to connect wirelessly, delivering fast, rich content and services.

[0004] Recently, the first version of the NR (5G) specification provided a set of baseline features and components for future cellular communication systems. Every year, the number of mobile devices connected to wireless networks increases significantly. In order to meet the demand for mobile data traffic, system requirements must change to be able to meet these demands. The three key areas that need to be enhanced to achieve this traffic increase are larger bandwidth, lower latency and higher data rates. One of the main limiting factors in wireless innovation is the availability of spectrum. To alleviate this situation, unlicensed spectrum has been an area of interest in extending the availability of Long Term Evolution (LTE). In this context, one of the main enhancements to LTE in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 13 has been to enable it to operate in unlicensed spectrum via License Assisted Access (LAA), which extends the system bandwidth by leveraging the flexible carrier aggregation (CA) framework introduced by the Advanced LTE system. Since the main building blocks of the New Radio (NR) framework have been established, natural enhancements will allow the framework to operate on unlicensed spectrum as NR-U, especially with respect to enabling flexibility in configuring authorizations in NR systems, as well as enhancing UL transmissions. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a user equipment (UE) communicatively coupled with a network component as a peer device via a network, which can be used in conjunction with various embodiments (aspects) described herein.

[0006] Figure 2 is an exemplary architecture of a network system according to various embodiments.

[0007] Figure 3 is an exemplary simplified block diagram of a user equipment (UE) wireless communication device or other network device / component (e.g., eNB, gNB) according to various described embodiments.

[0008] Figure 4 is an illustration of exemplary sequence selection based on one or more conditions according to various aspects described.

[0009] Figure 5 is a block diagram of channel occupancy time-dependent UL transmission according to various embodiments herein.

[0010] Figure 6 is a block diagram of conditional gap determination for UL transmission according to various embodiments herein.

[0011] Figure 7 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow according to various embodiments described herein.

[0012] Figure 8is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow according to various embodiments described herein.

[0013] Figure 9 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow according to various embodiments described herein.

[0014] Figure 10 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow according to various embodiments described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] 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.

[0016] The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein similar figures are used to refer to similar elements throughout the text, and the structures and devices shown therein need not be drawn to scale. As used herein, the terms "component", "system", "interface" etc. are intended to refer to entities, hardware, software (e.g., in execution) and / or firmware related to a computer. For example, a component can be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller or other processing device), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, an executable file, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet computer and / or a user equipment (e.g., a mobile phone, etc.) with a processing device. By way of example, an application and a server running on a server can also be a component. One or more components can reside in a process, and a component can be located on a computer and / or distributed between two or more computers. This article can describe a set of elements or other component sets, wherein the term "set" can be interpreted as "one or more".

[0017] In addition, the components can execute from various computer-readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon, such as using modules, for example. The components can communicate via local and / or remote processes, such as according to signals having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacts with another component in a local system, a distributed system, and / or across a network, such as the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, or a similar network with other systems via signals).

[0018] As another example, a component may be a device that has a specific functionality provided by a mechanical component that operates through electrical or electronic circuitry, where the electrical or electronic circuitry may be operated by a software application or firmware application executed by one or more processors. The one or more processors may be internal or external to the device and may execute at least a portion of the software or firmware application. As another example, a component may be a device that provides a specific functionality through an electronic component without the need for a mechanical component; the electronic component may include one or more processors therein to execute at least a portion of the software and / or firmware that provides the functionality of the electronic component.

[0019] The use of the word "exemplary" is intended to present concepts in a concrete manner. As used in this application, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or." That is, unless otherwise specified or clear from the context, "X employs A or B" is intended to mean any natural inclusive permutation. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then "X employs A or B" is satisfied in any of the foregoing cases. In addition, the articles "a" and "an" as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean "one or more," unless otherwise specified or clear from the context to be directed to the singular. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms "comprising," "including," "having," "having," "with," or variations thereof are used in the detailed description and claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term "comprising." Furthermore, when discussing one or more numbered items (e.g., "a first X," "a second X," etc.), generally, the one or more numbered items can be different or they can be the same, but in some cases, the context may indicate that they are different or that they are the same.

[0020] As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, may be a part of, or may include an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), or associated memory (shared, dedicated, or group) operably coupled to the circuit that executes one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuit may be implemented in one or more software or firmware modules, or the functionality associated with the circuit may be implemented by one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, the circuit may include logic that is at least partially operable in hardware.

[0021] Taking into account various concerns about operating new radio (NR) 5G communications in unlicensed access as NR-U and in licensed access to coexist fairly with different radio access technologies (RATs) (e.g., Wi-Fi or another RAT), many issues related to uplink (UL) mechanisms can be overcome to improve power efficiency and flexibility in UL transmission. The UE can process at least two resource configuration sets including different sequence lengths for uplink (UL) physical channels. The resources can be used for communications according to different RATs or to share resources between the two. The UE can dynamically select a first sequence length or a second sequence length longer than the first sequence length from different sequence lengths of at least two resource configuration sets based on one or more conditions. The condition may include at least one of the following: UE capability, occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), UL transmission, or UL physical channel. Different methods can be configured for different sequence lengths according to the conditions. The UL physical channel includes at least one of the following: a physical random access channel (PRACH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), including one or more of the following: for example, periodic transmission, semi-persistent transmission, or aperiodic transmission. In particular, the first sequence length of the UL transmission may include 139 indices or samples / symbols, and the second sequence length includes at least one of the following: 1151 indices or samples / symbols for 15 kHz and 571 indices or samples / symbols for 30 kHz, for example, for the physical random access channel (PRACH).

[0022] In other aspects, a gNB may configure or a UE may receive different sets of resource configurations for uplink (UL) physical channels for uplink (UL) to downlink (DL) channel occupation time (COT) sharing to coexist with another radio access technology (RAT). The UE may select an energy detection (ED) threshold from the different resource configuration sets for UL transmissions based on one or more conditions. UL transmissions may then be provided based on the ED threshold, such as by indicating the selected ED in ED indication feedback or by deriving the COT based on the ED for a particular type of transmission (e.g., ultra-low latency transmission or other transmission). Other aspects and details of the present disclosure are further described below with respect to the accompanying figures.

[0023] Figure 1An exemplary architecture of a system 100 of a network according to various embodiments (aspects) is shown. The following description is provided for an exemplary system 100 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this regard and may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G) systems), IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), and the like.

[0024] like Figure 1 As shown, system 100 includes UE 101a and UE 101b (collectively referred to as "UE 101"). In this example, UE 101 is shown as a smartphone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but can include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a consumer electronic device, a cellular phone, a smartphone, a feature phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless handheld device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), an in-car entertainment (ICE) device, an instrument cluster (IC), a head-up display (HUD) device, an on-board diagnostic (OBD) device, a dashtop mobile equipment (DME), a mobile data terminal (MDT), an electronic engine management system (EEMS), an electronic / engine control unit (ECU), an electronic / engine electronic control module (ECM), an embedded system, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system (EMS), a connected or "smart" appliance, a machine type communication (MTC) device, a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.

[0025] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), proximity service (ProSe), or device-to-device (D2D) communication, a sensor network, or an IoT network. M2M or MTC data exchange may be machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-term connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0026] UE 101 may be configured to connect (e.g., be communicatively coupled) to a radio access network (RAN) 110. In an embodiment, RAN 110 may be a next generation (NG) RAN or 5G RAN, an evolved-UMTS terrestrial RAN (E-UTRAN), or a legacy RAN such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN," etc., may refer to the RAN 110 operating in an NR or 5G system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN," etc., may refer to the RAN 110 operating in an LTE or 4G system 100. UE 101 utilizes connections (or channels) 102 and 104, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface / layer.

[0027] Alternatively or in addition, each UE in UE 101 can be configured with dual connectivity (DC) as multi-RAT or multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), wherein a UE with multi-Rx / Tx capabilities can be configured to utilize resources provided by two different nodes (e.g., 111, 112, or other network nodes) that can be connected via non-ideal backhaul, for example, where one node provides NR access and the other node provides E-UTRA for LTE or NR access for 5G. One node can act as a master node (MN) and the other node can act as a secondary node (SN). The MN and SN can be connected via a network interface, and at least the MN is connected to the core network 120. At least one of the MN and / or SN can operate using shared spectrum channel access. All functions specified for the UE can be used for an integrated access and backhaul mobile terminal (IAB-MT). Similar to UE 101, the IAB-MT can access the network using one network node or using two different nodes with an EN-DC architecture, an NR-DC architecture, etc.

[0028] In this example, connections 102 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any of the other communication protocols discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE 101 may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as an SL interface 105 and may include one or more logical channels, including, but not limited to, a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), and a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH).

[0029] UE 101b is shown configured to access AP 106 (also referred to as "WLAN node 106," "WLAN 106," "WLAN terminal 106," "WT 106," etc.) via connection 107. Connection 107 may comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 106 would include Wireless Fidelity. router. In this example, AP 106 is shown connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, UE 101b, RAN 110, and AP 106 may be configured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) operation and / or LTE / WLAN radio level operation integrated with IPsec tunneling (LWIP). LWA operation may involve RAN nodes 111a-111b configuring UE 101b in a radio resource control RRC_CONNECTED state to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve UE 101b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over connection 107. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0030] The RAN 110 includes one or more access nodes (ANs) or RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively, “RAN nodes 111”) that enable connections 102 and 104. As used herein, the terms “access node,” “access point,” and the like may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functionality for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BSs, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, Node Bs, RSUs, transmit receive points (TRxPs), or TRPs, and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms “NG RAN node” and the like may refer to RAN nodes 111 (e.g., gNBs) operating in NR or 5G systems 100, while the terms “E-UTRAN node” and the like may refer to RAN nodes 111 (e.g., eNBs) operating in LTE or 4G systems 100. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more dedicated physical devices such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0031] In some embodiments, all or part of the multiple RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a centralized RAN (CRAN) and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional partitioning such as packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) partitioning, where the radio resource control (RRC) and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; media access control (MAC) / physical (PHY) layer partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111; or "lower PHY" partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layer, and upper portions of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portions of the PHY layer are operated by individual RAN nodes 111. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the multiple RAN nodes 111 to execute other virtualized applications. In some implementations, the individual RAN nodes 111 may represent individual gNB distributed units (DUs) connected to a gNB central unit (CU) via respective F1 interfaces. In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RF front-end modules (RFEMs) (not shown), and the gNB-CUs may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 110 or by a server pool in a manner similar to a CRAN / vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the multiple RAN nodes 111 may be next-generation eNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations to the UE 101 and are connected to the 5GC via an NG interface.

[0032] Any of the RAN nodes 111 may serve as the endpoint for the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 101. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 111 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 110, including but not limited to functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0033] In an embodiment, UEs 101 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of RAN nodes 111 using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals over a multi-carrier communication channel in accordance with various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communication) or single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), although the scope of the embodiments (aspects) is not limited in this respect. An OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0034] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 111 to the UE 101, while similar techniques can be used for uplink transmissions. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which represents the physical resources in the downlink in each time slot. This type of time-frequency plane representation is common for OFDM systems, making radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes multiple resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this can represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0035] According to various embodiments, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 communicate data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) over a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" and / or a "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and / or an "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 2.8 GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz band.

[0036] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may operate using license-assisted access (LAA), eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed in accordance with a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0037] LBT is a mechanism by which equipment (e.g., UE 101, RAN node 111, etc.) senses the medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include clear channel assessment (CCA), which utilizes at least energy detection (ED) to determine whether other signals are present on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy over a period of time on an intended transmission band and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0038] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism known as CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 101, AP 106, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. In addition, in the event that more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS that increases exponentially when a collision occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA / CA for WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT process for a downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) transmission burst (including a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission) can have a variable-length LAA contention window between X extended CCA (ECCA) slots and Y extended CCA (ECCA) slots, respectively, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum contention window sizes (CWS) for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmissions can be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and the maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) (e.g., the transmission burst) can be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0039] The LAA mechanism is built on the carrier aggregation (CA) technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a component carrier (CC). In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth from other CCs. In a time division duplex (TDD) system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC may be the same for DL and UL. CA also includes individual serving cells to provide each CC. The coverage of the serving cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell can provide a primary component carrier (PCC) for both UL and DL, and can handle radio resource control (RRC) and non-access layer (NAS) related activities. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell can provide a single secondary component carrier (SCC) for both UL and DL. SCCs can be added and removed as needed, and changing PCCs may require UE101 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells can operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by PCells operating in licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH starting positions within the same subframe.

[0040] The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to multiple UEs 101. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries information about, among other things, the transport format and resource allocation associated with the PDSCH channel. It can also inform UE 101 about the transport format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information associated with the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 101b within a cell) can be performed at any one of the RAN nodes 111 based on channel quality information fed back from any one of the UEs 101. Downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the UEs 101.

[0041] PDCCH uses control channel elements (CCE) to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE corresponds to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and the channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0042] Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may utilize an extended (E)-PDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to a set of nine physical resource elements, called EREGs, including four physical resource elements. In some cases, an ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0043] The RAN nodes 111 may be configured to communicate with each other via an interface. In an embodiment in which the system 100 is an LTE system, the interface may be an X2 interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or core network 120, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 120. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U provides a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface and may be used to convey information regarding the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information regarding user data transmitted from a master eNB (MeNB) to a secondary eNB (SeNB); information regarding successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP packet data units (PDUs) for user data from the SeNB to the UE 101; information regarding PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 101; information regarding the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. The X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from the source eNB to the target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0044] In an embodiment where the system 100 is a 5G or NR system, whether or not there is a coexisting RAT, the interface may be an Xn interface. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5GC 120, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 120. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U interface may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C interface may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for the UE 101 in connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing UE mobility in connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 111. This mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 111 to the new (target) serving RAN node 111, as well as control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The Xn-U protocol stack may include a transport network layer built on top of the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a user plane GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP-U) layer built on top of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and / or IP layers for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol, referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP), and a transport network layer built on top of the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). SCTP may be built on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. Within the transport IP layer, signaling PDUs are delivered using point-to-point transport. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0045] RAN 110 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, to a core network (CN) 120. CN 120 may include multiple network elements 122 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 101) connected to CN 120 via RAN 110. Components of CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from machine-readable or computer-readable media (e.g., non-transitory machine-readable storage media). In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the aforementioned network node functions (described in further detail below) via executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media. A logical instance of CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively, performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more Evolved Packet Core (EPC) components / functions.

[0046] Generally, the application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Packet Service (UMTS PS) domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE 101 via the EPC 120.

[0047] In an embodiment, CN 120 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 120," etc.), and RAN 110 may be connected to CN 120 via an NG interface 113. In an embodiment, NG interface 113 may be divided into two parts: a next-generation (NG) user plane (NG-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between RAN node 111 and the user plane function (UPF); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and the access and mobility management function (AMF). Core network CN 120 may also be 5GC 120.

[0048] In an embodiment, CN 120 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 120," etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 120 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). In the case where CN 120 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 120," etc.), RAN 110 may be connected to CN 120 via an S1 interface 113. In an embodiment, S1 interface 113 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between RAN node 111 and the S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and the MME.

[0049] Figure 2 Example components of a device 200 according to some embodiments are shown. In some embodiments, the device 200 may include at least application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, radio frequency (RF) circuitry 206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 208, one or more antennas 210, and power management circuitry (PMC) 212, coupled together as shown. The components of the illustrated device 200 may be included in a UE or RAN node, such as UE 101 / 102 or eNB / gNB 111 / 112. In some embodiments, the device 200 may include fewer elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 202 but instead include a processor / controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 200 may include additional elements, such as memory / storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or input / output (I / O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device for a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation).

[0050] Application circuitry 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, application circuitry 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and specialized processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled to or include memory / storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on device 200. In some embodiments, the processors of application circuitry 202 may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

[0051] The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic components to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. The baseband processing circuitry 204 may interact with the application circuitry 202 to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include a third-generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth-generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifth-generation (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processors 204D of other existing, developing, or future generations (e.g., second-generation (2G), sixth-generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more baseband processors 204A-D) may handle various radio control functions that may communicate with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 204A-D may be included in modules stored in memory 204G and executed via central processing unit (CPU) 204E. Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 204 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 204 may include convolution, tail-biting, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functionality. The implementation of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functionality is not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

[0052] In addition, memory 204G (and other memory components discussed herein, such as memory, data storage devices, etc.) may include one or more machine-readable media, including instructions that, when executed by the machine or component herein, cause the machine to perform the actions of the method or device or system for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to the embodiments and examples described herein. It should be understood that the aspects described herein can be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the function can be stored as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium (e.g., a memory or other storage device described herein) or transmitted via a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, and the communication media include any media that helps to transfer a computer program from one place to another. Storage media or computer-readable storage devices can be any available media that can be accessed by a general or special-purpose computer. By way of example only and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage devices, disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices or other tangible and / or non-transient media that can be used to carry or store required information or executable instructions. Moreover, any connection may also be referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium.

[0053] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 204F. The audio DSPs 204F may include elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and in other embodiments may include other suitable processing elements. In some embodiments, the components of the baseband circuitry may be appropriately combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together, such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0054] In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 204 can provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 204 can support communications with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), or wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications using more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0055] RF circuitry 206 can communicate with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, RF circuitry 206 can include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 206 can include a receive signal path, which can include circuitry for down-converting RF signals received from FEM circuitry 208 and providing a baseband signal to baseband circuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 can also include a transmit signal path, which can include circuitry for up-converting baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 204 and providing an RF output signal to FEM circuitry 208 for transmission.

[0056] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuitry 206 may include mixer circuitry 206a, amplifier circuitry 206b, and filter circuitry 206c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 206 may include filter circuitry 206c and mixer circuitry 206a. RF circuitry 206 may also include synthesizer circuitry 206d for synthesizing frequencies used by mixer circuitry 206a in the receive and transmit signal paths. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 206a in the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from FEM circuitry 208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 206d. Amplifier circuitry 206b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and filter circuitry 206c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal can be a zero-frequency baseband signal, although this is not required.In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path can include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0057] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path can be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 206d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 208. The baseband signal can be provided by baseband circuit 204 and can be filtered by filter circuit 206c.

[0058] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0059] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, RF circuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with RF circuitry 206.

[0060] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0061] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206 d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 206 d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0062] Synthesizer circuit 206d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by mixer circuit 206a of RF circuit 206. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206d may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0063] In some embodiments, the frequency input can be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input can be provided by baseband circuitry 204 or application processor 202 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) can be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by application processor 202.

[0064] The synthesizer circuit 206d of the RF circuit 206 may include a frequency divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a cascaded, tunable set of delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0065] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 206d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 206 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0066] The FEM circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 210, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 206 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission via one or more of the one or more antennas 210. In various embodiments, amplification by either the transmit or receive signal path may be performed only in the RF circuitry 206, only in the FEM 208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the FEM 208.

[0067] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 208 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit and receive modes of operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include an LNA to amplify a received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 206), and one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., via one or more of the one or more antennas 210).

[0068] In some embodiments, PMC 212 can manage the power provided to baseband circuitry 204. Specifically, PMC 212 can control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. PMC 212 is typically included when device 200 is capable of being powered by a battery, such as when the device is included in a UE. PMC 212 can improve power conversion efficiency while providing desired implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0069] and Figure 2 PMC 212 is shown coupled only to baseband circuitry 204. However, in other embodiments, PMC 212 may additionally or alternatively be coupled to other components (such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 202, RF circuitry 206, or FEM 208) and perform similar power management operations.

[0070] In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the device 200. For example, if the device 200 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which it is still connected to the RAN node as expected to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity, it can enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the device 200 can be powered down for short intervals, thereby saving power.

[0071] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the device 200 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which it is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 200 enters a very low power state and performs paging, in which it wakes up periodically again to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 200 cannot receive data in this state, and in order to receive data, it transitions back to the RRC_Connected state.

[0072] For low-latency / low-power operation, device 200 can be configured to suspend / resume in 5G NR by utilizing the RRC_Inactive state, which significantly reduces latency and minimizes battery drain. During the suspend process, both the UE and the RAN store information about the transition from connected to inactive UEs, along with the UE radio protocol configuration. The resume process optimizes the transition from inactive to connected by restoring the UE radio protocol configuration. RAN-based location management and RAN paging enable inactive UEs to move around the area without notifying the network.

[0073] The processor of the application circuitry 202 and the processor of the baseband circuitry 204 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuitry 204 can be used alone or in combination to perform Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuitry 204 can utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform Layer 4 functions (e.g., Transport Communication Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, Layer 3 may include a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, which is described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, Layer 2 may include a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, which are described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, Layer 1 may include a Physical (PHY) layer of the UE / RAN node, which is described in further detail below.

[0074] refer to Figure 3 , shows a block diagram of a user equipment wireless communication device (UE) or other network device / component (e.g., a gNB, eNB, or other participating network entity / component). UE device 300 includes: one or more processors 310 (e.g., one or more baseband processors), the one or more processors including processing circuitry and associated interfaces; transceiver circuitry 320 (e.g., including RF circuitry, which may include transmitter circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more transmit chains) and / or receiver circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more receive chains), the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry may employ common circuit elements, different circuit elements, or a combination thereof); and memory 330 (which may include any of a variety of storage media and may store instructions and / or data associated with one or more of processor 310 or transceiver circuitry 320).

[0075] In various embodiments (aspects) discussed herein, a signal or message may be generated and output for transmission, and / or a transmitted message may be received and processed. Depending on the type of signal or message generated, outputting for transmission (e.g., by processor 310, processor 310, etc.) may include one or more of the following operations: generating a set of associated bits encoding the content of the signal or message; encoding (e.g., which may include adding a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and / or encoding via a turbo code, a low-density parity check (LDPC) code, a tail-biting convolutional code (TBCC), etc.); scrambling (e.g., based on a scrambling seed); modulation (e.g., via one of binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), or some form of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), etc.); and / or resource mapping (e.g., mapping to a scheduled resource set, mapping to a time and frequency resource set authorized for uplink transmission, etc.). Depending on the type of signal or message received, processing (e.g., by processor 310) may include one or more of the following operations: identifying physical resources associated with the signal / message, detecting the signal / message, resource element group deinterleaving, demodulation, descrambling, and / or decoding.

[0076] According to various embodiments, various mechanisms may be disclosed to enhance UL transmissions with coexisting RATs (e.g., WiFi and 5G or legacy) in order to achieve various objectives regarding peak data rates, particularly NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum, and unlocking the increasingly important unlicensed spectrum (i.e., shared spectrum) as a supplemental source of spectrum for 5G NR system operation. For unlicensed operation of NR systems, some issues are detailed below that may result in performance losses from a system perspective.

[0077] For example, in the first issue, to ensure fair coexistence with other RATs (e.g., Wi-Fi), one of the requirements includes an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement, which defines the occupied channel bandwidth (i.e., the bandwidth containing 99% of the signal power) as between 80% and 100% of the declared nominal channel bandwidth. To meet this OCB requirement, two longer sequences were introduced for Rel-16 NR-U operation: L_RA=1151 for 15kHz SCS and L_RA=571 for 30kHz SCS. However, the decision on how to choose between the longer sequences and the traditional shorter sequences remains to be made. More specifically, consistently using the longer sequence length compared to the shorter sequence length can unnecessarily increase signaling overhead in some cases, such as when PRACH transmissions are within a gNB-initiated COT, where OCB is already guaranteed by gNB 111 scheduling via FDM with other channels in the coexisting RAT. Therefore, various aspects or implementations herein can improve UL resource efficiency by conditionally configuring the selection of different lengths for UL transmissions.

[0078] In another example, as a second issue, NR-U can support UL-to-DL COT sharing to enhance system throughput performance when coexisting with non-scheduled autonomous systems such as Wi-Fi, as it can avoid dual LBT requirements on the gNB side (e.g., Category 4 LBT). In the current NR-U design, when sharing a UE-initiated COT, gNB 111 can configure a UL-to-DL COT sharing ED threshold if DL signals / channels (PDSCH, PDCCH, reference signals) sent to any other UE in the shared COT are to be shared. However, forcing UE 101 to use a specific ED threshold configured by gNB 111 can significantly reduce the channel access probability of UE 101. Here, UE 101 can indicate the duration or total duration of the COT to gNB 111 and utilize a shorter duration, for example, for transmission with downlink data, to improve resource efficiency. If the UE wishes to set a COT, it senses the channel based on the indicated ED threshold. The sharing threshold can be low, which means that UE 101 loses the flexibility to indicate that it does not wish to stay in or on the COT with gNB 111, for example, especially for latency-sensitive traffic or for transmissions on channels that are easy to transmit for NR-U traffic. In this way, embodiments enable flexible configuration of UE 101 based on characteristics of the transmitted packets (e.g., latency, power, type, etc.) to determine whether to use the gNB-initiated COT.

[0079] In another example, as a third issue, Rel-16 can support a two-step RACH process to reduce the initial access process latency. More specifically, a gap can be defined between the PRACH transmission and the associated message transmission (e.g., Msg-A). This gap configuration design is feasible for licensed bands, but it also risks the failure of Msg-A PUSCH transmission due to LBT operations requested by unlicensed bands. This problem can also be solved to improve the efficiency of the 2-step RACH process for NR-U. For the two-step RACH process, PRACH and PUSCH messages are not transmitted at the same time, which may be a problem in NR-U. In addition, for NR-LTE, if Wifi senses the channel in the middle or gap area, the gap between the two may result in an attempt to obtain a loophole in the channel, thereby losing the opportunity to transmit in the PRACH phase and possibly losing resources. In this way, various embodiments enable the configuration of gaps to reduce complexity and improve the efficiency of the two-step RACH process.

[0080] According to various aspects, at least two resource sets having different sequence lengths: length X1 and length X2 (e.g., for a sounding reference signal (SRS), PRACH, or PUCCH), may be configured, for example, by higher layers for a UL channel and a given UE 101. The first length X1 and the second length X2 may be selected based on one or more conditions (e.g., subject to UE capabilities or other conditions such as received indicators, packet parameters, etc.). In one embodiment, the first sequence length X1 may be shorter than the second sequence length X2, for example, in symbol index or other unit / parameter set. In one example, for a PRACH transmission or other UL channel, the first sequence length X1 may have a value of approximately 139. The second sequence length X2 may include one of a plurality of second sequences X2 from which the UE 101 may be configured to select, including longer sequence lengths and shorter second sequence lengths. For example, the second sequence length X21 of the short value may be a value of approximately 571 for 30 kilohertz (kHz), and the second sequence length X22 of the long value may be a value of approximately 1151 for 15 kHz for PRACH transmission or other UL transmission.

[0081] In one aspect, for the initial access procedure, one of two lengths may be signaled via System Information Block 1 (SIB1), depending on the presence or coexistence of another incumbent system on the same frequency (e.g., Wi-Fi) and conformance to / satisfaction of configured / indicated requirements for occupied channel bandwidth (OCB). In other configured implementations, the UE 101 may be provided with a configuration for a given UL channel associated with sequence lengths X1 and X2 (X2 including one or more longer sequence lengths than X1). Different operations may be configured for the UE 101 to determine the sequence length for each UL transmission.

[0082] In one method or operation, for example, different lengths (i.e., X1 / X2) can be configured for any particular type or types of UL channel (e.g., SRS / PUCCH / PRACH) transmissions, including any one or more of the following: periodic transmissions, semi-persistent transmissions, or aperiodic transmissions. In one embodiment, different periods can be configured for lengths X1 and X2. More specifically, the second sequence length X2, which is a longer sequence, can be configured to have a longer periodicity than the first sequence length X1 to share resources with the initial access procedure. This can be used to reduce signaling overhead and maximize spectral efficiency.

[0083] Additionally or alternatively, the UE 101 can be configured to verify that the corresponding UL transmission (e.g., PRACH / SRS / other UL channel) is within the gNB-initiated Channel Occupancy Time (COT) to ensure that the OCB requirement is met for any transmission that is a shared UL transmission for a coexisting RAT. The UE 101 can then opportunistically transmit the UL channel with the configured short sequence if the transmission (e.g., PRACH / SRS / other UL channel) is within the gNB-initiated COT. If the gNB-initiated COT is not detected based on downlink control information (DCI) (e.g., DCI format 2_0 or other DCI formats) on the PDCCH or other DL channel or the presence of dynamically scheduled synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) / scheduled PDSCH / scheduled PUCCH transmissions, the UE 101 can be configured to skip transmissions of the short sequence length of length X1 or conditionally fall back to using a second sequence length of length X2 for the UL transmission.

[0084] refer to Figure 4 , illustrates an example of sequence selection 400 depending on gNB-initiated COT according to various aspects. The gNB-initiated COT 410 can be implemented with configurations of different lengths (e.g., X1 / X2) for any particular one of the UL channel (e.g., SRS / PUCCH / PRACH) transmissions, including any one or more of the following: periodic transmissions, semi-persistent transmissions, or aperiodic transmissions.

[0085] As suggested above, specific lengths can be configured to apply to both periodic and aperiodic transmissions, and there are no restrictions on the types or categories of UL transmissions that can be configured with sequence lengths X1 / X2. If a transmission opportunity or COT has been detected prior to the UL transmission based on a DCI format (e.g., 2_0) or the presence of an SSB or scheduled PDSCH, the UE 101 can perform a confirmation, particularly for the shorter sequence length X1 430, to always ensure that the predefined OCB is established for the UE. If the UE 101 already knows that the transmission is within the gNB-initiated COT, the UE can use only the short sequence and then opportunistically transmit the UL transmission with the configured short sequence to achieve resource efficiency. If a gNB-initiated COT is not detected, for example based on DCI format 2_0 or other DL channels such as dynamically scheduled synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) / scheduled PDSCH / scheduled PUCCH transmissions, the UE can skip the shorter X1 and use X2, as there is some uncertainty as to whether it is within or outside the gNB-initiated COT 410. From a UE perspective, this may be a frequency band that the UE 101 receiver may simply skip when transmitting.

[0086] On the other hand, UE 101 can conditionally fall back to sequence length X2 420, such as when there is no detection based on the DCI format or other DL channels in the presence of SSB / scheduled PDSCH / scheduled PUCCH transmissions. gNB 111 can detect the length being used by assuming detection. Alternatively, gNB 111 may already be aware of the situation where UE 101 failed to receive the COT for that transmission opportunity, even if initially configured with a short sequence of X1, and accordingly assume that UE 101 will fall back to the long sequence of X2 420 without requiring detection on the UE side.

[0087] In some cases, the UE may skip this length and may also conditionally back off, so there may be a mismatch between UE 101 and gNB 111, for example, regarding the COT duration. gNB 111 transmits infrequently and may not be detected on the UE side, leading to a mismatch between UE 101 and gNB 111 in the resources being used for a particular UL signal transmission. Thus, one goal is to attempt to align the sequence lengths between UE 101 and gNB 111.

[0088] In other aspects, for example, a hybrid sequence may be configured to have a first sequence length X1 of length 430 and a second, longer sequence length X2 of length 420. In one aspect, the first sequence length X1 of 430 may be configured to be used only for aperiodic UL transmissions, which include PRACH and the SRS channel for RRC_CONNECTED mode UEs. In particular, the longer sequence length X2 420 may not have any restrictions, but consumes more resources because the longer sequence length X2 420 may generally always meet the OCB requirements, regardless of whether inside or outside the COT. Due to the shorter length, X1 length 430 may only be used in the COT and, therefore, is limited to aperiodic use and controlled by DCI. In some embodiments, a sequence length indicator (SLI) field may be added to legacy DCI, such as DCI format 1_0, DCI format 1_1, or DCI format 2_3, to select one of three lengths for a given UL transmission.

[0089] In one example, the bit width of the SLI field can be 1 or 0. A value of "0" can indicate a sequence of length X1 430, and a value of "1" can indicate a sequence of length X2 420, whereas length X1 430 is indicated by "0" and length X2 420 is indicated by "1". Figure 4 An example of sequence length selection is shown by utilizing a configurable SLI field in DCI format 1_0, for example, to trigger aperiodic PRACH transmissions. DCI format 1_0 can be configured to select a sequence length between X1 and X2 (a plurality of different second sequence lengths) based on whether the PRACH transmission 450 opportunity is inside or outside the COT 410. As shown, for example, the value of the SLI field of DCI 440 can be set to "0" to select a length of X1 430 (i.e., a short sequence length) for the PRACH 450 transmission, which allows scheduling of frequency-division multiplexed (FDM-enabled) PUSCH transmissions 470 to improve resource efficiency of the COT. For example, when a PRACH transmission of length 420 is outside the COT, the UE 101 can still use a long sequence X2 420 to meet the OCB requirement.

[0090] gNB 111 can control transmissions with DCI based on whether they are periodic, where periodic transmissions can always use sequences with a length of X2. Therefore, UE 101 can configure switching between short and long sequences of different lengths only during aperiodic transmissions. For example, initially, UE 101 can generate an UL transmission with a long X2 420, and then, within the COT, UE 101 can use a short PUSCH transmission 470 (e.g., for channel state information (CSI) feedback). Here, the SLI field can be used to explicitly indicate the length of the short sequence 430.

[0091] refer to Figure 5 , shows an example of gap creation for UL transmission 500 relying on COT according to one or more aspects described. For NR-U transmissions, an LBT procedure may be performed before starting a RACH transmission to avoid collisions and interference with ongoing transmissions with a coexisting RAT. Back-to-back RACH opportunities (ROs) within a RACH slot 510 may result in blocking of PRACH transmissions. According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, a gap 520 may be created between two consecutive ROs within a PRACH slot 510 by shifting by 1 symbol after the transmission. Additionally, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension may be applied to the symbol preceding the shifted RO for creating the requested 16 microseconds (μs) or 20μs / 25μs gap. This may be applied to PRACH within a COT, for example Figure 4 450 in the PRACH, or may also be applied to an external COT (e.g., Figure 4 PRACH 420).

[0092] For example, a symbol shift can be performed on the following symbols to obtain a first gap (e.g., 16 μs), and then, if LBT operation is required, CP extension 530 can be performed to generate a second gap (e.g., 20 μs or other) so that it is within the COT initiated by the gNB. In the manager, the gap can be tuned for PRACH transmission 540 by configuring CP extension. Thus, the UE 101 changes the gap based on the transmission conditions.

[0093] According to other aspects, the UE 101 can be configured to select between a signaled ED threshold (denoted ED1) and an ED threshold 2 (ED2), as calculated based on the transmit power of the scheduled PUSCH. In one embodiment, this selection can be utilized only when ED1 is less than ED2. The selection of ED can enable the UE 101 to configure UE-initiated COT, for example, based on grouped parameters or the type of UL transmission or the characteristics of the desired UL transmission (e.g., low latency, ultra-low latency transmission, transmission urgency, or other characteristics). The selected ED threshold can be signaled to the gNB 111 based on the PUSCH type, such as a configured grant (CG) PUSH or a dynamically (or partially) granted PUSCH.

[0094] For example, if the PUSCH type is CG-PUSCH, the selected ED threshold for UE-initiated COT based on the selected ED (i.e., ED1 or ED2) may be explicitly included / indicated in the CG-UCI payload using a 1-bit ED indicator field as ED feedback to the gNB 111. For example, a value of "0" may indicate ED1 and a value of "1" may indicate ED2, and vice versa. In other aspects, the COT sharing table may be utilized by adding an additional row index indicating "no COT sharing". The COT sharing table may be used in conjunction with an index or position provided to the UE in the UL transmission to indicate whether COT sharing is enabled and allow the UE to have a higher likelihood or probability of obtaining a channel specific to the transmission type or need at the time. For example, the UE 101 may indicate the corresponding row index by using an existing COT sharing information element (IE) in the CG-UCI.

[0095] Alternatively or in addition, the PUSCH type can be a dynamic grant (DG) PUSCH. In the case of DG-PUSCH, in addition to HARQ-ACK and CSI-Part 1 / CSI-Part 2, the selected ED threshold (e.g., ED1 or ED2) can be indicated by a dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (UCI) IE. In the event of a collision with HARQ-ACK / CSI-Part 1 / Part 2, EDI can be jointly encoded with HARQ-ACK using the same channel coding scheme. Alternatively, an RRC parameter can be introduced to allow the gNB 111 to configure one of the following two schemes for EDI UCI feedback. First, if the total number of UCI on the DG-PUSCH exceeds 3, the UE 101 can be operated to skip EDI feedback; otherwise, the UE 101 can configure joint coding of EDI with other UCI feedback. Additionally or alternatively, the UE 101 may be configured to, for example, jointly encode the EDI with the HARQ-ACK information bits and then piggyback or combine the coded bits on the DG-PUSCH.

[0096] refer to Figure 6 , illustrates an example of a conditional gap 600 determination according to various aspects. Here, the examples illustrate different scenarios for UL transmissions using PRACH or any other UL transmission channel or type, where different gaps 610 and 612 may be generated when sharing resource channels between the two. For example, for UL transmissions, UE 101 may be configured to configure the gaps as conditional / variable gaps between PRACH transmissions 602, 604 and PUSCH transmissions 606, 608 based on the configuration between these PRACH 602, 604 and PUSCH 606, 608 transmissions. If the same parameter set exists and there is overlapping resources between PRACH and PUSCH for sharing of COT, certain restrictions or configurations (e.g., the same parameter set, reception time, or other parameters) may be enabled for gNB 111 to enable bandwidth utilization with a high probability so that both UL transmissions are successful.

[0097] For example, if UE 101 performs LBT only to transmit two UL transmission resources (e.g., PRACH and PUSCH, or other paired UL transmissions), UE 101 may generate a conditional gap N1 at 610, or a conditional gap 612 between PRACH 602 and PUSCH 606. For example, gap N1 at 610 may include 0 or 1 symbol. If it is zero, there may not be a gap, and different conditional gap lengths may exist for one or more symbols. Conditional gap N1 at 610 is shorter than conditional gap N2 at 612.

[0098] In one example, UE 101 may configure the conditional gap N2 value by reusing the value agreed upon for the licensed band at 612. In particular, the gap N1 value may be used in the case of the same parameter set and overlapping frequency resources between PRACH and PUSCH of Msg A. Subsequently, the CP extension may be configured to implement N1 symbol gaps and the DCI format to switch between N1 and N2 symbol gaps, such as for PRACH for PDCCH sequencing.

[0099] When a smaller gap value 610 may be impractical or infeasible, UE 101 can achieve a certain reception time by adjusting the clock or some other baseband components. If UE 101 configures a frequency band requiring a gap value N2 in UL transmission or configures a different parameter set, UE 101 can generate a CP extension that extends the gap to N2, so that it can have the entire packet to handle this issue. Therefore, CP extension can basically support configurations with no gap or a smaller gap N1 gap 610.

[0100] Although the methods described in the present disclosure are shown and described herein as a series of actions or events, it should be understood that the order of such actions or events shown should not be interpreted as having a limiting meaning. For example, some actions may occur in different orders and / or simultaneously with other actions or events other than those shown and / or described herein. In addition, it may not be necessary for all the actions shown to implement one or more aspects or embodiments of this specification. In addition, one or more of the actions depicted herein may be performed in one or more separate actions and / or stages. For ease of description, reference may be made to the accompanying drawings. However, the method is not limited to any specific embodiment / aspect or example provided in the present disclosure and may be applied to any system in the system disclosed herein.

[0101] refer to Figure 7 , illustrates an exemplary process flow 700 for a network device or component (e.g., UE 101, base station 110, AP 106, or other network component) to perform UL transmissions with different sequence lengths. At 702, the process flow includes processing at least two resource configuration sets corresponding to different sequence lengths for an UL physical channel. At 704, the process flow includes selecting a first sequence length or at least one second sequence length from a plurality of different second sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length to configure the UL transmission based on one or more conditions. At 706, the process flow includes generating an UL transmission via the UL physical channel based on the first sequence length or the second sequence length of the at least two resource configuration sets.

[0102] In other aspects, process flow 700 may include processing an indication of at least one of a first sequence length or different second sequence lengths. The plurality of second sequence lengths may include a shorter sequence length for a first frequency and a longer sequence length for a second frequency greater than the first frequency. The indication may include a system information block 1 (SIB1) based on an OCB requirement for an initial access procedure and coexistence with another RAT.

[0103] refer to Figure 8 , illustrates an exemplary process flow 800 for a network device or component (e.g., UE 101, base station 110, AP 106, or other network component) to enable dynamic selection of a sequence length for UL transmission. The process flow is initiated at 802, where at least two different resource configurations including different sequence lengths are provided for UL transmission via a UL physical channel. At 804, the process includes providing an indication to selectively configure a first sequence length or at least one of a plurality of sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length for uplink transmission based on one or more conditions.

[0104] In one aspect, the process flow may further include providing a system information block (SIB1) to indicate a first sequence length or at least one of a plurality of sequence lengths based on at least one of: a coexisting radio access technology (RAT) on the same frequency as the UL transmission, an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), or an initial access procedure. A gNB-initiated channel occupation time (COT) may be provided in a DL channel to initiate the first sequence length for the UL transmission. Alternatively or additionally, a sequence length indicator (SLI) field indicator may be provided for a DCI format selected from one of the first sequence length, a shorter of the plurality of sequence lengths, or a longer of the plurality of sequence lengths.

[0105] refer to Figure 9 , illustrates an example process flow 900 for a network device or component (e.g., UE 101, base station 110, AP 106, or other network component) performing UL transmissions. The process flow 900 is initiated at 902, where different sets of resource configurations for UL physical channels are received for UL-to-DL COT sharing to coexist with different RATs. At 904, the process flow 900 includes selecting an energy detection (ED) threshold from the different sets of resource configurations for uplink transmissions based on one or more conditions. At 906, the process flow 900 includes providing an uplink transmission based on the ED threshold via the uplink physical channel.

[0106] In one aspect, one or more conditions associated with selecting an ED threshold include a latency level for UL transmissions, a first ED threshold, and a second ED threshold greater than the first ED threshold. The selected ED threshold is derived from a transmission power of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) used for scheduling UL transmissions.

[0107] The process flow 900 may also include signaling the ED threshold as a selected ED threshold selected from a plurality of ED thresholds based on the PUSCH type. In response to the PUSCH type comprising a configuration grant (CG) PUSCH, the process flow 900 includes signaling a CG uplink control information (CG-UCI) based on a COT shared information element (IE) of the CG-UCI, or signaling setting an indicator of a channel occupancy time (COT) table in a row index to indicate the selected ED threshold. In response to the PUSCH type comprising a dynamic grant (DG) PUSCH, the process flow 900 includes signaling a dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (EDI-UCI) information element (IE).

[0108] In other aspects, the process flow 900 may include jointly encoding the EDI-UCI with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) using the same coding scheme to avoid collision with HARQ-ACK / channel state information (CSI)-part 1 / CSI-part 2. Alternatively or additionally, EDI feedback may be skipped in response to the total number of UCI on the DG-PUSCH exceeding a predefined threshold.

[0109] refer to Figure 10 , illustrates an exemplary process flow 1000 for a network device or component (e.g., UE 101, base station 110, AP 106, or other network component) to enable dynamic UL transmission at a UE. The process flow 1000 is initiated at 1002, where at least one of the following is generated: an indication enabling selection of a COT based on an ED threshold, or a DCI for a PDCCH indicating one or more different gaps between a PRACH and a PUSCH. At 1004, the process flow 1000 includes transmitting at least one of the following: an indication enabling selection of a COT, or a DCI for a PDCCH.

[0110] In one aspect, the process flow may include processing selection of an ED threshold based on PUSCH type, including configured grant (CG) PUSCH or dynamic grant (DG) PUSCH. Alternatively or in addition, the process flow 1000 may include processing PRACH and PUSCH with gaps derived from a cyclic prefix (CP) extension.

[0111] As used in this specification, the term "processor" may refer to substantially any computational processing unit or device, including but not limited to a single-core processor; a single processor with software multi-threaded execution capability; a multi-core processor; a multi-core processor with software multi-threaded execution capability; a multi-core processor with hardware multi-threading technology; a parallel platform; and a parallel platform with distributed shared memory. In addition, a processor may refer to an integrated circuit, an application-specific integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a field programmable gate array, a programmable logic controller, a complex programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions and / or processes described herein. The processor may utilize nanoscale architectures, such as, but not limited to, molecular and quantum dot-based transistors, switches, and gates, in order to optimize space usage or enhance performance of mobile devices. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computational processing units.

[0112] Embodiments (implementations) may include subject matter such as a method, an apparatus for performing the actions or blocks of the method, and at least one machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a machine (e.g., a processor with memory, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.), cause the machine to perform the actions of a method or apparatus or system for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to the embodiments and examples described herein.

[0113] A first embodiment is an apparatus employed in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a processing circuit configured to: receive at least two resource configuration sets including different sequence lengths for an uplink (UL) physical channel; select a first sequence length or a second sequence length longer than the first sequence length from the different sequence lengths of the at least two resource configuration sets based on one or more conditions; and generate an uplink (UL) transmission via the UL physical channel based on the selected first sequence length or the second sequence length of the at least two resource configuration sets. A radio frequency (RF) interface is configured to provide data for transmission of the UL transmission to the RF circuit.

[0114] A second embodiment may include the first embodiment, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of the following: UE capability, occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), the UL transmission or the UL physical channel, and wherein the UL physical channel includes at least one of the following: physical random access channel (PRACH), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0115] A third embodiment may include the first embodiment or the second embodiment, wherein the at least two resource configuration sets are associated with PRACH transmission, and the second sequence length includes one of at least two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths greater than the first sequence length and respectively associated with different frequency intervals for the PRACH transmission.

[0116] A fourth embodiment may include any one or more embodiments of the first to third embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to process a system information block (SIB) including an indication of one of the at least two different SCS sequence lengths in response to receiving the at least two resource configuration sets, and determine one of the two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths for generating the UL transmission based on the indication of the SIB.

[0117] A fifth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to fourth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to generate the UL transmission based on the second sequence length for an initial access procedure, the initial access procedure being based on a coexisting radio access technology (RAT) and an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) configured for the UL transmission.

[0118] A sixth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to fifth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to generate different periods for the first sequence length and the second sequence length, wherein the periodicity of the second sequence length corresponds to an initial access procedure for sharing one or more resources with the UL transmission.

[0119] A seventh embodiment may include any one or more of the first to sixth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to determine that the UL transmission for PRACH or sounding reference signal (SRS) is within a channel occupancy time (COT) initiated by a gNodeB (gNB), and in response to being within the COT initiated by the gNB, transmit the UL transmission based on the first sequence length.

[0120] An eighth embodiment may include any one or more embodiments of the first to seventh embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: in response to not detecting a COT initiated by a gNB at a downlink control information (DCI) format 2_0 or a downlink (DL) channel, skip the first sequence length used for the UL transmission, or fall back to generating the UL transmission based on the second sequence length.

[0121] The ninth embodiment may include any one or more embodiments of the first to eighth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: generate a mixed sequence based on the first sequence length and the second sequence length in a non-periodic UL transmission including the UL transmission; and determine the sequence length based on a sequence length indicator (SLI) field of the DCI.

[0122] A tenth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to ninth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to generate a gap between two consecutive RACH opportunities (ROs) by shifting at least one symbol later in the UL transmission.

[0123] An eleventh embodiment may include any one or more embodiments of the first to tenth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: in response to the UL transmission as PRACH within the COT initiated by the gNB, generate the gap as a first gap between the at least two consecutive ROs, and in response to the PRACH outside the COT initiated by the gNB, additionally generate a CP extension to increase the gap.

[0124] A twelfth embodiment may be a tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions, wherein the executable instructions, in response to execution, cause one or more processors of a network component including a user equipment (UE) to perform operations, the operations including: processing at least two resource configuration sets corresponding to different sequence lengths for an uplink (UL) physical channel; selecting a first sequence length or at least one second sequence length from a plurality of different second sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length based on one or more conditions to configure UL transmission; and generating the UL transmission via the UL physical channel based on the first sequence length or the second sequence length of the at least two resource configuration sets.

[0125] A thirteenth embodiment may include the twelfth embodiment, and the operation further includes: processing an indication of the first sequence length or the at least one second sequence length among the multiple different second sequence lengths, wherein the multiple second sequence lengths include a shorter sequence length having a first frequency and a longer sequence length having a second frequency greater than the first frequency.

[0126] A fourteenth embodiment may include any one or more of the twelfth to thirteenth embodiments, wherein the indication includes a system information block 1 (SIB1) based on an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement for an initial access procedure and coexistence with another radio access technology (RAT).

[0127] The fifteenth embodiment may include any one or more embodiments from the twelfth to the fourteenth embodiments, wherein the shorter sequence length among the multiple different second sequence lengths includes a first frequency, and the longer sequence length among the multiple different sequence lengths includes a second frequency greater than the first frequency.

[0128] The sixteenth embodiment may include any one or more embodiments from the twelfth to the fifteenth embodiments, and the operation further includes: configuring different lengths of the UL transmission for at least one of the following: physical random access channel (PRACH), sounding reference signal (SRS), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), periodic transmission, semi-persistent transmission or non-periodic transmission.

[0129] The seventeenth embodiment may include any one or more embodiments from the twelfth embodiment to the sixteenth embodiment, and the operation further includes: skipping the first sequence length or using the second sequence length for transmission based on not detecting the channel occupancy time (COT) initiated by the gNodeB (gNB) in the downlink (DL) channel, and the DL channel includes at least one of the following: a dynamically scheduled synchronization signal block (SSB), a scheduled physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or a scheduled physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

[0130] The eighteenth embodiment may be a tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions, wherein the executable instructions, in response to execution, cause one or more processors of a network device including an access point or a next-generation NodeB (gNB) to perform operations, the operations including: providing at least two different resource configurations including different sequence lengths for uplink (UL) transmission via a UL physical channel; and providing an indication to selectively configure a first sequence length or at least one of a plurality of sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length for the UL transmission based on one or more conditions.

[0131] A nineteenth embodiment may include the eighteenth embodiment, and the operation further includes: providing a system information block (SIB1) to indicate the first sequence length or the at least one sequence length of the multiple sequence lengths based on at least one of the following items: a coexisting radio access technology (RAT) on the same frequency as the UL transmission, an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), or an initial access procedure.

[0132] The twentieth embodiment includes any one or more embodiments from the eighteenth embodiment to the nineteenth embodiment, and the operation further includes: providing a gNB-initiated channel occupation time (COT) in a DL channel to initiate the first sequence length for the UL transmission; or providing a sequence length indicator (SLI) field indicator to a DCI format selected from one of the three lengths: the first sequence length, a shorter length among the multiple sequence lengths, or a longer length among the multiple sequence lengths.

[0133] A twenty-first embodiment may be an apparatus employed in a user equipment (UE), comprising: a processing circuit configured to: receive different resource configuration sets for an uplink (UL) physical channel for uplink (UL) to downlink (DL) channel occupancy time (COT) sharing to coexist with another radio access technology (RAT); select an energy detection (ED) threshold from the different resource configuration sets for UL transmission based on one or more conditions; and provide the UL transmission via the UL physical channel based on the ED threshold. A radio frequency (RF) interface is configured to provide data for the UL transmission to the RF circuit.

[0134] The twenty-second embodiment may include the twenty-first embodiment, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to determine an energy detection (ED) threshold based on at least one of: a transmission power of a scheduled PUSCH, or a PUSCH type.

[0135] The twenty-third embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-second embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: select the ED threshold based on the indicator field of the configuration grant (CG) uplink control information (CG-UCI) of the CG-PUSCH or the dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (EDI-UCI) information element (IE) of the dynamic grant (DG) PUSCH.

[0136] The twenty-fourth embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-third embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: select an ED based on PUSCH type energy detection (ED) threshold by signaling the ED threshold based on a dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (EDI-UCI) information element (IE) of a dynamic grant (DG) PUSCH.

[0137] The twenty-fifth embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-fourth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: in response to a conflict identified using HARQ-ACK / channel state information (CSI)-part 1 / CSI-part 2, jointly encode the EDI-UCI with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) using the same coding scheme.

[0138] The twenty-sixth embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-fifth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to process radio resource control (RRC) parameters, wherein the RRC parameters enable the gNodeB (gNB) to configure EDI UCI feedback in the following manner: skipping the EDI feedback in response to the total number of UCI on the DG-PUSCH exceeding a predefined threshold, or jointly encoding the EDI feedback with other UCI feedback including HARQ-ACK information on the DG-PUSCH.

[0139] The twenty-seventh embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-sixth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to configure the gap between the PRACH transmission and the PUSCH transmission based on a first number of symbols or a second number of symbols greater than the first number of symbols.

[0140] The twenty-eighth embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-seventh embodiments, wherein the first number of symbols is utilized in response to the same parameter set and overlapping frequency resources between message A (Msg_A) of the PRACH transmission and the PUSCH transmission.

[0141] The twenty-ninth embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-eighth embodiments, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to configure the gap between the PRACH transmission and the PUSCH transmission based on the DCI of the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) by switching between a first number of symbols used for PRACH transmission and a second number of symbols greater than the first number of symbols.

[0142] A thirtieth embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-ninth embodiments, wherein the gap is generated according to the first number of symbols extended based on a cyclic prefix (CP).

[0143] The thirty-first embodiment may be a tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions, wherein the executable instructions, in response to execution, cause one or more processors of a network component including a user equipment (UE) to perform operations, the operations including: receiving different resource configuration sets for uplink (UL) physical channels for uplink (UL) to downlink (DL) channel occupancy time (COT) sharing to coexist with different radio access technologies (RATs); selecting an energy detection (ED) threshold from the different resource configuration sets for UL transmission based on one or more conditions; and providing the UL transmission via the UL physical channel based on the ED threshold.

[0144] The thirty-second embodiment may include any one of the thirtieth to the thirty-first embodiments, wherein the one or more conditions associated with selecting the ED threshold include a waiting time level for the UL transmission, a first ED threshold, and a second ED threshold greater than the first ED threshold, and wherein the selected ED threshold is derived from the transmission power of the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduled for the UL transmission.

[0145] A thirty-third embodiment may include any one of the thirtieth to thirty-second embodiments, wherein the operation further comprises: signaling the ED threshold as a selected ED threshold selected from a plurality of ED thresholds based on a PUSCH type.

[0146] The thirty-fourth embodiment may include any one of the thirtieth to the thirty-third embodiments, and the operation further includes: in response to the PUSCH type including a configuration grant (CG) PUSCH, signaling the CG uplink control information (CG-UCI) or signaling the setting indicator of the channel occupancy time (COT) table in the row index of the COT shared information element (IE) based on the CG-UCI to indicate the selected ED threshold.

[0147] The thirty-fifth embodiment may include any one of the thirtieth to thirty-fourth embodiments, and the operation further includes: in response to the PUSCH type including a dynamic grant (DG) PUSCH, signaling a dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (EDI-UCI) information element (IE).

[0148] The thirty-sixth embodiment may include any one of the 30th to the thirty-fifth embodiments, and the operation further includes: jointly encoding the EDI-UCI with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment (ACK) using the same coding scheme to avoid conflict with HARQ-ACK / channel state information (CSI)-part 1 / CSI-part 2; or skipping EDI feedback in response to the total number of UCI on the DG-PUSCH exceeding a predefined threshold.

[0149] The thirty-seventh embodiment may include any one of the thirtieth to thirty-sixth embodiments, and the operation further includes: configuring the gap between the physical random access control channel (PRACH) transmission and the PUSCH transmission based on at least a first value associated with a parameter set between the PRACH and the PUSCH and one of a second value greater than the first value, wherein the first value is utilized in response to the same parameter set and overlapping frequency resources between the message A (Msg_A) of the PRACH transmission and the PUSCH transmission.

[0150] The thirty-eighth embodiment may include any one of the thirtieth to the thirty-seventh embodiments, and the operation further includes: generating a cyclic prefix (CP) extension based on downlink control information (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to derive the first value and switching between the first value and the second value used for the PRACH transmission.

[0151] The thirty-ninth embodiment may be a tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions, wherein the executable instructions, in response to execution, cause one or more processors of a network device including an access point or a next-generation NodeB (gNB) to perform operations, the operations including: generating at least one of the following: an indication allowing selection of a channel occupancy time (COT) based on an energy detection (ED) threshold, or downlink control information (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) indicating one or more different gaps between a physical random access channel (PRACH) and a physical uplink shared control channel (PUSCH); and transmitting at least one of the following: the indication enabling selection of the COT, or the DCI of the PDCCH.

[0152] A fortieth embodiment may include the thirty-ninth embodiment, and the operation further includes: processing the selection of the ED threshold based on a PUSCH type, the PUSCH type including a configured grant (CG) PUSCH or a dynamic grant (DG) PUSCH; or processing the PRACH and the PUSCH having a gap derived from a cyclic prefix (CP) extension.

[0153] A forty-first embodiment may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of the method described in or related to any one of the first through twenty-first embodiments, or any other method or process described herein.

[0154] The forty-second embodiment may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, which include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of the methods described in or related to any one of the first to twenty-first embodiments or any other methods or processes described herein.

[0155] The forty-third embodiment may include a device comprising logic components, modules or circuits for performing one or more elements of the method described in or related to any one of the first to twenty-first embodiments or any other method or process described herein.

[0156] The forty-fourth embodiment may include a method, technique or process as described or related to any one of the first to twenty-first embodiments, or a portion or component thereof.

[0157] The forty-fifth embodiment may include a device comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portion thereof, as described in or related to any one of the first to twenty-first embodiments.

[0158] In addition, the various aspects or features described herein can be implemented as methods, devices or products using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. As used herein, the term "product" is intended to cover computer programs that can be accessed from any computer-readable device, carrier or medium. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic strips), optical disks (e.g., compact disks (CDs), digital versatile disks (DVDs), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROMs, cards, sticks, key drives, etc.). In addition, the various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing and / or carrying instructions and / or data. In addition, a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having one or more instructions or codes that are operable to cause a computer to perform the functions described herein.

[0159] Communication media embodies computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal, such as a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave, or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery or transmission media. The term "modulated data signal" or signal refers to a signal that has one or more characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media, such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media, such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media.

[0160] An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. In an alternative, the storage medium may be integrated with the processor. Furthermore, in some aspects, the processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In an alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user terminal as discrete components. Furthermore, in some aspects, the processes and / or actions of the method or algorithm may reside on a machine-readable medium and / or computer-readable medium as one or any combination or set of codes and / or instructions and may be incorporated into a computer program product.

[0161] In this regard, although the subject matter disclosed herein has been described in conjunction with various embodiments and corresponding drawings, it should be understood that other similar embodiments may be used or modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiments to perform the same, similar, alternative, or alternative functions of the disclosed subject matter without departing from the described embodiments. Accordingly, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single embodiment described herein, but rather should be construed in accordance with the breadth and scope of the claims appended hereto.

[0162] In particular, with respect to the various functions performed by the aforementioned components (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), unless otherwise indicated, terms used to describe such components (including references to "means") are intended to correspond to any component or structure that performs the specified function of the component (e.g., functionally equivalent), even if not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure that performs the function in the exemplary implementations of the disclosure shown herein. In addition, while particular features have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, for any given or particular application, such features may be combined with one or more other features of other implementations, as may be desirable and advantageous.

Claims

1. A baseband circuit, comprising: a processing circuit, the processing circuit being configured to: receiving at least two resource configuration sets corresponding to a first sequence length and a second sequence length, the first sequence length and the second sequence length being configured based on shared spectrum channel access, and the second sequence length including one of at least two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths associated with different frequency intervals that is greater than the first sequence length; receiving a system information block including an indication of a second sequence length; generating a physical random access channel (PRACH) message according to the second sequence length; Sending the PRACH message to an interface with a radio frequency (RF) circuit; as well as A configuration grant (CG) uplink control information (UCI) CG-UCI is generated, wherein the CG-UCI includes an indication of free channel occupancy time (COT) sharing. 2 . The baseband circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the second sequence length is longer than the first sequence length.

3. The baseband circuit according to claim 2, wherein: The first sequence length is 139; and The second sequence length is 571.

4. The baseband circuit according to claim 2, wherein: The first sequence length is 139; and The second sequence length is 1151. The baseband circuit of claim 1 , wherein the shared spectrum channel access corresponds to an unlicensed spectrum.

6. The baseband circuit of claim 5, wherein the shared spectrum channel accesses frequency resources comprising a 5 gigahertz (GHz) band. 7 . The baseband circuit of claim 1 , wherein the first sequence length and the second sequence length are further configured based on an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) of a physical uplink channel of an unlicensed spectrum. 8 . The baseband circuit according to claim 7 , wherein the OCB comprises the number of resource blocks (RBs) of a physical random access channel (PRACH). 9 . The baseband circuit according to claim 7 , wherein the physical uplink channel comprises a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

10. The baseband circuit of claim 1, wherein the first sequence length corresponds to a first number of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, the first number being smaller than a second number of OFDM symbols corresponding to the second sequence length. 11 . The baseband circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the system information block is configured to indicate a first sequence length and a second sequence length. 12 . The baseband circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the CG-UCI is generated for configuring a Grant (CG) Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). The baseband circuit according to claim 12 , wherein the CG-UCI corresponds to a COT initiated by a UE. 14 . The baseband circuit of claim 13 , wherein the indication of no COT sharing corresponds to an index associated with a row of a COT sharing table. 15 . The baseband circuit of claim 1 , wherein the CG-UCI is jointly encoded with a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) Acknowledgement (ACK) (HARQ ACK) for a PUSCH.

16. The baseband circuit according to claim 1, wherein the system information block comprises a system information block 1 (SIB1).

17. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; as well as one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to, when executing instructions stored in the memory, cause the UE to: receiving at least two resource configuration sets corresponding to a first sequence length and a second sequence length, the first sequence length and the second sequence length being configured based on shared spectrum channel access, and the second sequence length including one of at least two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths associated with different frequency intervals that is greater than the first sequence length; receiving a system information block including an indication of a second sequence length; generating a physical random access channel (PRACH) message according to the second sequence length; Sending the PRACH message to an interface with a radio frequency (RF) circuit; as well as A configuration grant (CG) uplink control information (UCI) CG-UCI is generated, wherein the CG-UCI includes an indication of free channel occupancy time (COT) sharing.

18. A base station, comprising: Memory; as well as one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to, when executing instructions stored in the memory, cause the base station to: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), at least two resource configuration sets corresponding to a first sequence length and a second sequence length, the first sequence length and the second sequence length being configured based on a shared spectrum channel access, and the second sequence length comprising one of at least two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths associated with different frequency intervals that is greater than the first sequence length; transmitting a system information block including an indication of a second sequence length to the UE; receiving a physical random access channel (PRACH) message according to a second sequence length from the UE; as well as A configuration grant (CG) uplink control information (UCI) CG-UCI is received from the UE, the CG-UCI including an indication of non-channel occupation time (COT) sharing.

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