Processing of transmit and receive blanking for wireless devices with multi-rat and dsda capabilities

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to handling of transmit and receive blanking for wireless devices with multi-RAT and DSDA capabilities. The present disclosure relates to techniques for wireless devices with multi-RAT and DSDA capabilities to handle frame blanking in a wireless communication system. A wireless device can establish a wireless link according to a first radio access technology and a second radio access technology. The wireless device can determine, based at least in part on a frequency band combination of the wireless link, to perform transmit and receive blanking of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first radio access technology to perform a sounding reference signal transmission for the second radio access technology. The wireless device can determine, based at least in part on the transmit and receive blanking, a modification to a channel state feedback report for the first radio access technology. The wireless device can perform the channel state feedback report using the determined modification.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to wireless communication, and more specifically to systems, apparatus, and methods for wireless devices with multiple RAT and DSDA capabilities to process frame blanking in wireless communication systems.

[0002] Related technical descriptions

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

[0004] The introduction of an ever-increasing number of features and functions into wireless communication devices necessitates continuous improvement of both wireless communication and the devices themselves. Ensuring the accuracy of signals transmitted and received by user equipment (UE) devices (e.g., wireless devices such as cellular phones, base stations, and relay stations used in wireless cellular communications) is of paramount importance. Furthermore, increasing the functionality of UE devices can significantly strain their battery life. Therefore, it is equally crucial to reduce the power requirements in UE device design while allowing them to maintain good transmission and reception capabilities for improved communication. Thus, improvements are expected in this area. Summary of the Invention

[0005] This paper presents an implementation scheme for a device, system, and method for processing frame blanking in a wireless communication system using a wireless device with multiple radio access technology and dual user identity module dual-pass capability.

[0006] The techniques described herein may include techniques for mitigating or avoiding at least some of the effects of transmit and / or receive blanking implemented on a wireless link caused by activity on another wireless link. One aspect of these techniques may include modifying the channel state feedback report for the wireless link affected by blanking. For example, the channel state feedback may be modified to indicate a lower rank than the highest rank that the channel state would support under conditions where blanking is not expected (e.g., where blanking is anticipated to affect the wireless device's ability to receive high-rank communication at a sufficiently low error rate to maintain that rank).

[0007] Another possible aspect could include modifying the timing or manner in which channel state feedback is provided. For example, if a collision is detected, causing an antenna configured to perform channel state feedback transmission to be blanked during the configured channel state feedback transmission time window, the wireless device could perform antenna reselection so that antennas not blanked during the configured channel state feedback transmission time window can be used to perform channel state feedback transmission. As another example, in such scenarios, the wireless device could rebuild the wireless link to obtain a different channel state feedback configuration, which could, for example, include using a different time window to transmit the channel state feedback, which may not be blanked.

[0008] The paper also describes techniques for avoiding rank and / or modulation and coding scheme degradation due to blanking by transmitting acknowledgments instead of negative acknowledgments when receive blanking causes reception failure rather than poor channel conditions. Additionally, the paper describes techniques for performing antenna selection for a radio link in a manner that includes the possibility of blanking due to operation of another radio link as a consideration in antenna selection.

[0009] Furthermore, this document describes techniques for selectively discarding transmissions that would result in blanking of transmissions and / or receptions on another wireless link. At least according to some embodiments, such techniques can be used in at least some configurations where one wireless link is used for voice communication and another wireless link is used for data communication.

[0010] It should be noted that the technologies described herein can be implemented in and / or used in several different types of devices, including but not limited to base stations, access points, mobile phones, portable media players, tablets, wearable devices, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned flight controllers, automobiles and / or motor vehicles, and various other computing devices.

[0011] The present invention is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the subjects described in this document. Therefore, it should be understood that the above features are merely illustrative and should not be construed as narrowing the scope or substance of the subjects described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subjects described herein will become apparent from the following detailed description, drawings, and claims. Attached Figure Description

[0012] A better understanding of the subject matter can be obtained by considering the following detailed description of the various embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0013] Figure 1 Exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication systems according to some implementation schemes are shown;

[0014] Figure 2 An exemplary base station communicating with an exemplary wireless user equipment (UE) device according to some embodiments is shown;

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

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

[0017] Figure 5 This is a flowchart illustrating aspects of exemplary possible methods for processing frame blanking in a wireless communication system by a wireless device with multi-RAT and / or DSDA capabilities according to some embodiments; and

[0018] Figure 6 Exemplary aspects of various possible LTE channel state feedback transmit blanking scenarios considering NR SRS handover are shown according to some implementation schemes.

[0019] While the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternatives, specific embodiments thereof are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings and described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the drawings and their detailed description are not intended to limit this document to the specific forms disclosed, but rather are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the substance and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. Detailed Implementation

[0020] acronym

[0021] Various acronyms are used throughout this disclosure. The definitions of the most prominent acronyms that may appear throughout this disclosure are as follows:

[0022] UE: User Equipment

[0023] RF: Radio Frequency

[0024] ·BS: Base Station

[0025] GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

[0026] UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

[0027] LTE: Long Term Evolution

[0028] NR: New Radio

[0029] TX: Transmission / Transmission

[0030] RX: Receive / Receive

[0031] • RAT: Radio Access Technology

[0032] • TRP: Transmitter / Receiver Point

[0033] • DCI: Downlink Control Information

[0034] • CORESET: Control Resource Set

[0035] •QCL: Quasi-cooperative localization or quasi-cooperative position

[0036] • CSI: Channel State Information

[0037] • CSI-RS: Channel State Information Reference Signal

[0038] • CSI-IM: Channel State Information Interference Management

[0039] •CMR: Channel Measurement Resources

[0040] •IMR: Interference Measurement Resources

[0041] ZP: Zero Power

[0042] • NZP: Non-zero power

[0043] • CQI: Channel Quality Indicator

[0044] • PMI: Precoding Matrix Indicator

[0045] ·RI: Rank Indicator

[0046] ·SIM: User Identity Module

[0047] the term

[0048] The following is a glossary of terms that will appear in this disclosure:

[0049] Memory media—any of various types of nontransitory memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory media" is intended to include mounting media, such as CD-ROMs, floppy disks, or magnetic tape devices; computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory such as flash memory, magnetic media, such as hard disk drives or optical storage devices; registers or other similar types of memory elements, etc. Memory media may also include other types of nontransitory memory or combinations thereof. Furthermore, memory media may reside in a first computer system executing a program, or may reside in a different second computer system connected to the first computer system via a network such as the Internet. In a later example, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer system for execution. The term "memory media" may include two or more memory media that may reside in different locations on different computer systems connected via a network, for example. Memory media may store program instructions (e.g., representing a computer program) that can be executed by one or more processors.

[0050] Carrier media—memory media as described above, and physical transmission media such as buses, networks, and / or other physical transmission media that transmit signals such as electrical signals, electromagnetic signals, or digital signals.

[0051] Computer system (or computer) – any of the various types of computing or processing systems, including personal computer systems (PCs), mainframe computer systems, workstations, network appliances, internet-connected appliances, personal digital assistants (PDAs), television systems, grid computing systems, or other devices or combinations thereof. Generally, the term "computer system" can be broadly defined as any device (or combination of devices) containing at least one processor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

[0052] User equipment (UE) (or “UE device”) – any of various types of computer systems or devices that are mobile or portable and perform wireless communication. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smartphones (e.g., iPhone). TM Based on Android TM Phones), tablets (e.g., iPads) TM Samsung Galaxy TM ), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS) TM PlayStation Portable TM Gameboy Advance TM iPhone TMThis includes wearable devices (e.g., smartwatches, smart glasses), laptops, PDAs, portable internet devices, music players, data storage devices, other handheld devices, automobiles and / or motor vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (e.g., drones), UAV controllers (UACs), etc. Generally speaking, the term "UE" or "UE device" can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic device, computing device, and / or telecommunications device (or a combination of these devices) that is easily transportable by the user and capable of wireless communication.

[0053] A wireless device is any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform wireless communication. A wireless device can be portable (or mobile), or it can be stationary or fixed in a location. A UE is an example of a wireless device.

[0054] A communication device is any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communication, which may be wired or wireless. A communication device may be portable (or mobile), or it may be stationary or fixed in a location. A wireless device is one example of a communication device. A UE is another example of a communication device.

[0055] Base station (BS) – The term “base station” has the full range of its usual meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station that is installed in a fixed location and used for communication as part of a wireless telephone system or radio system.

[0056] A processing element (or processor) refers to any element or combination of elements capable of performing the functions of a device (such as a user equipment device or a cellular network device). A processing element may include, for example: a processor and associated memory, portions or circuitry of individual processor cores, an entire processor core, a processor array, circuitry such as an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit), programmable hardware elements such as a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), and any combination thereof.

[0057] Wi-Fi – The term “Wi-Fi” encompasses the full range of its common meaning and includes at least wireless communication networks, or RATs, which are provided by and through wireless LAN (WLAN) access points to provide connectivity to the Internet. Most modern Wi-Fi networks (or WLAN networks) are based on the IEEE 802.11 standard and are marketed under the name “Wi-Fi.” Wi-Fi (WLAN) networks are distinct from cellular networks.

[0058] Automatic—refers to actions or operations performed by a computer system (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g., circuits, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.) without requiring direct user input to specify or perform the actions or operations. Therefore, the term "automatic" contrasts with actions performed or specified manually by the user, where the user provides input to directly perform the action. An automatic process can be initiated by user-provided input, but the subsequent actions performed "automatically" are not specified by the user; that is, they are not performed "manually," where the user specifies each action to be performed. For example, a user filling out a form by selecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typing information, selecting a checkbox, radio selection, etc.) is considered manually filling out the form, even though the computer system must update the form in response to the user's actions. The form can be automatically filled out by a computer system (e.g., software executed on the computer system) which analyzes the fields of the form and fills it out without any user input specifying answers for the fields. As indicated above, the user can invoke the automatic filling of the form but does not participate in the actual filling of the form (e.g., the user does not manually specify answers for the fields, but they are completed automatically). This manual provides various examples of operations that are automatically performed in response to actions taken by the user.

[0059] "Configured as" – Various components can be described as being "configured to" perform one or more tasks. In such contexts, "configured as" is a broad expression generally meaning "having" a "structure" that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when it is not currently performing one (e.g., a set of electrical conductors can be configured to electrically connect one module to another, even when the two modules are not connected). In some contexts, "configured as" can also be a broad expression generally meaning a structure that "has" a "circuit" that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when it is not currently powered on. Typically, the circuit forming the structure corresponding to "configured as" can include hardware circuitry.

[0060] For ease of description, various components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such descriptions shall be interpreted as including the phrase “configured to”. The statement that a component is configured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke the interpretation of paragraph 6 of section 112 of title 35 of the United States Code.

[0061] Figure 1 and Figure 2 -Exemplary communication system

[0062] Figure 1 Exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication systems that can implement various aspects of this disclosure according to some embodiments are shown. It should be noted that... Figure 1 The system described is merely one example of a possible system, and this implementation can be carried out in any of a variety of systems as needed.

[0063] As shown in the figure, this exemplary wireless communication system includes a base station 102 that communicates with one or more (e.g., any number) user equipments 106A, 106B, etc., up to 106N, via a transmission medium. Each user equipment may be referred to herein as a "user equipment" (UE) or UE device. Therefore, user equipment 106 is referred to as a UE or UE device.

[0064] Base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site, and may include hardware and / or software to enable wireless communication with UEs 106A to 106N. If base station 102 is implemented in an LTE environment, it may be referred to as an “eNodeB” or “eNB”. If base station 102 is implemented in the context of 5G NR, it may alternatively be referred to as a “gNodeB” or “gNB”. Base station 102 may also be equipped to communicate with network 100 (e.g., the core network of a cellular service provider, telecommunications networks such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, and various other possible networks). Therefore, base station 102 facilitates communication between user equipments and / or between user equipments and network 100. The communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a “cell”. Also as used herein, in relation to a UE, a base station may sometimes be considered to represent the network, taking into account both uplink and downlink communication of the UE. Therefore, a UE communicating with one or more base stations in the network may also be understood as a UE communicating with the network.

[0065] Base station 102 and user equipment can be configured to communicate via a transmission medium using any of a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), also known as wireless communication technologies or telecommunications standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE, LTE-A Advanced, LAA / LTE-U, 5G NR, 3GPP2, CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, etc.

[0066] Base station 102 and other similar base stations operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards may thus provide, as one or more cell networks, continuous or near-continuous overlapping services to UE 106 and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0067] It should be noted that UE 106 can communicate using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, UE 106 can be configured to communicate using either or both of the 3GPP cellular communication standards or the 3GPP2 cellular communication standards. In some implementations, UE 106 can be configured to perform frame blanking techniques in wireless communication systems with multi-RAT capabilities, such as those described herein. UE 106 can also be configured, or alternatively configured, to use WLAN, BLUETOOTH, etc. TM It can communicate with one or more Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS, such as GPS or GLONASS), one and / or more mobile television broadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M / H), etc. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including more than two wireless communication standards) are also possible.

[0068] Figure 2 An exemplary user equipment 106 (e.g., one of devices 106A to 106N) communicating with base station 102 according to some embodiments is illustrated. UE 106 can be a device with wireless network connectivity, such as a mobile phone, handheld device, wearable device, computer or tablet, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned flight controller (UAC), automobile, or virtually any type of wireless device. UE 106 may include a processor (processing element) configured to execute program instructions stored in memory. UE 106 can perform any of the method embodiments of the present invention by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or additionally, UE 106 may include programmable hardware elements, such as any of an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), integrated circuit, and / or various other possible hardware components configured to perform (e.g., individually or in combination) any of or any portion of any of the method embodiments described herein. UE 106 may be configured to communicate using any of a plurality of wireless communication protocols. For example, UE 106 can be configured to communicate using two or more of CDMA2000, LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, WLAN, or GNSS. Other combinations of wireless communication standards are also possible.

[0069] UE 106 may include one or more antennas communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols according to one or more RAT standards. In some embodiments, UE 106 may share one or more portions of the receive chain and / or transmit chain among multiple wireless communication standards. The shared radio components may include a single antenna, or may include multiple antennas for performing wireless communication (e.g., for MIMO). Typically, the radio components may include any combination of baseband processors, analog radio frequency (RF) signal processing circuitry (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuitry (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, the radio components may use the aforementioned hardware to implement one or more receive chains and transmit chains.

[0070] In some implementations, UE 106 may include separate transmit and / or receive chains (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol configured to communicate therewith. As another possibility, UE 106 may include one or more radio components shared among multiple wireless communication protocols, as well as one or more radio components uniquely used by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, UE 106 may include shared radio components for communication using either LTE or CDMA2000 1xRTT (or LTE or GSM), and for communication using Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH. TM Each component communicates independently. Other configurations are also possible.

[0071] Figure 3 - Block diagram of an exemplary UE device

[0072] Figure 3A block diagram of an exemplary UE 106 according to some embodiments is shown. As shown, UE 106 may include a System-on-Chip (SOC) 300, which may include parts for various purposes. For example, as shown, SOC 300 may include a processor 302 capable of executing program instructions for UE 106, and display circuitry 304 capable of performing graphics processing and providing display signals to a display 360. SOC 300 may also include sensor circuitry 370, which may include components for sensing or measuring any of a variety of possible characteristics or parameters of UE 106. For example, sensor circuitry 370 may include motion sensing circuitry configured to detect motion of UE 106, for example, using a gyroscope, accelerometer, and / or any of a variety of other motion sensing components. As another possibility, sensor circuitry 370 may include one or more temperature sensing components, for example, for measuring the temperature of each of one or more antenna panels and / or other components of UE 106. Any of a variety of other possible types of sensor circuitry may also or alternatively be included in UE 106 as needed. Processor 302 may also be coupled to memory management unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from processor 302 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read-only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310) and / or other circuitry or devices, such as display circuitry 304, radio components 330, connector I / F 320, and / or display 360. MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or setup. In some embodiments, MMU 340 may be included as part of processor 302.

[0073] As shown in the figure, the SOC 300 can be coupled to various other circuits of the UE 106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g., including NAND flash memory 310), connector interface 320 (e.g., for coupling to computer systems, docking stations, charging stations, etc.), display 360, and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR, CDMA2000, BLUETOOTH). TM(e.g., Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.). UE device 106 may include at least one antenna (e.g., 335a) and may include multiple antennas (e.g., shown by antennas 335a and 335b) for performing wireless communication with base stations and / or other devices. Antennas 335a and 335b are shown by way of example, and UE device 106 may include fewer or more antennas. In general, one or more antennas are collectively referred to as antenna 335. For example, UE device 106 may use antenna 335 to perform wireless communication via radio circuitry 330. As described above, in some embodiments, the UE may be configured to use multiple wireless communication standards for wireless communication.

[0074] UE 106 may include hardware and software components for implementing UE 106 to perform techniques for processing frame blanking in a wireless communication system, as described further herein. The processor 302 of UE device 106 may be configured to implement some or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments, processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) or as an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit). Furthermore, as... Figure 3 As shown, processor 302 may be coupled to and / or interoperable with other components to perform frame blanking techniques for processor wireless communication systems according to various embodiments disclosed herein. Processor 302 may also implement various other applications and / or end-user applications running on UE 106.

[0075] In some implementations, radio component 330 may include a separate controller dedicated to controlling communications for various corresponding RAT standards. For example, such as Figure 3 As shown, the radio component 330 may include a Wi-Fi controller 352, a cellular controller (e.g., an LTE and / or LTE-A controller) 354, and a BLUETOOTH controller. TM Controller 356, and in at least some embodiments, one or more of these controllers may be implemented as corresponding integrated circuits (referred to as ICs or chips), which communicate with each other and with the SOC 300 (more specifically with the processor 302). For example, Wi-Fi controller 352 may communicate with cellular controller 354 via a cell-ISM link or WCI interface, and / or BLUETOOTH TMController 356 can communicate with cellular controller 354 via a cell-ISM link or the like. Although three separate controllers are shown within radio component 330, other implementations with fewer or more similar controllers for various different RATs can be implemented in UE device 106.

[0076] Furthermore, implementation schemes in which the controller can perform functions associated with various radio access technologies are envisioned. For example, according to some implementation schemes, in addition to hardware and / or software components for performing cellular communications, the cellular controller 354 may also include hardware and / or software components for performing one or more activities associated with Wi-Fi, such as Wi-Fi preamble detection, and / or the generation and transmission of Wi-Fi physical layer preamble signals.

[0077] Figure 4 - Block diagram of an exemplary base station

[0078] Figure 4 A block diagram of an exemplary base station 102 according to some implementation schemes is shown. It should be noted that... Figure 4 The base station shown is merely one example of a possible base station. As illustrated, base station 102 may include a processor 404 capable of executing program instructions specific to base station 102. Processor 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 or other circuitry or device, which may be configured to receive addresses from processor 404 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450).

[0079] Base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Network port 470 may be configured to be coupled to a telephone network and provide access rights as described above. Figure 1 and Figure 2 The telephone network described herein includes multiple devices such as UE device 106. Network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also be configured, or alternatively configured, to be coupled to a cellular network, such as the core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to multiple devices such as UE device 106. In some cases, network port 470 may be coupled to the telephone network via the core network, and / or the core network may provide the telephone network (e.g., in other UE devices served by the cellular service provider).

[0080] Base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434 and possibly multiple antennas. One or more antennas 434 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate with UE device 106 via radio component 430. Antenna 434 communicates with radio component 430 via communication link 432. Communication link 432 may be a receive link, a transmit link, or both. Radio component 430 may be designed to communicate via various wireless telecommunication standards, including but not limited to NR, LTE, LTE-A WCDMA, CDMA2000, etc. Processor 404 of base station 102 may be configured to implement and / or support implementation of some or all of the methods described herein, for example by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element such as a FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), or as an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit), or a combination thereof. In the case of certain RATs (e.g., Wi-Fi), base station 102 can be designed as an access point (AP), in which case network port 470 can be implemented to provide access to a wide area network and / or one or more local area networks, for example it may include at least one Ethernet port, and radio component 430 can be designed to communicate according to the Wi-Fi standard.

[0081] Channel state information

[0082] Wireless devices, such as user equipment, can be configured to measure the quality of the downlink channel and report information related to that quality measurement to the base station. For example, the UE can periodically send channel state information (CSI) to the BS. The base station can then receive and use the CSI during communication with the wireless device to determine adjustments to various parameters. Specifically, the BS can use the received CSI to adjust the coding of its downlink transmissions to improve downlink channel quality.

[0083] In most cellular systems, the base station transmits pilot signals (or reference signals), such as Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS), which are used to estimate the channel (or a portion of the channel) between the base station and the UE. The UE receives this reference signal and calculates the Channel State Information (CSI) based on it. The UE then reports this Channel State Information back to the base station. The base station can then generate downlink data based on the received CSI and transmit the downlink data to the UE. In other words, the base station can adjust how the downlink data is encoded and generated based on the Channel State Information received from the UE.

[0084] For example, according to at least some implementation schemes, in the 3GPP NR cellular communication standard, the channel state information fed back from the UE may include one or more of the following: Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), Rank Indicator (RI), CSI-RS Resource Indicator (CRI), SSBRI (SS / PBCH Resource Block Indicator and Layer Indicator (LI)).

[0085] Channel quality information can be provided to the base station for link adaptation, for example, to provide guidance on which modulation and coding scheme (MCS) the base station should use when transmitting data. For instance, when the downlink channel communication quality between the base station and the UE is determined to be high, the UE can report a high CQI value, which allows the base station to transmit data using a relatively high modulation order and / or a low channel coding rate. Conversely, when the downlink channel communication quality between the base station and the UE is determined to be low, the UE can report a low CQI value, which allows the base station to transmit data using a relatively low modulation order and / or a high channel coding rate.

[0086] PMI feedback can include preferred precoding matrix information and can be provided to the base station to indicate which MIMO precoding scheme the base station should use. In other words, the UE can measure the quality of the downlink MIMO channel between the base station and the UE based on pilot signals received on the channel, and can recommend which MIMO precoding scheme the base station should apply via PMI feedback. In some cellular systems, the PMI configuration is represented in matrix form, providing linear MIMO precoding. The base station and UE can share a codebook consisting of multiple precoding matrices, where each MIMO precoding matrix in the codebook can have a unique index. Therefore, as part of the channel state information fed back by the UE, the PMI can include indices (or possibly multiple indices) corresponding to the most preferred MIMO precoding matrix (or matrices) in the codebook. This allows the UE to minimize the amount of feedback information. Thus, at least according to some embodiments, the PMI can indicate which precoding matrix from the codebook should be used for transmission to the UE.

[0087] For example, when the base station and UE have multiple antennas, Rank Indicator Information (RI Feedback) can indicate the number of transport layers that the UE determines can be supported by the channel, which can enable multi-layer transmission through spatial multiplexing. RI and Rank Indicator Information (PMI) together allow the base station to know which precoding needs to be applied to which layer, for example, depending on the number of transport layers.

[0088] In some cellular systems, the PMI codebook is defined based on the number of transport layers. In other words, for R-layer transport, N N-layer codebooks can be defined. t ×R matrix (e.g., where R represents the number of layers, N tLet R represent the number of transmitter antenna ports, and N represent the codebook size. In such a scenario, the number of transport layers (R) can correspond to the rank (N) of the precoding matrix. t The matrix is ​​a ×R matrix, and therefore R can be called the "rank indicator (RI)" in this context.

[0089] Therefore, channel state information may include an assigned rank (e.g., a rank indicator or RI). For example, a MIMO-enabled UE communicating with a BS may include four receiver chains, for example, four antennas. The BS may also include four or more antennas to enable MIMO communication (e.g., 4×4 MIMO). Thus, the UE can simultaneously receive up to four (or more) signals (e.g., layers) from the BS. Layer-to-antenna mapping can be applied, for example, mapping each layer to any number of antenna ports (e.g., antennas). Each antenna port can transmit and / or receive information associated with one or more layers. The rank may include multiple bits and may indicate the number of signals the BS can send to the UE in an upcoming time period (e.g., during an upcoming transmission time interval or TTI). For example, a rank 4 indicator may indicate that the BS will send four signals to the UE. As a possibility, the RI length may be two bits (e.g., since two bits are sufficient to distinguish four different rank values). It should be noted that, depending on various embodiments, other numbers and / or configurations of antennas (e.g., at either or both of the UE or BS) and / or other numbers of data layers are also possible.

[0090] Figure 5 - Frame blanking processing in wireless devices with multi-RAT and DSDA capabilities

[0091] In at least some cases, wireless devices with multiple RAT capabilities can share the use of at least some RF front-end components to implement multiple RATs. For example, some antennas of a wireless device may be used for communication according to any of a variety of cellular communication technologies. Similarly, in some cases, wireless devices with dual SIM dual standby (DSDA) capabilities can share the use of at least some RF front-end components to simultaneously establish and communicate using wireless links associated with different user identities.

[0092] Some cellular network deployment configurations may support or even require the ability to perform simultaneous transmission and / or reception according to multiple RATs. For example, a radio device obtaining 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) service may establish radio links based on both LTE (e.g., with an anchor LTE cell) and 5G NR (e.g., with an NSA NR cell), and can be expected to perform simultaneous LTE / NR transmission and reception with both LTE and NR cells. In the case of DSDA radio devices, when both SIMs are active, the radio device can be scheduled independently for each SIM, which may result in simultaneous communication scheduling, such that the radio device may need to, or at least significantly benefit from, the ability to perform simultaneous communication for each SIM (e.g., according to the same RAT or different RATs).

[0093] For at least some frequency band combinations, certain operations performed according to a RAT and / or SIM may require transmit and / or receive blanking on another RAT and / or SIM on one or more other antennas of the same antenna and / or wireless device used by those operations, for example, this may depend on the wireless device design (e.g., the RF front-end configuration of the wireless device). Transmit and / or receive blanking on a RAT may include dropping (not performing) any scheduled transmissions and / or receptions on the RAT for any time period (e.g., subframes or time slots) selected for blanking.

[0094] Such transmit and receive blanking can have a variety of potential negative impacts on the performance of wireless devices using RATs that have undergone such blanking, potentially including, for example, reduced throughput in different scenarios, impact on channel state feedback reporting, increased latency, and / or any of a variety of other effects. However, wireless devices can also identify when such transmit and receive blanking occurs and attempt to mitigate or reduce its impact.

[0095] Therefore, it may be advantageous to provide wireless devices with multi-RAT and / or DSDA capabilities, for example, in a manner that can potentially reduce the negative impact of frame blanking on the performance of the wireless device. To illustrate a set of such possible techniques, Figure 5 This is a flowchart illustrating a method for processing frame blanking in a wireless communication system by a wireless device having multiple RAT and / or DSDA capabilities, according to at least some embodiments.

[0096] Figure 5The aspects of the method can be implemented by a wireless device, for example, in conjunction with one or more cellular base stations (such as UE 106 and BS 102 shown and described with respect to the various figures herein), or more generally, in conjunction as needed with any of the computer circuits, systems, devices, elements, or components shown in the aforementioned figures. For example, the processor (and / or other hardware) of such a device can be configured to cause the device to perform any combination of the illustrated method elements and / or other method elements.

[0097] It should be noted that, although the description uses methods involving the use of communication technologies and / or features associated with 3GPP, LTE, and / or NR specification documents, it is still possible to describe the content. Figure 5 This method describes at least some elements, but this description is not intended to limit this disclosure and can be used in any suitable wireless communication system as needed. Figure 5 The method encompasses various aspects. In various implementation schemes, some of the method elements shown may be executed simultaneously in a different order than shown, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may also be executed as needed. As shown in the figure, Figure 5 The method can be operated as follows.

[0098] In 502, a wireless device may establish a radio link with one or more cellular base stations. The radio link may include a radio link established according to a first RAT and a radio link established according to a second RAT. According to some embodiments, the radio link may include a cellular link based on LTE. For example, the wireless device may establish a session with a mobility management entity of a cellular network via an eNB that provides radio access to the cellular network. In some embodiments, the radio link may include a cellular link based on 5G NR. For example, the wireless device may establish a session with an AMF entity of a cellular network via one or more gNBs that provide radio access to the cellular network. In some embodiments, the radio link may be established according to, for example, a 5G NSA network configuration, such that a first radio link is established with an LTE anchor cell and a second radio link is established with an NSA NR cell. According to various embodiments, other types of cellular links are also possible, and the cellular network may also or alternatively operate according to another cellular communication technology (e.g., UMTS, CDMA2000, GSM, etc.).

[0099] Alternatively or otherwise, the radio link may include a radio link established using a first SIM and a radio link established using a second SIM. The radio link may, for example, include one radio link established according to LTE and one radio link established according to NR, two radio links established according to LTE, two radio links established according to NR, and / or a radio link established according to any of a variety of other possible RATs. In the case of using different SIMs to establish radio links, it may be that the radio link provides connectivity to networks operated by different carriers / network operators.

[0100] According to at least some implementations, establishing a radio link may include establishing one or more RRC connections with a serving cellular base station. Establishing an RRC connection may include configuring various parameters for communication between the radio device and the cellular base station, establishing environmental information for the radio device, and / or any of various other possible characteristics, such as establishing an air interface for the radio device to communicate with a cellular network associated with the cellular base station. After establishing an RRC connection, the radio device may operate in an RRC connected state relative to each RAT with which the RRC connection has been established. In some cases, the RRC connection may also be released (e.g., after a period of inactivity relative to data communication), in which case the radio device may operate in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state. In some cases, such as due to radio device movement, changes in radio medium conditions, and / or any other various possible reasons, the radio device may perform a handover (e.g., when in RRC connected mode) or cell reselection (e.g., when in RRC idle mode or RRC inactive mode) to a new serving cell.

[0101] According to at least some implementations, multiple radio links can be established with multiple TRPs in a cellular network based on a multi-TRP configuration. In such scenarios, the wireless device can be configured (e.g., via RRC signaling) to have one or more Transmission Control Indicators (TCIs), which may correspond to various beams available for communication with the TRPs. Furthermore, there may be situations where one or more configured TCI states can be activated at a specific time by the wireless device's Media Access Control (MAC) control element (CE).

[0102] In at least some cases, establishing a wireless link may include the wireless device providing information about its capabilities. This capability information may include information related to any one of a variety of wireless device capabilities.

[0103] In 504, the wireless device may determine, at least in part, based on the frequency band combination of the wireless links established according to the first and second wireless links, to perform transmit and receive blanking for one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link (e.g., for the first RAT and / or the first SIM) to perform probe reference signal (SRS) transmission for the second wireless link (e.g., for the second RAT and / or the second SIM). Before, during, and / or after the SRS transmission according to the second wireless link, transmit and / or receive blanking may be applied to a subset (or possibly all) of the wireless device's antennas in one or more subframes or time slots. The antennas affected by transmit and / or receive operations may depend on the antennas used for SRS transmission according to the second wireless link, and in the case of receive operations, may also depend on the antennas used for transmission according to the first wireless link. In other words, different antennas may not be usable for use according to the first wireless link, depending on which antenna is being used for the SRS transmission that causes frame blanking.

[0104] It should be noted that, according to at least some implementation schemes, SRS transmissions based on the second radio link can be performed periodically, wherein one or more SRS transmissions are performed by each antenna configured for use according to the second radio link during the SRS cycle of the second radio link. It should also be noted that while the wireless device can perform transmit and receive blanking for one or more antennas of the wireless device on the first radio link to perform SRS transmissions for the second radio link for a frequency band combination of the radio link established based on the first and second radio links, the wireless device may also not perform transmit or receive blanking for the first radio link to perform SRS transmissions for the second radio link for at least some other possible frequency band combinations of the radio link established based on the first and second radio links. For example, in a scenario where the first radio link is established based on LTE and the second RAT is established based on NR, there may be frequency band combinations for which NR SRS transmissions can be performed without blanking LTE receive or transmit operations on any antenna.

[0105] In 506, the wireless device may determine one or more modifications to the Channel State Feedback (CSF) report for the first wireless link, at least in part, based on transmit and receive blanking of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link, to perform SRS transmission for the second wireless link. The modifications may be selected to attempt to mitigate or reduce any potential negative impact on communication according to the first wireless link, which may be at least in part caused by transmit and / or receive blanking.

[0106] As a possible example of modifying the CSF report for the first radio link, in some cases, the wireless device may determine the rank indicator to be reported for the first radio link based at least in part on the SRS period of the second radio link. This may include modifying the rank indicator selected based on the channel state of the first radio link to indicate a lower rank, for example, if the SRS period of the second radio link is short enough that the anticipated antenna unavailability caused by SRS-triggered receive blanking would affect the wireless device's ability to maintain the highest rank supported by the channel state of the first radio link. For example, in some embodiments, the wireless device may determine whether the SRS period of the second radio link is less than an SRS period threshold, and may also determine whether the downlink block error rate (BLER) of the first radio link is greater than a downlink BLER threshold. The wireless device may also determine the receive blanking pattern of the first radio link (e.g., as a possibility, taking into account which antennas are currently used according to the transmission of each of the first and second radio links, and the currently selected set of receive antennas). In such scenarios, at least as a possibility, if the SRS period of the second radio link is less than the SRS period threshold and the downlink BLER of the first radio link is greater than the downlink BLER threshold, the rank indicator can be determined at least in part based on the receive blanking pattern of the first radio link.

[0107] In some cases, the wireless device may also determine the rank indicator to be reported for the first wireless link based at least in part on the frequency band combination of the first and second wireless links and / or at least in part on determining that SRS transmissions for the second wireless link cause transmit and receive blanking of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link. For example, in a DSDA scenario where the first wireless link is configured for voice communication, if the first wireless link is determined to be subject to transmit and / or receive blanking from the second wireless link, the wireless device may determine to limit the reported rank (e.g., to rank 1, or to rank 1 or rank 2, etc., and various other possibilities). Such a method can be used in such scenarios, at least according to some embodiments, because low-rank communication is often sufficient for voice communication and the possibility of blanking on the first wireless link resulting in a high BLER can be reduced or avoided.

[0108] As another possibility, in some cases, when receive blanking causes the wireless device to fail to successfully receive and decode downlink communications, the wireless device may determine to provide a "false ACK". At least according to some implementations, using such a false ACK can help the wireless device avoid rank reduction if such a rank reduction would be disproportionate to the channel state of the first wireless link. For example, in some implementations, the wireless device may determine that a subframe scheduled for downlink communications according to the first wireless link is blanked at least partially based on SRS transmissions for the second wireless link, and may transmit an acknowledgment of the subframe at least partially based on the subframe being blanked at least partially based on SRS transmissions for the second wireless link. In some scenarios, the wireless device may further determine the rank supported by the channel state of the first wireless link, and may determine whether transmitting a negative acknowledgment of the subframe increases the downlink BLER of the first wireless link to above a threshold configured to trigger a rank reduction to below the rank supported by the channel state of the first wireless link. In such scenarios, confirmation of a subframe is further based, at least in part, on the determination that a negative confirmation of a subframe will increase the downlink BLER of the first radio link to above a threshold for transmission, which is configured to trigger a rank reduction to below the rank supported by the channel state of the first radio link.

[0109] Another possible modification to the CSF reporting for the first radio link may include modifications selected to attempt to avoid conflicts between SRS transmissions and CSF reporting, which could prevent the radio device from performing CSF reporting. For example, in some cases, periodic CSF reporting for the first radio link and periodic SRS transmissions for the second radio link may be scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna. In such scenarios, the antenna used for periodic SRS transmissions may be blanked for CSF reporting while (or at least during the overlap time) the periodic CSF reporting is configured. Therefore, the radio device can detect when such a scenario occurs, for example, when signaling received by the radio device configuring periodic CSF reporting for the first radio link causes such a conflict, or when signaling received by the radio device configuring periodic SRS transmissions for the second radio link causes such a conflict. When such a conflict is detected (e.g., when periodic CSF reports for a first wireless link and periodic SRS transmissions for a second wireless link are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna), the wireless device may perform one or more operations to prevent periodic CSF reports for the first wireless link and periodic SRS transmissions for the second wireless link from being scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna.

[0110] One possible such operation could include triggering an antenna reselection for a first wireless link in response to periodic CSF reports. For example, when periodic CSF reports for a first wireless link and periodic SRS transmissions for a second wireless link are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna, the wireless device might perform a transmit antenna reselection for the first wireless link in such a way that the transmit antenna used for the periodic SRS transmissions for the second wireless link is excluded from consideration in the transmit antenna reselection for the first wireless link. Therefore, after a transmit antenna reselection for the first wireless link, there is a possibility that different transmit antennas could be used to perform overlapping periodic CSF reports for the first wireless link and periodic SRS transmissions for the second wireless link, potentially preventing conflicts and allowing the wireless device to perform periodic CSF reports as configured.

[0111] Another possible operation of this kind could include triggering a radio link re-establishment for the first radio link. For example, when periodic CSF reports for the first radio link and periodic SRS transmissions for the second radio link are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna, the wireless device might trigger a re-establishment process based on the first radio link. This could result in the wireless device receiving a new CSF reporting configuration, for example, where the periodic CSF reports potentially fall into a different time window than previously configured. Therefore, after a radio link re-establishment for the first radio link, there might be a situation where periodic CSF reports for the first radio link and periodic SRS transmissions for the second radio link are scheduled in a manner that does not involve time overlap using the same antenna. This could potentially prevent collisions and allow the wireless device to perform periodic CSF reports according to the (new) configuration.

[0112] The wireless device may perform CSF reporting using determined modifications to its CSF report for the first wireless link. According to various embodiments, this may include reporting a modified RI, performing CSF reporting using a reselected antenna to avoid CSF report blanking, performing CSF reporting using a configuration obtained based on rebuilding the first wireless link to avoid CSF report blanking, and / or any other determined modifications to the CSF report for the first wireless link.

[0113] It should also be noted that the wireless device may perform antenna selection for the first wireless link at least in part based on the frequency band combination of the first and second wireless links. For example, this includes whether the receive and / or transmit operations for the first wireless link are likely to be blanked due to SRS transmissions for the second wireless link, given the frequency band combination in which the first and second wireless links are established. For instance, antenna selection for the first wireless link may be based at least in part on the receive blanking pattern of the first wireless link resulting from SRS transmissions for the second wireless link, at least in part, through the frequency band combination of the first and second wireless links.

[0114] As one possibility, for adaptive receive antenna selection for the first wireless link (e.g., if the wireless device is selecting fewer receive antennas than the maximum possible number of receive antennas for the first wireless link), an antenna combination that undergoes less blanking according to the receive blanking pattern of the first wireless link may be preferred over an antenna combination that undergoes more blanking according to the receive blanking pattern of the first wireless link. Therefore, for example, if the wireless device has four possible transmit / receive antennas, the first pair of receive antennas undergoing a receive blanking pattern may be preferred over the second pair of receive antennas undergoing a receive blanking pattern, in which the subframe undergoing receive blanking during the SRS period of the second wireless link includes instances with (1,1,2,2) available receive antennas, and in which the second pair of receive antennas undergoes receive blanking during the SRS period of the second RAT, the subframe undergoing receive blanking includes instances with (1,1,1,2) available receive antennas. For example, since for the first pair of receive antennas, there may be two instances during the SRS period of the second wireless link, in which only one receive antenna is available, while for the second pair of receive antennas, there may be three instances during the SRS period of the second wireless link, in which only one receive antenna is available. For example, a second pair of receiving antennas may take precedence over a third pair of receiving antennas undergoing a receive blanking pattern, in which the subframe undergoing receive blanking during the SRS period of the second radio link includes instances with (0, 1, 1, 2) available receiving antennas. For instance, for the second pair of receiving antennas, there may be 0 instances during the SRS period of the second radio link, where 0 receiving antennas are available, while for the third pair of receiving antennas, there may be 1 instance during the SRS period of the second radio link, where 0 receiving antennas are available. It should be noted that if such prioritization is implemented, then, at least according to some embodiments, when performing antenna selection, the signal strength of antenna combinations with the same priority based on the receive blanking pattern can be used as a secondary priority consideration.

[0115] As another possibility, one or more antennas could be removed from consideration for transmit antenna selection, at least in part, based on the frequency band combination of the first and second wireless links. For example, when a frequency band combination experiencing transmit / receive blanking for the first wireless link due to SRS transmissions for the second wireless link is in use, using an antenna as the transmit antenna for the first wireless link might result in more severe receive blanking for the first wireless link. In such scenarios, wireless device performance could be improved by typically excluding such antennas from consideration for the transmit antenna selection of the first wireless link in such scenarios.

[0116] As another possibility, at least for certain types of communication, the wireless device may, at least in part, prioritize a receive configuration using a larger number of antennas over a receive configuration using fewer antennas for the first wireless link, based on the frequency band combination for the first and second wireless links. For example, for certain types of communication (e.g., voice communication, mass downloads, and / or any of various other possible types of communication), which may be significantly affected by reduced throughput and / or increased latency due to receive blanking for the first wireless link (this may include a more severe impact on receive configurations using fewer antennas for the first wireless link), the wireless device may prioritize one or more receive configurations that use more antennas than one or more other receive configurations for the first wireless link. As such a possibility, for a wireless device including (at least) four antennas, at least for certain communication types, where the first wireless link may be subject to transmit / receive blanking due to SRS transmissions for the second wireless link, the wireless device may prioritize four-antenna reception over two-antenna reception when performing antenna selection for the first wireless link. Other possible antenna configurations and selection options are also possible.

[0117] As another possibility, the wireless device may determine to drop one or more SRS transmissions targeting the second wireless link, for example, to reduce the impact on the first wireless link. For instance, in a scenario where both the first and second wireless links are NR wireless links and associated with different user identities, one configured for voice communication and the other for data communication, some SRS transmissions of the second wireless link that would cause transmit and / or receive blanking of the first wireless link may be dropped. At least in some cases, the selection of dropped SRS transmissions may depend on which wireless link is configured for voice communication and which is configured for data communication. For example, as one possibility, if the first wireless link is configured for voice communication and the second wireless link is configured for data communication, SRS transmissions of the second wireless link that would cause transmit blanking of the first wireless link may be dropped. As another possibility, if the first wireless link is configured for data communication and the second wireless link is configured for voice communication, all SRS transmissions except for codebook SRS transmissions of the second wireless link may be dropped. Other methods of dropping SRS transmissions to mitigate the impact of transmit / receive blanking on another wireless link are also possible.

[0118] Therefore, at least according to some implementation schemes, Figure 5 This method can be used to mitigate the potential negative impact of transmit and / or receive blanking on a wireless link caused by the operation of another wireless link. In at least some cases, this can lead to better performance, potentially including greater throughput, increased spectral efficiency, reduced latency, and / or other benefits, as well as enabling… Figure 5 The method improves the overall user experience of wireless devices.

[0119] Figure 6 and additional information

[0120] Figure 6 It shows that it may be combined if needed. Figure 5 Other aspects of the method used. However, it should be noted that in Figure 6 The exemplary details shown and described with respect to these figures are not intended to limit this disclosure as a whole: many variations and alternative forms of the details provided below are possible and should be considered within the scope of this disclosure.

[0121] Wireless devices with multiple antennas that implement multiple wireless communication technologies may have hardware conflicts when operating in at least some frequency bands, such as which antennas are available for transmission and / or reception for each wireless communication technology at any given time.

[0122] As an example, in some cases, a wireless device with a non-standalone (NSA) 5G NR connection (operating in both LTE band B3 and NR band n41 and having four antennas) may experience collisions where at least some LTE B3 receive and transmit capabilities are blanked (unused) due to NR transmit chain activity. Such collisions are possible, at least as a possibility, if the bands used by the wireless device for NR and LTE share the same MBH antenna and associated cross-switch in the wireless device's radio frequency (RF) front-end (FE). This blanking may include: receiving blanking before a handover for NR sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission if LTE reception shares the same antenna as NR; receiving blanking after a handover for NRSRS transmission if LTE reception shares the same antenna as NR; and / or receiving blanking after a handover for NR SRS transmission if LTE transmission shares the same antenna as NR.

[0123] 5G NSA communication typically includes, and may require, simultaneous LTE / NR transmission / reception. However, such NR SRS 1T4R (1T4R) handover can potentially lead to frequent interruptions in LTE receive and / or transmit operations. For example, in some configurations, four NR SRS transmissions may be performed in 40 time slots, which could result in three interruptions in 20 subframes to LTE receive. It should be noted that other configurations and interruption frequencies and / or patterns are also possible.

[0124] One possible consequence of such blanking of LTE antennas caused by NR SRS handover can be a degradation in LTE throughput. For example, in a scenario where the NSA-segmented bearer is configured to include both LTE and NR, blanking triggered by NR 1T4R SRS can result in an LTE downlink block error rate (BLER) greater than 10%. Given that the LTE BLER has risen above such a level, the network can respond by downgrading the LTE downlink modulation and coding scheme to 1, which can lead to potentially significant throughput degradation, which can occur on any of a variety of possible scales, and in some cases may even include a throughput degradation of over 90%.

[0125] Another possible consequence of such blanking of LTE antennas caused by NR SRS handover can be the blanking of LTE Channel State Feedback (CSF) transmissions. For example, the LTE CSF can be blocked at any time during a CSF transmission slot in a configuration where both NR and LTE select the same transmit antenna for blanking caused by NR SRS handover. In some configurations (e.g., depending at least in part on the periodicity of the LTE CSF and NR SRS), this can result in the blanking of some or all CSF transmissions. For example, if the LTE CSF (CQI / PMI / RI) conflicts with the NR SRS and has the same period or a multiple of the same period, the LTE CSF transmission can be periodically blocked as long as the configuration persists. Therefore, in scenarios where such transmissions have a period of 20 ms, this could occur with at least a 1 / 20 probability, according to some embodiments. Such scenarios are possible, at least according to some embodiments, for LTE B3 / NR n41 and / or LTE B39 / NR n41 band combinations for both 1T4R handover and 1T2R SRS handover.

[0126] Figure 6 Exemplary aspects of various possible LTE CSF transmit blanking scenarios considering NR SRS handover are shown according to some implementation schemes. In the illustrated scenario, NR SRS handover can be performed between the four antennas (ant-1, ant-2, ant-3, ant-4) of the radio device within a 40-slot / 20-ms period.

[0127] In the first scenario, LTE CSF transmissions can use ant-2, and the timing configured for LTE CSF transmissions can be offset from the NR SRS handover, allowing LTE CSF transmissions to be performed without any blanking of the antennas used for those transmissions. In the second scenario, LTE CSF transmissions can use ant-1, and the timing configured for LTE CSF transmissions can be aligned with the NR SRS handover, causing LTE CSF transmissions to blank every 20ms via the NR SRS handover. However, in this second scenario, the CSF period can be 10ms, so that every other CSF transmission is not blanked. In the third scenario, LTE CSF transmissions can also use ant-1, and the timing configured for LTE CSF transmissions can also be aligned with the NR SRS handover, causing LTE CSF transmissions to blank every 20ms via the NR SRS handover. In this third scenario, the CSF period can be 20ms, causing all CSF reports to be blanked.

[0128] The performance impact of such CSF transmit concealment can vary across different scenarios. In one possible scenario, for B3 / n41 mode 4Rx operation, downlink spectral efficiency can be reduced by 5% to 10% due to blanking CQI and / or by 30% due to blanking RI, while uplink throughput can be reduced by 5% due to blanking PUSCH transmissions. In another possible scenario, for B39 / n41 mode, for continuous traffic (such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) traffic, in some cases), spectral efficiency can be reduced by 5% to 12% due to blanking CQI, and for intermittent traffic (such as at least some game traffic, in some cases), spectral efficiency can be reduced by 20% to 25% due to blanking CQI, and latency can increase by 0ms to 4ms due to blanking CQI. It should be noted that while these examples are provided for illustrative purposes, many other possible scenarios and associated results are possible, for example, depending on device design, configuration parameters, and / or any of various other possible considerations.

[0129] In some cases, LTE spectral efficiency can be significantly negatively impacted by blanking caused by NR SRS handover for 4-antenna radio devices configured for 2-antenna operation with adaptive receive diversity (ARD) (e.g., for power consumption reduction, thermal mitigation, and / or for any of a variety of other possible reasons). For example, in such scenarios, one or both of the antennas selected for 2Rx ARD may be blanked in certain time slots or subframes via NR SRS handover. If both antennas are blanked during transmission to the radio device (e.g., if the radio device has 0-Rx), the situation may not only be that the radio device cannot receive the transmission, but it may also be unable to receive subsequent retransmissions, for example because redundant version 0 (RV0) in the first transmission may be lost, and RV1 / 2 / 3 in the retransmission may not be self-decoding. Furthermore, even if only one antenna is blanked during transmission (e.g., if the radio device has 1-Rx), the first transmission with 2 codewords may fail (e.g., because the radio device may not be able to perform layer 2 reception without 2 available antennas). Therefore, in at least some cases, 2-Rx ARDs may experience more unexpected failures than 4-Rx ARDs. In one exemplary configuration and scenario, ARD 2-Rx may experience up to 70% spectral efficiency loss due to blanking caused by NR SRS handover, compared to up to 40% spectral efficiency loss for ARD 4-Rx. Again, it should be noted that while this example is provided for illustrative purposes, many other possible configurations / scenarios and associated results are possible.

[0130] For at least some device designs / configurations, LTE Rx blanking patterns may be different for different combinations of LTE and NR transmit antenna selection. For example, some combinations may be more likely to result in blanked slots or subframes than other combinations, and / or may affect some Rx antenna combinations more than other Rx antenna combinations. In at least some cases, wireless device performance may depend almost as much (or possibly more) on the blanking Rx pattern than it depends on downlink signal strength.

[0131] For example, for 4Rx operation, performance may significantly depend on the currently selected LTE Tx antenna, such as if use of that antenna tends to cause more LTE Rx blanking than other possible LTE Tx antennas. For 2Rx ARD operation, performance may significantly depend on the selected 2-Rx combination, such as if different Rx combinations experience different likelihoods and / or frequencies of 0-Rx and 1-Rx slots / subframes for a current <LTE Tx antenna, NR SRS Tx antenna> combination, e.g., because 0-Rx and 1-Rx slots / subframes can have a significant impact on spectral efficiency. For example, as at least one possibility, a pair of Rx antennas having lower signal strength but being less impacted by a current <LTE Tx antenna, NR SRS Tx antenna> combination may provide better performance during 2Rx ARD operation than another pair of Rx antennas.

[0132] Another possible impact due to LTE blanking caused by NR SRS switching can include increased LTE voice (VoLTE) latency. In some cases, the increase in voice latency for LTE 2-Rx may be greater than that for 4-Rx. For example, LTE ARD 2-Rx may generally have more instances of interruption / failure to successfully receive and decode transmissions (e.g., as one possibility, 0-Rx and / or 1-Rx every 20 ms in LTE ARD 2-Rx) compared to LTE 4-Rx. In some cases, voice latency with adaptive rank may increase more than voice latency for rank 1. For example, due to NR SRS switching, there may be some periodic 1-RX or 0-Rx subframes in LTE, so rank 2 and rank 4 transmissions may not be as suitable as rank 1 transmission for avoiding potential voice latency increase caused by LTE blanking. In an exemplary configuration, LTE 4-Rx VoLTE may experience an increased latency within 10ms due to blanking caused by NR SRS switching, and / or LTE 2-Rx VoLTE may experience an increased latency up to 15ms due to blanking caused by NR SRS switching. In the same exemplary configuration, for adaptive rank, the average latency may be distributed from 2ms to 15ms with larger latency jitter than rank 1, while for restricted rank 1, the latency may converge.

[0133] Another potential impact of LTE blanking caused by NR SRS handover could be poor VoLTE spectral efficiency. Specifically, if downlink voice packets are periodically scheduled in 0-Rx subframes, the MCS for the radio device can be reduced to 0. At least in some implementations, VoLTE downlink voice packets can be transmitted periodically, and as previously noted herein, in some ARD 2-Rx configurations, 0-Rx subframes can occur periodically (e.g., every 20ms according to the NR SRS period). In such scenarios, the first / initial downlink transmission scheduled in the 0-Rx subframe is guaranteed to fail. A 50% BLER can be expected with a periodic pattern of <1st Tx failure, 2nd Tx success>, which could accordingly trigger the network to reduce the MCS to 0 (e.g., maintain a target 10% BLER). Therefore, at least according to some configurations, there is a 1 / 20 probability that this will occur.

[0134] Therefore, at least in 5G NR NSA scenarios, there are likely several potential impacts and aspects on radio device performance that can be affected by LTE Tx / Rx blanking triggered by NR SRS, making it possible to improve radio device performance in these scenarios by providing techniques to mitigate these impacts. One such possibility could include dynamically determining how RI reporting is performed, at least in part, based on the NR SRS period. For example, if the NR SRS period is less than a configured threshold and the downlink BLER exceeds 10%, the radio device can choose a lower RI than it might choose in other cases (e.g., based solely on channel conditions). This can reduce the BLER experienced by the radio device, for example, because there may be fewer downlink transmissions that the radio device cannot receive, since fewer receive antennas are available than the rank required for the transmission, which in turn reduces the likelihood that the network will reduce the MCS to 0.

[0135] Another possible technique to mitigate the impact of NR SRS-triggered LTE Tx / Rx blanking on downlink throughput could be to provide downlink CRC report acknowledgments instead of negative acknowledgments for subframes where reception failures are caused by NR SRS-induced Rx blanking (e.g., not by poor channel quality). This reduces the likelihood of the network reducing the MCS to zero due to NR SRS-triggered blanking and when the actual channel conditions of the radio equipment do not guarantee such MCS reduction.

[0136] Another technique that could potentially improve the performance of wireless devices could include the use of adaptive transmit diversity reselection. For example, in a scenario where a wireless device receives LTE RRC signaling to (re)configure the CSF, the wireless device can determine whether the new periodic LTE CQI / PMI / RI reporting timing overlaps with the NR SRS time slot. If the LTE CSF overlaps with the NR SRS, the wireless device can further determine whether the current LTE configuration uses the same Tx antenna as the NR SRS in the configured CSF timing. If the LTE CSF reporting timing is expected to be blanked by the NR SRS (e.g., if they use the same antenna during the configured LTE CSF reporting timing), the wireless device can trigger LTE ATD (re)selection. The LTE ATD scheme can remove the current Tx antenna from the candidate list and select the best antenna from the remaining antennas used for transmission.

[0137] As another possibility, when a radio device receives NR RRC signaling to (re)configure SRS resources, it can determine whether the periodic CQI / PMI / RI timing overlaps with a new NR SRS time slot and uses the same Tx antenna. In this scenario, similar to the previous scenario, if the LTE CSF Tx timing is expected to be blanked by the NR SRS timing, the radio device can trigger LTE ATD (re)selection, including removing the current Tx antenna from the candidate list and selecting the best antenna from the remaining antennas used for transmission.

[0138] As another possibility, when a wireless device triggers LTE ATD (reselection), the wireless device can determine whether the periodic CQI / PMI / RI timing overlaps with the NR SRS time slot and use the newly selected antenna. If the LTE CSF Tx timing is expected to be blanked by the NR SRS timing, the wireless device may not trigger the LTE ATD (reselection).

[0139] Another related technique that could potentially improve the performance of a wireless device may include removing an antenna from the ATD candidate list, at least in part, based on its potential impact when combined with an NR SRS antenna. For example, if an LTE Tx antenna, when combined with NR SRS operation, results in more LTE Rx blanking than other LTE Tx antennas in a given configuration (e.g., this may be the case for at least some LTE / NR band combinations, which may depend on the hardware configuration of the wireless device), then in at least some implementations, the wireless device may remove that antenna from the ATD candidate list, which could result in better downlink performance.

[0140] Another possible technique for avoiding LTE CSF Tx blanking may include utilizing LTE reconstruction. For example, in a scenario where a radio device receives LTE RRC signaling to (re)configure the CSF, the radio device may determine whether the new periodic LTE CQI / MPI / RI reporting timing overlaps with the NR SRS time slot. If the LTE CSF overlaps with the NR SRS, the radio device may further determine whether the current LTE configuration uses the same Tx antenna as the NR SRS in the configured CSF timing. If the LTE CSF reporting timing is expected to be blanked by the NR SRS (e.g., if they use the same antenna during the configured LTE CSF reporting timing), the radio device may trigger an LTE reconstruction process to retrieve the new CSF configuration. Since the probability of a conflict between the LTE CSF configuration and the NR SRS configuration may be relatively low (e.g., 1 / 20, in some cases, as previously noted), the probability that the LTE CSF configuration and the NR SRS configuration will not conflict after such an LTE reconstruction process may be correspondingly high.

[0141] Similarly, in scenarios where a radio device receives NR RRC signaling to (re)configure SRS resources, the radio device can determine whether the periodic LTE CQI / MPI / RI reporting times overlap with the new NR SRS time slots, and whether the current LTE configuration uses the same Tx antenna as the NR SRS in the configured CSF reporting times. If the LTE CSF reporting times are expected to be blanked by NR SRS (e.g., if they use the same antenna during the configured LTE CSF reporting times), the radio device can trigger an LTE reconstruction process to retrieve the new CSF configuration.

[0142] Another possible technique for mitigating the impact of NR SRS-triggered LTE Tx / Rx blanking may include selectively prioritizing 4-Rx operation over 2-Rx operation, at least for certain scenarios that may be most affected by NR SRS-triggered LTE Tx / Rx blanking in a 2-Rx configuration. For example, in the case of large data downloads, radio devices in NSA B3 / n41 mode may prioritize 4-Rx configurations over 2-Rx configurations (e.g., in this case, the greater reduction in spectral efficiency of the 2-Rx configuration relative to the 4-Rx configuration may have a particularly significant impact), and / or in the case of ongoing VoLTE calls (e.g., the greater increase in latency and / or reduction in spectral efficiency of the 2-Rx configuration relative to the 4-Rx configuration may have a particularly significant impact).

[0143] Another possible technique for mitigating the impact of LTE Tx / Rx blanking triggered by NR SRS may include considering the LTE Rx blanking pattern during ARD (re)selection. For example, as a possibility, for a radio device in NSA B3 / n41 mode, if the radio device is configured for 2-Rx operation in LTE, the UE may prioritize certain Rx combinations over others based on the radio device's blanking Rx pattern. For each possible Rx antenna combination, the priority may be based on the number of Rx antennas available during the LTE Tx blanking period triggered by NR SRS. Thus, a combination of (1,1,2,2) antennas available during the Rx blanking slot triggered by NR SRS during the SRS period may be preferred over a combination of (1,1,1,2) antennas available during the Rx blanking slot triggered by NR SRS during the SRS period, and at least as a possibility, both such combinations may be preferred over a combination of (0,1,1,2) antennas available during the Rx blanking slot triggered by NR SRS during the SRS period. For example, if two Rx antenna combinations have the same availability during LTE Rx blanking triggered by NR SRS, signal strength can be used as a secondary priority consideration.

[0144] When certain frequency band combinations are used in a Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDA) scenario, SRS-triggered Tx / Rx blanking may or may occur alternatively. For example, as a possibility, for a combination of 5G NR n1 and 5G NR n41, Tx and / or Rx blanking on the n1 band may be caused by SRS transmissions on the n41 band. While the UE may use UE capability reports for multiple connections to the same carrier (e.g., via one or more UE capability parameters or features, such as any or all Band Combination, Band Parameters, srs-TxSwitch, txSwitchImapctToRx, txSwitchWithAnotherBand, and / or any of various other possible UE capability parameters or features) to report scheduling limitations for certain frequency band combinations, in the case of a DSDA scenario, connections using different SIMs of the UE can be established with different carriers and are independent of each other. Reporting such capability information may not be available to the network (e.g., operating independently) to avoid scheduling downlink and uplink communication in time slots that would otherwise be interrupted.

[0145] Therefore, according to at least some implementations, it may also be useful to provide techniques for handling transmit and receive blanking for radio devices with DSDA capabilities. Such techniques may include reporting (e.g., artificially) the low rank of a radio link affected by receive blanking, and / or discarding certain SRS transmissions of a radio link that are causing transmit and / or receive blanking to another radio link associated with a different SIM. In some cases, the technique selected by the UE for handling blanking may depend at least in part on the radio link type or the use of each radio link. For example, in some cases, one SIM of a DSDA device may be configured to perform voice communications, while another SIM of the DSDA device may be configured to perform data communications. In this case, the processing technique may depend on which of the links associated with the voice SIM or the data SIM is causing blanking, and which is being affected by blanking.

[0146] For example, as a possibility, in cases where the DSDA device has established a radio link in band n1 for voice communication and a radio link in band n41 for data communication, as rank 1 may generally be sufficient for voice communication, the UE may report a low rank at least in part based on the currently active band combination (e.g., even if channel conditions would otherwise support a higher rank), for example, to avoid the possibility of high BLER caused by receive blanking triggered by SRS transmissions in band n41.

[0147] As an alternative possibility, where the DSDA device has already established a radio link in band n1 for voice communication and a radio link in band n41 for data communication, voice communication can take precedence over data communication. This allows the UE to decide to discard one or more SRS transmissions to avoid the impact of SRS handover in band n41 on voice transmission in band n1. For example, if it is determined that an SRS transmission in band n41 causes Tx blanking of scheduled uplink transmissions in band n1, the UE can discard the corresponding SRS transmission.

[0148] As an alternative possibility, where the DSDA device has already established a radio link in band n1 for data communication and a radio link in band n41 for voice communication, the UE may determine to discard at least some SRS transmissions in band n41 (e.g., in addition to codebook SRS transmissions), for example, to reduce the impact of Tx / Rx blanking on band n1. This method may benefit data throughput in band n1 and may have minimal or no impact on the UE's ability to perform voice communication in band n41, for example, since rank 1 communication may be sufficient for voice communication needs, and 1T4R configurations (e.g., configurations that might be required for higher-rank communication) may not be necessary for voice communication.

[0149] It should be noted that although the n1 / n41 band combination is used in these examples for illustrative purposes, it should not be regarded as a limitation of this disclosure as a whole; the transmit / receive blanking techniques for DSDA configuration described herein may also be used in combination with any of a variety of other possible band combinations.

[0150] Further exemplary implementations are provided below.

[0151] One set of embodiments may include an apparatus comprising: a processor configured to cause a wireless device to: establish a wireless link according to a first radio access technique (RAT) and a second RAT; determine, at least in part, a band combination of the wireless links established according to the first RAT, perform transmit and receive blanking for one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first RAT to perform sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission for the second RAT; determine, at least in part, a modification to a channel state feedback (CSF) report for the first RAT based on the transmit and receive blanking for one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first RAT to perform SRS transmission for the second RAT; and use the determined modification to perform the CSF report.

[0152] According to some implementations, the processor is further configured to enable the wireless device to: determine a rank indicator to be reported for a wireless link established according to a first RAT, wherein the rank indicator is determined at least in part based on the SRS period of a second RAT; and transmit channel state feedback for the wireless link according to the first RAT, wherein the channel state feedback includes the determined rank indicator.

[0153] According to some implementation schemes, determining the rank indicator to be reported includes modifying the rank indicator selected based on the channel state of the radio link established according to the first RAT to indicate a lower rank.

[0154] According to some implementations, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine whether the SRS period of the second RAT is less than an SRS period threshold; determine whether the downlink block error rate (BLER) of the first RAT is greater than a downlink BLER threshold; and determine a receive blanking pattern for the first RAT, wherein the receive blanking pattern is based at least in part on the time when the SRS of the second RAT is transmitted, wherein if the SRS period of the second RAT is less than the SRS period threshold and the downlink BLER of the first RAT is greater than the downlink BLER threshold, then the rank indicator is determined at least in part based on the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT.

[0155] According to some implementations, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine that a subframe scheduled for downlink communication according to a first RAT is blanked at least in part based on SRS transmissions for a second RAT; and transmit an acknowledgment of the subframe based at least in part on the blanking of the subframe based at least in part on SRS transmissions for the second RAT.

[0156] According to some implementations, the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine the rank supported by the channel state of the wireless link established according to the first RAT; and determine whether a negative acknowledgment of a transmitted subframe increases the downlink block error rate (BLER) of the wireless link established according to the first RAT to a level above a threshold configured to trigger a rank reduction to a level below the rank supported by the channel state of the wireless link established according to the first RAT, wherein the acknowledgment of the subframe is further transmitted at least in part based on whether a negative acknowledgment of a transmitted subframe increases the downlink BLER of the wireless link established according to the first RAT to a level above a threshold configured to trigger a rank reduction to a level below the rank supported by the channel state of the wireless link established according to the first RAT.

[0157] According to some implementations, the processor is further configured to enable the wireless device to: determine that periodic CSF reports for a first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for a second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna; and to perform transmit antenna reselection for the first RAT based at least in part on the fact that periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna, wherein the transmit antenna used for periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT is excluded from consideration in the transmit antenna reselection for the first RAT.

[0158] According to some implementations, the processor is further configured to enable the wireless device to: determine that periodic CSF reports for a first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for a second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna; and to reconstruct the wireless link based at least in part on the periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT being scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna.

[0159] Another set of embodiments may include a wireless device comprising: an antenna; a radio component operatively coupled to the antenna; and a processor operatively coupled to the radio component; wherein the wireless device is configured to: establish a wireless link according to a first radio access technique (RAT) and a second RAT; determine that periodic channel state feedback (CSF) reports for the first RAT and periodic sounding reference signal (SRS) transmissions for the second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner; determine that the periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and the periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT, which are scheduled in an overlapping manner, currently use the same transmit antenna; and perform one or more operations, at least in part, based on the determination that the periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and the periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT, which are scheduled in an overlapping manner, currently use the same transmit antenna, to prevent the periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and the periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT from being scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna.

[0160] According to some implementations, in order to perform one or more operations to prevent periodic CSF reports for a first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for a second RAT from being scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna, the wireless device is further configured to perform a transmit antenna reselection for the first RAT, wherein the transmit antenna used for periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT is excluded from consideration in the transmit antenna reselection for the first RAT.

[0161] According to some implementation schemes, in order to perform one or more operations to prevent periodic CSF reports for a first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for a second RAT from being scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna, the wireless device is further configured to: reconstruct the wireless link according to the first RAT.

[0162] According to some implementation schemes, determining that periodic CSF reports for a first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for a second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner is at least in part based on signaling received by the wireless device that configures periodic CSF reports for the first RAT.

[0163] According to some implementation schemes, determining that periodic CSF reports for a first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for a second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner is at least in part based on signaling received by the wireless device that configures periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT.

[0164] Another set of implementations may include a method comprising: establishing a wireless link by a wireless device according to a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT; and performing antenna selection for the first RAT based at least in part on a combination of frequency bands of the wireless link established according to the first RAT and the second RAT.

[0165] According to some implementations, the antenna selection for the first RAT is further based at least in part on the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT, wherein the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT is used to transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS) for the second RAT for a frequency band combination of a radio link established according to the first RAT and the second RAT.

[0166] According to some implementation schemes, for adaptive receive antenna selection for the first RAT, antenna combinations that undergo less blanking according to the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT are preferred over antenna combinations that undergo more blanking according to the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT.

[0167] According to some implementation schemes, one or more antennas are removed from considerations for selecting transmit antennas, based at least in part on the frequency band combination of the wireless link established according to the first RAT and the second RAT.

[0168] According to some implementation schemes, the wireless device includes at least four antennas, which are at least partially based on a combination of frequency bands of a wireless link established according to a first RAT and a second RAT, wherein for antenna selection for the first RAT, four-antenna reception is preferred over two-antenna reception.

[0169] According to some implementation schemes, one or more types of communication are further performed, at least in part, based on the current wireless link established according to the first RAT, with 4-antenna reception taking precedence over 2-antenna reception.

[0170] According to some implementation schemes, the first RAT is LTE, and the second RAT is NR.

[0171] Another exemplary implementation may include a method comprising: performing any or all of the foregoing examples by a wireless device.

[0172] Another set of embodiments may include a wireless device comprising: one or more antennas; a radio component operatively coupled to the one or more antennas; and a processor operatively coupled to the radio component; wherein the wireless device is configured to: establish a first wireless link using a first user identity; establish a second wireless link using a second user identity; determine that a probe reference signal (SRS) transmission for the second wireless link causes transmit and receive blanking of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link; and modify communications, at least in part, based on the determination that the SRS transmission for the second wireless link causes transmit and receive blanking of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link, according to one or more of the first wireless link or the second wireless link.

[0173] According to some implementations, the wireless device is further configured to: select a rank indicator to be reported for the first wireless link based at least in part on determining that an SRS transmission for the second wireless link causes transmit and receive blanking of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link.

[0174] According to some implementations, the wireless device is further configured such that selecting the rank indicator to be reported for the first wireless link includes modifying the rank indicator selected based on the channel state of the first wireless link to indicate a lower rank.

[0175] According to some implementations, the wireless device is further configured to: determine, at least in part, to discard one or more SRS transmissions for the second wireless link based on the determination that an SRS transmission for the second wireless link causes blanking of the transmission and reception of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link.

[0176] According to some implementation schemes, one of the first wireless link or the second wireless link is configured for voice communication, wherein the other of the first wireless link or the second wireless link is configured for data communication, wherein the modification of communication based on one or more of the first wireless link or the second wireless link further depends at least in part on which of the first wireless link or the second wireless link is configured for voice communication and which of the first wireless link or the second wireless link is configured for data communication.

[0177] Another exemplary embodiment may include a device comprising: an antenna; a radio component coupled to the antenna; and a processing element operatively coupled to the radio component, wherein the device is configured to implement any or all of the foregoing examples.

[0178] Another set of exemplary embodiments may include a non-transitory computer-accessible memory medium comprising program instructions that, when executed at the device, cause the device to implement any or all of the portions of any of the foregoing examples.

[0179] Another exemplary set of implementations may include a computer program comprising instructions for performing any or all of the foregoing examples.

[0180] Another exemplary set of embodiments may include an apparatus that includes means for performing any or all elements of any of the examples described above.

[0181] Another set of exemplary embodiments may include an apparatus that includes a processing element configured to cause a wireless device to perform any or all of the elements of any of the foregoing examples.

[0182] As is widely recognized, the use of personally identifiable information should comply with privacy policies and practices that are generally accepted to meet or exceed industry or governmental requirements for protecting 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 explained to users.

[0183] By interpreting each message / signal X received by the user equipment (UE) in the downlink as a message / signal X transmitted by the base station, and interpreting each message / signal Y transmitted by the UE in the uplink as a message / signal Y received by the base station, any method described herein for operating the UE can serve as the basis for a corresponding method for operating the base station.

[0184] Embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of forms. For example, in some embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented as a computer-implemented method, a computer-readable storage medium, or a computer system. In other embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented using one or more custom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. In still other embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented using one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs.

[0185] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory memory element) may be configured to store program instructions and / or data, wherein if the program instructions are executed by a computer system, the computer system performs a method, such as any of the method embodiments described herein, or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset of any method embodiments described herein, or any combination of such subsets.

[0186] In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may be configured to include a processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium (or memory elements), wherein the memory medium stores program instructions, and wherein the processor is configured to read from and execute the program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement any of the various method embodiments described herein (or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset or any combination of such subsets of any method embodiments described herein). The device may be implemented in any of a variety of forms.

[0187] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, many variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the disclosure is fully understood. This disclosure is intended to render the following claims as encompassing all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. An apparatus, the apparatus comprising: Processor, the processor being configured to enable the wireless device to: Establish a wireless link based on the first radio access technology (RAT) and the second RAT; Based at least in part on the frequency band combination of the wireless link established according to the first RAT and the second RAT, determine one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first RAT to perform transmit and receive blanking to perform sound reference signal (SRS) transmission for the second RAT. Modifications to the Channel State Feedback (CSF) report for the first RAT are determined, at least in part, based on the transmit and receive blanking of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first RAT, in order to perform SRS transmissions for the second RAT. as well as Use the identified modifications to perform the CSF report, wherein the modifications include: Determine the rank indicator to be reported for the wireless link established according to the first RAT, wherein the rank indicator is determined at least in part based on the SRS period of the second RAT; as well as Transmission is performed for the CSF of the wireless link according to the first RAT, wherein the CSF includes the determined rank indicator.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, Determining the rank indicator to be reported includes modifying the rank indicator selected based on the channel state of the wireless link established according to the first RAT to indicate a lower rank.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: Determine whether the SRS period of the second RAT is less than the SRS period threshold; Determine whether the downlink block error rate (BLER) of the first RAT is greater than the downlink BLER threshold; and Determine the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT, wherein the receive blanking pattern is based at least in part on the time when the SRS of the second RAT is transmitted. If the SRS period of the second RAT is less than the SRS period threshold and the downlink BLER of the first RAT is greater than the downlink BLER threshold, then the rank indicator is determined at least in part based on the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: It is determined that subframes scheduled for downlink communication based on the first RAT are blanked at least in part based on SRS transmissions for the second RAT; Acknowledgments for the subframe are transmitted at least in part based on the blanking of the SRS transmission for the second RAT.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: Determine the rank supported by the channel state of the wireless link established according to the first RAT; and Determine whether a negative acknowledgment of the transmission for the subframe causes the downlink block error rate (BLER) of the radio link established according to the first RAT to increase above a threshold, the threshold being configured to trigger a rank reduction below the rank supported by the channel state of the radio link established according to the first RAT. The acknowledgment of the subframe is further based, at least in part, on whether transmitting a negative acknowledgment of the subframe causes the downlink BLER of the radio link established according to the first RAT to increase above a threshold, the threshold being configured to trigger a rank reduction below the rank supported by the channel state of the radio link established according to the first RAT.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: It is determined that periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna; and The transmit antenna reselection for the first RAT is performed at least in part based on the fact that the periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and the periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna. The transmit antenna used for the periodic SRS transmission for the second RAT is excluded from the consideration of transmit antenna reselection for the first RAT.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: It is determined that periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna; and The wireless link according to the first RAT is reconstructed at least in part based on the fact that periodic CSF reports for the first RAT and periodic SRS transmissions for the second RAT are scheduled in an overlapping manner using the same transmit antenna.

8. A method, the method comprising: By wireless devices: Establish a wireless link based on the first radio access technology (RAT) and the second RAT; and Antenna selection for the first RAT is performed at least in part based on the frequency band combination of the wireless link established according to the first RAT and the second RAT. The wireless device includes at least four antennas. The antenna selection for the first RAT is performed, at least in part, based on the frequency band combination of the wireless link established according to the first RAT and the second RAT, including prioritizing 4-antenna reception over 2-antenna reception.

9. The method according to claim 8, The antenna selection for the first RAT is further based, at least in part, on the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT, wherein the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT is used to transmit a probe reference signal (SRS) for the second RAT for the frequency band combination of the wireless link established according to the first RAT and the second RAT.

10. The method according to claim 9, In the adaptive receive antenna selection for the first RAT, antenna combinations that undergo less blanking according to the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT are preferred over antenna combinations that undergo more blanking according to the receive blanking pattern of the first RAT.

11. The method according to claim 8, One or more antennas are removed from considerations for selecting transmit antennas, based at least in part on the frequency band combination of the wireless link established according to the first RAT and the second RAT.

12. The method according to claim 8, Furthermore, one or more types of communication are performed at least in part based on the current wireless link established according to the first RAT, with 4-antenna reception taking precedence over 2-antenna reception.

13. The method according to claim 8, The first RAT is LTE. The second RAT is NR.

14. A wireless device, the wireless device comprising: One or more antennas; A radio component capable of being operatively coupled to the one or more antennas; and A processor capable of being operatively coupled to the radio component; The wireless device is configured as follows: Establish the first wireless link using the first user's identity; Establish a second wireless link using a second user identity; It is determined that the transmission of the Sound Reference Signal (SRS) for the second wireless link causes blanking of the transmission and reception of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link; Based at least in part on determining that an SRS transmission for the second wireless link causes blanking of the transmission and reception of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link, the communication is modified according to one or more of the first wireless link or the second wireless link. as well as The rank indicator to be reported for the first wireless link is selected based at least in part on the determination that an SRS transmission for the second wireless link causes transmit and receive blanking of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link.

15. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein the wireless device is further configured to: The selection of the rank indicator to be reported for the first wireless link includes modifying the rank indicator selected based on the channel state of the first wireless link to indicate a lower rank.

16. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein the wireless device is further configured to: The decision to discard one or more SRS transmissions for the second wireless link is based at least in part on the determination that an SRS transmission for the second wireless link causes blanking of the transmission and reception of one or more antennas of the wireless device for the first wireless link.

17. The wireless device according to claim 14, Either the first wireless link or the second wireless link is configured for voice communication. The first wireless link or the other of the second wireless link is configured for data communication. The modification of communication based on one or more of the first or second wireless links further includes, at least in part, a modification based on which of the first or second wireless links is configured for voice communication and which of the first or second wireless links is configured for data communication.

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