NR control channel element detection for reduced blind demodulation and decoding

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to NR control channel element detection for reducing blind demodulation and decoding. The present disclosure relates to techniques for reducing blind decoding of downlink control channels in wireless communication systems. These techniques may include determining whether a control channel pilot signal, such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), is present within a control carrier entity set, and therefore determining whether a downlink control channel is present within the set of control channel elements. In this way, the number of candidates for blind decoding can be reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to systems, apparatuses, and methods for performing blind decoding of downlink control channels with reduced resource consumption in a wireless communication system.

[0002] Related technical description

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

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

[0005] Embodiments of apparatus, systems, and methods are presented herein for reducing resource consumption in monitoring a received downlink control channel in a wireless communication system.

[0006] According to the described techniques, wireless communication devices, such as UE devices, may reduce blind decoding of downlink control channels. These techniques may include determining whether a control channel pilot signal, such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), is present within a control carrier entity set, and therefore determining whether the downlink control channel is present within the set of control channel elements. In this way, the number of candidates for blind decoding may be reduced.

[0007] For example, a method for monitoring a control channel is described. According to the described method, a wireless communication device may determine whether a control channel pilot signal is present within at least a first symbol of a first group of control channel elements (CCEs) of a control resource set. In response, at least in part, to determining that the control channel pilot signal is present within at least a first symbol of the first group of CCEs, the wireless communication device may demodulate and decode the at least first symbol of the first group of CCEs. In response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least a first symbol of the first group of CCEs, the wireless communication device may abandon demodulation and decoding of the first group of CCEs.

[0008] Thus, the techniques described herein may reduce the number of control resource sets to blindly decode when monitoring a control channel.

[0009] In some scenarios, the wireless communication device may determine whether the control channel pilot signal is present within the first symbol of any group of CCEs in the control resource set. At least in part in response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is present within the first symbol of at least one group of CCEs, the wireless communication device may process subsequent symbols of the at least one group of CCEs. In response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within the first symbol of any group of CCEs in the control resource set, the wireless communication device may abandon processing of remaining symbols of the control resource set. In some such scenarios, abandoning processing may include abandoning demodulation and decoding of the remaining symbols of the control resource set. In some such scenarios, abandoning processing may include transitioning transceiver circuitry configured for the control resource set to a low power state.

[0010] In some scenarios, determining whether the control channel pilot signal is present within at least a first symbol of the first group of CCEs may include determining a signal strength indicator for at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs, and determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs when the signal strength indicator does not satisfy a group signal strength threshold (T1).

[0011] In some scenarios, the signal strength indicator for at least a first symbol of the first set of CCEs may be based on a sum of received samples of resource elements reserved for control channel pilot symbols within the first set of CCEs.

[0012] In some scenarios, determining whether the control channel pilot signal is present within at least a first symbol of a first group of CCEs may include: determining a corresponding signal strength indicator for each group of CCEs in a plurality of groups of CCEs in the control resource set; determining a maximum group threshold (T2) representing a predetermined percentage of a maximum signal strength indicator among the corresponding signal strength indicators; and determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs when the signal strength indicator of at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs does not satisfy T2.

[0013] In some scenarios, the first group of CCEs may include a number of CCEs equal to the minimum aggregation level of the control resource set.

[0014] In some scenarios, the first group of CCEs may include all CCEs in the control resource set.

[0015] In some scenarios, the first group of CCEs may include all CCEs in a predefined search space of a control resource set.

[0016] In some scenarios, the wireless communication device may determine an energy associated with a data resource element of a PDCCH candidate group of a control resource set. In response, at least in part, to determining that the determined energy satisfies a candidate energy threshold, the wireless communication device may demodulate and decode the PDCCH candidate group.

[0017] Note that the techniques described herein may be implemented and / or used with a number of different types of devices, including but not limited to base stations, access points, mobile phones, portable media players, tablet computers, wearable devices, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned flight controllers, automobiles and / or motor vehicles, and various other computing devices.

[0018] This summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the subject matter described in this document. Therefore, it should be understood that the above-described features are merely examples and should not be construed as narrowing the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the following detailed description, accompanying drawings, and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] A better understanding of the present subject matter may be obtained when the following detailed description of various embodiments is considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

[0020] Figure 1 An exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication system according to some embodiments is shown;

[0021] Figure 2illustrates an exemplary base station in communication with an exemplary wireless user equipment (UE) device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0022] Figure 3 shows an exemplary block diagram of a UE according to some embodiments;

[0023] Figure 4 shows an exemplary block diagram of a base station according to some embodiments;

[0024] Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary search space within a set of control resources according to some embodiments;

[0025] Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method for performing blind decoding of a PDCCH with reduced power consumption according to some embodiments; and

[0026] Figure 7 shows an exemplary search space partitioned into control channel element groups according to some embodiments;

[0027] Figure 8 is a diagram showing a method according to some embodiments Figure 6 Flowcharts of additional details of the method;

[0028] Figure 9 shows an example of a CORESET used with wideband precoding according to some embodiments; and

[0029] Figure 10 is a flow chart illustrating a method for performing blind decoding of a PDCCH with reduced power consumption utilizing wideband precoding according to some embodiments.

[0030] While the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereof are not intended to limit this disclosure to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] Acronyms

[0032] Various acronyms are used throughout this disclosure. The definitions of the most prominent acronyms used that may appear throughout this disclosure are as follows:

[0033] UE: User Equipment

[0034] RF: Radio Frequency

[0035] BS: Base Station

[0036] GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

[0037] UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

[0038] LTE: Long Term Evolution

[0039] NR: New Radio

[0040] TX: Transmit

[0041] RX: Receive

[0042] RAT: Radio Access Technology

[0043] DMRS: Demodulation Reference Signal

[0044] CORESET: Control resource set

[0045] PDCCH: Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0046] BWP: Bandwidth Part

[0047] RE: Resource Element

[0048] REG: Resource Element Group

[0049] RB: Resource Block

[0050] CCE: Control Channel Element

[0051] AL: Aggregation Level

[0052] DCI: Downlink Control Information

[0053] SS: Search Space

[0054] CSS: Common Search Space

[0055] USS: UE-specific search space

[0056] the term

[0057] The following is a glossary of terms that will appear in this disclosure:

[0058] Memory medium—any of various types of non-transitory memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory medium" is intended to include installation media, such as CD-ROMs, floppy disks, or tape devices; computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory such as flash memory, magnetic media, for example, hard drives or optical storage devices; registers or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium may also include other types of non-transitory memory or a combination thereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in the first computer system executing the program, or may be located in a different second computer system connected to the first computer system via a network such as the Internet. In the latter example, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer system for execution. The term "memory medium" may include two or more memory media that may reside in different locations in different computer systems connected, for example, via a network. The memory medium may store program instructions (e.g., represented as a computer program) that may be executed by one or more processors.

[0059] Carrier Medium—storage media as described above, and physical transmission media such as a bus, network, and / or other physical transmission media that transport signals such as electrical, electromagnetic, or digital signals.

[0060] Computer system (or computer)—any of various types of computing or processing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), a mainframe computer system, a workstation, a network appliance, an Internet appliance, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a television system, a grid computing system, or other devices or combinations of devices. In general, the term "computer system" can be broadly defined as any device (or combination of devices) that includes at least one processor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

[0061] User Equipment (UE) (or "UE device") - any of various types of computer systems or devices that are mobile or portable and that perform wireless communication. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smartphones (e.g., iPhones, TM , based on Android TM phones), tablets (e.g., iPad TM 、Samsung Galaxy TM ), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS TM PlayStation Portable TM 、Gameboy Advance TM , iPhone TM), wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses), laptops, PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, other handheld devices, cars and / or motor vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (e.g., drones), UAV controllers (UACs), etc. In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" can be broadly defined to cover any electronic device, computing device, and / or telecommunication device (or combination of these devices) that is easily transportable by a user and capable of wireless communication.

[0062] Wireless Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform wireless communications. A wireless device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed in place. A UE is an example of a wireless device.

[0063] Communication Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communication, where the communication may be wired or wireless. A communication device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed in place. A wireless device is one example of a communication device. A UE is another example of a communication device.

[0064] Base Station (BS) - The term "base station" has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone system or radio system.

[0065] Processing element (or processor) – refers to any element or combination of elements capable of performing functions in a device, such as a user equipment device or a cellular network device. A processing element may include, for example, a processor and associated memory, portions or circuits of individual processor cores, entire processor cores, processor arrays, circuits such as ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), programmable hardware elements such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and any combination thereof.

[0066] Wi-Fi—The term "Wi-Fi" has the full scope of its ordinary meaning and includes at least wireless communication networks, or RATs, that are served by wireless LAN (WLAN) access points and provide connectivity to the Internet through those access points. Most modern Wi-Fi networks (or WLAN networks) are based on the IEEE 802.11 standard and are marketed under the name "Wi-Fi." Wi-Fi (WLAN) networks are distinct from cellular networks.

[0067] Automatic—refers to an action or operation being performed by a computer system (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or a device (e.g., a circuit, a programmable hardware element, an ASIC, etc.) without requiring user input to directly specify or execute the action or operation. Thus, the term "automatically" is in contrast to an action being manually performed or specified by a user, where the user provides input to directly perform the action. An automatic process may be initiated by user-provided input, but the subsequent actions performed "automatically" are not specified by the user, i.e., they are not performed "manually," where the user specifies each action to be performed. For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typing information, selecting checkboxes, radio selections, etc.) is not manually filling out the form, even though the computer system must update the form in response to the user's actions. The form can be automatically filled out by a computer system, where the computer system (e.g., software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of the form and fills it out without requiring any user input to specify the answers to the fields. As indicated above, a user can invoke the automatic filling of a form without participating in the actual filling out of the form (e.g., the user does not manually specify the answers to the fields; they are automatically completed). This specification provides various examples of operations that are automatically performed in response to actions that a user has taken.

[0068] Configured to—Various components may be described as being “configured to” perform one or more tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is a broad statement that generally means “having the structure” to perform one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently performing the task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors can be configured to electrically connect a module to another module even when the two modules are not connected). In some contexts, “configured to” can be a broad statement that generally means “having the circuitry” to perform one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently turned on. Generally, the circuitry that forms the structure corresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuitry.

[0069] For ease of description, various components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such descriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase "configured to." Representing a component as being configured to perform one or more tasks expressly does not invoke the sixth paragraph of section 112 of title 35 of the United States Code for that component.

[0070] Figure 1 and Figure 2 -Exemplary Communication System

[0071] Figure 1 An exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication system is shown in which various aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented according to some embodiments. Figure 1The system is only one example of a possible system, and the embodiment may be implemented in any of a variety of systems as desired.

[0072] As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a base station 102 that communicates with one or more (e.g., any number) user devices 106A, 106B, and so on through 106N via a transmission medium. Each user device may be referred to herein as a "user equipment" (UE) or a UE device. Accordingly, user device 106 is referred to as a UE or a UE device.

[0073] Base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site and may include hardware and / or software that enables wireless communications with UEs 106A to 106N. If base station 102 is implemented in the context of LTE, it may be referred to as an "eNodeB" or "eNB." If base station 102 is implemented in the context of 5G NR, it may alternatively be referred to as a "gNodeB" or "gNB." Base station 102 may also be equipped to communicate with network 100 (e.g., a cellular service provider's core network, a telecommunications network such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, among various other possible networks). Thus, base station 102 may facilitate communications between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. The communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a "cell." Also as used herein, with respect to a UE, a base station may sometimes be considered to represent the network, taking into account the UE's uplink and downlink communications. Thus, a UE communicating with one or more base stations in a network may also be understood as a UE communicating with the network.

[0074] The base station 102 and the user equipment may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using any of a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), also known as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE, Advanced LTE (LTE-A), LAA / LTE-U, 5G NR, 3GPP2, CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, and the like.

[0075] Base station 102 and other similar base stations operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards may thus be provided as one or more cell networks that may provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UE 106 and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0076] Note that the UE 106 is capable of communicating using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using either or both of the 3GPP cellular communication standard or the 3GPP2 cellular communication standard. In some embodiments, the UE 106 may be configured to perform techniques for performing blind decoding of downlink control channels with reduced resource consumption, such as according to the various methods described herein. The UE 106 may also or alternatively be configured to use WLAN, BLUETOOTH, or other similar wireless communication standards. TM , one or more global navigation satellite systems (GNSS, such as GPS or GLONASS), one and / or more mobile television broadcast standards (e.g., ATSC-M / H), etc. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including more than two wireless communication standards) are also possible.

[0077] Figure 2 An exemplary user equipment 106 (e.g., one of devices 106A to 106N) in communication with a base station 102 according to some embodiments is shown. UE 106 can be a device with wireless network connectivity, such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, a wearable device, a computer or tablet, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an unmanned flight controller (UAC), a car, or virtually any type of wireless device. UE 106 may include a processor (processing element) configured to execute program instructions stored in a memory. UE 106 can execute any of the method embodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or in addition, UE 106 may include a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), an integrated circuit, and / or any of various other possible hardware components configured to execute (e.g., individually or in combination) any one of the method embodiments described herein or any part of any one of the method embodiments described herein. UE 106 can be configured to communicate using any one of a plurality of wireless communication protocols. For example, UE 106 may be configured to communicate using two or more of CDMA2000, LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, WLAN, or GNSS. Other combinations of wireless communication standards are also possible.

[0078] UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols according to one or more RAT standards. In some embodiments, UE 106 may share one or more portions of a receive chain and / or transmit chain between multiple wireless communication standards. The shared radio components may include a single antenna, or may include multiple antennas for performing wireless communication (e.g., for MIMO). Typically, the radio components may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog radio frequency (RF) signal processing circuits (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuits (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, the radio components may implement one or more receive chains and transmit chains using the aforementioned hardware.

[0079] In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include a separate transmit chain and / or receive chain (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol with which it is configured to communicate. As another possibility, the UE 106 may include one or more radio components shared between multiple wireless communication protocols, and one or more radio components used uniquely by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, the UE 106 may include shared radio components for communicating using any of LTE or CDMA2000 1xRTT (or LTE or NR, or LTE or GSM), and shared radio components for communicating using Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH. TM Each of the radio components communicates independently. Other configurations are also possible.

[0080] Figure 3 - Block diagram of an exemplary UE device

[0081] Figure 3A block diagram of an exemplary UE 106 according to some embodiments is shown. As shown, the UE 106 may include a system on a chip (SOC) 300, which may include components for various purposes. For example, as shown, the SOC 300 may include a processor 302 that can execute program instructions for the UE 106, and a display circuit 304 that can perform graphics processing and provide display signals to a display 360. The SOC 300 may also include sensor circuitry 370, which may include components for sensing or measuring any of various possible characteristics or parameters of the UE 106. For example, the sensor circuitry 370 may include motion sensing circuitry configured to detect the motion of the UE 106, for example, using a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and / or any of various other motion sensing components. As another possibility, the sensor circuitry 370 may include one or more temperature sensing components, for example, for measuring the temperature of each of one or more antenna panels and / or other components of the UE 106. Any of various other possible types of sensor circuitry may also or alternatively be included in the UE 106, as desired. Processor 302 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from processor 302 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read-only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310) and / or other circuits or devices, such as display circuitry 304, radio 330, connector interface (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.

[0082] As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE 106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g., including NAND flash memory 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for coupling to a computer system, a docking station, a charging station, etc.), a display 360, and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR, CDMA2000, BLUETOOTH, etc.). TM, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.). The UE device 106 may include at least one antenna (e.g., 335a), and may include multiple antennas (e.g., as shown by antennas 335a and 335b) for performing wireless communications with base stations and / or other devices. Antennas 335a and 335b are shown by way of example, and the UE device 106 may include fewer or more antennas. In general, one or more antennas are collectively referred to as antennas 335. For example, the UE device 106 may use antennas 335 with the aid of radio circuitry 330 to perform wireless communications. As described above, in some embodiments, the UE may be configured to perform wireless communications using multiple wireless communication standards.

[0083] The UE 106 may include hardware and software components for implementing methods for the UE 106 to perform blind decoding of downlink control channels with reduced resource consumption, such as described further herein. The processor 302 of the UE device 106 may be configured to implement part or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments, the processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). In addition, the processor 302 may be coupled to an ASIC such as a processor 102 or a processor 102. Figure 3 Other components shown and / or interoperable therewith to perform blind decoding of downlink control channels with reduced resource consumption according to various embodiments disclosed herein. Processor 302 may also implement various other applications and / or end-user applications running on UE 106.

[0084] In some embodiments, radio 330 may include separate controllers dedicated to controlling communications for various corresponding RAT standards. Figure 3 As shown, the radio component 330 may include a Wi-Fi controller 352, a cellular controller (e.g., an LTE, LTE-A, and / or NR controller) 354, and a BLUETOOTH controller. TM Controller 356, and in at least some embodiments, one or more or all of these controllers may be implemented as respective integrated circuits (ICs or chips) that communicate with each other and with SOC 300 (more specifically, with processor 302). For example, Wi-Fi controller 352 may communicate with cellular controller 354 via a cell-ISM link or WCI interface, and / or BLUETOOTH controller 354 may communicate with the cellular controller 354 via a cell-ISM link or WCI interface. TMThe controller 356 may communicate with the cellular controller 354 via a cell-ISM link, etc. Although three separate controllers are shown within the radio 330, other embodiments may be implemented in the UE device 106 having fewer or more similar controllers for various different RATs.

[0085] Additionally, embodiments are contemplated in which the controller can implement functionality associated with multiple radio access technologies. For example, according to some embodiments, in addition to hardware and / or software components for performing cellular communications, the cellular controller 354 can also include hardware and / or software components for performing one or more activities associated with Wi-Fi, such as Wi-Fi preamble detection, and / or generation and transmission of Wi-Fi physical layer preamble signals.

[0086] Figure 4 - Block diagram of an exemplary base station

[0087] Figure 4 1 shows a block diagram of an exemplary base station 102 according to some embodiments. Note that Figure 4 The base station 102 is only one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 or other circuit or device that may be configured to receive addresses from the processor 404 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450).

[0088] The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide access to the telephone network as described above. Figure 1 and Figure 2 The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a plurality of devices such as the UE device 106 to the telephone network described in the embodiment of the present invention. The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also or alternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, such as a core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to a plurality of devices such as the UE device 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may be coupled to the telephone network via the core network, and / or the core network may provide the telephone network (e.g., in other UE devices served by the cellular service provider).

[0089] The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434 and possibly multiple antennas. Antenna 434 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver and may also be configured to communicate with the UE device 106 via the radio component 430. Antenna 434 communicates with the radio component 430 via a communication chain 432. The communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain, or both. The 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. The processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement and / or support implementation of part 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, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), or a combination thereof. In the case of certain RATs (e.g., Wi-Fi), the base station 102 may be designed as an access point (AP), in which case the network port 470 may be implemented to provide access to a wide area network and / or one or more local area networks, for example, it may include at least one Ethernet port, and the radio component 430 may be designed to communicate according to the Wi-Fi standard.

[0090] Figure 5 —CORESET and search space structure

[0091] In some wireless communication protocols such as LTE, LTE-A, and NR, resource sets may be designated (or reserved, authorized, etc.) for carrying control signals. For example, for NR, 3GPP has defined a control resource set (CORESET) as a set of physical resources within a specific area of ​​the downlink resource grid that can be used to carry a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The PDCCH is confined to one CORESET. However, a single CORESET may include zero, one, or multiple PDCCHs.

[0092] A CORESET can be contiguous or non-contiguous. For example, in some cases, a CORESET can be divided between bandwidth parts (BWPs). A CORESET can be configured to span 1-3 consecutive OFDM symbols in time. The resource elements (REs) of a CORESET are organized into resource element groups (REGs), where each REG consists of 12 REs for one OFDM symbol in one resource block (RB).

[0093] Control channel elements (CCE) are also a set of physical resources that can be used to send PDCCH. Specifically, PDCCH can be composed of multiple control channel elements. For example, PDCCH can be composed of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 CCEs, and the number of CCEs can be specified as CCE aggregation level (AL). These different ALs can adapt to different downlink control information (DCI) payload sizes or different coding rates within the PDCCH. Each CCE can span the same number of symbols as the coreset and can be composed of 6 REGs, resulting in a total of 72 REs. 54 of these REs can be used for PDCCH data, while the remaining 18 can be used for demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

[0094] DMRS is a reference signal specific to a particular UE and is used to estimate the radio channel. Therefore, DMRS can be referred to as a channel pilot signal. DMRS can include a known scrambling sequence, where each DMRS RE includes one symbol of the known sequence. Because DMRS is specific to a UE, the network (e.g., a base station such as a gNB) can beamform the DMRS and only include it in the PDCCH to which it belongs (the PDCCH for a specific UE). This differs from other radio access technologies (RATs) and wireless communication protocols such as LTE and LTE-A, as those RATs transmit common control pilots that are always present, regardless of the presence of a specific control channel.

[0095] A UE, such as UE 106, may perform blind decoding to monitor the PDCCH. For example, the UE may perform blind decoding on a CORESET or a portion thereof to determine whether there are one or more PDCCHs associated with the UE. To reduce the burden of blind decoding the entire CORESET, the network may specify a predetermined search space (SS) that identifies a subset of the CORESET to be searched, while the rest of the CORESET may not be searched. Specifically, the SS is a predetermined set of CCEs for the UE to monitor scheduling assignments / grants associated with a specific component carrier. The common search space (CSS) is shared across all UEs, while the UE-specific search space (USS) is applicable to a specific UE. Certain parameters of the SS, such as the number of PDCCH candidates and the size of the SS (e.g., the number of CCEs included in the SS), may be specified by the NR standard documents and may vary depending on the SS type and aggregation level.

[0096] A PDCCH candidate is a set of CCEs that can potentially contain a PDCCH. PDCCH candidates can vary depending on the DCI format and / or AL. The size of a PDCCH candidate depends on the AL. Therefore, an SS can define multiple PDCCH candidates with overlapping CCEs, possibly with different ALs.

[0097] Figure 5An exemplary USS for identifying several PDCCH candidates within a CORESET of 45 CCEs according to some embodiments is shown. As shown, the CCEs are arranged from left to right, each with a corresponding CCE index from 0 to 44. Each CCE is included in 0-4 PDCCH candidates of different ALs. It should be understood that Figure 5 is one example of a USS, and many other USS configurations are possible.

[0098] The top row shows PDCCH candidates with AL=2. This means that each PDCCH candidate in the top row includes 2 CCEs. As shown, the SS includes 8 such PDCCH candidates. Therefore, a PDCCH with AL=2 to be transmitted within this SS can be carried on any of these 8 PDCCH candidates; for example, on CCEs 0-1, CCEs 4-5, CCEs 10-11, CCEs 16-17, and so on.

[0099] The second row shows PDCCH candidates with AL = 4. This means that each PDCCH candidate in the second row includes 4 CCEs. As shown, the SS includes 2 such PDCCH candidates.

[0100] The remaining two rows show candidates with AL=8 and AL=16, respectively, where each row reflects two PDCCH candidates. Figure 5 The exemplary search space of does not include any PDCCH candidates with AL=1, but another exemplary SS may include such PDCCH candidates.

[0101] As shown, some CCEs are included in more than one PDCCH candidate. For example, CCEs 0, 1, 22, and 23 are each included in one of four PDCCH candidates—one for each of the ALs shown. As another example, CCEs 4, 5, 16, and 17 are each included in one of three PDCCH candidates—AL=2, AL=8, and AL=16. CCEs 20 and 21 are also each included in one of three PDCCH candidates—AL=4, AL=8, and AL=16.

[0102] In addition, it may be noted that CCEs 34-37 and 40-44 are not included in any PDCCH candidates. Figure 5 When the SS shown is used, these CCEs will never carry PDCCH.

[0103] In order to monitor the PDCCH transmitted within this CORESET, a UE such as UE 106 may perform blind decoding on some or all PDCCH candidates within this search space to test whether one or more PDCCH candidates carry PDCCH. First, for each symbol, the UE may perform channel estimation and noise estimation based on the DMRS RE of the SS. Upon completing the channel and noise estimation, the UE may demodulate and decode the first PDCCH candidate. For example, the UE may assume that the PDCCH has AL=2, and may demodulate and decode CCE 0-1 based on the assumption. Upon completing the decoding, the UE may determine whether the result successfully returns a valid DCI value (e.g., using a cyclic redundancy check (CRC)). If so, the UE may conclude that CCE 0-1 contains a PDCCH with AL=2.

[0104] However, if the result does not return a valid DCI value, the UE may conclude that CCE 0-1 does not contain a PDCCH with AL=2. In this case, the UE may continue to demodulate and decode CCE 0-3 based on the assumption that they contain PDCCH candidates with AL=4. In some implementations, the UE may perform demodulation and decoding based on previous channel and noise estimates and may therefore abandon repeating these estimates. The UE may then determine again whether the result returns a valid DCI value. If not, the UE may proceed to test additional PDCCH candidates, such as by demodulating and decoding CCE 0-7 for a PDCCH with AL=8 and / or demodulating and decoding CCE 0-15 for a PDCCH with AL=16.

[0105] In some cases, each PDCCH candidate may have any one of multiple DCI formats. Thus, the UE may test a given PDCCH candidate (e.g., each attempted PDCCH candidate) multiple times. For example, if each PDCCH candidate in the shown SS may have either of two DCI formats, the UE may first demodulate and decode CCE 0-1 for a PDCCH with AL=2 having a first DCI format. If the result does not return a valid DCI value, the UE may demodulate and decode CCE 0-1 again for a PDCCH with AL=2 having a second DCI format, and may test again whether the result returns a valid DCI value. Each PDCCH candidate attempted by the UE may be tested multiple times in this manner to account for multiple DCI formats.

[0106] It should be understood that a given CCE (e.g., CCE 0) can carry only one PDCCH. Therefore, if any PDCCH candidate including that CCE is found to return a valid result, the UE may abandon demodulation and decoding of any remaining PDCCH candidates including that CCE. However, a CORESET may include multiple PDCCHs. Therefore, identifying a PDCCH with a first PDCCH candidate does not exclude the possibility that a second PDCCH candidate may carry another PDCCH, as long as the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate do not include any common CCEs.

[0107] For example, if the UE determines that CCE 0-1 includes a PDCCH with AL=2, the UE may forgo testing the first PDCCH candidate (i.e., CCE 0-1) for each of the other AL values. However, the UE may still test whether the second PDCCH candidate with AL=2 (i.e., CCE 4-5) includes another PDCCH. Each PDCCH candidate with AL=2 may be tested similarly.

[0108] It should be understood that the foregoing description is an example, and the testing of PDCCH candidates may be performed in an order other than the above order. For example, the UE may first test PDCCH candidates with AL = 16. Alternatively, the UE may test all PDCCH candidates with AL = 2, and then continue to test the first PDCCH candidate with AL = 4.

[0109] As is apparent from the previous description of blind decoding, blind decoding can use significant power and resources, especially when no PDCCH is present, resulting in all PDCCH candidates being tested. For each component carrier (CC), the UE may perform up to 44 blind decodes and up to 56 CCE channel estimates. Further compounding this burden, this blind decoding may be repeated for each CC.

[0110] This resource usage can impact important power metrics. For example, in idle mode, a significant percentage of radio power can be consumed while monitoring paging and system information, since control channels (PDCCH) can continue to be monitored. Therefore, reducing the power used to monitor PDCCH can have a significant impact on battery life in long-term power conservation scenarios. Even in CDRX and connected modes, packets may only be received occasionally, so that most of the CORESET may involve primarily wasteful blind decoding.

[0111] Therefore, methods and systems for reducing power consumption during blind decoding may significantly improve the performance of a UE, such as UE 106.

[0112] Figure 6-Figure 8 — Reduced blind decoding

[0113] As mentioned above, in NR, DMRS only exists within its corresponding PDCCH. Therefore, if the PDCCH is not transmitted, DMRS is not present in the PDCCH candidate. This feature of NR can be used to reduce the power consumed during blind decoding.

[0114] Figure 6 A flow chart illustrating a method for performing blind decoding of a PDCCH with reduced power consumption according to some embodiments is shown. Figure 6 The method may be implemented by a wireless device such as UE 106 or by a component thereof such as processor 302 and / or radio 330 and / or cellular controller 354.

[0115] Note that although the present invention is described in a manner involving the use of communication techniques and / or features associated with 3GPP and / or NR specification documents, Figure 6 However, this description is not intended to limit the present disclosure and may be used in any suitable wireless communication system as needed. Figure 6 In various embodiments, some of the method elements shown may be performed simultaneously in an order different from that shown, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may also be performed as needed. As shown in the figure, Figure 6 The method can be operated as follows.

[0116] At 602, the wireless device may perform channel estimation and noise estimation on at least the first symbol of one or more CCE groups. In some cases, a CCE group may represent (constitute, include, etc.) a PDCCH candidate. In some cases, a single CCE group may represent all CCEs in a CORESET or all CCEs included in an SS. In some cases, the wireless device may divide the CORESET into CCE groups, where each group consists of a number of CCEs equal to a minimum AL value defined for the SS. Figure 7 FIG. 4 shows a USS divided in this manner according to some embodiments. Specifically, Figure 7 Shown with Figure 5 The same USS is shown, and it is further illustrated that the CCEs of the USS have been divided into groups of 2, thereby reflecting that the minimum AL value defined for the USS is AL=2. Figure 7 In the scenario shown, the wireless device may perform channel and noise estimation for each of the groups of 2 CCEs in the USS. Specifically, Figure 7An example is shown in which DMRS channel estimation (CE) and noise estimation are performed only on CCEs included in the SS; that is, only on CCEs included in at least one PDCCH candidate. Therefore, as shown, the wireless device may not perform DMRS CE on CCEs 34-37 or 40-44. This can save processing resources during the blind decoding process.

[0117] At 604, the wireless device may determine whether a DMRS (or other comparable control channel pilot signal that may be used for another RAT) is present within the corresponding CCE group. For example, the wireless device may detect the presence of a DMRS within one or more DMRS REs during the channel and noise estimation at 602. It should be understood that any discussion of DMRS herein is intended to reference DMRS specific to (applicable to) a wireless device. Specifically, because each DMRS is specific to a particular UE, a DMRS for a first wireless device will not produce a valid DCI value when demodulated and decoded by a second wireless device. Therefore, the second wireless device will not detect the presence of the DMRS for the first wireless device. The DMRS included in the CSS may be applicable to multiple wireless devices.

[0118] If the wireless device determines at 604 that a DMRS is (or may be) present in the corresponding CCE group, the wireless device may conclude that a PDCCH is present within the CCEs of the corresponding group and may demodulate and decode the CCEs within the corresponding group at 606. For example, the wireless device may perform blind decoding of one or more PDCCH candidates including the CCEs of the first group.

[0119] If, at 604, the wireless device determines that no DMRS exists within the corresponding CCE group, the wireless device may conclude that no PDCCH exists and may forgo demodulating and decoding the corresponding CCE group at 608. For example, the wireless device may forgo performing blind decoding on all PDCCH candidates including the CCEs of the corresponding group.

[0120] In some implementations, steps 604-608 may be performed for each of the plurality of CCE groups. For example, steps 604-608 may be performed for each corresponding CCE group within a CORESET or within an applicable SS. Alternatively, performing step 604 once may include determining whether each corresponding CCE group includes a DMRS, and based on the determination, steps 606 or 608 may be performed for each corresponding group.

[0121] In some implementations, the wireless device may perform channel and noise estimation at 602 based on all symbols of one or more CCE groups, for example, to improve detection of DMRS by detecting the presence of DMRS across multiple symbols. However, in other implementations, the wireless device may be expected to detect DMRS with sufficient reliability based only on the first symbol of a CORESET. In such cases, additional benefits may be achieved by performing channel and noise estimation at 602 only on the first symbol.

[0122] For example, in some implementations, the wireless device may determine at 610 whether DMRS is present within the first symbol of any CCE group of a CORESET (or applicable SS). This determination may be based on, for example, having performed 604-608 for each respective CCE group, as discussed above. If DMRS is present in at least one group of CCEs, the wireless device may process at 612 any remaining symbols (e.g., the second and third symbols, if applicable) of at least the applicable CCE group (i.e., the CCE group in which DMRS is present). In some cases, this may include repeating 602-608 for any remaining symbols. In other cases, the wireless device may perform blind decoding of PDCCH candidates for only the applicable group in which DMRS is present in the first symbol, or for only CCEs of the applicable group in which DMRS is present in the first symbol, for any remaining symbols.

[0123] However, if, at 610, the DMRS is not present within the first symbol of any CCE group, the wireless device may determine that the CORESET (or SS) is empty and does not contain a PDCCH for the UE. Therefore, the wireless device may abort processing the remaining symbols of the CORESET at 614. For example, the wireless device may abort performing channel estimation, noise estimation, demodulation, and decoding on any remaining symbols of the CORESET. Additionally or alternatively, the wireless device may transition an RF transceiver to a low-power state, e.g., for the remaining portion of the CORESET. For example, the wireless device may transition one or more wireless communication transceivers associated with the receiving CORESET, which may include any of receive circuitry, communication links, baseband processing, etc., to a low-power state. Transitioning a transceiver to a low-power state may include, for example, deactivating or de-energizing hardware components, reducing processor functionality, reducing clock rates, and / or other power reduction measures.

[0124] In some cases, determining whether DMRS is present at 604 may be difficult. For example, DMRS REs may include some power even when DMRS is not present, e.g., due to noise, transmission of DMRS to another wireless device, etc. Therefore, care may be taken to ensure that this determination is accurate.

[0125] Figure 8Further exemplary details are shown of how a wireless device according to some embodiments may determine whether a DMRS is present within each respective CCE group at 604. It should be understood that other methods of determining whether a DMRS is present are also contemplated.

[0126] like Figure 8 As shown, the wireless device may determine a group signal strength indicator (MSI) for each corresponding CCE group at 804. g ). Group signal strength index M g It may be based on the channel and noise estimation performed at 602. For example, M g It can be defined as follows:

[0127]

[0128] Here, M g represents the real part of the sum of the received DMRS samples within the g-th group of CCEs adjusted for noise across all receive antennas. Specifically, represents the conjugate of the DMRS estimate at the rth receive antenna and the i-th DMRS RE, and represents the antenna noise variance at the rth antenna. Here, y r,i represents the composite received sample at the rth receive antenna and the ith DMRS RE after removing the DMRS scrambling sequence. In other words, the group signal strength indicator M g Ψ may represent an estimated SNR value, or any other suitable signal strength measure.

[0129] exist Figure 8 In the example of , the wireless device may utilize a CCE group with a group size equal to the minimum AL value defined for the SS, as discussed above. Figure 7 Each group will consist of two CCEs.

[0130] At 806, the wireless device may determine a group signal strength threshold (T1). This threshold may represent a minimum signal strength at which the wireless device will conclude that DMRS may be present and may represent SNR or some other suitable indicator of signal strength. Thus, at 808, the wireless device may determine M for each respective CCE group (or for at least a subset of the groups). g Does T1 (e.g., M g Is it greater than T1, M g Is it equal to or greater than T1, etc.) If the M of the corresponding group g If T1 is not satisfied, the wireless device may determine that the DMRS does not exist in the corresponding group and may proceed to 608 based on the determination.

[0131] As shown above, M gMultiple DMRS REs (eg, all DMRS REs included in a CCE group) as sampled by multiple antennas may be considered. Therefore, relative to considering a single DMRS RE, M g Significant processing gains may be included. For example, Figure 7 In the case of , each group (consisting of two CCEs) will contain 36 DMRS REs. If such a system is implemented with two active receive antennas, then M g This can result in a total processing gain equivalent to processing 72 DMRS REs. This suggests that detection of the presence of DMRS within the corresponding group can be highly reliable. Specifically, the system can be expected to operate at an SNR level that allows detection of data REs with a much lower processing gain. Consequently, detection of DMRS REs can be far more reliable than reception of PDCCH data.

[0132] This gain should be taken into account when determining T1. For example, T1 may be set to a level that takes this processing gain into account, rather than a level that is suitable for receiving PDCCH data.

[0133] If at 808, the wireless device determines that M g If T1 is not satisfied, the wireless device may conclude that DMRS may be present in the corresponding group. In some cases, it may be advantageous to select T1 so that a positive false positive is more likely than a negative false positive, for example, because a positive false positive will only result in reduced processing cost, while a negative false positive may result in a failure to receive the PDCCH. Therefore, in some implementations, further evaluation may be advantageous before concluding that DMRS is present in the corresponding group.

[0134] like Figure 8 As shown, the wireless device may, at 810, for example, respond to determining M g The maximum group threshold (T2) is determined by ensuring that T1 is satisfied. This threshold can represent the group signal strength index M from the CORESET (or SS) of the present invention. g For example, the wireless device may determine the highest value calculated from the set of group signal strength indicators determined at 804 and may determine that T2 is equal to a predetermined percentage (e.g., 80% or 90%) of the highest value.

[0135] In the case where one or more CCE groups include PDCCH (and therefore DMRS pilots), it should be expected that the group signal strength index of the one or more groups will be significantly greater than the group signal strength index of CCE groups that do not include PDCCH. Even in the case where the PDCCH is intended for another wireless device on the same CORESET, the PDCCH intended for the correct device is likely to have a greater signal strength due to the beamforming of the PDCCH towards the specific wireless device.

[0136] Thus, at 812, the wireless device may determine M for each respective CCE group (or for at least a subset of the groups). g Whether T2 is satisfied. If the M of the corresponding group g If T2 is not satisfied, the wireless device may determine that DMRS does not exist in the corresponding group and may proceed to 608 based on the determination. g If T2 is indeed satisfied, the wireless device may determine that the DMRS is (or may be) present in the corresponding group and may proceed to 606 based on the determination.

[0137] Figure 7 Shown according to Figure 8 Examples of possible results of thresholding using the method of Figure 7 As shown, in combination with performing DMRSCE, the wireless device can generate M for each group CCE g Specifically, the present invention shows an example of M0 to M 17 , because the SS includes 36 CCEs organized into groups of 2.

[0138] However, most of these group signal strength indicators cannot meet T1 and / or T2. As shown in the figure, only M5, M8 and M 14 Both T1 and T2 are satisfied. Therefore, the wireless device may perform blind decoding only on PDCCH candidates including those three groups of CCEs.

[0139] In various embodiments, Figure 8 Some of the elements shown may be performed concurrently in an order other than the order shown, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. For example, in some implementations, the wireless device may perform only one of 808 or 812. In other implementations, 808 and 812 may be performed concurrently or in a different order. In some implementations, additional elements not shown may be included.

[0140] In some implementations, the wireless device can further conserve processing resources by prioritizing possible candidates while blindly decoding PDCCH candidates. For example, the wireless device can prioritize PDCCH candidates for all CCEs determined at 604 to include DMRS.

[0141] exist Figure 7 In the specific example shown, it is determined that only M5, M8 and M 14 Therefore, when performing blind decoding, the wireless device may attempt to perform blind decoding on the third, fourth, and sixth PDCCH candidates with AL=2 because those PDCCH candidates include the PDCCHs corresponding to M5, M8, and M 14If blind decoding fails on the fourth PDCCH candidate with AL=2, in some implementations, the wireless device may perform blind decoding on a second PDCCH candidate with AL=8 and / or a second PDCCH candidate with AL=16. However, these PDCCH candidates appear unlikely to produce valid results because, at 604, it is determined that the other CCE groups (e.g., CCEs 18-23) included in those PDCCH candidates do not include DMRS. Therefore, in some implementations, the wireless device may forgo performing blind decoding on these additional PDCCH candidates and instead perform blind decoding only on PDCCH candidates in which all CCEs are found to include DMRS.

[0142] For another example, if the wireless device determines at 604 that DMRS is (or may be) present only in CCEs 0-7, the wireless device may determine that those CCEs correspond to the first PDCCH candidate with AL = 8. Therefore, the wireless device may, for example, first perform blind decoding on the first PDCCH candidate before performing blind decoding on the first PDCCH candidate with any other AL value. In some implementations, the wireless device may only perform blind decoding on the first PDCCH candidate with AL = 8.

[0143] As discussed above, a positive false positive determination of DMRS may be superior to a negative false positive determination where the PDCCH is lost. Therefore, in some implementations, the methods discussed above may be implemented only in situations that reflect a high degree of confidence that the wireless device will be able to avoid a negative false positive. For example, if the SNR of the cell is high (e.g., when the wireless device is close to the base station), then the wireless device is likely to be able to determine whether the DMRS is present within the CCE group. In this case, the wireless device may therefore implement Figure 6 However, if the SNR is low, the likelihood that the wireless device will not detect the DMRS increases. In this case, the wireless device may therefore deactivate or abandon the Figure 6 All or part of the methods shown and / or other methods described herein.

[0144] For example, in some implementations, the wireless device may determine a cell signal strength threshold (T3). This threshold may represent an average cell signal strength, below which some or all of the aforementioned methods may be disabled. T3 may represent SNR or some other suitable indicator of signal strength.

[0145] The wireless device may also estimate an average cell signal strength value. Because this value represents cell-wide signal strength rather than PDCCH signal strength, it may be calculated at least in part based on REs outside of the CORESET.

[0146] For example, when the wireless device is in idle or inactive mode, the PDCCH may be quasi-co-located (QCL) with the synchronization signal block (SSB) / channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) including the synchronization pilot, and thus may be used to estimate the cell signal strength. For another example, when in connected mode, the wireless device may estimate the cell signal strength based on the tracking reference signal (TSR). For another example, the wireless device may calculate the average reference signal resource element (RSRE) SNR, for example, as follows:

[0147]

[0148] In some cases, the wireless device may implement Figure 6 Before the method is performed, it is first determined whether the average cell signal strength value satisfies T3. If so, the wireless device may continue to implement Figure 6 However, if the average cell signal strength value does not meet T3, the wireless device may abandon the execution of Figure 6 and can perform blind decoding as known in the art.

[0149] In other cases, if the average cell signal strength value does not meet T3, the wireless device may simply give up Figure 6 For example, in some cases, if the average cell signal strength value does not satisfy T3, the wireless device may use all symbols of the CORESET to determine whether DMRS exists in each corresponding CCE group at 604. As another similar example, if the average cell signal strength value does not satisfy T3, the wireless device may forgo performing Figure 6 610-614 of the method to allow processing of each symbol of the CORESET. For another example, if the average cell signal strength value is not satisfied, the wireless device may Figure 8 Similarly, the wireless device may eliminate one or more CCE groups from T2-based blind decoding by using the aforementioned elements 810-812. Figure 8 The aforementioned elements 806-808 can be used to abandon blind decoding based on T1 to eliminate one or more CCE groups. Other configurations are also contemplated. More generally, if the average cell signal strength value does not meet T3, the wireless device can adjust any of the methods disclosed herein to increase the reliability of detecting DMRS.

[0150] Figure 9 — Reduced blind decoding using wideband precoding

[0151] The previous discussion primarily involved narrowband (NB) precoding. However, NR includes both NB precoding and wideband (WB) precoding. For example, WB precoding can be primarily used at millimeter wave frequencies.

[0152] In NR WB precoding, if any PDCCH is transmitted in a CORESET, the DMRS is included in all CCEs in the CORESET, in contrast to NB precoding, where it is included only in CCEs carrying PDCCHs. Therefore, if a wireless device detects DMRS included in a particular CCE group, this does not necessarily mean that the PDCCH is carried by that CCE group. Furthermore, a wireless device cannot determine how many PDCCHs are included in a CORESET by detecting DMRS alone, as can be done in NB precoding.

[0153] Figure 9 An example of a CORESET (or part thereof) used with WB precoding is shown. Such a CORESET may include up to 4 consecutive RB groups. However, the most typical case may be that the CORESET includes a single consecutive RB group. Typically, PDCCHs for different UEs are time-division multiplexed, especially for USS. Figure 9 As shown, this CORESET includes a PDCCH in PDCCH candidate 0 and does not carry a PDCCH in PDCCH candidate 1. Specifically, the data REs of PDCCH candidate 0 contain data, while the data REs of PDCCH candidate 1 do not contain data. In contrast, the DMRS REs of both PDCCH candidates contain DMRS.

[0154] Figure 10 A flow chart illustrating a method for performing blind decoding of a PDCCH with reduced power consumption utilizing WB precoding according to some embodiments is shown. Figure 10 The method may be implemented by a wireless device such as UE 106 or by a component thereof such as processor 302 and / or radio 330 and / or cellular controller 354.

[0155] Note that although the present invention is described in a manner involving the use of communication techniques and / or features associated with 3GPP and / or NR specification documents, Figure 10 However, this description is not intended to limit the present disclosure and may be used in any suitable wireless communication system as needed. Figure 10 In various embodiments, some of the method elements shown may be performed simultaneously in an order different from that shown, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may also be performed as needed. As shown in the figure, Figure 10 The method can be operated as follows.

[0156] At 1002, the wireless device may perform channel estimation and noise estimation on a CORESET, which may include one or more PDCCH candidates.

[0157] At 1004, the wireless device may determine whether DMRS (or other comparable control channel pilot signal that may be used for another RAT) is present within the CORESET. For example, the wireless device may detect the presence of DMRS within one or more DMRS REs during the channel and noise estimation of 1002.

[0158] It may be noted that in the case where a single CCE group represents all CCEs in a CORESET, 1002 and 1004 may be equivalent to 602 and 604. For example, when determining whether DMRS is present at 1004, the wireless device may perform steps equivalent to 804-810. In this case, a single group signal strength indicator M0 may be calculated as discussed above for the group consisting of the entire CORESET.

[0159] If at 1004, the wireless device determines that no DMRS is present in the CORESET, the wireless device may conclude that no PDCCH is present and may forgo demodulating and decoding the CORESET at 1006. This may result in saving power and other processing resources.

[0160] If the wireless device determines that the DMRS is (or may be) present in the CORESET at 1004, the wireless device may conclude that the PDCCH is present within the CORESET. However, the wireless device may not yet know which PDCCH candidate(s) include the PDCCH.

[0161] Therefore, the wireless device may calculate a data RE energy index (P g ). P g It can represent the sum of the energy received in the data REs of the g-th PDCCH candidate. g It can be defined as follows:

[0162]

[0163] At 1010, the wireless device may determine a candidate energy threshold (T4). This threshold may represent a minimum energy level at which the wireless device will conclude that a data RE carries PDCCH data. In some cases, T4 may be based at least in part on the power present on the DMRS REs, assuming that occupied data REs may exhibit similar power levels. Thus, at 1012, the wireless device may determine P for each respective PDCCH candidate. g Whether T4 is satisfied. If the corresponding group's P g If T4 is not satisfied, the wireless device may determine that the corresponding PDCCH candidate does not include a PDCCH and may abandon demodulation and decoding of the corresponding PDCCH candidate at 1014 .

[0164] However, if at 1012 the wireless device determines that the corresponding group's P g If T4 is indeed satisfied, the wireless device may determine that the corresponding PDCCH candidate does (or may) contain a PDCCH and may demodulate and decode the corresponding PDCCH candidate at 1016. In this way, the wireless device may reduce consumption of power and other processing resources by avoiding demodulating and decoding null PDCCH candidates.

[0165] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0166] By interpreting each message / signal X received by a user equipment (UE) in the downlink as a message / signal X transmitted by the base station, and interpreting each message / signal Y transmitted by the UE in the uplink as a message / signal Y received by the base station, any of the methods for operating a UE described herein may become the basis for the corresponding method for operating a base station.

[0167] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of forms. For example, in some embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented as a computer-implemented method, a computer-readable storage medium, or a computer system. In other embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented using one or more custom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. In other embodiments, the subject matter may be implemented using one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs.

[0168] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory memory element) may be configured such that it stores program instructions and / or data, wherein the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method, such as any of the method embodiments described herein, or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset of any method embodiments described herein, or any combination of such subsets.

[0169] In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may be configured to include a processor (or a group of processors) and a memory medium (or a memory element), wherein the memory medium stores program instructions, wherein the processor is configured to read and execute the program instructions from the memory medium, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement any of the various method implementations described herein (or any combination of the method implementations described herein, or any subset of any method implementations described herein, or any combination of such subsets). The device may be implemented in any of various forms.

[0170] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to encompass all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a control channel, the method comprising: Via wireless communication devices: determining whether a control channel pilot signal is present within at least a first symbol of a first set of control channel elements (CCEs) of a control resource set; responsive at least in part to determining that the control channel pilot signal is present within at least the first symbol of the first set of CCEs, demodulating and decoding at least the first symbol of the first set of CCEs; as well as In response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least the first symbol of the first set of CCEs, abandoning demodulation and decoding of the first set of CCEs; Wherein determining whether the control channel pilot signal exists in at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs comprises: Determining a corresponding signal strength indicator for each group of CCEs in the plurality of groups of CCEs in the control resource set; determining a maximum group threshold (T2) representing a predetermined percentage of a maximum signal strength indicator among the corresponding signal strength indicators; and When the signal strength indicator of at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs does not meet T2, it is determined that the control channel pilot signal does not exist in at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: By means of the wireless communication device: determining whether the control channel pilot signal exists in the first symbol of any group of CCEs in the control resource set; In response at least in part to determining that the control channel pilot signal is present within the first symbol of at least one group of CCEs, processing subsequent symbols of the at least one group of CCEs; and In response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within the first symbol of any group of CCEs in the control resource set, processing of remaining symbols of the control resource set is abandoned.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein abstaining from processing comprises abstaining from demodulating and decoding the remaining symbols of the control resource set. 4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein abstaining comprises transitioning a transceiver circuit configured to receive the set of control resources to a low power state.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the control channel pilot signal is present within at least the first symbol of the first set of CCEs comprises: determining a signal strength indicator of at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs; as well as When the signal strength indicator does not meet a group signal strength threshold (T1), it is determined that the control channel pilot signal is not present in at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal strength indicator for at least the first symbol of the first set of CCEs is based on a sum of received samples of resource elements reserved for the control channel pilot symbols within the first set of CCEs. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first group of CCEs comprises a number of CCEs equal to a minimum aggregation level of the control resource set.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first group of CCEs includes all CCEs of the control resource set.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first group of CCEs comprises all CCEs of a predefined search space of the control resource set.

10. A computer program product comprising computer instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, perform the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

11. A device for monitoring a control channel, comprising: a processor configured to cause the wireless device to: performing channel estimation and noise estimation on at least a first symbol of a first set of control channel elements (CCEs) of a control resource set; determining a signal strength indicator of the first group of CCEs based on the channel estimate and the noise estimate; determining whether the signal strength indicator satisfies a group signal strength threshold (T1); In response, at least in part, to determining that the signal strength indicator satisfies T1, demodulating and decoding at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs; as well as In response to determining that the signal strength indicator does not satisfy T1, abandoning demodulation and decoding of the first group of CCEs; wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: Determining a corresponding signal strength indicator for each group of CCEs in the plurality of groups of CCEs in the control resource set; determining a relative threshold (T2), wherein T2 represents a predetermined percentage of a highest signal strength indicator among the corresponding signal strength indicators; and In response to determining that the signal strength indicator of the first group of CCEs does not satisfy T2, abandoning demodulation and decoding of at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs; Wherein demodulating and decoding at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs is further responsive to determining that the signal strength indicator of the first group of CCEs satisfies T2.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to determine T1 based on at least one of: the number of receive antennas used to receive the first group of CCEs; or The number of CCEs included in the first group of CCEs.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determining an average cell signal strength indicator based at least in part on signal strengths of resource elements outside the control resource set; determining whether the average cell signal strength indicator satisfies an average cell signal strength threshold (T3); and In response to determining that the average cell signal strength indicator does not meet T3, at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs is demodulated and decoded without considering whether the signal strength indicator meets T1.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the signal strength indicator for the first set of CCEs is based on a sum of received samples of resource elements reserved for a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) within the first set of CCEs.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the channel estimation and the noise estimation are performed only on the first symbol of the first group of CCEs of the control resource set, and wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: In response, at least in part, to determining that the signal strength indicator does not satisfy T1, performing channel estimation and noise estimation on remaining symbols of the first group of CCEs of the control resource set is abandoned.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the channel estimation and the noise estimation are performed only on the first symbol of the first group of CCEs of the control resource set, and wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless device to: determining a corresponding signal strength indicator for the first symbol of each group of CCEs in a plurality of groups of CCEs in the control resource set; Determining whether the corresponding signal strength indicator satisfies T1; and In response, at least in part, to determining that none of the respective signal strength indicators satisfies T1, a wireless communication transceiver associated with receiving the set of control resources is transitioned to a low power state for a remainder of the set of control resources.

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