Full-duplex timing advance enhancement

Abstract

Aspects relate to reporting timing adjustments for full duplex (FD) communications. A method for a user equipment (UE) can include receiving, from a base station, a first timing advance signal, determining, based on the first timing advance signal, that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold, transmitting, to the base station, a timing report including the determined timing difference, and receiving, from the base station, an updated timing advance signal for full duplex (FD) communications based on the timing report.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. application No. 17 / 410,885, filed on August 24, 2021, which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. provisional application No. 63 / 074,922, filed on September 4, 2020, both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application, and the entire contents of both applications are expressly incorporated herein by reference, as if fully set forth below. Technical Field

[0003] In general, the techniques discussed below relate to wireless communication networks, and more specifically, to timing advance capabilities and full-duplex timing advance in simultaneous uplink and downlink scenarios. Background Art

[0004] In wireless communication systems (e.g., those specified in the 5G New Radio (NR) standard), base stations and user equipment (UE) can utilize beamforming to compensate for high path loss and short-range transmission. Beamforming is a signal processing technique used with antenna array modules for directional signal transmission and / or reception. Each antenna in the antenna array module transmits a signal that is combined with other signals from other antennas in the same array, so that signals at specific angles experience constructive interference while signals at other angles experience destructive interference.

[0005] The base station and the UE can select one or more beam pair links (BPLs) for communication between the base station and the UE on the downlink and / or uplink. Each BPL includes corresponding transmit and receive beams on the base station and the UE. For example, on the downlink, the BPL includes a transmit beam on the base station and a receive beam on the UE. To increase data rates, multiple BPLs can be used to facilitate spatial multiplexing of multiple data streams from the base station to the UE.

[0006] To reduce latency and improve the spectral efficiency of cells, full-duplex (FD) communication can be used in 5G systems. FD allows for simultaneous bidirectional communication by using spatial multiplexing and / or frequency multiplexing. In the case of FD using spatial multiplexing, different panels (which may be referred to as panels) and beams can operate simultaneously, but simultaneous FD communication can still be achieved through spatial separation (e.g., by beam direction). The downlink and uplink frequency bands in FD communication can completely overlap, partially overlap, or be separated by a guard band in between.

[0007] In networks using FD communications, timing synchronization, especially the timing alignment of uplink and downlink communications at the UE, becomes an important factor in reducing signal degradation and potential signal loss due to inter-symbol interference and leakage. Summary of the Invention

[0008] To provide a basic understanding of one or more aspects of the present disclosure, a summary of these aspects is provided below. This summary is not intended to be an exhaustive overview of all anticipated features of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to identify key or important elements of all aspects of the present disclosure, or to describe the scope of any or all aspects of the present disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of the present disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the detailed description that follows.

[0009] In some aspects, a method for full-duplex (FD) communication performed by a user equipment (UE) is disclosed. The method may include: receiving a first timing advance signal from a base station; determining, based on the first timing advance signal, that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold; sending a timing report including the determined timing difference to the base station; and receiving, based on the timing report, an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station.

[0010] In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The UE includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: receive a first timing advance signal from a base station; determine, based on the first timing advance signal, that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold; send a timing report including the determined timing difference to the base station; and receive an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station based on the timing report.

[0011] In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The UE includes: means for receiving a first timing advance signal from a base station; means for determining, based on the first timing advance signal, that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold; means for sending a timing report including the determined timing difference to the base station; and means for receiving, based on the timing report, an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station.

[0012] In some aspects, a non-transitory computer-readable medium for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions executable by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) to: receive a first timing advance signal from a base station; determine, based on the first timing advance signal, that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold; send a timing report to the base station including the determined timing difference; and receive, based on the timing report, an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station.

[0013] In some aspects, a method for full-duplex (FD) communication performed by a base station is disclosed. The method may include: sending a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); receiving a timing report including a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal from the UE based on the first timing advance signal; and sending an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication to the UE based on the received timing report.

[0014] In some aspects, a base station for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The base station includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: send a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); receive a timing report including a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal from the UE based on the first timing advance signal; and send an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication to the UE based on the received timing report.

[0015] In some aspects, a base station for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The base station includes: means for receiving a first timing advance signal from a base station; means for sending the first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); means for receiving a timing report including a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal from the UE based on the first timing advance signal; and means for sending an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication to the UE based on the received timing report.

[0016] In some aspects, a non-transitory computer-readable medium for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions executable by one or more processors of a base station to: receive a first timing advance signal from the base station; determine, based on the first timing advance signal, that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold; send a timing report to the base station including the determined timing difference; and receive, based on the timing report, an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station.

[0017] In some aspects, a method for full-duplex (FD) communication performed by a user equipment (UE) is disclosed. The method may include: receiving a first timing advance signal from a base station; determining a variable compensation factor associated with a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal; sending a timing report including the determined variable compensation factor to the base station; and receiving an updated timing advance signal for FD communication from the base station based on the timing report.

[0018] In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The UE includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: receive a first timing advance signal from a base station; determine a variable compensation factor associated with a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal; send a timing report including the determined variable compensation factor to the base station; and receive an updated timing advance signal for FD communication from the base station based on the timing report.

[0019] In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The UE includes: means for receiving a first timing advance signal from a base station; means for determining a variable backoff factor associated with a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal; means for sending a timing report including the determined variable backoff factor to the base station; and means for receiving an updated timing advance signal for FD communication from the base station based on the timing report.

[0020] In some aspects, a non-transitory computer-readable medium for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions executable by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) to: receive a first timing advance signal from a base station; determine a variable compensation factor associated with a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal; send a timing report including the determined variable compensation factor to the base station; and receive an updated timing advance signal for FD communication from the base station based on the timing report.

[0021] In some aspects, a method of full-duplex (FD) communication performed by a base station is disclosed. The method may include: sending a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); receiving a timing report from the UE, the timing report including a variable compensation factor associated with a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal; and sending an updated timing advance signal to the UE based on the received timing report.

[0022] In some aspects, a base station for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The base station includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: send a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); receive a timing report from the UE, the timing report including a variable compensation factor associated with a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal; and send an updated timing advance signal to the UE based on the received timing report.

[0023] In some aspects, a base station for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The base station includes means for sending a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); means for receiving a timing report from the UE, the timing report including a variable backoff factor associated with a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal; and means for sending an updated timing advance signal to the UE based on the received timing report.

[0024] In some aspects, a non-transitory computer-readable medium for full-duplex (FD) communication is disclosed. The non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions executable by one or more processors of a base station to: send a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); receive a timing report from the UE, the timing report including a variable compensation factor associated with a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal; and send an updated timing advance signal to the UE based on the received timing report.

[0025] After reading the following detailed description, these and other aspects of the present disclosure will become more fully understood. After reading the following description of the specific, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, other aspects, features and embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Although the features of the present disclosure are discussed with respect to certain embodiments and drawings of the present disclosure below, all embodiments of the present disclosure may include one or more of the advantageous features discussed herein. In other words, although one or more embodiments are discussed as having certain advantageous features, one or more of these features may also be used according to the various embodiments of the present disclosure discussed herein. In a similar manner, although the exemplary embodiments are discussed below as device, system or method embodiments, it should be understood that these exemplary embodiments may be implemented with a variety of devices, systems and methods. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system according to some aspects.

[0027] Figure 2 is a conceptual diagram of an example of a radio access network in accordance with some aspects.

[0028] Figure 3 is a diagram of an example of a frame structure used in a radio access network according to some aspects.

[0029] Figure 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system supporting beamforming and / or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication, in accordance with some aspects.

[0030] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of communication between a radio access network (RAN) node and a wireless communication device using beamforming, in accordance with some aspects.

[0031] Figure 6A is a schematic diagram illustrating an antenna array of a transmit receive point (TRP) according to some aspects.

[0032] Figure 6B It is a depiction Figure 6A Diagram of a two-panel transmit or receive configuration.

[0033] Figure 7 is a signal diagram illustrating timing advance operation according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0034] Figure 8 According to some aspects, a timing diagram illustrating the use of absolute or fixed timing advances and timing advance ranges is shown.

[0035] Figure 9 According to some aspects, a diagram is shown of a wireless communication system utilizing multiple transmit / receive points to which the concepts disclosed herein may be applied.

[0036] Figure 10 A timeline of FD transmission according to some aspects is shown.

[0037] Figure 11 In accordance with some aspects, another signal timeline is shown that illustrates consideration of the gNB DL propagation delay for its UL beam.

[0038] Figure 12 A call flow diagram is provided for application of symbols and timing advance ranges transmitted in a communication system according to some aspects.

[0039] Figure 13 In accordance with some aspects, an illustrative signaling diagram for UE-requested TA signaling is shown.

[0040] Figure 14

[0014] In accordance with some aspects, an illustrative signaling diagram of a UE-requested TA signal using a backoff factor is shown.

[0041] Figure 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a UE employing a processing system, according to some aspects.

[0042] Figure 16 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a base station (BS) employing a processing system, according to some aspects.

[0043] Figure 17 is a flow chart illustrating an example full-duplex (FD) communication process at a UE using a timing advance indication signal, according to some aspects.

[0044] Figure 18 is a flow chart illustrating an example FD communication process at a base station using a timing advance indication signal, according to some aspects.

[0045] Figure 19 is another flow diagram illustrating example FD communication processing at a UE using a timing advance indication signal, according to some aspects.

[0046] Figure 20 is another flow diagram illustrating example FD communication processing at a base station using a timing advance indication signal, according to some aspects. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0047] Various aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable media for timing alignment in a cell, including signaling or indicating the application of a fixed timing advance (TA) value or a range of TA values. In some cases, timing alignment can be achieved by using a technique known as timing advance, which instructs a user equipment (UE) to advance or delay its timing relative to the current uplink timing. Typically, timing alignment is achieved using a fixed TA value.

[0048] In some cases, at least one of the UE or the serving base station may utilize full-duplex (FD) communication, in which downlink and uplink transmissions are sent and received simultaneously. However, FD communication presents certain challenges for maintaining timing alignment based on a fixed TA value. Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for FD TA enhancement that allow a UE in a wireless communication system to request an updated or new timing advance.

[0049] For example, in some cases, the UE may measure the timing difference between the downlink signal and the uplink signal based on the TA value received in the TA signal. The UE may then send a timing report to the base station indicating the timing difference. Thereafter, the UE may receive a new or updated TA value to allow the UE 1302 to compensate for the timing difference and better align the UE-side DL and UL timing. Aligning the UE-side DL and UL timing may reduce interference and the probability of lost or undecodable transmissions, thereby improving resource usage (e.g., time, frequency, power) for the UE and the base station in the wireless communication system.

[0050] The detailed descriptions below, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, are merely illustrative of various configurations and are not intended to represent that the concepts described herein can only be implemented in these configurations. The detailed descriptions include specific details to provide a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that these concepts can be implemented without these specific details. In some instances, to avoid obscuring these concepts, well-known structures and components are presented in block diagram form.

[0051] The electromagnetic spectrum is typically subdivided into various categories, bands, channels, etc., based on frequency / wavelength. In 5G NR, two initial operating frequency bands have been identified with the frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz - 7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz - 52.6 GHz). The frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are often referred to as mid-band frequencies. Although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "sub-6 GHz" band in various documents and articles. A similar naming issue sometimes arises with FR2, which is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "millimeter wave" band in various documents and articles, although it is different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz - 300 GHz), which is defined as the "millimeter wave" band by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

[0052] With the above in mind, unless otherwise explicitly stated, it should be understood that the term "sub-6 GHz" and the like (if used herein) can broadly refer to frequencies less than 6 GHz, which may be within FR1, or may include mid-band frequencies. Furthermore, unless otherwise explicitly stated, it should be understood that the term "millimeter wave" and the like (if used herein) can broadly refer to frequencies including mid-band frequencies, which may be within FR2, or may be within the EHF band.

[0053] Although various aspects and embodiments are described in this application by way of illustration of some examples, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that additional implementations and use cases can be implemented in many different arrangements and scenarios. The innovations described herein can be implemented across multiple different platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, and packaging arrangements. For example, various embodiments and / or uses can be implemented by integrated chip embodiments and other devices based on non-module components (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial devices, retail / purchase devices, medical devices, AI-enabled devices, etc.). Although some examples may or may not be specifically targeted at use cases or applications, a variety of applicability of the described innovations may occur. The scope of implementation can range from chip-level or modular components to non-modular, non-chip-level implementations, and can also be aggregated, distributed, or OEM devices or systems that include one or more aspects of the described innovations. In some actual settings, the devices including the described aspects and features may also include other components and features for implementing and practicing the claimed and described embodiments. For example, the transmission and reception of wireless signals must include multiple components for both analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components including antennas, RF chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, processors, interleavers, adders / accumulators, etc.). The innovations described herein can be practiced in a wide variety of devices, chip-level components, systems, distributed arrangements, end-user devices, etc., having different sizes, shapes, and configurations.

[0054] The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure can be implemented in a wide variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. Figure 1 By way of example and not limitation, various aspects of the present disclosure are described with reference to a wireless communication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 includes three interacting domains: a core network 102, a radio access network (RAN) 104, and at least one scheduled entity 106. In the following discussion, the at least one scheduled entity 106 may be referred to as a user equipment (UE) 106. In the following discussion, the at least one scheduling entity 108 may be referred to as a base station (BS) 108. The wireless communication system 100 enables the UE 106 to perform data communications with an external data network 110, such as, but not limited to, the Internet.

[0055] The RAN 104 can implement any suitable wireless communication technology or method to provide radio access for the UE 106. For example, the RAN 104 can operate in accordance with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specifications, which are commonly referred to as 5G. For another example, the RAN 104 can operate in accordance with a hybrid of 5G NR and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standards, which are commonly referred to as LTE. 3GPP refers to this hybrid RAN as the Next Generation RAN, or NG-RAN. Of course, many other examples can also be used within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0056] As shown, RAN 104 includes multiple base stations 108. Broadly speaking, a base station is a network element in a radio access network that is responsible for radio transmission and reception to or from a UE in one or more cells. In different technologies, standards, or contexts, a base station may be referred to as a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), an access point (AP), a node B (NB), an evolved node B (eNB), a gNode B (gNB), a network access node, a transmit receive point (TRP), or some other suitable terminology by those of ordinary skill in the art. In some examples, a base station may include two or more TRPs, which may be co-located or not co-located. Each TRP may communicate on the same or different carrier frequencies in the same or different frequency bands.

[0057] The RAN 104 is further shown as supporting wireless communications for multiple mobile devices. In 3GPP standards, a mobile device may be referred to as a user equipment (UE), but those skilled in the art may also refer to it as a mobile station (MS), subscriber station, mobile unit, subscriber unit, wireless unit, remote unit, mobile device, wireless device, wireless communication device, remote device, mobile subscriber station, access terminal (AT), mobile terminal, wireless terminal, remote terminal, handset, terminal, user agent, mobile client, client, or some other appropriate terminology. A UE may be a device that provides access to network services to a user.

[0058] In this document, a "mobile" device does not necessarily have the ability to move; it can be stationary. The term mobile device or mobile device broadly refers to a wide variety of devices and technologies. A UE may include many hardware structural components whose size, shape, and arrangement facilitate communication; such components may include antennas, antenna arrays, RF chains, amplifiers, one or more processors, and the like electrically coupled to each other. For example, some non-limiting examples of mobile devices include mobile stations, cellular (cell) phones, smartphones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, personal computers (PCs), notebooks, netbooks, smartbooks, tablet devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and a wide range of embedded systems, such as those corresponding to the "Internet of Things" (IoT). In addition, a mobile device may be a car or other transportation vehicle, a remote sensor or actuator, a robot or robotic device, a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, an object tracking device, a quadcopter, a multi-purpose helicopter, a quadcopter, a remote control device, a consumer device and / or a wearable device such as glasses, a wearable camera, a virtual reality device, a smartwatch, a health or fitness tracker, a digital audio player (e.g., an MP3 player), a camera, a game console, and the like. In addition, the mobile device may also be a digital home or smart home device such as home audio, video and / or multimedia equipment, home appliances, vending machines, smart lighting, home security systems, smart meters, etc. In addition, the mobile device may also be a smart energy device, a security device, a solar panel or solar array, municipal infrastructure equipment that controls electricity (e.g., smart grid), lighting, water; industrial automation and enterprise equipment; logistics controllers; agricultural equipment, etc. In addition, the mobile device may provide connected medicine or telemedicine support (i.e., telehealth care). Telemedicine devices may include telemedicine monitoring devices and telemedicine management devices, whose communications may be prioritized or given priority access relative to other types of information, for example, priority access for the transmission of critical service data and / or associated QoS for the transmission of critical service data.

[0059] The wireless communications between the RAN 104 and the UE 106 may be described as using an air interface. Transmissions over the air interface from a base station (e.g., base station 108) to one or more UEs (e.g., UE 106) may be referred to as downlink (DL) transmissions. According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, the term downlink may refer to point-to-multipoint transmissions originating from a scheduling entity (described further below; e.g., base station 108). Another way to describe this scheme may be to use the term broadcast channel multiplexing. Transmissions from a UE (e.g., UE 106) to a base station (e.g., base station 108) may be referred to as uplink (UL) transmissions. According to further aspects of the present disclosure, the term uplink may refer to point-to-point transmissions originating from a scheduled entity (described further below; e.g., UE 106).

[0060] In some examples, access to the air interface can be scheduled, where a scheduling entity (e.g., base station 108) allocates resources for communications between some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. In the present disclosure, as discussed further below, a scheduling entity can be responsible for scheduling, allocating, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more scheduled entities. That is, for scheduled communications, UE 106 (which can be a scheduled entity) can utilize resources allocated by scheduling entity 108.

[0061] Base station 108 is not the only entity that can serve as a scheduling entity. That is, in some examples, a UE can act as a scheduling entity, scheduling resources for one or more scheduled entities (e.g., one or more other UEs). And as discussed in more detail below, a UE can communicate directly with other UEs in a peer-to-peer manner and / or in a relay configuration.

[0062] like Figure 1 , a scheduling entity 108 may broadcast downlink traffic 112 to one or more scheduled entities 106. Broadly speaking, a scheduling entity 108 is a node or device responsible for scheduling traffic in a wireless communication network, including downlink traffic 112 and, in some examples, uplink traffic 116 from one or more scheduled entities 106 to the scheduling entity 108. On the other hand, a scheduled entity 106 is a node or device that receives downlink control information 114, which includes, but is not limited to, scheduling information (e.g., grants), synchronization or timing information, or other control information from another entity in the wireless communication network, such as the scheduling entity 108.

[0063] In addition, uplink and / or downlink control information and / or traffic information can be divided into frames, subframes, time slots and / or symbols in time. As used herein, a symbol can refer to a time unit in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform in which each subcarrier carries a resource element (RE). A time slot can carry 7 or 14 OFDM symbols. A subframe can refer to a duration of 1ms. Multiple subframes or time slots can be combined to form a single frame or radio frame. Of course, these definitions are not required, and any appropriate scheme for organizing a waveform can be utilized, and the various time divisions of a waveform can have any appropriate duration.

[0064] Typically, base stations 108 may include a backhaul interface for communicating with a wireless communication system's backhaul 120. Backhaul 120 may provide a link between base stations 108 and core network 102. Additionally, in some examples, a backhaul network may provide interconnections between base stations 108. Various types of backhaul interfaces may be employed, such as a direct physical connection using any suitable transport network, a virtual network, and the like.

[0065] The core network 102 can be part of the wireless communication system 100 and can be independent of the radio access technology used in the RAN 104. In some examples, the core network 102 can be configured according to 5G standards (e.g., 5GC). In other examples, the core network 102 can be configured according to 4G Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or any other suitable standard or configuration.

[0066] Now refer to Figure 2 , a diagram of a RAN 200 is provided as an example and not as a limitation. In some examples, the RAN 200 may be similar to that described above and in Figure 1 The geographic area covered by the RAN 200 may be divided into cellular areas (cells), which may be uniquely identified by a user equipment (UE) based on an identity broadcast from an access point or base station. Figure 2 Macro cells 202, 204, and 206, as well as small cell 208, are shown. Each cell may include one or more sectors (not shown). A sector is a sub-area of ​​a cell. All sectors within a cell are served by the same base station. A radio link within a sector can be identified by a single logical identifier belonging to that sector. In a cell divided into sectors, multiple sectors within the cell may be formed by antenna groups, with each antenna responsible for communicating with UEs within a portion of the cell.

[0067] Various base station arrangements can be used. For example, Figure 2, two base stations 210 and 212 are shown in cells 202 and 204; a third base station 214 is shown as controlling a remote radio head (RRH) 216 in cell 206. That is, the base stations may have integrated antennas or may be connected to antennas or RRHs via feeder cables. In the example shown, cells 202, 204, and 206 may be referred to as macro cells because base stations 210, 212, and 214 support cells having large sizes. In addition, base station 218 is shown in a small cell 208 (e.g., a micro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, a home base station, a home node B, a home eNode B, etc.) that may overlap with one or more macro cells. In this example, cell 208 may be referred to as a small cell because base station 218 supports cells having relatively small sizes. Cell size may be determined based on system design and component constraints.

[0068] It should be understood that the RAN 200 may include any number of wireless base stations and cells. In addition, relay nodes may be deployed to extend the size or coverage area of ​​a given cell. Base stations 210, 212, 214, 218 provide wireless access points to the core network for any number of mobile devices. In some examples, base stations 210, 212, 214, and / or 218 may be similar to those described above and in the Figure 1 The base station / scheduling entity 108 shown in FIG.

[0069] Within the RAN 200, cells may include UEs that may communicate with one or more sectors of each cell. In addition, each base station 210, 212, 214, and 218 may be configured to provide connectivity to the core network 102 (see FIG. 1 ) for all UEs in the respective cell. Figure 1 ) access point. For example, UEs 222 and 224 can communicate with base station 210; UEs 226 and 228 can communicate with base station 212; UEs 230 and 232 can communicate with base station 214 through RRH 216; and UE 234 can communicate with base station 218. In some examples, UEs 222, 224, 226, 228, 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, and / or 242 can communicate with the base stations described above and in Figure 1 The UE / scheduled entity 106 shown in FIG. 1 is the same as that shown in FIG.

[0070] In some examples, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) 220 (which may be a drone or a quadcopter) may be a mobile network node and may be configured to function as a UE. For example, UAV 220 may operate within cell 202 by communicating with base station 210.

[0071] In another aspect of RAN 200, sidelink signals can be used between UEs without having to rely on scheduling or control information from a base station. For example, two or more UEs (e.g., UEs 226 and 228) can use peer-to-peer (P2P) or sidelink signals 227 to communicate with each other without having to relay the communication through a base station (e.g., base station 212). In another example, UE 238 is shown as communicating with UEs 240 and 242. Here, UE 238 can serve as a scheduling entity or a primary sidelink device, while UEs 240 and 242 can each serve as a scheduled entity or a non-primary (e.g., auxiliary) sidelink device. In another example, a UE can act as a scheduling entity or a scheduled entity in a device-to-device (D2D), peer-to-peer (P2P), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) network, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and / or mesh network. In the mesh network example, in addition to communicating with UE 238 (which acts as a scheduling entity), UE 240 and UE 242 can also optionally communicate directly with each other. Thus, in a wireless communication system with scheduled access to time-frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2P configuration, or a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one or more scheduled entities can communicate using the scheduled resources. In some examples, sidelink signals 227 include sidelink traffic and sidelink control.

[0072] The air interface in the RAN 200 may utilize one or more multiplexing and multiple access algorithms to enable simultaneous communication of various devices. For example, the 5G NR specification provides for multiple access for UL transmissions from UEs 222 and 224 to the base station 210, and for multiplexing of DL transmissions from the base station 210 to the UEs 222 and 224 using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP). In addition, for UL transmissions, the 5G NR specification provides support for discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) with CP, also known as single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA). However, within the scope of the present disclosure, multiplexing and multiple access are not limited to the above schemes and may be provided using time division multiple access (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), sparse code multiple access (SCMA), resource spread multiple access (RSMA), or other suitable multiple access schemes. In addition, multiplexed DL transmissions from the base station 210 to the UEs 222 and 224 may be provided using time division multiplexing (TDM), code division multiplexing (CDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), sparse code multiplexing (SCM), or other suitable multiplexing schemes.

[0073] In addition, the air interface in RAN 200 may utilize one or more duplexing algorithms. Duplex refers to a point-to-point communication link in which two endpoints can communicate with each other in both directions. Full-duplex means that two endpoints can communicate with each other simultaneously. Half-duplex means that only one endpoint can send information to the other endpoint at a time. Half-duplex emulation is a frequency implemented for wireless links using time division duplexing (TDD). In TDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated from each other using time division multiplexing. That is, at certain times, the channel is dedicated to transmissions in one direction, while at other times, the channel is dedicated to transmissions in the other direction, where the direction can change very quickly (e.g., several times per time slot). In wireless links, full-duplex channels typically rely on physical separation of the transmitter and receiver and appropriate interference cancellation techniques. Full-duplex emulation is often achieved for wireless links using frequency division duplexing (FDD) or space division duplexing (SDD). In FDD, transmissions in different directions operate on different carrier frequencies. In SDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated from each other using spatial division multiplexing (SDM). In other examples, full-duplex communication can be achieved within an unpaired spectrum (e.g., within a single carrier bandwidth), where transmissions in different directions occur within different sub-bands of the carrier bandwidth. This type of full-duplex communication can be referred to as sub-band full-duplex (SBFD), also known as flexible duplexing.

[0074] Reference Figure 3 Various aspects of the present disclosure are described using the OFDM waveforms schematically illustrated in FIG. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various aspects of the present disclosure can be applied to SC-FDMA waveforms in substantially the same manner as described herein below. That is, while some examples of the present disclosure focus on OFDM links for clarity, it will be appreciated that the same principles can also be applied to SC-FDMA waveforms.

[0075] Now see Figure 3 , Figure 3 An expanded view of an exemplary DL subframe 302 is shown (showing an OFDM resource grid). However, as will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, the PHY transmission structure for any particular application may differ from the example described herein depending on any number of factors. Here, time is the horizontal direction in units of OFDM symbols, and frequency is the vertical direction in units of subcarriers.

[0076] Resource grid 304 can be used to schematically represent the time-frequency resources for a given antenna port. That is, in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) implementation with multiple antenna ports available, corresponding multiple resource grids 304 can be used for communication. Resource grid 304 is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) 306. An RE, which is 1 subcarrier x 1 symbol, is the smallest discrete portion of the time-frequency grid and contains a single complex value representing data from a physical channel or signal. Depending on the modulation used in a particular implementation, each RE can represent one or more information bits. In some examples, a block of REs can be referred to as a physical resource block (PRB) or resource block (RB) 308, which contains any suitable number of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. In one example, an RB can include 12 subcarriers, which is independent of the number of parameter sets used. In some examples, depending on the parameter set, an RB can include any suitable number of consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. In this disclosure, it is assumed that a single RB, such as RB 308, corresponds entirely to a single communication direction (transmission or reception for a given device).

[0077] Scheduling a UE (e.g., a scheduled entity) for downlink or uplink transmission typically involves scheduling one or more REs 306 within one or more subbands. Thus, a UE typically utilizes only a subset of the resource grid 304. In some examples, an RB can be the smallest resource unit allocated to a UE. Therefore, the more RBs scheduled for a UE and the higher the modulation scheme selected for the air interface, the higher the data rate for the UE.

[0078] In this illustration, RB 308 is shown as occupying less than the entire bandwidth of subframe 302, with some subcarriers shown above and below RB 308. In a given implementation, subframe 302 may have a bandwidth corresponding to any number of one or more RBs 308. Furthermore, in this illustration, RB 308 is shown as occupying less than the entire duration of subframe 302, but this is merely one possible example.

[0079] Each 1ms subframe 302 may be composed of one or more adjacent time slots. Figure 3In the example shown, a subframe 302 includes four time slots 310 as an illustrative example. In some examples, time slots can be specified based on a specified number of OFDM symbols with a given cyclic prefix (CP) length. For example, a time slot can include 7 or 14 OFDM symbols with a nominal CP. Another example may include mini-slots (sometimes referred to as shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs)) with shorter durations (e.g., one to three OFDM symbols). In some cases, these mini-slots or shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs) can be sent using resources scheduled for ongoing time slot transmissions for the same or different UEs. Any number of resource blocks can be utilized within a subframe or time slot.

[0080] An expanded view of one of the time slots 310 shows the time slot 310 including a control region 312 and a data region 314. In general, the control region 312 may carry a control channel, and the data region 314 may carry a data channel. Of course, a time slot may contain all DL, all UL, or at least one DL portion and at least one UL portion. Figure 3 The structure shown in is merely exemplary, and different time slot structures may be employed, which may include one or more of each of the control region and the data region.

[0081] Although Figure 3 Although not shown, each RE 306 within an RB 308 may be scheduled to carry one or more physical channels, including a control channel, a shared channel, a data channel, and the like. Other REs 306 within an RB 308 may also carry pilot or reference signals, including but not limited to a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a control reference signal (CRS), or a sounding reference signal (SRS). These pilot or reference signals may be used by a receiving device to perform channel estimation of the corresponding channel, which may enable coherent demodulation / detection of the control and / or data channels within the RB 308.

[0082] In DL transmission, a transmitting device (e.g., a scheduling entity) may allocate one or more REs 306 (e.g., within a control region 312) to carry DL control information including one or more DL control channels (e.g., PBCH and / or physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), etc.) to one or more scheduled entities. The PDCCH carries downlink control information (DCI) (which includes but is not limited to power control commands, scheduling information, grants, and / or allocations of REs for DL ​​and UL transmissions). The transmitting device may further allocate one or more REs 306 to carry other DL signals, such as DMRS; phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS); channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS); primary synchronization signal (PSS); and secondary synchronization signal (SSS). The UE may utilize the PSS and SSS to achieve radio frame, subframe, time slot, and symbol synchronization in the time domain, identify the center of the channel (system) bandwidth in the frequency domain, and identify the physical cell identity (PCI) of the cell.

[0083] The synchronization signals PSS and SSS and (in some examples) the PBCH and PBCH DMRS may be transmitted in a synchronization signal block (SSB), where the SSB comprises four consecutive OFDM symbols numbered in increasing order from 0 to 4 via a time index. In the frequency domain, the SSB may extend over 240 adjacent subcarriers, where the subcarriers are numbered in increasing order from 0 to 249 via a frequency index. Of course, the present disclosure is not limited to this particular SSB configuration. Other non-limiting examples may utilize more or less than two synchronization signals; may include one or more supplemental channels in addition to the PBCH; may omit the PBCH; and / or may use a different number of symbols / frequencies and / or non-contiguous symbols / frequencies for the SSBs, all of which fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0084] The PBCH may also include a Master Information Block (MIB), which includes various system information and parameters for decoding System Information Blocks (SIBs). The SIB may be, for example, System Information Type 1 (SIB1), which can include various other system information. Examples of system information sent in the MIB may include, but are not limited to, subcarrier spacing, system frame number, PDCCH control resource set (CORESET) configuration (e.g., PDCCH CORESET0), and SIB1 search space. Examples of other system information sent in SIB1 may include, but are not limited to, random access search space, downlink configuration information, and uplink configuration information. The MIB and SIB1 together provide minimum system information (SI) for initial access.

[0085] As described above, the BS may transmit a synchronization signal (e.g., including the PSS and SSS) in the network to enable the UE to synchronize with the BS, and transmit SI (e.g., including the MIB, RMSI, and OSI) to facilitate initial network access. The BS may transmit the PSS, SSS, and / or MIB via the SSB over the PBCH, and may broadcast the RMSI and / or OSI over the PDSCH.

[0086] A UE attempting to access a network can perform an initial cell search by detecting the PSS from the BS (e.g., the PSS of the BS's cell). The PSS enables the UE to synchronize with the BS's periodic timing and can indicate the physical layer identification value assigned to the cell. The UE can also receive the SSS from the BS, which enables the UE to synchronize with the cell at the radio frame level. The SSS can also provide a cell identification value, which the UE can combine with the physical layer identification value to identify the cell.

[0087] After receiving the PSS and SSS, the UE can receive system information from the BS. This system information can be in the form of a master information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB). The system information includes basic or critical information for the UE to access the network, such as downlink (DL) channel configuration information, uplink (UL) channel configuration information, access category information and cell barring information, as well as other less critical information. The MIB may include system information for initial network access and scheduling information for RMSI and / or OSI. After decoding the MIB, the UE can receive RMSI and / or OSI.

[0088] After obtaining the MIB, RMSI and / or OSI, the UE may perform a random access procedure to initially access the RAN (e.g., Figure 2 The RAN (e.g., a base station) broadcasts information that enables the UE to determine how to make initial access. This information may include the configuration of the random access channel (RACH) used by the UE to communicate with the RAN during initial access. For example, the RACH configuration may indicate the resources allocated by the RAN for the RACH (e.g., the resources allocated for sending a RACH preamble and receiving a random access response).

[0089] During the random access procedure, the UE may send a random access preamble, and the BS may respond with a random access response. After receiving the random access response, the UE may send a connection request to the BS, and the BS may respond with a connection response (e.g., a contention resolution message). After the connection is established, the UE and BS may enter a normal operation phase, during which they may exchange operational data. For example, the BS may schedule the UE for uplink and / or downlink communications.

[0090] In an UL transmission, a transmitting device (e.g., a scheduled entity 106) may utilize one or more REs 306 to carry UL control information including one or more UL control channels (e.g., a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)) to a scheduling entity. The UL control information may include various packet types and categories, including pilots, reference signals, and information configured to enable or assist in decoding uplink data transmissions. For example, the UL control information may include a DMRS or an SRS. In some examples, the control information may include a scheduling request (SR), i.e., a request by the scheduling entity to schedule an uplink transmission. Here, in response to the SR sent on the control channel, the scheduling entity may send downlink control information that can schedule resources for uplink packet transmission. The UL control information may also include hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, channel state feedback (CSF), or any other suitable UL control information.

[0091] In addition to control information, one or more REs 306 may be allocated for user data traffic (e.g., within the data region 314). This traffic may be carried on one or more traffic channels (e.g., a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for DL ​​transmissions or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for UL transmissions). In some examples, one or more REs 306 within the data region 314 may be configured to carry a SIB (e.g., SIB1), which carries information that may allow access to a given cell.

[0092] These physical channels described above are typically multiplexed and mapped onto transport channels for processing at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. Transport channels carry information blocks called transport blocks (TBs). The transport block size (TBS) may correspond to the number of information bits and may be a controlled parameter based on the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and the number of RBs in a given transmission.

[0093] Combined with the above Figure 1-3 The channels or carriers described are not necessarily all channels or carriers that can be used between the scheduling entity and the scheduled entity. A person skilled in the art will recognize that other channels or carriers (e.g., other service, control, and feedback channels) may be used in addition to the channels or carriers shown.

[0094] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the scheduling entity and / or the scheduled entity may be configured for beamforming and / or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques. Figure 4An example of a wireless communication system 400 that supports beamforming and / or MIMO is shown. In a MIMO system, a transmitter 402 includes multiple transmit antennas 404 (e.g., N transmit antennas) and a receiver 406 includes multiple receive antennas 408 (e.g., M receive antennas). Thus, there are N×M signal paths 410 from the transmit antennas 404 to the receive antennas 408. Each of the transmitter 402 and the receiver 406 can be implemented, for example, within a scheduling entity, a scheduled entity, or any other suitable wireless communication device.

[0095] The use of this multi-antenna technology enables wireless communication systems to exploit the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity. Spatial multiplexing can be used to send different data streams (also called layers) simultaneously on the same time-frequency resources. Data streams can be sent to a single UE to increase the data rate, or to multiple UEs to increase the overall system capacity, the latter being called multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream (i.e., multiplying the data stream with different weights and phase shifts) and then transmitting each spatially precoded stream through multiple transmit antennas on the downlink. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE with different spatial signatures, which enables each UE to recover one or more data streams destined for that UE. On the uplink, each UE sends a spatially precoded data stream, which enables the base station to identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream.

[0096] The number of data streams or layers corresponds to the rank of the transmission. Typically, the rank of a wireless communication system 400 (MIMO system) is limited by the number of transmit antennas 404 or receive antennas 408, whichever is lower. In addition, the channel conditions at the UE and other considerations (e.g., available resources at the base station) may also affect the transmission rank. For example, the rank (and therefore the number of data streams) assigned to a particular UE on the downlink can be determined based on a rank indicator (RI) sent from the UE to the base station. The RI can be determined based on the antenna configuration (e.g., the number of transmit and receive antennas) and the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measured on each receive antenna. For example, the RI can indicate the number of layers that can be supported under current channel conditions. The base station can use the RI along with resource information (e.g., available resources and the amount of data to be scheduled for the UE) to assign a transmission rank to the UE.

[0097] In one example, if Figure 4 As shown in , a rank-2 spatial multiplexing transmission on a 2x2 MIMO antenna configuration will transmit one data stream from each transmit antenna 404. Each data stream follows a different signal path 410 to each receive antenna 408. The receiver 406 can then reconstruct the data stream using the signal received from each receive antenna 408.

[0098] Beamforming is a signal processing technique that a transmitter 402 or receiver 406 can use to shape or steer an antenna beam (e.g., a transmit beam or a receive beam) along a spatial path between the transmitter 402 and the receiver 406. Beamforming can be achieved by combining signals transmitted via antennas 404 or 408 (e.g., antenna elements of an antenna array module) such that some signals experience constructive interference and other signals experience destructive interference. To produce the desired constructive / destructive interference, the transmitter 402 or receiver 406 can apply amplitude and / or phase offsets to the signals transmitted or received from each of the antennas 404 or 408 associated with the transmitter 402 or receiver 406.

[0099] In 5G New Radio (NR) systems, particularly for systems above 6 GHz or mmWave, beamformed signals can be used for downlink channels including the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). In addition, broadcast control information such as SSB, Slot Format Indicator (SFI), and paging information can be transmitted in a beam-scanning manner to enable all scheduled entities (UEs) in the coverage area of ​​a Transmit Reception Point (TRP) (e.g., a gNB) to receive the broadcast control information. In addition, for UEs configured with beamforming antenna arrays, beamformed signals can also be used for uplink channels including the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) and the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).

[0100] A base station (e.g., a gNB) is typically capable of communicating with a UE using transmit beams (e.g., downlink transmit beams) of different beamwidths. For example, a base station can be configured to use a wider beam when communicating with a moving UE and a narrower beam when communicating with a stationary UE. The UE can also be configured to receive signals from the base station using one or more downlink receive beams. In some examples, to select one or more downlink transmit beams and one or more downlink receive beams for communicating with the UE, the base station can transmit a reference signal (e.g., an SSB or CSI-RS) on each of the multiple downlink transmit beams in a beam scanning manner. The UE can use one or more downlink receive beams on the UE to measure the reference signal received power (RSRP) on each downlink transmit beam and send a beam measurement report to the base station indicating the RSRP of each measured downlink transmit beam. The base station can then select one or more serving downlink beams (e.g., a downlink transmit beam and a downlink receive beam) to communicate with the UE based on the beam measurement report. The resulting selected downlink transmit beam and downlink receive beam may form a downlink beam pair link. In other examples, when the channel is reciprocal, the base station may derive a specific downlink beam based on uplink measurements of one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS)) to communicate with the UE.

[0101] Similarly, an uplink beam (e.g., an uplink transmit beam at a UE and an uplink receive beam at a base station) may be selected by measuring the RSRP of a received uplink reference signal (e.g., SRS) or downlink reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) during uplink or downlink beam scanning. For example, the base station may determine the uplink beam by uplink beam management via SRS beam scanning measured at the base station or by downlink beam management via SSB / CSI-RS beam scanning measured at the UE. When uplink beam management is implemented, the selected uplink beam may be indicated by a selected SRS resource (e.g., a time-frequency resource for SRS transmission), or by a selected SSB / CSI-RS resource when downlink beam management is implemented. For example, the selected SSB / CSI-RS resource may have a spatial relationship with the selected uplink transmit beam (e.g., an uplink transmit beam for PUCCH, SRS, and / or PUSCH). The resulting selected uplink transmit beam and uplink receive beam may form an uplink beam-pair link.

[0102] Figure 5is a diagram illustrating communication between a base station 504 and a UE 502 using beamforming signals according to some aspects. The base station 504 may be Figure 1 and / or any base station (e.g., gNB) or scheduling entity shown in 2, and UE 502 may be Figure 1 and / or any UE or scheduled entity shown in 2.

[0103] exist Figure 5 In the illustrated example, the base station 504 is configured to generate multiple beams 506a-506h, each associated with a different beam direction. Furthermore, the UE 502 is configured to generate multiple beams 508a-508e, each associated with a different beam direction. The base station 504 and the UE 502 can use a downlink beam management scheme and / or an uplink beam management scheme to select one or more beams 506a-506h on the base station 504 and one or more beams 508a-508e on the UE 502 for communication of uplink and downlink signals therebetween.

[0104] In an example downlink beam management scheme for selecting downlink beams, the base station 504 can be configured to scan or transmit on each of a plurality of downlink transmit beams 506a-506h during one or more synchronization time slots. For example, the base station 504 can transmit a reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) on each beam in a different beam direction during the synchronization time slot. The transmission of beam reference signals can occur periodically (e.g., as configured by the gNB via radio resource control (RRC) signaling), semi-persistently (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling and activated / deactivated via medium access control-control element (MAC-CE) signaling), or aperiodically (e.g., as triggered by the gNB via downlink control information (DCI)). It should be noted that while some beams are shown as being adjacent to each other, this arrangement may differ in various aspects. For example, downlink transmit beams 506a-506h transmitted during the same symbol may not be adjacent to each other. In some examples, base station 504 may transmit more or fewer beams distributed in all directions (e.g., 360 degrees).

[0105] In addition, the UE 502 is configured to receive downlink beam reference signals on multiple downlink receive beams 508a-508e. In some examples, the UE 502 searches for and identifies each of the downlink transmit beams 506a-506h based on the beam reference signals. The UE 502 then performs beam measurements (e.g., RSRP, SINR, RSRQ, etc.) on the beam reference signals on each of the downlink receive beams 508a-508e to determine the corresponding beam quality of each of the downlink transmit beams 506a to 506h, as measured in each of the downlink receive beams 508-508e.

[0106] UE 502 may generate and transmit a beam measurement report to base station 504, where the beam measurement report includes a corresponding beam index and beam measurement for each downlink transmit beam 506a-506h on each downlink receive beam 508a-508e. Base station 504 may then select one or more downlink transmit beams on which to transmit unicast downlink control information and / or user data traffic to UE 502. In some examples, the selected downlink transmit beam has the highest gain from the beam measurement report. In some examples, UE 502 may further identify the downlink transmit beam selected by the base station from the beam measurement. Transmission of the beam measurement report may occur periodically (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling), semi-persistently (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling and activated / deactivated via MAC-CE signaling), or aperiodically (e.g., as triggered by the gNB via DCI).

[0107] The base station 504 or the UE 502 may further select a corresponding downlink receive beam on the UE 502 for each selected serving downlink transmit beam to form a corresponding downlink beam pair link (BPL) for each selected serving downlink transmit beam. For example, the UE 502 may utilize beam measurement to select a corresponding downlink receive beam for each serving downlink transmit beam. In some examples, the selected downlink receive beam to be paired with a particular downlink transmit beam may have the highest gain for that particular downlink transmit beam.

[0108] In one example, a single downlink transmit beam on the base station 504 (e.g., beam 506d) and a single downlink receive beam on the UE (e.g., beam 508c) can form a single downlink BPL for communication between the base station 504 and the UE 502. In another example, multiple downlink transmit beams on the base station 504 (e.g., beams 506c, 506d, and 506e) and a single downlink receive beam on the UE 502 (e.g., beam 508c) can form respective downlink BPLs for communication between the base station 504 and the UE 502. In another example, multiple downlink transmit beams on the base station 504 (e.g., beams 506c, 506d, and 506e) and multiple downlink receive beams on the UE 502 (e.g., beams 508c and 508d) can form multiple downlink BPLs for communication between the base station 504 and the UE 502. In this example, the first downlink BPL may include a downlink transmit beam 506c and a downlink receive beam 508c, the second downlink BPL may include a downlink transmit beam 506d and a downlink receive beam 508c, and the third downlink BPL may include a downlink transmit beam 506e and a downlink receive beam 508d.

[0109] When the channel is reciprocal, the downlink beam management scheme described above can also be used to select one or more uplink beam paths for uplink communication from UE 502 to base station 504. For example, the downlink beam path formed by beams 506d and 508e can also be used as an uplink beam path. Here, beam 508c is used as an uplink transmit beam, while beam 506d is used as an uplink receive beam.

[0110] In an example of an uplink beam management scheme, the UE 502 can be configured to scan or transmit on each of a plurality of uplink transmit beams 508a-508e. For example, the UE 502 can send an SRS on each beam in a different beam direction. In addition, the base station 504 can be configured to receive uplink beam reference signals on a plurality of uplink receive beams 506a-506h. In some examples, the base station 504 searches for and identifies each of the uplink transmit beams 508a-508e based on the beam reference signals. The base station 504 then performs beam measurements (e.g., RSRP, SINR, RSRQ, etc.) on the beam reference signals on each of the uplink receive beams 506a-506h to determine the corresponding beam quality of each of the uplink transmit beams 508a-508e, as measured in each of the uplink receive beams 506a-506h.

[0111] The base station 504 may then select one or more uplink transmit beams on which the UE 502 will send unicast downlink control information and / or user data traffic to the base station 504. In some examples, the selected uplink transmit beam has the highest gain. The base station 504 may further select a corresponding uplink receive beam on the base station 504 for each selected serving uplink transmit beam to form a corresponding uplink beam pair link (BPL) for each selected uplink transmit beam. For example, the base station 504 may utilize beam measurements to select a corresponding uplink receive beam for each serving uplink transmit beam. In some examples, the selected uplink receive beam to be paired with a particular uplink transmit beam may have the highest gain for that particular uplink transmit beam.

[0112] The base station 504 may then notify the UE 502 of the selected uplink transmit beam. For example, the base station 504 may provide an SRS resource identifier (ID) that identifies the SRS to be transmitted on the selected uplink transmit beam. In some examples, the base station 504 may apply each selected uplink transmit beam (and corresponding uplink receive beam) to an uplink signal (e.g., PUCCH, PUSCH, SRS, etc.) and send the corresponding SRS resource ID associated with the selected uplink transmit beam applied to each uplink signal to the UE 502. When the channel is reciprocal, the uplink beam management scheme described above may also be used to select one or more downlink BPLs for downlink communication from the base station 504 to the UE 502. For example, an uplink BPL may also be used as a downlink BPL.

[0113] Figure 6A FIG6 is a schematic diagram illustrating at least one antenna array 600 of a TRP 602, according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The following discussion may also apply to antenna arrays in other types of devices (e.g., UEs). Antenna array 600 may include two panels (Panel 1 604, Panel 2 606) with a physical separation 608 therebetween. Each of the two panels may be a subarray of a single antenna array or two distinct antenna arrays. A given panel may transmit and / or receive a beam or beam group.

[0114] Figure 6B It is a depiction Figure 6AFIG2 is a diagram of a transmission configuration or a reception configuration of two panels (panel 1 604, panel 2 606) of a wireless UE. According to some aspects of the present disclosure, the transmission (TX) and reception (RX) configurations of the two panels are depicted for various DL and UL channels that can be implemented in a device (e.g., a scheduling entity or a scheduled entity) implementing flexible FDD. Flexible FDD includes the use of two panels that can operate in TDD mode (two panels on the gNB and one or more panels on the UE are configured for DL ​​or UL) or SBFD mode (one panel on each of the gNB and the UE is configured for UL and the other panel on each of the gNB and the UE is configured for DL).

[0115] exist Figure 6B On the left side, when the antenna array 600 communicates in only a single direction at a time, both panel 1 604 and panel 2 606 can be configured for unidirectional communication as an example of TDD mode showing DL transmissions. For example, both panels 604 and 606 can be configured to send DL control 610 and DL data 612 as an example of DL transmissions during TDD mode. Figure 6B , when the antenna array 600 is simultaneously transmitting a combination of DL control 613 and DL data 615 and receiving UL data (e.g., PUSCH 614) and UL control 618, panel 1 604 may be configured for DL ​​transmission (i.e., TX) and panel 2 606 may be configured for UL reception (i.e., RX). Figure 6B On the right side, when the antenna array 600 receives only UL data (e.g., PUSCH 620) and UL control 622, both panel 1 604 and panel 2 606 can be configured for UL reception. Thus, the antenna array 600 is configured for both TDD and full-duplex operation (e.g., flexible TDD). The physical separation 608 between panel 1 604 and panel 2 606 can provide improved isolation between the panels (e.g., greater than approximately 50 dB of improved isolation) when compared to two panels without the physical separation 608.

[0116] Introduction to full-duplex communication and timing advance

[0117] In some aspects, the present disclosure relates to flexible TDD capabilities for wireless communications. For example, various aspects of the present disclosure may be applicable to flexible TDD with full-duplex (FD) operation, where uplink and downlink transmissions are performed simultaneously in FR2 and / or other frequency bands.

[0118] This FD capability can be implemented at the base station (e.g., gNB), the UE, or both. For example, a UE can transmit uplink signals from one panel and receive downlink signals from another panel. In some aspects, duplex performance can depend on whether there is sufficient beam separation and / or other factors.

[0119] In some aspects, FD capabilities can improve (e.g., reduce) latency. For example, a UE can receive a downlink signal in a time slot dedicated to uplink-only time slots, thereby reducing latency in downlink transmissions. A UE operating in accordance with half-duplex TDD must wait for a scheduled uplink subframe before being able to send an uplink message to the base station. However, using flexible TDD, the UE can respond with an uplink frame at the same time as it is receiving a downlink frame. For example, ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) requires low latency between DL and UL. In FD, the UE can send uplink and receive downlink simultaneously, thereby improving latency (by eliminating the need to wait for an uplink subframe to send an uplink signal).

[0120] In some aspects, FD capabilities can improve spectral efficiency (e.g., per cell, per UE, etc.). For example, in FD, the same time slot and / or frequency resources can be used for both uplink and downlink transmissions. In addition, unused time slots in HD TDD or FDD can be used for simultaneous uplink and downlink transmissions, further improving spectral efficiency.

[0121] In some aspects, the present disclosure relates to timing alignment in a cell, which includes signaling or indicating the application of a fixed timing advance (TA) value or a range of TA values. Providing a range of values ​​provides the UE or base station with more flexibility to make adjustments or compensation within the range to provide timing alignment. During operation, the 5G NR uplink allows for uplink intra-cell orthogonality so that uplink transmissions received from different devices within the cell do not interfere with each other. One feature of this uplink orthogonality is that the uplink slot boundaries for a given parameter set are (approximately) time-aligned at the base station. Specifically, any timing misalignment between the received signals should fall within the cyclic prefix (CP). To ensure this receiver-side time alignment, 5G NR includes a mechanism for sending a TA signal or indication. Although similar to previous technologies such as LTE, TA in 5G NR differs in that it uses different timing advance step sizes for different parameter sets.

[0122] Typically, TA is a negative offset applied at a wireless device (e.g., UE) between the start of a downlink (DL) symbol (or subframe) and the start of an uplink (UL) symbol (or subframe) as observed by the wireless device. By appropriately controlling the offset for each wireless device, the network (e.g., base station or gNB) can control the timing of signals received at the base station or gNB from various wireless devices in the cell served by the base station or gNB. A wireless device located far from the base station may experience greater propagation delay and, therefore, should start its uplink transmission slightly earlier than a device located closer to the base station where propagation delay is less.

[0123] Figure 7 7 is a signal diagram 700 illustrating timing advance operation according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In this example, a first UE 704 is shown closer to a base station 702 (e.g., a gNB) and a second UE 706 (e.g., a gNB) is shown farther away from the base station 702. Time aligned uplink receptions and downlink transmissions are shown, where the base station 702 has a first uplink reception 708 from the first UE 704, a second uplink reception 710 from the second UE 706, and a downlink transmission time slot 712. The first UE 704 is shown to experience a smaller propagation delay δ1 relative to the downlink time slot 716. Therefore, for this UE, a smaller value of the timing advance offset TA1=2δ1 may be sufficient to compensate for the propagation delay of the uplink time slot 714 and ensure correct timing at the base station. However, as Figure 7 As shown, a larger timing advance value may be required for the second UE 706, where the second UE is located at a greater distance from the base station and therefore experiences a larger propagation delay δ2 relative to the downlink time slot 720. Therefore, a larger value of the timing advance offset TA1=2δ2 may be required for this device to compensate for the propagation delay of the uplink time slot 718 and ensure correct timing at the base station.

[0124] In some cases, the network (e.g., base station 702) can determine the TA value for each UE (e.g., UE 704, 706) based on measurements of individual uplink transmissions. Thus, whenever a UE performs an uplink data transmission, the receiving base station can use the uplink data transmission to estimate the uplink receive timing and, therefore, be the source of the TA command. A sounding reference signal (SRS) can be used as a conventional signal for measurement to determine the TA value, but one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the base station can use any signal sent from the device.

[0125] Based on the uplink measurements, a base station (e.g., base station 702) can determine the timing correction required for each UE. If the timing of a particular device requires correction, the network issues a TA command to the particular device, instructing it to delay or advance its timing relative to the current uplink timing. The UE-specific TA command can be sent as a MAC control element on the downlink shared channel (DL-SCH). The TA commands to the UE can be sent relatively infrequently (e.g., once or several times per second), or can be sent more frequently, depending on the speed at which the UE is moving. Since the goal of TA is to keep the timing misalignment within the size of the cyclic prefix, the step size of the timing advance can be selected as a fraction of the cyclic prefix. However, since 5G NR supports multiple parameter sets with shorter cyclic prefixes and higher subcarrier spacing, the TA step size can be scaled proportionally to the cyclic prefix length and given by the subcarrier spacing of the active uplink bandwidth portion.

[0126] For carrier aggregation, there may be multiple component carriers transmitted from a single device. In this case, the same TA value can be applied to all uplink component carriers. However, if different uplink carriers are received at different geographical locations (for example, by using a remote radio head for some carriers but not others), different TA values ​​may be required for different carriers. For a dual connectivity system, different uplink carriers may terminate at different sites. Therefore, the uplink carriers can be grouped into timing advance groups (TAGs) and different TA commands can be allowed for different TAGs. In such a configuration, all component carriers in the same group can be subject to the same TA command. The timing advance step size can be determined by the highest subcarrier spacing between the carriers in the timing advance group.

[0127] It should be noted that some systems will signal or specify an absolute TA value for the UE to use for timing advance. To achieve timing alignment at both the gNB and the UE in full-duplex (FD) mode (e.g., simultaneous uplink and downlink transmissions in FR2 and / or other frequency bands), in some aspects, the base station or gNB can be configured to indicate a range of allowable TA values ​​in the UE. In one example, the base station or gNB can be configured to provide a TA indication, for example, by using a single-bit field (e.g., the TA field in a RACH Random Access Response (RAR) or MAC-CE) that indicates to the UE the absolute TA value or range of TA values ​​to be applied. In some examples, the base station or gNB can be further configured to signal the specific TA range to the UE via RRC, MAC-CE, or DCI signaling (to name a few examples). In other examples, the range can be predefined such that when the TA indication indicates a range of allowable TA values ​​in the UE, the UE is configured to apply the predefined range. The TA range allows the base station or gNB to handle timing differences smaller than the cyclic prefix, while still providing the UE with the flexibility to adjust the TA value to account for the UE's timing difference.

[0128] As used herein, the term FD mode may include SBFD in flexible TDD, but may also include FDD in paired spectrum, SBFD in unpaired spectrum, in-band full-duplex (IBFD), or other types of full-duplex operation. For IBFD communications, in some examples, the UL time-frequency resources may completely overlap with a portion of the DL time-frequency resources. In other examples, the UL time-frequency resources may only partially overlap with a portion of the DL time-frequency resources. Therefore, devices (e.g., base stations and / or scheduled entities) that employ IBFD may transmit and receive on the same time and frequency resources. That is, the devices may transmit and receive simultaneously on the same frequency (or multiple frequencies). UL and DL may also share the same time and frequency resources. The overlap in the time-frequency resources may be complete or partial.

[0129] Communication between a base station and a UE may involve the transmission and reception of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. The transmitted OFDM symbols may be subject to reflections and other channel-related effects, causing some of the energy of the transmitted symbols to take different paths to reach the receiver (e.g., a receiver at the UE or base station). These multipath components of the symbols generate interference at the receiver. This interference may be referred to as inter-symbol interference (ISI) because the energy of one OFDM symbol may interfere with the reception of another OFDM symbol. The time difference between the time these multipath components arrive at the receiver depends on the delay spread of the channel.

[0130] To mitigate this ISI, each OFDM symbol sent by the transmitter can be preceded by a cyclic prefix. In some examples, the cyclic prefix for a given OFDM symbol contains a repetition of information from the end of that OFDM symbol. If the cyclic prefix is ​​at least as long as the delay spread, multipath effects can be eliminated during the cyclic prefix. In this case, the receiver can efficiently decode the OFDM symbol.

[0131] Figure 8 According to some aspects, timing diagrams 800 and 820 are depicted for illustrating the use of absolute or fixed timing advances and timing advance ranges. Timing diagram 800 illustrates the timing of DL and UL symbols for a system with a gNB and UE using a fixed TA value, which may have been indicated in the TA indication discussed above. In this case, a standard timing advance value (e.g., 2×a1 or "2a1") is used. This can be seen in the DL transmission 802 (e.g., symbol, subframe, time slot, etc.) sent by the gNB. Similar to Figure 7 In the example of FIG1 , the propagation delay of DL transmission 802 is a1, where DL transmission 802 arrives at the UE after this time delay (e.g., as shown by DL transmission 802′ arriving at the UE). At the UE, when transmitting in full-duplex mode, the UE sends UL transmission 806 with a timing advance of a1 808, so that UL transmission 806 arrives at the gNB simultaneously with the transmission of DL transmission 802, as indicated by UL transmission 806′. It should be noted that the timing in timing diagram 800 is based on the assumption that the transmission and reception times are the same on the gNB and UE sides. Therefore, the difference between transmission and reception is 2×a1, or “2a1”, which is the TA value.

[0132] also, Figure 8 Timing diagram 820 is shown, where the gNB or base station has a configured TA indicator value (e.g., the one-bit value discussed above) to indicate that a TA range is allowed. In this example, although not limited thereto, a timing advance value of 0.5a1 is used (which may be determined by the UE and not under the control of the gNB), within a calculated or bounded range discussed in more detail below. A DL transmission 822 is transmitted by the gNB, and the propagation delay of DL transmission 822 is a1, where DL transmission 822 arrives at the UE after this time delay (as indicated by DL transmission 822′ arriving at the UE). At the UE, when transmitting in full-duplex mode, the UE may also transmit an UL transmission 826 at 828 with a timing advance of 0.5×a1. In this case, because the transmission time or delay is a1, UL transmission 826 arrives at the gNB approximately 0.5a1 after the transmission time of DL transmission 822, as indicated by UL transmission 826′ and time delay 830.

[0133] In the example of timing diagram 820, on the gNB side, assuming a normal, traditional, or typical value of TA = 2a1, the time difference between transmit and receive is TA / 4 or 0.5a1 (see, for example, 830). On the UE side, as shown in 832, the time difference between transmit and receive is 3 / 4TA or 1.5a1. This example illustrates that when a TA range is indicated, the UE is provided with flexibility in determining the TA value within specific limits.

[0134] Figure 9 According to some aspects, a diagram illustrates a wireless communication system 900 utilizing multiple transmit / receive points (TRPs) in which the concepts disclosed herein may be applied. As shown, the wireless communication system 900 includes a first gNB 902, a second gNB 904, and at least one UE 906. In some cases, the first gNB 902 and the second gNB 904 may each be a different transmit / receive point (TRP). In the wireless communication system, the UE 906 may communicate with both gNBs 902 and 904 in simultaneous FD mode. For example, as shown at 908, the UE 906 may communicate transmissions (e.g., UL and / or DL ​​transmissions) with the first gNB 902. Furthermore, as shown at 910, the UE 906 may communicate transmissions (e.g., UL and / or DL ​​transmissions) with the second gNB 904. It should be noted that the determination of timing advance within a range as described above may be used in the UE for UL transmissions between the two gNBs based on delta, which may help determine the actual range of TA values.

[0135] Figure 10 For example, Figure 10 Timelines 1000 and 1020 of FD transmission in a wireless communication system. Specifically, Figure 10 Further details regarding delta (δ) values ​​are shown, particularly in a multi-TRP or gNB environment. Specifically, timeline 1000 illustrates the timing of transmissions sent between a first gNB 902 and a UE 906. The first gNB 902 sends a DL transmission 1004, which is then received at the UE 906 at a downlink reception timing t1_1 after a propagation delay b1.

[0136] On the UE side, the UL transmission 1006 sent from the UE 906 to the first gNB 902 arrives at UL transmission timing t3_1, advanced by timing advance a1. However, in this case, the UL transmission timing may be delayed by a delta (δ) value to allow the UE 906 to wait for the delta (δ) value before sending the UL transmission 1006. As further shown, the UL transmission 1006 may arrive at the first gNB 902 at a time δ after the DL symbol transmission time.

[0137] In addition, the timeline 1000 shows a UL transmission 1008 for the purpose of illustrating that the UL transmission of the UE can be received on the DL receiving panel of the UE (this is self-interference (SI)). Here, the timing advance of c1 is advanced by a time δ after the UL transmission 1006, so that the new c1 (c1_new) is equal to the c1 value minus the δ value. Therefore, the UL transmission 1008 shows the actual receiver time at the DL receiving panel of the UE 906.

[0138] The timeline 1020 shows the transmission between the second gNB (e.g., the second gNB 904) and the UE 906. As shown, the second gNB 904 sends a DL transmission 1022, and then at time t1_2 after the propagation delay b2, the DL transmission is received at the UE 906. The UE 906 sends a UL transmission 1024 at the UL transmission time 3_2 with a timing advance of a2. At the second gNB 904, the UL transmission 1024 is received at the same time as the transmission of the DL transmission 1022. Due to SI, for example, the UL transmission 1026 is shown as the actual UL reception timing at the DL receiving panel of the UE 906 with an advance amount of c2. Similarly, the UE 906 is configured to set an increment value such that the difference between the downlink reception time (e.g., t1_2) and the uplink reception time (e.g., t2_1) at the UE 906 minus the increment value is less than the CP length, which indicates the following relationship: Trx_dl_i - Trx_ul_j_new = Trx_dl_i - Trx_ul_j – delta = b2 + c1 – delta < CP remains true.

[0139] Figure 11 Another signal timeline 1100 is shown, which depicts the consideration of the gNB DL propagation delay d1 for its UL beam (i.e., the self-interference of the DL transmission on the UL receiving beam of the gNB). In this example, a DL transmission sent to the UE is shown at 1122. However, on the UL Rx beam, the gNB can receive the DL transmission 1122 as shown in the DL transmission 1124, which may include the gNB-side propagation delay d1 (as part of the self-interference that may occur at the gNB). In addition, the DL transmission 1122 is received at the UE.

[0140] On the UE side, the UE can send a UL transmission 1126 with a timing advance of TA applied , Figure 11 , applied ,

[0139] , applied ,

[0140] , , -a1, where TA applied represents the timing advance value and a1 is the propagation delay. At 2a1 - TA appliedAfter a propagation delay of dl, the gNB receives the UL transmission 1126. In some examples, application or compensation of delay dl can be implemented according to the following relationships for non-delay spread (DS) systems (e.g., using Equations 1-3) and for DS systems (e.g., using Equations 4-6), respectively:

[0141] 0≤2a1-TA app –d1≤CP (1)

[0142] 2a1–CP-d1≤TA applied ≤2a1-d1 (2)

[0143] TA indic –CP-d1≤TA applied ≤TA indicated -d1 (3)

[0144] (if TA indicated =2a1); and

[0145] 0≤2a1-TA applied -d1≤CP–DS (4)

[0146] 2a1–CP-d1+≤TA applied ≤2a1-d1 (5)

[0147] TA indic –CP-d1+DS≤TA applied ≤TA indicated -d1 (6)

[0148] (if TA indicated =2a1).

[0149] Figure 12 12 is a call flow diagram 1200 illustrating the application of transmission and timing advance ranges in a communication system according to some aspects. As shown, the call flow is between a UE 1202 and a gNB 1204, but is not limited thereto and can be applied to, for example, Figure 10 Multi-TRP / multi-gNB system shown.

[0150] exist Figure 12In the example of FIG. 1 , gNB 1204 can use initial access signaling or a message (e.g., PRACH 1206) sent from UE 1202 to determine an initial TA to be used by UE 1202. In various aspects, gNB 1204 can further determine a TA range based on the signaling from UE 1202. After determining the TA and whether a TA range can be used (i.e., thereby establishing a state of a TA indication field (e.g., a bit state of a single bit) to indicate whether the UE can apply a TA range or a TA absolute value, where the TA absolute value can be a default value used in the communication system as previously described), gNB 1204 sends a TA indication and, in some examples, sends an indication of the TA as shown at 1208 (e.g., a TA range). indicated ). In some examples, the signaling of the TA indication can be sent by gNB 1204 in a random access response (RAR) message.

[0151] After receiving the TA indication at 1208, the UE 1202 may apply the TA absolute value or the TA range for timing advance according to the TA indication value. In addition, the application of the TA range (e.g., TA applied The determination of Figure 8-11 Any of the processes discussed, including determining the delta value and applying the L1-SINR measurement to set the delta value. Upon determining the TA to apply, the UE may begin transmitting using the determined TA, as shown by the transmission at 1212.

[0152] In further aspects, the TA indication may be updated when network conditions change. Thus, when the gNB 1204 and / or UE 1202 determines that a change in TA is required, the gNB 1202 may update the TA indication (and in some aspects the TA indicated value), and sends an updated indication (and TA indicated , if so configured), as shown in 1214. In some cases, the updated TA indication may be sent to UE 1202 in a MAC-CE. In other examples, the TA value range may be sent or communicated to UE 1202 by gNB 1204 via RRC signaling or in a DCI message. In response to the updated TA indication, UE 1202 may adjust the updated timing advance (i.e., TA applied ) is applied to one or more uplink transmissions, as shown in 1216.

[0153] Aspects related to full-duplex timing advance enhancement

[0154] In some cases, various aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques that allow a UE in a wireless communication system to request an updated or new timing advance. For example, in some cases, the UE may measure the timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on a TA value received in a TA signal. The UE may then send a timing report to the base station indicating the timing difference. Thereafter, the UE may receive a new or updated TA value to allow the UE 1302 to compensate for the timing difference to better align the DL and UL timing on the UE side. Aligning the DL and UL timing on the UE side may reduce interference and the chance of lost or undecodable transmissions, thereby improving resource (e.g., time, frequency, power) usage for the UE and the base station in the wireless communication system.

[0155] Figure 13 In accordance with some aspects, a call flow diagram 1300 is shown illustrating the operation of a UE-requested TA signal. Figure 13 The example can be incorporated into the above combination Figure 8-12 As shown, the operations in call flow diagram 1300 are between UE 1302 and base station 1304 (e.g., gNB). However, these operations are not limited to only one base station and can be applied to Figure 10 Multi-TRP or multi-gNB system shown.

[0156] In this example, at 1308, UE 1302 receives a first TA signal from base station 1304. The first TA signal received by UE 1302 may be a signal that does not include a TA indication value (e.g., as described above in conjunction with Figure 8 The UE 1302 receives a TA signal having a one-bit value (as discussed above) so as to force the UE to use a fixed TA value and prohibit the UE from using a TA range. In block 1310, the UE 1302 determines a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on the first TA signal received at 1308. In some cases, the timing difference may be between the start of a downlink timeslot and the start of an uplink timeslot. In some cases, the UE may determine the timing difference by measuring a timing difference between a first timing (t1) for the downlink signal and a second timing (t2) for the uplink signal. In some cases, the downlink signal includes a received FD downlink transmission and the uplink signal includes a received FD uplink transmission at the UE (e.g., a self-interference signal / transmission where the UE receives its own UL transmission (which is transmitted using the UL beam of the transmitting panel) via the DL beam of the receiving panel).

[0157] UE 1302 can also determine whether the time difference is within a threshold. In other words, UE 1302 can determine whether there is a timing difference that exceeds the threshold. The determination of the timing difference that exceeds the threshold can be based on the cyclic prefix (CP) or a value greater than the CP defined by the base station 1304 (e.g., 2x CP). Then, at 1312, UE 1302 can send a timing report to the base station 1304, which can include the timing difference that exceeds the threshold. In other words, the timing report can indicate the measured timing difference that is not within the threshold. Thereafter, the base station 1304 can process the timing report and the time difference to adjust the timing within the CP at the base station 1304, for example, based on an incremental TA value x, where 0 < x < CP or 0 < x < (CP - downlink delay spread). If the base station 1304 still has timing space within the CP after covering the delay spread, the base station 1304 can respond to UE 1302 with a new or updated TA signal at 1314. In some cases, the new or updated TA signal can include a different (e.g., smaller) TA value to allow UE 1302 to compensate for the measured timing difference. In some cases, the new or updated TA value can be sent by the base station 1304 in, for example, the MAC-CE.

[0158] In some examples, the base station 1304 can send a TA offset in 1316, which can include a variable compensation or correction factor increment (δ), and UE 1302 can apply this increment to the (original) TA value received in the first TA signal, resulting in a TA value smaller than the original TA value received at 1308. In some cases, the resulting smaller TA value can be between zero and the value of CP or between zero and the value of CP minus the DL delay spread. In some cases, the variable compensation factor (δ) can be based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix and t{1} and t{2} are as discussed above.

[0159] In some cases, the new or updated TA signal received at 1314 and / or the TA offset received at 1316 can be configured to be specific to UE 1302, but can also be configured for the active DL and UL FD beam pairs of the UE, or the active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, the UE panel identifier (ID), or the UE beam group, to better align the DL and UL timing on the UE side. In other words, the new or updated TA signal received at 1314 and / or the TA offset received at 1316 can be associated with at least one of the active beam pair link, the active TCI state, the UE panel ID, or the beam group.

[0160] Figure 14 According to some aspects, a call flow diagram 1400 illustrating an example operation of a UE-requested TA signal using a compensation factor is shown. Figure 14 The example of Figure 13 is similar to the example of Figure 13 where these operations are between UE 1402 and base station 1404 (e.g., gNB). However, similar to Figure 10 these operations are not limited to only one base station and can be applied to a multi-TRP or multi-gNB system as shown in

[0161] In this example, at 1408, UE 1402 receives a first TA signal from base station 1404. The first TA signal received by UE 1402 can be a TA signal that does not include a TA indication value (e.g., the one-bit value discussed above in conjunction with Figure 8 to force the UE to use a fixed TA value and prohibit the UE from using a TA range. At block 1410, UE 1402 performs channel quality measurements (e.g., layer 1 signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (L1-SINR) measurements) to determine one or more signal quality metrics, and then UE 1402 can use this metric to determine a variable compensation factor (δ value). In some cases, L1-SINR measurements can be performed on channel measurement resources (CMR) and self-interference measurement resources (SIMR) for each of the transmit / receive beam pairs, two-way transmission configuration index (TCI) states, UE panels, UE beam groups, or UEs.

[0162] UE 1042 can be configured to measure the reception times of downlink (e.g., channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)) and uplink (e.g., sounding reference signal (SRS)) signals by using the L1-SINR measurement value to determine a variable compensation factor. In one example, the UE can be configured to select a variable compensation factor δ value according to the following criterion: Trx_dl_i - Trx_ul_j_new = Trx_dl_i - Trx_ul_j + δ < CP, where Trx_dl_i is the reception time on the downlink from the "i-th" node (e.g., the i-th transmit receive point (TRP)), Trx_ul_j is the reception time on the uplink from the "j-th" node (e.g., the j-th transmit receive point (TRP)), and Trx_ul_j_new = Trx_ul_j – δ. In some cases, Trx_dl_i - Trx_ul_j – δ < CP can be rewritten as: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where t1 = Trx_dl_i, and t2 = Trx_ul_j.

[0163] UE 1402 may select a variable compensation factor ("delta") to apply that meets the above criteria. In one example, the L1-SINR measurement may utilize CSI-RS and SRS with multiple beam scanning to determine the SINR. Additionally, it should be noted that if the variable compensation factor δ is close to the value of Trx_dl_i-Trx_ul_j, this may minimize the timing difference, thereby improving the alignment between UL and DL. Additionally, for the specific range of δ as described above, this also serves to relax the criteria at UE 1402. Based on the L1-SNR measurement, the reported variable compensation factor may be determined based on the UE 1402, and may also be determined based on the DL and UL beam pair, bidirectional TCI state, UE panel, or UE beam group. In some examples, the variable compensation factor determined based on the L1-SINR measurement value may be reported together with the UE panel ID.

[0164] Then, at 1412, UE 1402 may send a timing report to base station 1404, which may include the suggested variable compensation factor. As described above, base station 1404 may process the variable compensation factor to adjust the timing within the CP at base station 1404. Thereafter, base station 1404 may respond to UE 1402 with a new or updated TA signal 1414. In some cases, the new or updated TA signal may include a different (e.g., smaller) TA value to allow UE 1402 to compensate for the measured timing difference. In some cases, the new or updated TA value may be sent by base station 1404, for example, in a MAC-CE.

[0165] In some examples, the base station 1404 may send a TA offset at 1416, which may include a compensation or correction factor increment (δ), which the UE 1402 may apply to the (original) TA value received in the first TA signal, resulting in a smaller TA value than the original TA value received at 1408. In some cases, the resulting smaller TA value may be between zero and the value of the CP or between zero and the value of the CP minus the DL delay spread. In some cases, the new or updated TA signal received at 1414 and / or the TA offset received at 1416 may be configured to be specific to the UE 1402, but may also be configured for the UE's active DL and UL FD beam pairs, or active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, UE panel identifier (ID), or UE beam group to better align DL and UL timing on the UE side. In other words, the new or updated TA signal received at 1414 and / or the TA offset received at 1416 may be associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active TCI state, a UE panel ID, or a beam group. In some examples, Figure 14 and Figure 15The timing reports are combined so that the UE can send a timing report including both the timing difference and the variable compensation factor at 1412.

[0166] Figure 15 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a UE 1500 employing a processing system 1514. For example, the UE 1500 may be a user equipment (UE) or other device configured to communicate wirelessly with a base station, such as Figure 1-14 In some implementations, UE 1500 may correspond to Figure 1 、 2 , 4, 5 and / or Figure 7-14 Any UE or scheduled entity in.

[0167] According to various aspects of the present disclosure, an element or any portion of an element or any combination of elements can be implemented using a processing system 1514. The processing system 1514 may include one or more processors 1504. Examples of processors 1504 include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gate logic, separate hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functions described throughout the present disclosure. In various examples, the UE 1500 can be configured to perform any one or more of the functions described herein. That is, the processor 1504, as used in the UE 1500, can be used to implement any one or more of the processes and procedures described herein.

[0168] In some cases, processor 1504 may be implemented by a baseband or modem chip, while in other implementations, processor 1505 may itself include multiple devices distinct from the baseband or modem chip (e.g., in situations where they can work together to implement the embodiments discussed herein). As described above, various hardware arrangements and components other than a baseband modem processor may be used in implementations including RF chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, interleavers, adders / accumulators, and the like.

[0169] In this example, processing system 1514 can be implemented using a bus architecture, generally represented by bus 1502. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of processing system 1514, bus 1502 can include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges. Bus 1502 communicatively couples various circuits including one or more processors (generally represented by processor 1504), memory 1505, and computer-readable media (generally represented by computer-readable media 1506). In addition, bus 1502 can also link various other circuits such as clock sources, peripheral devices, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, where these components are well known in the art and are not described in any further detail. Bus interface 1508 provides an interface between bus 1502 and transceiver 1510. Transceiver 1510 provides a communication interface or unit for communicating with various other devices via a wireless transmission medium.

[0170] Processor 1504 is responsible for managing bus 1502 and general processing, including executing software stored on computer-readable media 1506. When executed by processor 1504, this software causes processing system 1514 to perform the various functions described below for any particular device. Computer-readable media 1506 and memory 1505 may also be used to store data that is manipulated when processor 1504 executes the software.

[0171] One or more processors 1504 in the processing system can execute software. Software should be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other terms. The software may reside on a computer-readable medium 1506.

[0172] Computer-readable medium 1506 may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium. For example, non-transitory computer-readable media include magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic tapes), optical disks (e.g., compact discs (CDs) or digital versatile discs (DVDs)), smart cards, flash memory devices (e.g., cards, sticks, or key drives), random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electronically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, removable hard disks, and any other suitable medium for storing software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. Computer-readable medium 1506 may be located in processing system 1514, outside of processing system 1514, or distributed among multiple entities including processing system 1514. Computer-readable medium 1506 may be embodied in a computer program product. For example, a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having packaging material. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that how best to implement the functions described throughout this disclosure depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the entire system.

[0173] The UE 1500 may be configured to perform any one or more operations described herein.In some aspects of the present disclosure, as used in the UE 1500, the processor 1504 may include circuits configured for various functions.

[0174] Processor 1504 may include communication and processing circuitry 1541. Communication and processing circuitry 1541 may be configured to communicate with a base station, such as a gNB. Communication and processing circuitry 1541 may include one or more hardware components that provide a physical structure for performing various processes associated with wireless communication (e.g., signal reception and / or signal transmission) as described herein. Communication and processing circuitry 1541 may also include one or more hardware components that provide a physical structure for performing various processes associated with signal processing (e.g., processing received signals and / or processing signals for transmission) as described herein. In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1541 may include two or more transmit / receive chains, each configured to process signals of a different RAT (or RAN) type. Communication and processing circuitry 1541 may also be configured to execute communication and processing software 1551 contained on computer-readable medium 1506 as a means for implementing one or more functions described herein.

[0175] In some examples, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 may be configured to receive and process downlink beamforming signals at mmWave frequencies or frequencies below 6 GHz via the transceiver 1510 and the antenna array 1520. For example, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 may be configured to receive, during downlink beam scanning, a corresponding reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) on each of a plurality of downlink beams from a base station via at least one first antenna panel of the antenna array 1820. The communication and processing circuitry 1541 may also be configured to send a beam measurement report to the base station.

[0176] In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1541 can be further configured to generate and transmit uplink beamforming signals at mmWave frequencies or sub-6 GHz frequencies via transceiver 1510 and antenna array 1520. For example, communication and processing circuitry 1541 can be configured to transmit a corresponding reference signal (e.g., SRS or DMRS) on each of a plurality of uplink beams to a base station via at least one second antenna panel of antenna array 1520 during uplink beam scanning.

[0177] In some implementations where communication involves receiving information, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 may obtain information from the UE 1500 (e.g., from a transceiver 1510 that receives information via radio frequency signaling or some other type of signaling suitable for the applicable communication medium), process (e.g., decode) the information, and output the processed information. For example, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 may output the information to another component of the processor 1504, the memory 1505, or the bus interface 1508. In some examples, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 may receive one or more of a signal, a message, other information, or any combination thereof. In some examples, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 may receive the information via one or more channels. In some examples, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 may include functionality of a means for receiving.

[0178] In some implementations where communication involves sending (e.g., transmitting) information, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 can obtain information (e.g., from another component of the processor 1504, the memory 1505, or the bus interface 1508), process (e.g., encode) the information, and output the processed information. For example, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 can output the information to the transceiver 1510 (e.g., the transceiver 1510 transmits the information via radio frequency signaling or some other type of signaling suitable for the applicable communication medium). In some examples, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 can transmit one or more of a signal, a message, other information, or any combination thereof. In some examples, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 can transmit the information via one or more channels. In some examples, the communication and processing circuitry 1541 can include functionality of a means for sending (e.g., a means for transmitting).

[0179] Processor 1504 may include timing advance circuitry 1542, which may be configured to operate in conjunction with communication and processing circuitry 1541 to process timing advance signals to synchronize full-duplex and / or flexible-duplex uplink and downlink channels, as described above in conjunction with Figure 10-14 As described. In some implementations, the timing advance circuit 1542 and / or the communication and processing circuit 1541 may be configured to perform channel quality measurements to determine one or more signal quality metrics (e.g., SINR for beamforming measurements for full-duplex and / or flexible duplex communications) and determine a timing difference from a TA value or range received from a base station. The timing advance circuit 1542 may also be configured to generate one or more timing reports based on the timing difference and send the timing reports via the transceiver 1510 to receive one or more timing advance indication signals for FD communications. The timing advance circuit 1542 may also be configured to apply the TA value, range, and / or TA indication signal to the UE 1500 for communication. The timing advance circuit 1542 may also be configured to execute timing advance software 1552 included on the computer-readable medium 1506 as a unit for implementing one or more functions described herein.

[0180] Figure 16 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a base station (BS) 1600 employing a processing system 1614. In some implementations, the BS 1600 may correspond to Figure 1 、 2 , 4, 5 and / or Figure 7-14 Any BS (e.g., gNB) or scheduling entity in.

[0181] According to various aspects of the present disclosure, an element or any portion of an element or any combination of elements may be implemented using a processing system 1614. The processing system may include one or more processors 1604. The processing system 1614 may be used with Figure 16 The processing system 1614 shown in FIG. 1 is substantially the same, including a bus interface 1608 , a bus 1602 , a memory 1605 , a processor 1604 , and a computer-readable medium 1606 .

[0182] BS 1600 may be configured to perform any one or more of the operations described herein.In some aspects of the present disclosure, processor 1604 as used in BS 1600 may include circuitry configured for various functions.

[0183] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the processor 1604 may include a communication and processing circuit 1641. The communication and processing circuit 1641 may be configured to communicate with the UE (e.g., 1600). The communication and processing circuit 1641 may include one or more hardware components that provide a physical structure and units for performing various processes related to communication (e.g., signal reception and / or signal transmission) described herein. The communication and processing circuit 1641 may also include one or more hardware components that provide a physical structure for performing various processes related to signal processing (e.g., processing received signals and / or processing signals for transmission) described herein. The communication and processing circuit 1641 may also be configured to execute communication and processing software 1651 included on the computer-readable medium 1606 for implementing one or more functions described herein.

[0184] In some examples, the communication and processing circuit 1641 can be configured to generate, schedule, and modify resource allocations or grants of time-frequency resources (e.g., a set of one or more resource elements). For example, the processor 1604 can schedule time-frequency resources within multiple time division duplex (TDD) and / or frequency division duplex (FDD) subframes, time slots, and / or mini-slots to carry user data traffic and / or control information to and / or from multiple UEs. The communication and processing circuit 1641 can be further configured to perform UL / DL communication using beamforming signals.

[0185] The communication and processing circuitry 1641 may also be configured to receive uplink signals on one or more uplink receive beams via one or more uplink transmit beams applied to the uplink signals. For example, the communication and processing circuitry 1641 may be configured to receive uplink signals on one or more uplink receive beams via at least one second antenna panel of the antenna array 1620. The uplink signals may include, for example, PUCCH, PUSCH, SRS, DMRS, or PRACH.

[0186] In some implementations where communication involves receiving information, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can obtain information from BS 1600 (e.g., from transceiver 1610 that receives information via radio frequency signaling or some other type of signaling suitable for the applicable communication medium), process (e.g., decode) the information, and output the processed information. For example, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can output the information to another component of processor 1604, memory 1605, or bus interface 1608. In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can receive one or more of signals, messages, other information, or any combination thereof. In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can receive information via one or more channels. In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can include the functionality of a unit for receiving.

[0187] In some implementations where communication involves transmitting (e.g., emitting) information, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can obtain information (e.g., from another component of processor 1604, memory 1605, or bus interface 1608), process (e.g., encode) the information, and output the processed information. For example, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can output the information to transceiver 1610 (e.g., transceiver 1610 transmits information via radio frequency signaling or some other type of signaling suitable for the applicable communication medium). In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can transmit one or more of signals, messages, other information, or any combination thereof. In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can transmit information via one or more channels. In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1641 can include the functionality of a unit for transmitting (e.g., a unit for emitting).

[0188] Processor 1604 can include timing advance circuitry 1642, which can operate with communication and processing circuitry 1641 to send a timing advance signal and a timing advance indication signal to the UE. Timing advance circuitry 1642 can be configured to process a timing report received from the UE, which can indicate the timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal based on a previous timing advance signal sent from the BS, and send a timing advance indication signal to the UE for FD communication based on the received timing report. As described above, the timing advance indication signal can include a second, updated timing advance signal, which can be different from the previous timing advance signal, or can include a variable compensation factor. In some examples, the variable compensation factor δ can be based on a measurement of the timing difference between a first timing t1 of a received FD downlink transmission and a second timing t2 for an FD uplink transmission, where the variable compensation factor δ is determined according to the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix.

[0189] In some examples, the timing advance circuit 1642 can be configured to adjust the cyclic prefix value before sending the second timing advance signal. The second timing advance signal can be sent on one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) status link, a panel identification link, or a beam group link (e.g., via the transceiver 1610). The timing advance circuit 1642 can also be configured to execute timing advance software 1652 included on the computer-readable medium 1606 to implement one or more functions described herein.

[0190] Figure 17 is a flow chart illustrating an example process 1700 for full-duplex (FD) communication at a UE using a timing advance indication signal, according to some aspects. As described below, some or all of the illustrated features may be omitted in certain implementations within the scope of the present disclosure, and some of the illustrated features may not be required for all example implementations. In some examples, the process 1700 may be performed by Figure 15 The UE 1500 shown in FIG. 1 is executed by a processor or processing system, or by any appropriate means for performing the functions described.

[0191] At block 1702, the UE receives a first timing advance signal. At block 1704, the UE determines that the timing difference between the downlink signal and the uplink signal is not within a threshold based on the first timing advance signal. Figure 15 The timing advance circuit 1542 shown and described may provide: means for determining a timing difference and a timing difference not within a threshold. In some cases, the threshold comprises a cyclic prefix value. In some cases, the threshold comprises a cyclic prefix value minus a DL delay spread value.

[0192] In block 1706, the UE sends a timing report including the determined timing difference to the base station. In some examples, the timing report may be sent in a random access response (RAR) or a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE).

[0193] In block 1708, the UE receives an updated timing advance indication signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station based on the timing report. In some cases, the updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal that is different from the first timing advance signal. In some cases, the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal. In some cases, the updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

[0194] In addition, in some cases, the updated timing advance signal includes a variable compensation factor (δ). In some cases, the variable compensation factor (δ) is based on a timing report. For example, in some cases, determining the timing difference in block 1702 may include: measuring the timing difference between a first timing (t1) for a downlink signal and a second timing (t2) for an uplink signal. In some cases, the downlink signal includes a received FD downlink transmission, and the uplink signal includes an FD uplink transmission received at the UE. In this case, the variable compensation factor (δ) may be based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 – δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix.

[0195] In some cases, process 1700 may further include: using the variable compensation factor (δ) to adjust the start of the uplink time slot for FD communication. For example, in some cases, the UE may apply the updated timing adjustment (TA) value indicated in the timing advance signal to the original timing advance value included in the first timing advance signal.

[0196] Figure 18 is a flowchart showing an example process 1800 of full-duplex (FD) communication at a base station using a timing advance indication signal. As described below, in a particular implementation within the scope of the present disclosure, some or all of the illustrated features may be omitted, and for all example implementations, some of the illustrated features may not be required. In some examples, process 1800 may be performed by Figure 16 the BS 1600 illustrated in, by a processor or processing system, by any suitable unit for performing the described functions.

[0197] At block 1802, the base station transmits a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE).

[0198] In block 1804, the base station receives a timing report from the UE that includes the timing difference between the downlink signal and the uplink signal, based on the first timing advance signal. For example, the timing advance circuit 1642 illustrated and described above may provide: a unit for receiving and processing the timing report. Figure 16

[0199] In block 1806, the base station may transmit an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication to the UE, based on the received timing report. In some examples, the timing advance indication signal may be transmitted in a random access response (RAR) or a media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE). In some cases, the updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

[0200] In some cases, the updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal that is different from the first timing advance signal. In some cases, the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

[0201] In addition, in some cases, the updated timing advance signal includes a variable compensation factor (δ). In some cases, the variable compensation factor δ is based on the timing difference between the first timing t1 of the received FD downlink transmission and the second timing t2 for the FD uplink transmission, where the variable compensation factor δ is based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix.

[0202] Figure 19 is another flowchart showing an example process 1900 of full-duplex (FD) communication at a UE using a timing advance indication signal. As described below, in certain implementations within the scope of the present disclosure, some or all of the illustrated features may be omitted, and for all example implementations, some of the illustrated features may not be required. In some examples, process 1900 may be performed by Figure 15 the UE 1500 shown in, by a processor or processing system, by any suitable unit for performing the described functions.

[0203] In block 1902, the UE receives a first timing advance signal from the base station.

[0204] In block 1904, the UE determines a variable compensation factor associated with the timing difference between the downlink signal and the uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal. For example, the timing advance circuit 1542 shown and described above in Figure 15 may provide: a unit for determining the variable compensation factor.

[0205] In block 1906, the UE sends a timing report including the determined variable compensation factor to the base station.

[0206] In block 1908, the UE receives an updated timing advance signal for FD communication based on the timing report. In some cases, the updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

[0207] In some cases, the updated timing advance includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal. In some cases, the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

[0208] In some cases, determining the variable compensation factor includes: using the Layer 1 Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (L1-SINR) measurement. In some cases, the L1-SINR measurement includes the Channel Measurement Resource (CMR) and the Self-Interference Measurement Resource (SIMR) of each of the transmit / receive beam pair, the Two-Way Transmission Configuration Index (TCI) state, the UE panel, the UE beam group, or the UE.

[0209] In some cases, the updated timing advance signal includes a second variable compensation factor for adjusting the first timing advance. Additionally, in some cases, the second variable compensation factor is based on the measurement of the timing difference between the first timing t1 for FD downlink transmission and the second timing t2 for FD uplink transmission, where the second variable compensation factor is determined according to the following relationship, t1 - t2 - δ2 < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix and δ2 is the second variable compensation factor.

[0210] Furthermore, in some cases, process 1900 may also include: using the second variable compensation factor to adjust the start of the uplink time slot to adjust the first timing advance.

[0211] Figure 20 is another flowchart showing an example process 2000 of full-duplex (FD) communication at a base station using a timing advance indication signal. As described below, in a particular implementation within the scope of the present disclosure, some or all of the illustrated features may be omitted, and for all example implementations, some of the illustrated features may not be required. In some examples, process 2000 may be performed by Figure 16 the BS 1600 shown in, by a processor or a processing system, by any suitable unit for performing the described functions.

[0212] In block 2002, the base station sends a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE).

[0213] In block 2004, the base station receives a timing report from the UE, the timing report including a variable compensation factor associated with the timing difference between the downlink signal and the uplink signal based on the first timing advance signal.

[0214] In block 2006, the base station sends an updated timing advance signal to the UE based on the received timing report. In some cases, the updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active Transmission Configuration Index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

[0215] In some cases, the updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal. In some cases, the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

[0216] In some cases, the updated timing advance signal includes a second variable compensation factor for adjusting the first timing advance. Additionally, in some cases, the second variable compensation factor is based on a measurement of the timing difference between a first timing t1 for FD downlink transmission and a second timing t2 for FD uplink transmission, where a second variable compensation factor δ is determined according to the following relationship, t1 - t2 - δ2 < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix and δ2 is the second variable compensation factor.

[0217] Example clauses

[0218] The implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0219] Clause 1: A method for full-duplex (FD) communication at a user equipment, the method comprising: receiving a first timing advance signal from a base station; based on the first timing advance signal, determining that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold; sending a timing report including the determined timing difference to the base station; and based on the timing report, receiving an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station.

[0220] Clause 2: The method according to clause 1, wherein the threshold includes a cyclic prefix value.

[0221] Clause 3: The method according to clause 1, wherein the threshold includes a cyclic prefix value minus a downlink (DL) delay spread value.

[0222] Clause 4: The method according to any one of clauses 1-3, wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal.

[0223] Clause 5: The method according to clause 4, wherein the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

[0224] Clause 6: The method according to any one of clauses 1-5, wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a variable compensation factor.

[0225] Clause 7: The method according to Clause 6, wherein: the variable compensation factor is based on the timing report, and the method further includes: measuring a timing difference between a first timing (t1) for the downlink signal and a second timing (t2) for the uplink signal, the downlink signal including the received FD downlink transmission, the uplink signal including the received FD uplink transmission at the UE, and the variable compensation factor is based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix and δ is the variable compensation factor.

[0226] Clause 8: The method according to Clause 6, further including: using the variable compensation factor to adjust the start of the uplink time slot for FD communication.

[0227] Clause 9: The method according to Clause 8, wherein adjusting the start of the uplink time slot includes: applying the variable compensation factor to an original timing advance value included in the first timing advance signal.

[0228] Clause 10: The method according to any one of Clauses 1-9, wherein the updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

[0229] Clause 11: A method for full-duplex (FD) communication at a base station, the method including: sending a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); receiving, based on the first timing advance signal, a timing report including a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal from the UE; and sending, based on the received timing report, an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication to the UE.

[0230] Clause 12: The method according to Clause 11, wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal.

[0231] Clause 13: The method according to Clause 12, wherein the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset compared to the first timing advance signal.

[0232] Clause 14: The method according to Clause 11, wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a variable compensation factor.

[0233] Clause 15: The method according to Clause 14, wherein the variable compensation factor is based on the timing difference between a first timing t1 for the received FD downlink transmission and a second timing t2 for the FD uplink transmission, and wherein the variable compensation factor is based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix and δ is the variable compensation factor.

[0234] Clause 16: The method according to any one of Clauses 11 - 15, wherein the updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

[0235] Clause 17: A method for full - duplex (FD) communication at a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving a first timing advance signal from a base station; determining, based on the first timing advance signal, a variable compensation factor associated with the timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal; sending a timing report including the determined variable compensation factor to the base station; and receiving, based on the timing report, an updated timing advance signal for FD communication from the base station.

[0236] Clause 18: The method according to Clause 17, wherein determining the variable compensation factor comprises: using layer 1 signal - to - interference - plus - noise ratio (L1 - SINR) measurements.

[0237] Clause 19: The method according to Clause 18, wherein the L1 - SINR measurements include channel measurement resources (CMR) and self - interference measurement resources (SIMR) measured for each of a transmit / receive beam pair, a two - way transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a UE panel, a UE beam group, or the UE.

[0238] Clause 20: The method according to any one of Clauses 17 - 19, wherein the updated timing advance comprises a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal.

[0239] Clause 21: The method according to Clause 20, wherein the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

[0240] Clause 22: The method according to any one of Clauses 17 - 19, wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a second variable compensation factor to adjust the first timing advance.

[0241] Clause 23: The method according to Clause 22, wherein the second variable compensation factor is based on a measurement of the timing difference between a first timing t1 for FD downlink transmission and a second timing t2 for FD uplink transmission, and wherein the second variable compensation factor is based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 – δ2 < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix and δ2 is the second variable compensation factor.

[0242] Clause 24: The method according to any one of Clauses 22-23, further comprising: adjusting the start of the uplink time slot using the second variable compensation factor to adjust the first timing advance.

[0243] Clause 25: A method for full-duplex (FD) communication at a base station, the method comprising: sending a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); receiving, based on the first timing advance signal, a timing report from the UE that includes a variable compensation factor associated with the timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal; and sending an updated timing advance signal to the UE based on the received timing report.

[0244] Clause 26: The method according to Clause 25, wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal.

[0245] Clause 27: The method according to Clause 26, wherein the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

[0246] Clause 28: The method according to Clause 25, wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a second variable compensation factor.

[0247] Clause 29: The method according to Clause 28, wherein the second variable compensation factor is based on the timing report, and wherein the timing report is based on a measurement of the timing difference between a first timing t1 of the received FD downlink transmission and a second timing t2 of the received FD uplink transmission at the UE, and wherein the second variable compensation factor is determined according to the following relationship: t1 - t2 – δ2 < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix and δ2 is the second variable compensation factor.

[0248] Clause 30: The method according to any one of Clauses 25-29, wherein the updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

[0249] Clause 31: An apparatus comprising: a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor and the memory are configured to perform the method of any of clauses 1-30.

[0250] Clause 32: An apparatus comprising means for performing the method according to any one of clauses 1-30.

[0251] Clause 33: A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by one or more processors of a device to perform the method of any of clauses 1-30.

[0252] Clause 34: A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium comprising code for performing the method according to any one of clauses 1-30.

[0253] Other considerations

[0254] Some aspects of wireless communication networks are presented with reference to exemplary implementations. As will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, various aspects described throughout this disclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards.

[0255] For example, various aspects may be implemented in other systems specified by 3GPP, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), Evolved Packet System (EPS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and / or Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). Various aspects may also be extended to systems specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), such as CDMA2000 and / or Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO). Other examples may be implemented in systems using IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and / or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunication standard, network architecture, and / or communication standard used will depend on the specific application and any design constraints imposed on the system.

[0256] Likewise, the word “aspect” does not require that all aspects of the present disclosure include the feature, advantage, or mode of operation being discussed. The term “coupled” is used herein to refer to a direct or indirect coupling between two objects. For example, if object A physically contacts object B, and object B contacts object C, objects A and C may still be considered to be coupled to each other even if they are not in direct physical contact with each other. For example, a first object may be coupled to a second object even if the first object has never been in direct physical contact with the second object. The terms “circuit” and “electronic circuit” are used broadly and are intended to include hardware implementations of electronic devices and conductors (which, when connected and configured, enable the performance of the functions described in this disclosure, without limitation to the type of electronic circuit) and software implementations of information and instructions (which, when executed by a processor, enable the performance of the functions described in this disclosure).

[0257] Can Figure 1-20 One or more of the components, steps, features, and / or functions shown in the drawings may be rearranged and / or combined into a single component, step, feature, or function, or may be embodied in several components, steps, or functions. In addition, additional elements, components, steps, and / or functions may be added without departing from the novel features disclosed herein. Figure 1 、 2 , 4, 5 and / or any one or more of the devices, apparatuses and / or components shown in 7-17 can be configured to perform one or more of the methods, features or steps described herein. The novel algorithms described herein can also be efficiently implemented using software and / or embedded in hardware.

[0258] It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed herein is merely an example of an exemplary process. It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in these methods may be rearranged based on design preferences. The accompanying method claims provide elements of the various steps in an example order and are not intended to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy provided unless expressly stated herein.

[0259] To enable anyone of ordinary skill in the art to implement the various aspects described herein, the above description focuses on various aspects. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, and the general principles defined herein may also be applied to other aspects. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the aspects shown herein, but is consistent with the full scope of the present disclosure, wherein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the singular to modify a component does not mean "one and only one," but rather "one or more." Unless otherwise specified, the term "some" refers to one or more. A phrase referring to "at least one of" a list item refers to any combination of these items, including a single member. For example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a and b and c. All structural and functional equivalents of the components of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be covered by the claims, and such structural and functional equivalents are or become known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims.

Claims

1. A method for full-duplex (FD) communication at a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: Receiving a first timing advance signal from a base station; Based on the first timing advance signal, determining that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold, wherein the threshold includes a cyclic prefix value; Sending a timing report including the determined timing difference to the base station; Based on the timing report, receiving an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station, wherein the updated timing advance signal is configured to adjust the timing difference within the cyclic prefix value, and wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a variable compensation factor; and Measuring the timing difference between a first timing (t1) for the downlink signal and a second timing (t2) for the uplink signal, wherein the downlink signal includes an FD downlink transmission, the uplink signal includes an FD uplink transmission, and the variable compensation factor is based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix value, and δ is the variable compensation factor.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The threshold further includes the cyclic prefix value minus a downlink (DL) delay spread value.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein The updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein: The second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The variable compensation factor is based on the timing report.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Using the variable compensation factor, adjusting the start of an uplink time slot for FD communication.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The adjusting the start of the uplink time slot includes: applying the variable compensation factor to an original timing advance value included in the first timing advance signal.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein The updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

9. A method for full-duplex (FD) communication at a base station, the method comprising: Sending a first timing advance signal to a user equipment (UE); Based on the first timing advance signal, receiving from the UE a timing report indicating that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold, wherein the threshold includes a cyclic prefix value; and Based on the received timing report, sending an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication to the UE, wherein the updated timing advance signal is configured to adjust the timing difference within the cyclic prefix value, and wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a variable compensation factor; and Among them, the downlink signal includes FD downlink transmission, the uplink signal includes FD uplink transmission, the variable compensation factor is based on the timing difference between the first timing t1 for the FD downlink transmission and the second timing t2 for the FD uplink transmission, and the variable compensation factor is based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix value, and δ is the variable compensation factor.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein: The updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset compared to the first timing advance signal.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein The updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

13. A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, comprising: A transceiver; A memory; And A processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: Receive a first timing advance signal from a base station; Based on the first timing advance signal, determine that the timing difference between the downlink signal and the uplink signal is not within a threshold, where the threshold includes a cyclic prefix value; Send a timing report including the determined timing difference to the base station; Based on the timing report, receive an updated timing advance signal for full-duplex (FD) communication from the base station, where the updated timing advance signal is configured to adjust the timing difference within the cyclic prefix value, and where the updated timing advance signal includes a variable compensation factor; and Measure the timing difference between the first timing (t1) for the downlink signal and the second timing (t2) for the uplink signal, the downlink signal includes FD downlink transmission, the uplink signal includes FD uplink transmission, and the variable compensation factor is based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix value, and δ is the variable compensation factor.

14. The UE according to claim 13, wherein: The threshold further includes the cyclic prefix value minus the downlink (DL) delay spread value.

15. The UE according to claim 13, wherein: The updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal.

16. The UE according to claim 15, wherein: The second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

17. The UE according to claim 13, wherein: The variable compensation factor is based on the timing report.

18. The UE according to claim 13, further comprising: Using the variable compensation factor, adjust the start of the uplink time slot for FD communication.

19. The UE according to claim 18, wherein: The adjustment of the start of the uplink time slot includes: applying the variable compensation factor to the original timing advance value included in the first timing advance signal.

20. The UE according to claim 13, wherein: The updated timing advance signal is associated with at least one of an active beam pair link, an active transmission configuration index (TCI) state, a panel identifier, or a beam group.

21. A non - transitory computer - readable medium comprising instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a device to perform the following operations: Receive a first timing advance signal from a base station; Based on the first timing advance signal, determining that a timing difference between a downlink signal and an uplink signal is not within a threshold, wherein The threshold includes a cyclic prefix value; Send a timing report including the determined timing difference to the base station; Based on the timing report, receive an updated timing advance signal from the base station for full - duplex (FD) communication, wherein the updated timing advance signal is configured to adjust the timing difference within the cyclic prefix value, and wherein the updated timing advance signal includes a variable compensation factor; and Measure the timing difference between a first timing (t1) for the downlink signal and a second timing (t2) for the uplink signal, the downlink signal including an FD downlink transmission, the uplink signal including an FD uplink transmission, and the variable compensation factor is based on the following relationship: t1 - t2 - δ < CP, where CP is the cyclic prefix value, and δ is the variable compensation factor.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein: The threshold further includes the cyclic prefix value minus the downlink (DL) delay spread value.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein: The updated timing advance signal includes a second timing advance signal different from the first timing advance signal, and the second timing advance signal has a shorter timing offset than the first timing advance signal.

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