Method and apparatus for unequal protection of data streams

Abstract

User equipment (UE), next generation NodeB (gNB), or other network components can operate to configure unequal protection of data packets, including transport blocks (TBs), medium access control (MAC) packet data units, etc., into a single physical layer packaging for transmission. TBs can be unequally protected within the packaging on a single physical channel (e.g., a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), etc.) with four or fewer spatial layers (e.g., two spatial layers). Spatial, temporal, or frequency resources can be unequally utilized between different TBs or PDUs that can be transmitted at the physical layer, especially to prioritize or more tightly protect a particular TB over another within the packaging for a particular protocol or application.

Description

[0001] Reference to Related Applications

[0002] This application is a national stage entry of International Patent Application No. PCT / CN2020 / 123369, filed October 23, 2020, entitled “UNEQUAL PROTECTION OF DATASTREAMS,” the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present disclosure relates to wireless technology, and more specifically, to techniques for unequal protection of datastreams. BACKGROUND

[0004] Mobile communications in next generation wireless communication systems, 5G or New Radio (NR) networks, will provide ubiquitous connectivity and access to information and the ability to share data globally. For example, communication service providers (CSPs) expect key benefits from 5G to be high speed, high reliability, and low latency. High speed facilitates faster and larger amounts of video-based content to be uploaded and downloaded, high reliability supports mission-critical services such as robotic factories, and low latency makes delay-critical services such as self-driving cars a reality. These network benefits have been the primary reason behind the development of 5G: high speed (targeting 10 Gbps) reduces latency to less than a millisecond and increases reliability, sufficiently justifying the use of 5G networks for life-critical services like remote surgery and autonomous self-driving cars. IoT opens a new world of differentiated services including interconnecting homes, automated factories, and massive numbers of devices, which will bring huge business opportunities for IoT service providers as well as CSPs. The ITU has essentially categorized 5G services into enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (uRLLC), or massive machine type communication (mMTC) services. Each of these categories has different requirements for latency, reliability, and connectivity, with uRLLC services being the most dependent on these parameters. Due to its ultra-reliable, low-latency characteristics, uRLLC is an ideal choice for new services like autonomous cars, industrial automation, and extended reality (XR) (including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), cloud gaming, and other interactive video streaming applications) and modern edge computing that significantly extends virtual technologies on edge servers. Therefore, there is a continuous need to update data traffic models and to do so to enable 5G next generation, New Radio (NR) devices to evolve based on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced technology, where more enhanced Radio Access Technologies (RATs) enable seamless and faster wireless connectivity solutions using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0005] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a user equipment (UE) that can be used with various aspects described herein, communicatively coupled via a network with network constituents as peer devices.

[0006] Figure 2 A control plane protocol stack that can be implemented for operations of various embodiments and aspects described herein is shown.

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

[0008] Figure 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow for unequal data protection for data streams having different data units or transport blocks in a same physical layer transmission in accordance with various aspects.

[0009] Figure 5 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow for unequal data protection for data streams having different data units or transport blocks in a physical layer transmission in accordance with various aspects.

[0010] Figure 6 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow for unequal data protection for data streams having different data units or transport blocks in a physical layer transmission in accordance with various aspects.

[0011] Figure 7 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow for unequal data protection for data streams having different data units or transport blocks in a physical layer transmission in accordance with various aspects.

[0012] Figure 8 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow for unequal data protection for data streams having different data units or transport blocks in a physical layer transmission in accordance with various aspects.

[0013] Figure 9 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow for unequal data protection for data streams having different data units or transport blocks in a physical layer transmission in accordance with various aspects.

[0014] Figure 10 is another block diagram illustrating a physical layer encapsulation for unequal data protection in accordance with various aspects.

[0015] Figure 11is another block diagram illustrating exemplary process flows for unequal data protection for data streams with different data units or transport blocks in physical layer transmissions in accordance with various aspects. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled in a manner that minimizes risks from unauthorized or unintended access or use of data, and that is in compliance with privacy policies and practices that are recognized as satisfying or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users.

[0017] The disclosure will now be described with reference to the drawings, wherein like (or like ending) reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout, and wherein the illustrated numbering and configuration of elements as shown in the figures is not necessarily to scale. As utilized herein, terms such as component, system, interface, and the like are intended to refer to computer-related entities, hardware, software (e.g., in execution), and / or firmware. For example, a component can be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller or other processing device), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, an executable, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet, and / or a user equipment (e.g., a mobile phone or the like) with a processing device. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and a component can be localized on one computer and / or distributed between two or more computers. A set of elements or a set of other components can be described herein, in which the term “set” can be construed as “one or more” of the elements or other components.

[0018] Furthermore, these components can execute from various computer readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon, such as with a module, for example. The components can communicate via local and / or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and / or across the Internet with other systems, such as in a cloud computing system, other networked environments, etc.), and / or in accordance with a data signal communicated over a variety of mediums, such as wireline, wireless, optical, etc.

[0019] As another example, a component can be an apparatus with specific functionality provided by mechanical components operated by electric or electronic circuitry, in which the electric or electronic circuitry can be operated by a software application or a firmware application executed by one or more processors. The one or more processors can be internal or external to the apparatus and can execute at least a part of the software or firmware application. As yet another example, a component can be an apparatus that provides specific functionality through electronic components without mechanical components; the electronic components can include one or more processors therein, to execute at least a portion of software and / or firmware that conveys functionality to the electronic components.

[0020] Use of the word “example” is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form. Moreover, to the extent that the terms “include”, “have”, “possess”, “contain” or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprise” or “comprising”. Additionally, where the discussion of one or more numbered items (e.g., “a first X”, “a second X”, etc.) is made, generally the one or more numbered items can be different or they can be the same, but in some cases the context can indicate that they are different or that they are the same.

[0021] As used herein, the term “circuitry” can refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), or associated memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that executes one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry can be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry can be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitry can include logic at least partially implemented in hardware.

[0022] In light of the above, various aspects / embodiments are disclosed for communication in NR network devices (e.g., user equipment (UE), evolved NodeB (eNB), next generation NodeB (gNB), new radio (NR) base station (BS), etc.). For advanced LTE and 5G NR devices, reliability, low latency, and throughput can be maintained when encoding and decoding streaming data by configuring unequal data partitioning in a radio link. In particular, when a radio link is not processed to provide reliable, low latency communication (RLLC) with high throughput on all data streams, it is important to protect the most critical traffic to guarantee UE quality of experience (QoE).

[0023] In one aspect, a gNB or UE may, for example, configure a physical layer packaging by multiplexing different transport blocks (TBs) for physical layer transmission, with unequal protection between different TBs of the physical layer packaging, such as packets that are encapsulated with a particular evolved packet core (EPC) protocol and tunneled between core network (CN) components (e.g., access and mobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF), packet data network gateway (P-GW), etc.) and e / gNB on a user plane, transmission time interval (TTI), or other parameters for encapsulating data from higher layers into a frame for transmission within a transmission opportunity on a radio link layer. The TBs within the physical layer packaging can be securely protected for a single transmission burst using various resources including spatial, frequency, or time resources unequally. The physical layer packaging can be provided to transmitter circuitry that transmits (or receives) data for physical layer transmission with unequal protection on the TBs multiplexed therein. The physical layer transmission can be configured with four or fewer spatial layers via a physical channel (e.g., physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in next generation (NR) networks).

[0024] Other aspects and details of the disclosure are further described below with respect to the drawings.

[0025] The embodiments described herein can be implemented into a system using any suitable configuration of hardware, software, or other components. Figure 1Architectures of a system 100 including a core network (CN) 120, such as a Fifth Generation (5G) CN (5GC), are shown in accordance with various embodiments. The system 100 is shown to include a UE 101, which can be the same or similar to one or more other UEs discussed herein; a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Radio Access Network (RAN or RAN) or other (e.g., non-3GPP) AN, (R)AN 210, which can include one or more RAN nodes (e.g., Evolved Node Bs (eNBs)), Next Generation Node Bs (gNBs and / or other nodes) or other nodes or access points; and a Data Network (DN) 103, which can be, for example, operator services, Internet access or third party services; and a Fifth Generation Core (5GC) 120. The 5GC 120 can include one or more of the following functions and network components: an Authentication Server Function (AUSF) 122; an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 121; a Session Management Function (SMF) 124; a Network Exposure Function (NEF) 123; a Policy Control Function (PCF) 126; a Network Repository Function (NRF) 125; a Unified Data Management (UDM) 127; an Application Function (AF) 128; a User Plane (UP) Function (UPF) 102; and a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) 129.

[0026] In this example, the one or more UEs 101 are shown as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but can include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), electronic / engine control units (ECUs), electronic / engine control module (ECM), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management system (EMS), networked or “smart” appliances, Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and the like.

[0027] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 can be IoT UEs, which can include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that involves a limited set of capabilities, reduced user interaction, and reduced device complexity. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), near field communication (NFC), radio frequency

[0028] The UPF 102 can act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, a external protocol data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect to DN 103, and a branching point for multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 102 can also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for user plane traffic (e.g., packet filtering, gating, uplink (UL) / downlink (DL) rate enforcement), perform Uplink Traffic verification (e.g., Service Data Flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 102 can include an uplink classifier for inspecting packets and routing traffic to a data network. The DN 103 can represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The DN 103 can include, or be similar to, an application server. The UPF 102 can interact with the SMF 124 via a N4 reference point between the SMF 124 and the UPF 102.

[0029] The AUSF 122 can store data for authentication of the UEs 101 and handle authentication-related functionality. The AUSF 122 can facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 122 can communicate with the AMF 121 via a N12 reference point between the AMF 121 and the AUSF 122, and can communicate with the UDM 127 via a N13 reference point between the UDM 127 and the AUSF 122. Additionally, the AUSF 122 can exhibit a Nausf service-based interface.

[0030] AMF 121 can handle registration management (e.g., registering UE 101, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. AMF 121 can be the termination point of the N11 reference point between AMF 121 and SMF 124. AMF 121 can provide transmission for SM messages between UE 101 and SMF 124 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 121 can also provide transmission for UE 101 and Short Message Service (SMS) Function (SMSF) (… Figure 1 SMS messages are transmitted between (not shown in the image) and UE 101. AMF 121 can act as a Security Anchoring Function (SEAF), which may include interaction with AUSF 122 and UE 101 and / or receiving an intermediate key established due to the UE 101 authentication process. In the case of authentication using the Global User Identity Module (USIM), AMF 121 may retrieve security material from AUSF 122. AMF 121 may also include a Single Connection Mode (SCM) function, which receives a key from SEA for deriving an access network-specific key. Furthermore, AMF 121 may be the termination point of the RAN Control Plane (CP) interface, which may include or may be the N2 reference point between (R)AN 110 and AMF 121; and AMF 121 may be the termination point of Non-Access Stratum (NAS) (N1) signaling and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0031] The AMF 121 can also support NAS signaling with the UE 101 over a Non-3GPP (N3) InterWorking Function (IWF) interface. The N3IWF can be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3IWF can be a termination point for the N2 interface between the (R)AN 110 and the AMF 121 for the control plane, and can be a termination point for the N3 reference point between the (R)AN 110 and the UPF 102 for the user plane. Thus, the AMF 121 can handle N2 signaling from the SMF 124 and the AMF 121 for PDU sessions and QoS, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for Internet Protocol (IP) security (IPsec) and N3 tunneling, mark N3 user-plane packets in the uplink, and enforce QoS requirements corresponding to N3 packet marking, taking into account QoS requirements associated with such marking received over N2. The N3IWF can also relay uplink and downlink control-plane NAS signaling between the UE 101 and the AMF 121 via an Nl reference point between the UE 101 and the AMF 121, and relay uplink and downlink user-plane packets between the UE 101 and the UPF 102. The N3IWF also provides mechanisms for establishment of IPsec tunnels utilizing the UE 101. The AMF 121 can exhibit a Namf service-based interface, and can be a termination point for an N14 reference point between two AMFs 121 and an N17 reference point between the AMF 121 and the 5G Equipment Identity Register (5G-EIR) (not shown) in the Figure 1

[0032] The UE 101 can register with the AMF 121 in order to receive network services. Registration Management (RM) is used to register or deregister the UE 101 with the network (e.g., AMF 121), and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 121). The UE 101 can operate in an RM-REGISTERED state or an RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, the UE 101 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 121 holds no valid location or routing information for the UE 101 so the AMF 121 is not able to reach the UE 101. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 101 is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 121 can hold valid location or routing information for the UE 101 so the AMF 121 is able to reach the UE 101. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 101 can perform mobility registration update procedures, perform periodic registration update procedures triggered by expiration of the periodic update timer (e.g., to inform the network that the UE 101 remains active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or to re-negotiate protocol parameters with the network, among other examples.​​

[0033] The AMF 121 can store one or more RM contexts for the UE 101, where each RM context is associated with a particular access to the network. The RM context can be a data structure, database object, or the like, that indicates or stores, among other things, a registration state per access type and a periodic update timer. The AMF 121 can also store a 5GC mobility management (MM) context, which can be the same or analogous to an (enhanced packet system (EPS)) MM ((E)MM) context. In various embodiments, the AMF 121 can store a coverage enhancement (CE) mode B restriction parameter for the UE 101 in an associated MM context or an RM context. The AMF 121 can also derive a value, when needed, from a usage setting parameter of the UE that has been stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context).

[0034] Connection management (CM) can be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 101 and the AMF 121 over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 101 and the CN 120 and includes a signaling connection between the UE and an AN (e.g., an RRC connection or a UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPP access) as well as an N2 connection between the UE 101 and the AMF 121 over the AN (e.g., RAN 110). The UE 101 can operate in one of two CM states, a CM IDLE mode or a CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE 101 is operating in the CM-IDLE state / mode, the UE 101 can not have NAS signaling

[0035] The SMF 124 can be responsible for session management (SM) (e.g., session establishment, modify, and release, including tunnel maintain between UPF and AN node); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to Lawful Intercept (LI) system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent over N2 to AN via AMF; and determining session's Session and Service Continuity (SSC) mode. SM can refer to management of a PDU Session, and a PDU Session or “session” can refer to a PDU Connectivity Service that provides, or enables, exchange of PDUs between a UE 101 and a Data Network (DN) 103 identified by a Data Network Name (DNN) 103. A PDU Session can be established upon UE 101 request using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1 reference point between the UE 101 and the SMF 124, modified upon UE 101 and 5GC 120 request, and released upon UE 101 and 5GC 120 request. Upon request from an application server, the 5GC 120 can trigger a specific application program in the UE 101. In response to receiving the trigger message, the UE 101 can pass the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified application programs in the UE 101. The identified application program(s) in the UE 101 can establish a PDU Session with a specific DNN. The SMF 124 can check whether the UE 101 requests are in line with user subscription information associated with the UE 101. In this regard, the SMF 124 can retrieve and / or request to receive update notifications of SMF 124 level subscription data from the UDM 127.

[0036] The SMF 124 can include the following roaming functionality: handling local enforcement of Quality of Service (QoS) Service Level Agreements (SLAs) (Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN)); charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system, in VPLMN); and support for interaction with external DN to transfer signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication by external DN. In roaming scenarios, an N16 reference point between two SMFs 124 can be included in the system 100, which can be between a SMF 124 in a visited network and another SMF 124 in a home network. Additionally, the SMF 124 can exhibit an Nsmf service-based interface.

[0037] The NEF 123 can provide means for securely exposing services and capabilities offered by 3 GPP network functions to third parties, internal exposure / reexposure, application functions (e.g., AF 128), edge computing or fog computing systems, or the like. In such embodiments, the NEF 123 can authenticate, authorize, and / or throttle the AFs. NEF 123 can also translate information exchanged with the AFs 128 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 123 can translate between an AF service identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 123 can also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on their exposure capabilities. The information can be stored at the NEF 123 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 123 to other NFs and AFs, and / or used for other purposes such as analytics. In addition, the NEF 123 can exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.

[0038] The NRF 125 can support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to NF instances. The NRF 125 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like can refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” can refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which can occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 125 can exhibit an Nnrf service-based interface.

[0039] The PCF 126 can provide a control plane function to enforce their policy rules, and also can support a unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 126 can also implement an FE to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 127. The PCF 126 can be in communication with the AMF 121 via an N15 reference point between the PCF 126 and the AMF 121, which can include a PCF 126 in a visited network and an AMF 121 in case of roaming scenarios. The PCF 126 can be in communication with the AF 128 via an N5 reference point between the PCF 126 and the AF 128, and can be in communication with the SMF 124 via an N7 reference point between the PCF 126 and the SMF 124. The system 100 and / or CN 120 can also include an N24 reference point between the (home network) PCF 126 and a PCF 126 in a visited network. Additionally, the PCF 126 can exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

[0040] The UDM 127 can handle subscription-related information to support the handling of communication sessions by network entities, and can store subscription data of UEs 101. For example, subscription data can be transferred between the UDM 127 and the AMF 121 via an N8 reference point between the UDM 127 and the AMF. The UDM 127 can include two parts: an application Function Entity (FE) and a Unified Data Repository (UDR) (FE and UDR not shown in Figure 1 The UDR can store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 127 and the PCF 126, and / or structured data for exposure and application data (including packet flow description (PFD) for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 101) for the NEF 123. Nudr-based service interfaces can be presented by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 127, PCF 126, and NEF 123 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM can include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. Several different FEs can serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. The UDR can interact with the SMF 124 via an N10 reference point between the UDM 127 and the SMF 124. The UDM 127 can also support SMS management, with an SMS-FE implementing similar application logic as discussed elsewhere herein. In addition, the UDM 127 can exhibit Nudm-based service interfaces.

[0041] The AF 128 can provide influence on traffic routing by the application, provide access to the NEF 123, and interact with the policy framework to enforce policies. The 5GC 120 and AF 128 can provide information to each other via the NEF 123, which can be used for edge computing implementations. In such implementations, network operators and third party services can be hosted close to the UE 101 access points to enable efficient service delivery with reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC can choose a UPF 102 close to the UE 101 and execute traffic steering via the N6 interface from the UPF 102 to the DN 103. This can be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 128. In this way, the AF 128 can influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator deployment, when the AF 128 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow the AF 128 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 128 can exhibit Naf-based service interfaces.

[0042] NSSF 129 can select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 101. NSSF 129 can also appropriately determine the allowed network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and the mapping to the subscribed individual NSSAI (S-NSSAI). NSSF 129 can also determine, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying NRF 125, the set of AMFs to be used to serve UE 101, or a list of candidate AMFs 121. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 101 can be triggered by AMF 121, where UE 101 registers through interaction with NSSF 129, which can result in a change to AMF 121. NSSF 129 can interact with AMF 121 via the N22 reference point between AMF 121 and NSSF 129, and via the N31 reference point (…). Figure 1 (Not shown) communicates with another NSSF 129 in the visited network. Additionally, the NSSF 129 can present an interface based on the Nnssf service.

[0043] As discussed above, CN 120 may include an SMSF responsible for SMS subscription checks and authentication, and relaying SM messages to / from UE 101 and to / from other entities such as SMS-Gateway Mobile Switching Center (GMSC) / Interoperable MSC (IWMSC) / SMS routers. The SMSF may also interact with AMF 121 and UDM 127 for notification procedures indicating that UE 101 is available for SMS delivery (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 127 when UE 101 is available for SMS).

[0044] CN 120 may also include Figure 1 Other elements not shown include data storage systems / architecture, 5G-EIR, Secure Edge Protection Agent (SEPP), etc. Data storage systems may include Structured Data Storage Functions (SDSF), Unstructured Data Storage Functions (UDSF), etc. Any NF can be transmitted via any NF and UDSF ( Figure 1 The N18 reference points (not shown in the diagram) store unstructured data in or retrieve it from the UDSF (e.g., UE context). Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing their respective unstructured data, or each NF may have its own UDSF located at or near the respective NF. Additionally, the UDSF may exhibit an interface based on Nudsf services (…). Figure 1The 5G-EIR can be an NF that checks the status of Permanent Equipment Identifier (PEI) to determine whether to blacklist specific equipment / entities from the network; and the SEPP can be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on inter-PLMN control plane interfaces.

[0045] Additionally, there can be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between NF services in the NFs; however, for the sake of clarity, Figure 1 These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one example, the CN 120 can include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between MMEs (e.g., non-5G MMEs) and the AMF 121, in order to enable interworking between the CN 120 and a non-5G CN. Other example interfaces / reference points can include an N5g-EIR service-based interface exhibited by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between a Network Repository Function (NRF) in a visited network and a NRF in a home network; and an N31 reference point between an NSSF in a visited network and an NSSF in a home network.

[0046] In embodiments, the UEs 101 can be configured to communicate using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 110 over a multicarrier communication channel, according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an OFDMA communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication technique (e.g., for uplink communications or for ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

[0047] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 110 to the UEs 101, while uplink transmissions can utilize a similar technique. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, that is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. For an OFDM system, this kind of time-frequency plane representation is a common practice. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain is reflected in the number of subcarriers in the frequency domain. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element (RE). Each RE carries one complex symbol

[0048] According to various embodiments, the UEs 101 and the RAN nodes 110 communicate data (for example, transmit data and receive data) using licensed medium (also referred to as “licensed spectrum” and / or “licensed bands”) and unlicensed medium (also referred to as “unlicensed spectrum” and / or “unlicensed bands”). The licensed spectrum can include channels that operate in the frequency range of about 400 MHz to about 2.8 GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum can include the 5 GHz band.

[0049] The medium / carrier sensing operations can be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. LBT is a mechanism by which network devices / equipment senses a medium (for example, a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation can include a clear channel assessment (CCA) that utilizes at least energy detection (ED) to determine the presence or absence of other signals on a channel in order to determine if the channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED can include sensing RF energy over an intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0050] In some implementations, the LBT procedure for a downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) transmission burst (including a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission) can have a variable length LAA contention window between X extended CCA (ECCA) slots and Y extended CCA (ECCA) slots, respectively, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values of contention window size (CWS) for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmissions can be 9 microseconds (ps); however, the size of the CWS and the maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) (for example, the transmission burst, or transmission opportunity) can be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0051] The LAA mechanism builds on the Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a component carrier (CC). A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 2, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and a maximum of five or other quantity of CCs can be aggregated, hence a maximum aggregated bandwidth of about 100 MHz, for example. In Frequency-Division Duplexing (FDD) systems, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs can have a different bandwidth from other CCs. In a Time-Division Duplexing (TDD) system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC is generally the same for DL and UL.

[0052] A CA also contains individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of a serving cell can differ, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. A primary serving cell or a PCell can provide a primary component carrier (PCC) for both UL and DL, and can handle radio resource control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS) related activities. Other serving cells are referred to as SCells, and each SCell can provide a single secondary component carrier (SCC) for both UL and DL. SCCs can be added and removed as required, while changing the PCC can require the UE 101 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells can operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCells are assisted by a PCell operating in licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE can receive an UL grant on a configured LAA SCell indicating different PUSCH starting positions within the same subframe.

[0053] The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 101. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channels as well as routing information about UEs 101. It can also inform the UEs 101 about the transport format, resource allocation, and Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UEs 101 within a cell) can be performed at any of the RAN nodes 110 based on channel quality indicators (CQIs) received from any of the UEs 101. The downlink resource assignment information can be sent on the PDCCH using the DL assignment index (DAI) in the uplink grant.

[0054] The PDCCH uses control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver to reduce the correlation between adjacent REs in time and frequency. Each PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can have different lengths depending on the size of the DCI and the channel condition. That is, there can be one or more CCEs, for example, with aggregation levels (AL) of 1, 2, 4, 8, or more in LTE. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined, for example, with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., AL=1, 2, 4, 8, or more).

[0055] The RAN 110 is shown to be communicably coupled to a core network— in this implementation, to a core network (CN) 120. The CN 120 can comprise a plurality of network elements 122 that are configured to provide various data and telecommunications services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 101) connected to the CN 120 via the RAN 110. The components of the CN 120 can be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes including components to read and execute instructions stored on a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV can be used to virtualize any or all of the above-described network functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage mediums. A logical instantiation of the CN 120 can be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 120 can be referred to as a network sub-slice. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) architectures and infrastructures can be used to virtualize one or more network functions on physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches, alternatively executed by specialized hardware. In other words, NFV systems can be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more Evolved Packet Core (EPC) components / functions.

[0056] Figure 2 is an illustration of a control plane protocol stack in accordance with various aspects described herein. In this implementation, the control plane 200 is shown as a communication protocol stack between the UE 101, the RAN node 110, and the AMF 121, SMF 124, or mobility management entity (MME).

[0057] The PHY layer 201 can transport or receive information used by the MAC layer 202 over one or more air interfaces. The PHY layer 201 can also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and for handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers such as the RRC layer 205. The PHY layer 201 can further perform error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna processing.

[0058] The MAC layer 202 can perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC service data units (SDUs) from one or more logical channels into transport blocks (TBs) to be delivered to PHY on transport channels, demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY on transport channels into one or more logical channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and logical channel prioritization.

[0059] The RLC layer 203 can operate in multiple modes of operation, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). The RLC layer 203 can perform transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers. The RLC layer 203 can also re-segment RLC data PDUs for AM data transfers, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0060] The PDCP layer 204 can perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for RLC AM- mapped radio bearers, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0061] The main services and functions of the RRC layer 205 can include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in master information blocks (MIBs) or system information blocks (SIBs) related to non-access stratum (NAS)), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE and E-UTRAN (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point-to-point Radio Bearers, security functions including key management, mobility

[0062] The UE 101 and the RAN node 110 can utilize a Uu interface (e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack including PHY layer 201, MAC layer 202, RLC layer 203, PDCP layer 204, and RRC layer 205.

[0063] A non-access stratum (NAS) protocol 206 forms the highest stratum of the control plane between the UE 101 and the MME 121. The NAS protocol 206 supports the mobility of the UE 101 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 101 and a P-GW or AMF.

[0064] An S1 application protocol (S1-AP) layer 215 can support functions of the S1 interface and include elementary procedures (EPs). An EP is a unit of interaction between the RAN node 110 and the CN 120. S1-AP layer services can include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transfer, RAN information management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

[0065] A stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) layer (also referred to as an SCTP / IP layer) 214 can ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 110 and the MME 121 based, in part, on IP protocols supported by the IP layer 213. The L2 / N2 layer 212 and the L1 / N1 layer 211 can refer to communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) between the RAN node and the AMF, SMF, or MME for exchanging information. For example, the RAN node 110 and the MME or AMF 121 can utilize an interface to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack including the L1 / N1 layer 211, the L2 / N2 layer 212, the IP layer 213, the SCTP layer 214, and the S1-AP layer 215.

[0066] Reference Figure 3FIG. 3, for example, shows a block diagram of a user equipment (UE) device or other network device / component (such as a gNB, eNB, or other access point) with memory. UE device 300 includes one or more processors 310 (such as one or more baseband processors) including processing circuitry and associated interfaces, transceiver circuitry 320 (such as including RF circuitry, which can include transmitter circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more transmit chains) and / or receiver circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more receive chains), which can employ common circuit elements, distinct circuit elements, or a combination thereof), and memory 330 (which can include any of a variety of storage mediums and can store instructions and / or data associated with one or more of processor(s) 310 or transceiver circuitry 320).

[0067] Additionally, memory 330 (as well as other memory components discussed herein, such as memory, data storage, etc.) can include one or more machine-readable media including instructions that, when executed by a machine or component herein, cause the machine to perform various acts including acts described in connection with the methods or apparatuses or systems for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to embodiments and examples described herein. As should be readily understood, aspects described herein can be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the functions can be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium, such as a storage medium of a memory or other storage components discussed herein. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media or computer readable storage devices can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible and / or non-transitory storage medium which can be used to carry or store desired information or executable instructions. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. As described in more detail below, system 400 can facilitate higher power efficiency for data flow operations, including XR data flows, including AR, VR, or other data flow reporting / feedback based on a hierarchical (pre-) coding scheme.

[0068] In one aspect, the UE / gNB device 300 is operable to be configured to handle / generate / encode / decode physical layer transmissions including multiple different transport blocks (TBs) based on unequal protection between the different TBs in a physical layer encapsulation (e.g., EPC packet, transmission opportunity, MCOT, single transmission burst, TTI, or other encapsulation protocol or related encapsulation parameters used to encapsulate data from higher layers into a frame for over-the-air transmission). The physical layer transmissions can be received, transmitted, or provided by the communication / transmitter circuitry 320 to similarly handle / generate physical layer transmissions having four or fewer spatial layers via a physical channel in a NR network.

[0069] For example, multiple medium access control (MAC) packet data units (PDUs) or TBs can be transmitted together on a single physical channel (e.g., PDSCH or PUSCH) with four or fewer spatial layers. Spatial multiplexing can be used to transmit multiple layers as multiple parallel transmissions to the same device on the same time / frequency resources. The combination of multiple antennas at the transmitter side and receiver side can be used to handle interference between the different layers. However, by providing unequal error protection for different TBs in one physical layer encapsulation that are transmitted as differently encoded signals streamed from each of the multiple antennas, further enhancements can be made to protect against error loss in RLLC communications (e.g., in data streams having multiple layers). One additional benefit of multiplexing multiple MAC PDUs into the same physical channel is to avoid intermodulation distortion in uplink with an alternative transmission scheme where two PUSCHs carrying one MAC PDU each overlap in time domain; with the disclosed approach, the UE power amplifier can operate at higher transmission power compared to if this alternative approach is utilized.

[0070] Compared to traditional single layer transmissions, spatial layer signaling can use the increased spatial multiplexing throughput of multi-stream transmissions to multiplex the transmissions of different data streams. For example, better support for video traffic can be critical and a key enabler for XR related enhancements. It is challenging to simultaneously achieve low latency, high reliability, and high throughput. When the radio link is not treated to provide RLLC with high throughput for all data streams, it is important to protect the most critical traffic to maintain the UE 300 experience. Thus, various transmission schemes for unequal error protection of different video streams can be configured, and these transmission schemes are also related to HARQ feedback operations.

[0071] In an aspect, MAC PDUs or TBs in the same PDSCH / PUSCH can be transmitted with different protection levels, different error protection, different data protection between different PDUs or TBs. Thus, for example, a first TB can be configured with a different protection level in the encoding of the physical layer packaging with higher or more protection than a second TB in the same physical layer packaging. The UE 101 or gNB 110 (e.g., device 300) can operate to configure the partitioning of different TBs of a physical layer packaging with different portions of at least one of spatial, time, or frequency resources between the different TBs of the physical layer packaging in order to protect one TB of the same physical layer packaging in the physical channel but not the other. For example, different modulation bits can be used for different MAC PDUs (e.g., more reliable bits in 16QAM for a first MAC PDU or TB). Additionally or alternatively, different MCS levels can be used between different TBs or MAC PDUs. MAC PDUs can also be configured instead of TBs in the present disclosure, and vice versa. Additionally or alternatively, different portions of frequency resources can be used to configure different TBs or MAC PDUs. Additionally or alternatively, different spatial layers can be used to configure different TBs or MAC PDUs. Additionally or alternatively, repeated transmissions of TBs or MAC PDUs can be configured (e.g., a first TB can be configured to appear with more repetitions than another TB within the same physical layer packaging or physical channel transmission).

[0072] While methods or process flows are shown and described above as a series of acts (process flow steps, events, or operations), it should be understood that the ordering of such acts should not be construed as a limitation. For example, some acts can occur in different orders / concurrently with other acts or events apart from those shown and described herein. In addition, not all shown acts can be required in order to achieve one or more aspects or embodiments of the disclosure. Also, one or more of the acts depicted herein can be carried out in one or more separate acts / stages.

[0073] Reference is made to Figure 4 FIG. 4 shows an example process flow 400 for configuring unequal protection of data streams or associated TBs of physical layer packaging in a NR network between a gNB and a UE (e.g., UE 101 or gNB 110) for wireless communication, such as hyper-RLLC, RLLC, IoT, or other interconnect components. At 402, the method 400 first encodes a physical layer transmission in a physical layer packaging including TBs of unequal protection of the TBs in the physical layer packaging, where the TBs can correspond to different data streams, or different parameters, formatting, syntax, or other characteristics of one or more data streams.

[0074] At 404, the method also includes providing the physical layer package (or transmission including the package) to the transmitter circuitry for transmission of the physical layer transmission via a physical channel, such as a PDSCH for a downlink from a gNB 110 to a UE 101, or a PUSCH for an uplink from a UE 101 to a gNB 110.

[0075] In one aspect, different protection levels can be used between at least a first TB and a second TB in the physical layer package to generate or encode different TBs. The encoded different TBs can be provided to the physical layer package for physical layer transmission by a UE via a PUSCH. When receiving a physical layer package with different TBs multiplexed therein as a single physical channel transmission from a gNB, a UE can process or decode the TBs multiplexed into the single physical layer package in response to receiving a PDSCH. Likewise, a gNB can encode multiple TBs into a physical layer package for transmission via a single PDSCH transmission, while decoding the same configuration when receiving a similar physical layer package with multiple different TBs multiplexed into one TB via a PUSCH. According to different aspects / embodiments herein, each TB can be associated with different streams of data or encoded data (e.g., scalable video encoding, etc.) and configured with unequal protection within the package. A gNB or UE can configure the TBs in the package for transmission and reception based on four or fewer spatial layers.

[0076] Referring to Figure 5 , an example process flow 500 is shown for configuring unequal protection of one or more data streams or associated TBs of a physical layer package in a NR network between a gNB and a UE (e.g., UE 101 or gNB 110) for wireless communication (e.g., uRLLC, RLLC, etc.). Process flow 500 can flow from any one or more of the process flow actions of Figure 4 , as shown via A and connected to actions (502, 504) of process flow 500 in any location or order. UE 101 and gNB 110 can include a constellation component 520 configured to encode / decode / generate / process modulation bits of a QAM constellation; for example, although a 16-bit QAM constellation is shown, any other configuration or number of bits can also be used herein. For example, at 502, UE 101 or gNB 110 can be configured to encode (if transmitting via a PUSCH) or decode (if receiving via a PDSCH) different TBs based on one or more first modulation bits associated with a first TB and one or more second modulation bits associated with a second TB. At 504, constellation component 520 can be further configured to configure unequal protection between the TBs by configuring different numbers of modulation bits at constellation points of a QAM constellation of constellation component 520.

[0077] In an aspect, constellation component 520 can utilize the most reliable bits of the constellation to generate (encode) or process (decode) a first TB. For example, the least significant bits of the constellation points can be used for the first TB to provide higher reliability or protection to the first TB than the second TB of the physical layer packaging in the transmission. Constellation component 520 can also utilize one or more other bits of the same constellation to determine unequal protection between different TBs for the physical layer packaging of the second TB. Alternatively or additionally, different numbers of bits of the constellation points can be configured to different TBs to provide stronger or weaker protection between the TBs of the physical layer packaging. For example, when modulating the first TB based on the most reliable bits (e.g., LSB bits or other more reliable bits based on signal strength, direction, or other parameters), the second TB can have two to four bits for encoding or decoding within the physical layer packaging, for example. Although four bits are illustrated for each point, the present disclosure is not necessarily limited to any particular number for utilizing unequal protection of the TBs or MAC PDUs, for example.

[0078] In one aspect, the total TB size or total TB encoding bits number can be determined according to a predefined formula / function. Based on the total TB encoding bits number, one or more percentages of the total TB encoding bits number can be dynamically configured. The total TB encoding bits number of the physical layer packaging can be configured based on a predefined formula, and then a first TB size of a first TB of the different TBs can be configured based on a first percentage of the total encoding bits number. A second TB size of a second TB of the different TBs can be based on a second percentage. In one example, the total number of TB encoding bits can be determined to be 100 encoding bits per PRB, where there can be 20 PRBs in the PDSCH, all totaling 20 x 100 encoding bits. The encoding bits can be divided between the first and second TBs according to 25% + 75% or 50% + 50%, etc. For the 50% + 50% split, each TB has 10 x 100 encoding bits, but the MCS level of each TB can be different such that, for example, the first TB has 100 information carrying bits and TB 2 has 200 information carrying bits, so although they can consume a similar number of encoding bits, the reliability can still be configured to be different between them.

[0079] Percentages, reliabilities, total TB encoding bit sizes, or other parameters related to unequal protection of different TBs can be determined from constellation component 520 of respective devices (UE 101, gNB 110), signaled dynamically via RRC layer signaling for one or more physical layer transmissions, signaled via MAC control element (MAC CE), high layer signaling, or provided via dynamic grant PUSCH for PUSCH transmission by PDCCH. For example, configured grant CG Type 1 or CG Type 2 configurations where only the first transmission can be scheduled via downlink control information (DCI) can also enable unequal protection of UEs 101 by gNB 110. For PDSCH transmissions, dynamic grant PDSCH (which is scheduled by PDCCH or DL SPS where only the first reception is scheduled by DCI) can be used to configure unequal protection between different TBs in a physical layer package. Aspects of the disclosure are not necessarily limited to any one type of signaling for configuring a single physical channel transmission to have unequal protection between TBs in a physical layer package. For example, constellation component 520 or processor of UE 101 / gNB 110 can be configured to receive parameters for determining unequal protection between different TBs of a physical layer package via MAC CE, RRC signaling, or high layer signaling. For example, the parameters can relate to spatial resources, time resources, or frequency resources used for communications in an NR network.

[0080] As discussed in the present disclosure, protection of TBs can be configured based on a priority assigned to any one TB, which is assigned based on a data stream type or other parameter (e.g., a particular application, protocol, or format) associated with the TB, or additional data stream types or communication flows having lower or higher resolution, for example. For example, to support DL error protection for a video codec, data of a checkerboard pattern can be configured with two different types of data based on one or more semantic encoding, syntax format, or error detection. In this way, a package or physical layer package can be generated to target data or resources in a TB for different types of data. Thus, if one type of data continues to exist in a transmission, but another type of data is lost, QoE can be maintained, especially within NR network communications for RLLC.

[0081] Referring to Figure 6 , an example process flow 600 is shown for configuring unequal protection of data streams or associated TBs of a physical layer package in an NR network between a gNB and a UE (e.g., UE 101 or gNB 110) for wireless communications. Process flow 600 can flow from any one or more of the process flow actions of Figure 4 or Figure 5 , as shown via A / B and connected to actions of process flow 600 in any location or order.

[0082] At 602, different TBs within a physical layer package can be encoded or decoded based on different modulation coding scheme (MCS) levels. One or more first TBs of the different TBs can be encoded with a first MCS level, and one or more second TBs of the different TBs can be encoded with a second MCS level that is different from the first MCS level to provide different protection to the different TBs within the physical layer package. For example, a first TB in a physical layer package can be protected with MCS level 2, and a second TB in the physical layer package can be protected with MCS level 5. A lower MCS level can provide better protection, and thus, different levels of protection can be configured for TBs in a single physical layer package multiplexed into a single physical channel.

[0083] At 604, the MCS levels used to configure the different TBs of a physical layer package can be dynamically determined / adjusted. A signal or indication of the MCS level associated with a first TB or a second TB of the different TBs can be generated or received for unequal protection of the TBs being encoded / decoded.

[0084] In one aspect, one MCS level can be signaled and another MCS level derived based on an adjustment factor that includes a correlation to the first MCS level obtained from a mathematical operation, e.g., to distinguish between the MCS levels of the TBs in the package. In one example, the first MCS level can be configured based in / on a DCI and the second MCS level of another TB of the physical layer package can be a function of the first MCS level. Alternatively or additionally, a pair of MCSs used to encode / decode the different TBs can be determined via RRC signaling associated with at least one of: a downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) or an uplink (UL) configured grant (CG). Alternatively or additionally, in response to the UL CG including a CG Type 1, the different TBs of the physical layer package can be configured to be respectively encoded or decoded based on a predefined pair of MCSs.

[0085] In another aspect, rather than a fixed MCS increment or adjustment factor, or a pair of MAC CE / RRC configured MCS levels, a combination of transport blocks can be signaled similar to a transport format combination indicator (TFCI) in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to enable signaling of the combination of transport blocks.

[0086] Reference Figure 7 FIG. 7 shows an example process flow 700 for configuring unequal protection of data streams or associated TBs of a physical layer package in a NR network between a gNB and a UE (e.g., UE 101 or gNB 110) for wireless communication. The process flow 700 can begin, at 702, by Figure 4 、 Figure 5 orFigure 6 Any one or more flows in the processing flow action, as shown via A / B / C and connected to the processing flow 700 in any position or order.

[0087] At 702, the processing flow includes determining a list or set of MCS levels via RRC signaling, higher-layer signaling, MAC CE signaling, or DCI. For example, the set may include one or more pairs, triples, or other sets of MCS levels configured to be associated for two or more different TBs encapsulated in a physical layer package.

[0088] At 704, multiple MCSs (e.g., pairs, triples, etc.) can be selected from the group of MCSs based on the MCS field from the dynamic authorization signaling. For example, a signal can be sent to notify a combination of pairs or other groups (e.g., (MCS2, MCS5), (MCS8, MCS10), (MCS10, MCS12)), which may include different sets of two or more MCSs grouped together to correspond to different TBs that will be encoded / decoded in the physical layer encapsulation.

[0089] At 706, different TBs of the physical layer encapsulation can be encoded separately based on the selected multiple MCSs for transmission in physical layer transmission via PUSCH, or decoded separately via PDSCH based on the indicated / selected multiple MCSs.

[0090] In one aspect, the MCS level for the first TB can be signaled via DCI. For example, if the "MCS field" indicates "1", then (MCS 8, MCS 10) can be selected for the first TB and the second TB respectively. Here, the "MCS field" of any signaling can be adjusted to indicate the grouping (e.g., a pair) of the selected MCS levels in that group of MCS levels. Additionally or alternatively, the MCS level for the second TB can be derived by an adjustment factor or delta function relative to the MCS level of the first TB.

[0091] In one respect, for a PUSCH with CG type 2, different TBs encapsulated in the physical layer can be encoded separately based on multiple selected MCSs, or for a PDSCH with DL semi-persistent scheduling (SPS), the different TBs can be decoded separately based on the multiple MCSs.

[0092] refer to Figure 7 An exemplary processing flow 800 is illustrated, which is used to configure unequal protection of physical layer encapsulated data streams or associated TBs in an NR network for wireless communication between a gNB and a UE (e.g., UE 101 or gNB 110). Processing flow 800 can be derived from... Figure 8 ,Figure 4 、 Figure 5 or Figure 6 any one or more of the process actions of the process flow 700, as shown via A / B / C and connected to the actions of the process flow 700 in any location or order.

[0093] At 802, a partitioning ratio can be signaled (e.g., via DCI or other signaling) to enable different TBs of a physical layer encapsulation to be encoded or decoded with different portions based on the partitioning ratio. Alternatively or additionally, different TBs can be partitioned based on at least one of a wideband partitioning or a distributed partitioning.

[0094] At 804, the process flow includes configuring different portions of frequency resources to different TBs in the encapsulation based on the partitioning ratio; for wideband partitioning, a predefined number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) are configured to a first TB and remaining PRBs of the frequency resources are configured to a second TB, or for distributed partitioning, a first number of resource elements of a PRB are configured to a first TB and a second number of resource elements of the PRB are configured to a second TB.

[0095] In one aspect, for example, the partitioning according to the partitioning ratio can include allocating a certain percentage (e.g., 60%) of resources (e.g., frequency, spatial, or time) to a first TB and the remaining portion (e.g., 40%) of the grant resources to another TB. The partitioning can be signaled (e.g., a field of DCI), visually determined, or otherwise signaled (RRC or higher layer).

[0096] Wide partitioning can be associated with wideband partitioning or distributed partitioning as used for uRLLC in FDM. In wideband partitioning, a number of PRBs can be allocated to a first TB while the remaining portion is allocated to a second TB multiplexed in one physical layer encapsulation of a transmission. With distributed partitioning, some resource elements (REs) in a PRB can be used for a first TB and some for a second TB.

[0097] Referring to Figure 7 , an example process flow 900 is shown for configuring unequal protection of data streams or associated TBs of a physical layer encapsulation in a NR network between a gNB and a UE (e.g., UE 101 or gNB 110) for wireless communication. The process flow 900 can flow from Figure 8 、 Figure 9 、 Figure 10 、 Figure 11 or Figure 4 any one or more of the process actions of the process flow 900, as shown via A / B / C / D / E and connected to the actions of the process flow 900 in any location or order.

[0098] At 902, different TBs of a physical layer packaging of a physical channel transmission can be partitioned with a partitioning of different spatial layers. For example, a first TB can be configured with or associated with a first set of spatial layers that includes a higher reliability than a second set of spatial layers associated with a second TB of the different TBs. Reliability can be a signal strength, a direction, a depth angle, or other associated transmission parameter for a spatial layer transmission. For example, the first set of spatial layers can include two spatial layers associated with one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) indices of the first TB, and the second set of spatial layers includes another two spatial layers. Alternatively or additionally, the first set of spatial layers can include fewer spatial layers than the second set of spatial layers.

[0099] At 904, the UE (e.g., UE 101) can be configured to receive a spatial layer to TB mapping via at least one of RRC signaling, a MAC CE, or dynamic grant signaling to partition different TBs of a physical layer packaging based on the spatial layer to TB mapping. Alternatively or additionally, the gNB 110 can be configured to transmit such a spatial layer to TB mapping to indicate a number or type of spatial layers to be associated with each TB of a physical layer packaging. For example, for one or more physical layer transmissions in which a single physical layer packaging multiplexes two TBs with four or fewer spatial layers, the signaling or spatial layer to TB mapping can indicate any one or more of: {spatial layers 1 and 3 for transport block 1, spatial layers 2 and 4 for transport block 2}, {spatial layers 1 and 2 for transport block 1, spatial layers 3 and 4 for transport block 2}.

[0100] Referring to Figure 5 , an example physical layer packaging 1010 is shown in which a first TB and a second TB are combined with unequal protection or different levels of protection (e.g., the first TB 1020 is more heavily protected than the second TB 1030 or other TBs). By unequally partitioning repetitions in a physical layer packaging (e.g., a transmission opportunity, a TTI, a frame, a transmission burst, or other packaging) of a physical channel based on a number of repetitions or time slots, different TBs can be generated or processed with unequal protection. For example, a first TB can include more repetitions in repetitions 1020 and 1030 and a larger number of resource elements in one or more time slots of each repetition to have a different level of protection compared to a second TB of the physical layer packaging.

[0101] Referring to Figure 6 , an example process flow 900 is shown for configuring hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback according to unequal protection of data streams or associated TBs of a physical layer packaging in a NR network between a gNB and a UE (e.g., UE 101 or gNB 110) for wireless communication. The process flow 1100 can begin, at 902, with a gNB (e.g., gNB 110) configuring a UE (e.g., UE 101) with a spatial layer to TB mapping via at least one of RRC signaling, a MAC CE, or dynamic grant signaling to partition different TBs of a physical layer packaging based on the spatial layer to TB mapping. Figure 7 ,Figure 8 , Figure 9 , ​ , ​ or ​ Any one or more flows in the processing flow action, as shown via A / B / C / D / E / F and connected to the processing flow 900 in any position or order.

[0102] At 1102, in response to receiving two or more TBs multiplexed into a physical channel, UE 101 may generate HARQ feedback for a first TB configured based on a high-priority Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) codebook and another HARQ feedback for a second TB configured based on a low-priority HARQ codebook with a lower priority than the high-priority HARQ codebook. Here, the priority of each TB may be treated equally for the HARQ feedback. In one aspect, UE 101 may generate HARQ feedback based on a bit width that is a function of the number of TBs multiplexed into a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) (e.g., the maximum number of TBs), the PDSCH being used for at least one of: a Type 1 HARQ codebook, a Type 2 HARQ codebook, or a Type 3 HARQ codebook.

[0103] Alternatively or additionally, UE 101 may generate HARQ feedback only for the first TB configured based on a high-priority HARQ codebook. Alternatively or additionally, UE 101 may generate HARQ feedback only for the second TB configured based on a low-priority HARQ codebook.

[0104] As used herein, the term "processor" can refer to virtually any computing processing unit or device, including but not limited to single-core processors; single-processors with software multithreading capabilities; multi-core processors; multi-core processors with software multithreading capabilities; multi-core processors with hardware multithreading technology; parallel platforms; and parallel platforms with distributed shared memory. Additionally, a processor can refer to an integrated circuit, application-specific integrated circuit, digital signal processor, field-programmable gate array, programmable logic controller, complex programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions and / or processes described herein. Processors can utilize nanoscale architectures, such as, but not limited to, molecular and quantum dot-based transistors, switches, and gates, to optimize space utilization or enhance the performance of mobile devices. Processors can also be implemented as a combination of computing processing units.

[0105] Embodiments (implementations) can include subject matter such as a method, means for performing acts or blocks of the method, at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when performed by a machine (e.g., a processor with memory, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like) cause the machine to perform acts of a method or acts of an apparatus or system for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to embodiments and implementations described herein.

[0106] In embodiment 1, a baseband processor of a network entity, the baseband processor configured to encode a physical layer transmission in a physical layer packaging including different transport blocks (TBs) based on unequal protection between the different TBs, and transmit the physical layer transmission via a physical channel of a next generation (NR) network.

[0107] In embodiment 2, the baseband processor is further configured to encode different TBs at different protection levels between at least a first TB and a second TB in the physical layer packaging, and provide the physical layer packaging for the physical layer transmission via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or decode other TBs multiplexed in another physical layer packaging in response to receiving a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

[0108] In embodiment 3, the baseband processor is further configured to encode different TBs based on one or more first modulation bits associated with a first TB and one or more second modulation bits associated with a second TB, wherein the one or more first modulation bits include a higher reliability than the one or more second modulation bits at a constellation point of a QAM constellation.

[0109] In embodiment 4, the baseband processor is further configured to encode different TBs based on the unequal protection by associating different TBs in the physical layer packaging with different numbers of modulation bits at the constellation point.

[0110] In embodiment 5, the baseband processor is further configured to encode a first TB of the different TBs based on a least significant bit of a constellation point and a second TB of the different TBs based on one or more remaining bits of the constellation point.

[0111] In embodiment 6, the baseband processor is further configured to determine a total TB encoding bit number for the physical layer packaging based on a predefined formula, determine a first TB size for a first TB of the different TBs based on a first percentage of the total TB encoding bit number, and determine a second TB size for a second TB of the different TBs based on a second percentage of the total TB encoding bit number.

[0112] In embodiment 7, the baseband processor is further configured to receive, via medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE), radio resource control (RRC) signaling, or higher layer signaling, a parameter for determining unequal protection between different TBs of the physical layer package.

[0113] In embodiment 8, the baseband processor is further configured to encode different TBs of the physical layer package based on different modulation coding scheme (MCS) levels by encoding one or more first TBs of the different TBs with a first MCS level and encoding one or more second TBs of the different TBs with a second MCS level different from the first MCS level to provide different protection to different TBs within the physical layer package.

[0114] In embodiment 9, the baseband processor is further configured to determine the first MCS level based on downlink control information (DCI) and determine the second MCS level according to the first MCS level.

[0115] In embodiment 10, the baseband processor is further configured to determine a pair of MCSs for encoding different TBs via RRC signaling associated with at least one of downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) or uplink (UL) configured grant (CG).

[0116] In embodiment 11, the baseband processor is further configured to encode different TBs of the physical layer package based on a predefined pair of MCSs in response to the UL CG comprising CG Type 1, respectively.

[0117] In embodiment 12, the baseband processor is further configured to determine a set of MCSs via RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling; select a plurality of MCSs from the set of MCSs based on an MCS field from dynamic grant signaling; and encode different TBs of the physical layer package based on the plurality of MCSs, respectively, for transmission in the physical layer transmission via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or for decoding other TBs multiplexed in another physical layer package based on the plurality of MCSs via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), respectively.

[0118] In embodiment 13, the baseband processor is further configured to encode different TBs of the physical layer package based on the plurality of MCSs for a PUSCH with CG Type 2 or to decode other TBs of another physical layer package based on the plurality of MCSs for a PDSCH with DL semi-persistent scheduling (SPS), respectively.

[0119] In embodiment 14, the baseband processor is further configured to partition different TBs of the physical layer package with different portions of at least one of spatial, time, or frequency resources among the different TBs of the physical layer package.

[0120] In embodiment 15, the baseband processor is further configured to receive a partition ratio in DCI and encode different TBs of the physical layer package with different portions based on the partition ratio.

[0121] In embodiment 16, the baseband processor is further configured to partition different TBs based on at least one of wideband partitioning or distributed partitioning.

[0122] In embodiment 17, wherein the wideband partitioning includes configuring a first TB of the different TBs with a predefined number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and a second TB of the different TBs with a remaining portion of PRBs of the frequency resources, and the distributed partitioning includes configuring the first TB with a first number of resource elements of the PRBs and the second TB with a second number of resource elements of the PRBs.

[0123] In embodiment 18, the baseband processor is further configured to partition different spatial layers according to the different TBs of the physical layer package, wherein a first TB is associated with a first set of spatial layers that includes a higher reliability than a second set of spatial layers associated with a second TB of the different TBs.

[0124] In embodiment 19, the first set of spatial layers includes two spatial layers associated with one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) indices of the first TB and the second set of spatial layers includes two other spatial layers, or the first set of spatial layers includes fewer spatial layers than the second set of spatial layers.

[0125] In embodiment 20, the baseband processor is further configured to receive a spatial layer to TB mapping via at least one of RRC signaling, a MAC CE, or dynamic grant signaling to partition different TBs of the physical layer package based on the spatial layer to TB mapping.

[0126] In embodiment 21, the baseband processor is further configured to generate unequal protection of different TBs by unequally partitioning repetitions among transmission opportunities, wherein a first TB includes more repetitions than a second TB of the physical layer package.

[0127] In embodiment 22, the first TB includes a greater number of resource elements in the repetitions than the second TB.

[0128] In embodiment 23, the processor is further configured to, in response to transmitting two or more TBs multiplexed into the physical layer package via one physical channel: receive hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for a first TB configured based on a high priority HARQ codebook and another HARQ feedback for a second TB configured based on a low priority HARQ codebook having a lower priority than the high priority HARQ codebook; receive HARQ feedback for only the first TB configured based on the high priority HARQ codebook; or receive HARQ feedback for only the second TB configured based on the low priority HARQ codebook.

[0129] In embodiment 24, the network entity comprises a user equipment (UE).

[0130] In embodiment 2, the network entity comprises a base station.

[0131] In embodiment 26, a baseband processor of a network entity, the baseband processor configured to: receive a physical layer transmission via a physical channel in a next generation (NR) network; and decode a physical layer package by multiplexing different transport blocks (TBs) for the physical layer transmission based on unequal protection between the different TBs of the physical layer package.

[0132] In embodiment 27, the baseband processor is further configured to decode a first TB of the different TBs based on a first bit or least significant bit that is more reliable than other bits of a constellation point, and decode a second TB of the different TBs based on one or more other bits of the constellation point to determine the unequal protection between the different TBs of the physical layer package.

[0133] In embodiment 28, the baseband processor is further configured to determine a first TB size of a first TB of the different TBs based on a first percentage of a total number of TB encoding bits, and determine a second TB size of a second TB of the different TBs based on a second percentage of the total number of TB encoding bits.

[0134] In embodiment 29, the baseband processor is further configured to determine a parameter used to encode the unequal protection between the different TBs of the physical layer package based on a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE), radio resource control (RRC) signaling, or higher layer signaling.

[0135] In embodiment 30, the baseband processor is further configured to decode different TBs based on different modulation coding scheme (MCS) levels associated with different TBs of the physical layer packaging, or provide a downlink control information (DCI) via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), the DCI including an indication of an MCS level used to multiplex a first TB associated with a different MCS level of the physical layer packaging with a second TB.

[0136] In embodiment 31, the processor is further configured to determine a pair of MCSs used to encode different TBs via RRC signaling associated with at least one of a downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) or an uplink (UL) configured grant (CG).

[0137] In embodiment 32, the processor is further configured to determine a set of MCSs via RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling; select a plurality of MCSs from the set of MCSs based on an MCS field used for dynamic grant signaling; and for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), respectively configure different TBs of the physical layer packaging to transmit the physical layer transmission based on the plurality of MCSs, or for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), respectively configure other TBs multiplexed in another physical layer packaging based on the plurality of MCSs.

[0138] In embodiment 33, the processor is further configured to, for a PDSCH with configured grant (CG) type 2, respectively encode different TBs of the physical layer packaging based on the plurality of MCSs, or for a PUSCH with downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS), respectively decode other TBs of another physical layer packaging based on the plurality of MCSs.

[0139] In embodiment 34, the processor is further configured to partition different TBs of the physical layer packaging with different portions of at least one of spatial resources, time resources, or frequency resources.

[0140] In embodiment 35, the processor is further configured to partition different TBs based on at least one of a wideband partition or a distributed partition, wherein the wideband partition includes configuring a first TB of the different TBs with a predefined number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and a second TB of the different TBs with a remaining portion of PRBs of the frequency resources, and wherein the distributed partition includes configuring the first TB with a first number of resource elements of the PRBs and the second TB with a second number of resource elements of the PRBs.

[0141] In embodiment 36, wherein the processor is further configured to: divide different spatial layers according to different TBs in the physical layer package, wherein a first TB is configured with a first set of spatial layers comprising a higher reliability than a second set of spatial layers configured with a second TB of the different TBs.

[0142] In embodiment 37, the first set of spatial layers comprises at least two spatial layers configured with one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) indices for the first TB, and the second set of spatial layers comprises two or fewer spatial layers for a second TB of the different TBs.

[0143] In embodiment 38, wherein the processor is further configured to: generate a spatial layer to TB mapping to divide different TBs of the physical layer package for unequal protection based on the spatial layer to TB mapping.

[0144] In embodiment 39, the processor is further configured to: generate unequal protection of different TBs by unequally dividing repetition or time slot resources between transmission opportunities, wherein a first TB comprises more repetition or time slot resources than a second TB of the physical layer package.

[0145] In embodiment 40, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: generate hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for a first TB based on a high priority HARQ codebook configuration and another HARQ feedback for a second TB based on a low priority HARQ codebook configuration having a lower priority than the high priority HARQ codebook; generate HARQ feedback for only the first TB based on the high priority HARQ codebook configuration; or generate HARQ feedback for only the second TB based on the low priority HARQ codebook configuration.

[0146] In embodiment 41, the baseband processor is further configured to generate HARQ feedback based on a bit width that is a function of a number of TBs multiplexed into a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for at least one of: a type 1 HARQ codebook, a type 2 HARQ codebook, or a type 3 HARQ codebook.

[0147] In embodiment 42, wherein the network entity comprises a user equipment (UE).

[0148] In embodiment 43, wherein the network entity comprises a base station.

[0149] In embodiment 44, a method of a network entity, the method comprising: processing, via a processor, a physical layer transmission comprising different transport blocks (TBs) multiplexed into a physical layer package with unequal protection between the different TBs; and transmitting, via the processor, the physical layer transmission to a transmitter circuit that transmits the physical layer transmission based on four or fewer spatial layers in a next generation (NR) network.

[0150] In embodiment 45, further comprising: encoding a first TB of the different TBs based on a first bit or least significant bit that is more reliable than other bits of a constellation point, and encoding a second TB of the different TBs based on one or more of the other bits of the constellation point to generate the unequal protection between the different TBs.

[0151] Furthermore, various aspects or features described herein can be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using, for example, standard programming and / or engineering techniques. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROM, card, stick, key drive, etc.). Additionally, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term “machine- readable medium” can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and / or carrying instruction(s) and / or data. Additionally, a computer program product can include a computer readable medium having one or more instructions or codes operable to cause a computer to perform the functions described herein.

[0152] Communication media embodies computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery or transport media. The term “modulated data signal” or signal refers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media.

[0153] The exemplary storage media can be coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage media. In the alternative, the storage media can be integral to the processor. Moreover, in some aspects, the processor and the storage media can reside in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC can reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage media can reside as discrete components in a user terminal. Moreover, in some aspects, the processes and / or acts of a method can reside as one or any combination or set of codes and / or instructions on a machine readable medium and / or computer readable medium, which can be incorporated in a computer program product.

[0154] In this regard, while the disclosed subject matter has been described in connection with various embodiments and corresponding figures, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments or variations can be used and that certain features of the disclosed subject matter can be used independently of other features and that some features can be used, substantially or modifier!y, with others without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. As such, the disclosed subject matter is not to be restricted to any single embodiment, but encompass many alternatives and modifications. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

[0155] In particular regard to various functions performed by the above described components (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), the terms (including a reference to a "means") used to describe certain claim elements are intended to be interpreted under a broadest reasonable interpretation rule. Moreover, while the foregoing description has been made with respect to a number of specific embodiments and techniques, it is to be understood that other embodiments and techniques can be utilized, and that specific details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting. For example, an apparatus can include a number of components, some of which can not be present in all embodiments. Additionally, some components can be used in a combination of apparatuses. For example, a component including a first component can operate independently in one example and can be combined with a second component to operate together in another example. Other components can also be used and various configurations can also be possible.

Claims

1. A baseband processor for a network entity, said baseband processor being configured to Physical layer transmitted data is encoded in a physical layer encapsulation of a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) or a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), the physical layer encapsulation comprising different transport blocks (TBs), wherein the different TBs are associated with different protection levels between at least a first TB and a second TB in the physical layer encapsulation of the PUSCH or the PDSCH; and The physical layer transmission data is transmitted via the PUSCH or the PDSCH.

2. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: provide the physical layer encapsulation for the transmission of data transmitted in the physical layer via the PUSCH or the PDSCH.

3. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: encode the different TBs based on one or more first modulation bits associated with a first TB and one or more second modulation bits associated with a second TB, wherein the one or more first modulation bits include higher reliability at constellation points of a QAM constellation than the one or more second modulation bits; and encode the different TBs based on the different protection levels by associating the different TBs in the physical layer package with different numbers of modulation bits at the constellation points.

4. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: encode a first TB among the different TBs based on the least significant bit of the constellation point, and encode a second TB among the different TBs based on one or more remaining bits of the constellation point.

5. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: determine the total number of TB coding bits of the physical layer package based on a predefined formula, determine the first TB size of the first TB among the different TBs based on a first percentage of the total TB coding bits, and determine the second TB size of the second TB among the different TBs based on a second percentage of the total TB coding bits.

6. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to receive parameters for determining the different protection levels between the different TBs of the physical layer package via a Media Access Control (MAC) control element (MAC CE), Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, or higher-layer signaling.

7. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: encode one or more first TBs among the different TBs using a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) level and encode one or more second TBs among the different TBs using a second MCS level different from the first MCS level, thereby encoding the different TBs encapsulated in the physical layer based on different MCS levels to provide different protections to the different TBs within the physical layer encapsulation.

8. The baseband processor of claim 7, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: A set of MCSs is determined via RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling; Selecting multiple MCSs from the set of MCSs based on the MCS field from the dynamic authorization signaling; and The different TBs encapsulated in the physical layer are encoded based on the multiple MCSs, and then transmitted in the physical layer transmission data via the PUSCH or the PDSCH.

9. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: divide the different TBs of the physical layer package using different portions of at least one of spatial, temporal, or frequency resources.

10. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to partition the different TBs based on at least one of wideband partitioning or distributed partitioning, wherein the wideband partitioning includes configuring a predefined number of Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) to a first TB of the different TBs and configuring the remaining portion of frequency resources (PRBs) to a second TB of the different TBs, and the distributed partitioning includes configuring a first number of resource elements of the PRBs to the first TB and configuring a second number of resource elements of the PRBs to the second TB.

11. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: divide different spatial layers according to the different TBs encapsulated by the physical layer, wherein a first TB is associated with a first set of spatial layers, the first set of spatial layers including a second set of spatial layers with higher reliability than a second TB among the different TBs, wherein the first set of spatial layers includes two spatial layers associated with one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) indices of the first TB, and the second set of spatial layers includes two additional spatial layers, or the first set of spatial layers includes fewer spatial layers than the second set of spatial layers.

12. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: receive a spatial layer to TB mapping via at least one of RRC signaling, MAC CE, or dynamic licensing signaling, to partition the different TBs of the physical layer encapsulation based on the spatial layer to TB mapping.

13. The baseband processor of claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to generate the different protection levels for the different TBs by unequally dividing the repeats between transmission opportunities, wherein the first TB includes more repeats than the second TB encapsulated by the physical layer.

14. The baseband processor according to claim 1, further configured as follows: In response to transmitting via a physical channel two or more TBs multiplexed into the physical layer encapsulation: Receive hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ feedback for a first TB based on a high-priority HARQ codebook configuration and another HARQ feedback for a second TB based on a low-priority HARQ codebook configuration with a priority lower than the high-priority HARQ codebook. Receive HARQ feedback only for the first TB configured based on the high-priority HARQ codebook; or Receive HARQ feedback only for the second TB configured based on the low-priority HARQ codebook.

15. A baseband processor for a network entity, said baseband processor being configured to: Physical layer transmitted data is received via the Physical Uplink Channel (PUSCH) or the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH); and By multiplexing different transport blocks (TBs), the physical layer encapsulation of the physical layer transmitted data of the PUSCH or PDSCH is decoded, and the different TBs are associated with different protection levels between at least the first TB and the second TB in the physical layer encapsulation.

16. The baseband processor of claim 15, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: decode the first TB of the different TBs based on the first or least significant bit, the first or least significant bit being more reliable than other bits of the constellation point, and decode the second TB of the different TBs based on one or more other bits of the constellation point to determine the different protection levels between the different TBs in the physical layer package.

17. The baseband processor of claim 15, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: determine a first TB size of a first TB among the different TBs based on a first percentage of the total TB coding bits, and determine a second TB size of a second TB among the different TBs based on a second percentage of the total TB coding bits.

18. The baseband processor of claim 15, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to determine parameters for encoding the different protection levels between the different TBs encapsulated in the physical layer based on a Media Access Control (MAC) control element (MAC CE), Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, or higher-layer signaling.

19. A method for a user equipment (UE) network entity, the method comprising: Physical layer transmission data is processed by a processor, the physical layer transmission data including different transport blocks (TBs) multiplexed into a physical layer encapsulation of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), with different protection levels between at least a first TB and a second TB in the physical layer encapsulation; and Data is transmitted through the physical layer via the processor and the PUSCH.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: The first TB in the different TBs is encoded based on the first or least significant bit, which is more reliable than the other bits of the constellation point, and the second TB in the different TBs is encoded based on one or more of the other bits of the constellation point to generate the different protection levels between the different TBs.

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