Indications relating to PDCCH monitoring

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to indications associated with PDCCH monitoring. In one aspect, a terminal device receives downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, the DCI including an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX). And the terminal device executes an operation based on the indication. Embodiments of the present disclosure may provide more flexibility for scheduling and may save power consumption.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Various example embodiments relate to the field of communications, and in particular to a terminal device, a network device, a method, an apparatus, and a computer-readable storage medium for indication associated with PDCCH monitoring. Background Art

[0002] In the field of communications, there has been a continuous development in order to provide efficient and reliable solutions for utilizing wireless communication networks. Each new generation has its own technical challenges to handle the different situations and processes required to connect and serve the wireless network devices connected to it. In order to meet the increasing demand for wireless data traffic since the deployment of the fourth generation (4G) communication system, efforts have been made to develop improved fifth generation (5G) or quasi-5G communication systems. The new communication system can support various types of service applications for terminal devices.

[0003] Some communication technologies involve non-terrestrial communications. Non-terrestrial communications can be complementary to terrestrial deployments where satellite connectivity can provide coverage beyond terrestrial deployments. 3GPP has defined work items for Rel-17 on Non-terrestrial Networks (NTN) in RP-201256 and for R18 on IoT-NTN performance enhancements in RP-212729. Enabling / disabling Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) is an important feature in both efforts. The benefit of disabling HARQ feedback for NTN and IoT over NTN is that it enables the gNB to reuse the HARQ process ID before the full HARQ RTT has passed to avoid HARQ stalls and reduce transmission latency as well as achieve peak throughput. Summary of the invention

[0004] In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for indication related to PDCCH monitoring, and in particular, dynamic indication related to PDCCH monitoring.

[0005] In a first aspect, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device includes at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to receive downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, the DCI including an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and perform an operation based on the indication.

[0006] In a second aspect, a network device is provided. The network device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the network device to determine, for a terminal device, an indication indicating an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and send the indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0007] In a third aspect, a method is provided. The method comprises: receiving, at a terminal device, downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, the DCI comprising: an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and performing an operation based on the indication.

[0008] In a fourth aspect, a method is provided. The method comprises: determining, at a network device, for a terminal device, an indication indicating an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and sending the indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0009] In a fifth aspect, an apparatus is provided, comprising a component for receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a network device at a terminal device, the DCI comprising an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and a component for performing an operation based on the indication.

[0010] In a sixth aspect, an apparatus is provided, comprising a component for determining, at a network device, an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX) for a terminal device; and a component for sending the indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0011] In a seventh aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided, comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to execute a method according to at least any one of the third to fourth aspects above.

[0012] In an eighth aspect, a computer program is provided, comprising instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to at least: receive a component of downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, the DCI comprising an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and perform operations based on the indication.

[0013] In a ninth aspect, a computer program is provided, comprising instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to at least: determine, for a terminal device, a component for indicating an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and send an indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0014] In a tenth aspect, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device includes: a receiving circuit system configured to receive a component of downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, the DCI including an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and an execution circuit system configured to perform an operation based on the indication.

[0015] In an eleventh aspect, a network device is provided. The network device includes: a determining circuit system configured to determine an indication for a terminal device indicating an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and a sending circuit system configured to send the indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0016] It should be understood that the invention summary is not intended to identify the key or essential features of the embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily understood through the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0018] Figure 1 shows an example system in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0019] Figure 2 A flow chart for a PDCCH monitoring dynamic indication process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0020] Figure 3 A flowchart for a PDCCH monitoring dynamic indication process according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0021] Figure 4 A flowchart of a method implemented at a terminal device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0022] Figure 5 A flowchart of a method implemented at a network device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0023] Figure 6shows a simplified block diagram of an apparatus suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0024] Figure 7 A block diagram illustrating an example computer-readable medium according to certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0025] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] The principles of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It should be understood that these embodiments are described only for illustrative purposes, and are helpful for those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without implying any limitation on the scope of the present disclosure. The present disclosure described herein can be implemented in various ways except for the modes described below.

[0027] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0028] References in this disclosure to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc. indicate that the described embodiment may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but not every embodiment necessarily includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. In addition, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Furthermore, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in conjunction with an embodiment, it is considered to be within the knowledge of those skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in conjunction with other embodiments, whether or not explicitly described.

[0029] It should be understood that although the terms "first" and "second" etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. For example, a first element may be referred to as a second element, and similarly, a second element may be referred to as a first element without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiments. As used herein, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0030] The terms used herein are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit exemplary embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are also intended to include plural forms unless the context clearly states otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms "comprises", "comprising", "has", "having", "includes" and / or "including" when used herein specify the presence of the features, elements and / or components, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or their combinations. As used herein, "at least one of the following: <list of two or more elements>" and "at least one of <list of two or more elements>" and similar wording, wherein the list of two or more elements is connected by "and" or "or", representing at least any one element, or at least any two or more elements, or at least all elements.

[0031] As used in this application, the term "circuitry" may refer to one or more or all of the following:

[0032] (a) Hardware circuit implementation only (such as implementation in analog and / or digital circuitry)

[0033] as well as

[0034] (b) a combination of hardware circuitry and software such as (where applicable):

[0035] (i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuits and software / firmware and

[0036] (ii) any portion of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s), software and memory that work together to enable a device (such as a mobile phone or server) to perform various functions and

[0037] (c) hardware circuit(s) and / or processor(s), such as microprocessor(s) or portion(s) of microprocessor(s), that require software (e.g. firmware) in order to operate,

[0038] But when the operation does not require the software, the software may not be present.

[0039] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of the term in this application, including any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of only a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in a server, cellular network device, or other computing or network device, if applicable to a particular claim element.

[0040] The term "communication network" used herein refers to a network that complies with any appropriate communication standard, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA), Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), etc. In addition, the communication between the terminal equipment and the network equipment in the communication network can be carried out according to any appropriate generation communication protocol, including but not limited to the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth generation (5G), future sixth generation (6G) communication protocol and / or any other currently known or future to be developed protocol. The embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems. In view of the rapid development of communication, there will certainly be future types of communication technologies and systems that can embody the present disclosure. It should not be regarded as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to the above-mentioned system.

[0041] As used herein, the term "network device" refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. A network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a Node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), a NR NB (also known as a gNB), a remote radio unit (RRU), a radio head (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node (such as a femto node, a pico node), etc., depending on the terminology and technology applied.

[0042] The term "terminal device" refers to any terminal device that can perform wireless communication. As an example and not limitation, the terminal device may also be referred to as a wireless communication device, a user equipment (UE), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station, a mobile station (MS) or an access terminal (AT). The terminal device includes, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a tablet computer, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable computer, a desktop computer, an image capture terminal device (such as a digital camera), a game terminal device, a music storage and playback device, a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a laptop embedded device (LEE), a laptop mounted device (LME), a USB dongle, a smart device, a wireless client device (CPE), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable device, a head mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, medical equipment and applications (such as remote surgery), industrial equipment and applications (such as robots and / or other wireless devices operating in the context of industrial and / or automated processing chains), consumer electronic devices, equipment operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, etc. In the following description, the terms "terminal device", "communication device", "terminal", "user equipment" and "UE" may be used interchangeably.

[0043] Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to solutions for dynamic indication of PDCCH monitoring in IoT NTN. In NRNTN, disabling HARQ feedback for downlink transmission is semi-statically configured through radio resource control (RRC) signaling. The configuration indicates each HARQ process index by means of a bitmap, for example, if the configured HARQ process number is 32, it is a 32-bit bitmap. In IoT on NTN, discussions on disabling or enabling HARQ feedback are ongoing. HARQ feedback enabling and disabling are agreed to be supported to ensure the reliability of some important media access control control element (MAC CE) and RRC signaling and to avoid HARQ stalls. Since the number of HARQ processes in IoT and enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) may be less than that of NR UE, for example, up to two HARQ processes for NB-IoT and up to 4 HARQ processes for eMTC CE mode B, if the NR NTN solution is reused, a large amount of signaling may be required for reconfiguring HARQ feedback enabling / disabling. Therefore, dynamic HARQ feedback enabling or disabling is discussed for IoT on NTN. The current agreement in RAN1 will support Option 1 (i.e., semi-statically for each HARQ process via UE-specific RRC signaling) and Option 3 (i.e., dynamically and explicitly indicated by DCI) to dynamically disable or enable HARQ feedback for NB-IoT and eMTC CE Mode B. The detailed solution on how to use Option 1 and Option 3 is still under discussion. In addition, RAN1 also agreed that Option 3 can override Option 1 configuration.

[0044] The following consensus was reached at the RAN1 meeting:

[0045]

[0046]

[0047]

[0048]

[0049] In the NR NTN solution, supporting HARQ feedback disabling or enabling is closely related to two things: HARQ feedback and connected DRX operation (i.e., PDCCH monitoring timing for retransmission when UE is in DRX active time). For disabled HARQ feedback, ACK (acknowledgement) / NACK (negative acknowledgement) information will not be reported to the network, and the DRX HARQ RTT (round trip time) timer will not be started, which means that the NW (network) can continue to schedule retransmission or new transmission without waiting for the RTT time length to obtain the decoding result of the transmission (as shown in case 3 in Table 1 below). For enabled HARQ feedback, ACK / NACK information will be reported to the network, and the DRX HARQ RTT timer will be started, and the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL length will be increased by UE-gNB RTT. In this case, the NW needs to wait for the RTT time length to obtain the decoding result of the transmission, and thus schedule the retransmission or new transmission based on the decoding result (as shown in case 2 in Table 1 below). However, for IoT NTN, a working assumption was reached in the RAN#113 meeting as shown below. RAN1 is asking RAN2 about the feasibility of WA (working hypothesis), considering the impact on RAN2 specifications (mainly for DRX):

[0050]

[0051] This WA means that for the case where the HARQ process is configured as HARQ feedback disabled by per-HARQ process bitmap signaling (e.g., via RRC) and also inverted to HARQ feedback enabled by DCI, the ACK / NACK information will be reported to the network without increasing the UE-gNB RTT by the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL length (as in case 4 in Table 1). For this case, the UE behavior is different in the case of HARQ feedback disabled and HARQ feedback enabled, as agreed in NR NTN, and it has the advantages of both HARQ feedback and fast scheduling (without waiting for UE-gNB RTT).

[0052] Specifically, HARQ feedback enabling can be targeted for high reliability transmission for MAC CE and is beneficial for link adaptation. For the same HARQ process, NB-IoT UE does not wait for RTT+3ms of WA before monitoring NPDCCH (narrowband physical downlink control channel) to support fast scheduling and avoid HARQ stagnation.

[0053] However, in some other cases where HARQ stalling is not a key issue and achieving transmission reliability is a key motivation, the NW may schedule retransmission or new transmission only after the UE-eNB RTT to obtain the decoding result of the previous transmission. This is a more resource-efficient solution compared to other solutions for improving reliability, such as robust MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) settings or blind retransmissions. In this case, the UE continues to monitor the PDCCH without waiting for RTT+3ms because the current WA will cause the problem of unnecessary UE power consumption.

[0054] In addition, in the case of a single HARQ process, the problem becomes more serious. For a HARQ process that is configured as HARQ feedback disabled by per-HARQ process bitmap signaling and is also inverted to HARQ feedback enabled by DCI, if the current RAN1 WA of "NBIoT UE does not wait for RTT+3ms (i.e., until subframe n+Kmac+3 in TS36.213 Section 16.6) before monitoring NPDCCH for the same HARQ process (or monitoring for any NPDCCH in the case of a single HARQ process configuration)" is followed, the UE's behavior on DRX operation (i.e., PDCCH monitoring timing for retransmission) and HARQ feedback will follow Case 4 in Table 1. Similarly, for a HARQ process that is configured as HARQ feedback disabled by per-HARQ process bitmap signaling and further indicated by DCI as HARQ feedback disabled, the UE's behavior on DRX operation (i.e., PDCCH monitoring timing for retransmission) and HARQ feedback will be Case 3 in Table 1. In summary, as long as a HARQ process is configured as feedback disabled by each HARQ process bitmap, the NB-IoT UE will always monitor the PDCCH without waiting for the RTT for that HARQ process, which is a very energy-inefficient solution.

[0055] Therefore, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, a dynamic solution for the indication of whether the UE should monitor the PDCCH after the UE-eNB RTT should be supported, which can provide greater flexibility in scheduling and power consumption saving.

[0056] Table 1 UE behavior on PDCCH monitoring / DRX and HARQ feedback

[0057] PDCCH monitoring, scheduling / DRX operation HARQ Feedback Case 1 Waiting for RTT / RTT timer to be extended no Case 2 Waiting for RTT / RTT timer to be extended yes Case 3 No need to wait for RTT / RTT timer not started no Case 4 No need to wait for RTT / RTT timer not started yes

[0058] The principles and embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Figure 1, which shows an example system 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. System 100 is, for example, a communication network, including multiple network devices and terminal devices, such as terminal device 110 and network device 120. In the NR NTN scenario, network device 120 may be an NTN device, such as a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, a medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite, or a geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite. Terminal device 110 may communicate with network device 120, for example, terminal device 110 may receive configuration information and / or instructions from network device 120, and perform (multiple) operations based on the configuration information and / or instructions. In some examples, system 100 may also include network device 130, such as a ground station, and network device 120 (e.g., NTN device) may act as a transmission relay node between network device 130 and terminal device 110 in a transparent manner. As an example, terminal device 110 may receive configuration information and / or instructions from network device 130 via network device 120. In some examples, system 100 may also include data network 140. The network device 130 and the data network 140 (e.g., the Internet, an intranet, a wide area network, etc.) can be connected to each other via a wired and / or wireless network. Additionally or alternatively, the network device 130 can be connected to Figure 1 Other core network elements not shown in the figure, such as servers, access points, switches, routers, nodes, etc. The solution of the embodiment of the present disclosure can be implemented between the terminal device 110 and the network device 120, and can also be implemented between the terminal device 110 and the network device 130 (via the network device 120 as a transmission relay node). The embodiments herein are mainly described based on the terminal device 110 and the network device 130.

[0059] It should be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices is for illustration purposes only and does not represent any limitation. System 100 may include any number of network devices and terminal devices suitable for implementing the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0060] The communication in the system 100 can be implemented according to any appropriate communication protocol(s), including but not limited to cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), fifth generation (5G) and sixth generation (6G), wireless local area network communication protocols (such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, etc.), and / or any other currently known or future developed protocols. In addition, the communication can utilize any appropriate wireless communication technology, including but not limited to: code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division duplex (FDD), time division duplex (TDD), multiple input multiple output (MIMO), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM), discrete Fourier transform spread spectrum OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other currently known or future developed technology.

[0061] Reference now Figure 2 , which illustrates a process 200 for dynamic indication of PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, reference will be made to Figure 1 200. Process 200 may involve Figure 1 The terminal device 110 and the network device 130 are shown. It can be understood that although Figure 1 The process 200 is described in the system 100 of FIG. 1 , but the process can also be applied to other communication systems.

[0062] In the process 200, the network device 130 may determine (202) an indication indicating operations associated with physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring and / or discontinuous reception (DRX) for the terminal device 110. The network device 130 may then send (204) the indication to the terminal device 110 via downlink control information (DCI) 205. On the terminal device 110 side, the terminal device 110 may receive (206) the DCI 205 from the network device 130 including the indication of operations associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX.

[0063] In addition, in some embodiments, the network device 130 may send to the terminal device 110 and the terminal device 110 may receive from the network device 130 a configuration including at least one value set associated with a field of the DCI. The indication may include one of a value set in the at least one value set. In some examples, the value set may include a first subset associated with a length of time before waiting for an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, and a second subset associated with a length of time before not waiting for an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX.

[0064] In some embodiments of the configuration including one value set, the field of the DCI may be a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) resource field, or a repetition number field, or a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field. In some embodiments of the configuration including multiple value sets, the field of the DCI may be a HARQ-ACK resource field. As an example, some fields in DCI format N1, such as "HARQ-ACK resource", "repetition number" and "MCS", are shown in Table 2.

[0065] Table 2

[0066]

[0067] As shown in Table 2, the DCI signaling indicating the timing of PDCCH monitoring can be implemented by reusing / reinterpreting some fields (such as "HARQ-ACK resources", "number of repetitions", "MCS", etc.). Specifically, Table 2 shows the DCI format N1 for NPDSCH scheduling in NB-IoT. For the solution that the DCI indicates by reusing / reinterpreting the "HARQ-ACK resources" field in the DCI, the configuration may include multiple value sets, and the first subset or the second subset may include one or more values. The network may consider factors such as reliability, scheduling efficiency, throughput (ie, HARQ stagnation), etc. to determine and configure / indicate the number of values ​​in the subsets for the two options. The above two options may correspond to waiting for a period of time before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, and not waiting for a period of time before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, and the corresponding examples may refer to the following options 1A and 1B. The number of HARQ-ACK resource field values ​​is balanced between the two subsets, which can reduce the impact on scheduling flexibility with fewer "HARQ-ACK resources" values. In addition, the solution is also applicable to the uplink, and the DCI signaling indicating the PDCCH monitoring timing can be implemented by reusing / reinterpreting some fields in the DCI format N0 for NPDSCH scheduling in NB-IoT (such as "number of repetitions" and "MCS"). In addition, the solution is also applicable to eMTC uplink and downlink as well as NR uplink and downlink. The DCI signaling indicating the PDCCH monitoring timing can be implemented by reusing / reinterpreting certain fields in the corresponding DCI format (if any) (such as "number of repetitions" and "MCS", "HARQ-ACK resource offset", "PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indication").

[0068] In some examples, multiple value sets may be configured in a table, and each value set in the multiple value sets corresponds to an index. An index corresponding to a value set in the multiple value sets may be included in a MAC CE. In these embodiments, the values ​​in the multiple value sets are indicated to the terminal device 110 via the DCI and are indicated to the terminal device 110 via the MAC CE. The terminal device may determine one of the multiple sets based on the index, and determine whether to wait for a period of time before an operation associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX based on the set corresponding to the index and the indicated value. It should be noted that this MAC CE is a new MAC CE different from the existing MAC CE.

[0069] In some embodiments, if the field of the DCI is a HARQ-ACK resource field, a value set including a first subset and a second subset is used to indicate that HARQ feedback in a HARQ process associated with the operation is enabled. For example, if the field is "HARQ-ACK resource", the indication may indicate both HARQ feedback enabling and waiting for a period of time before operations associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX, or may indicate HARQ feedback enabling and not waiting for a period of time before operations associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX.

[0070] Based on the indication received from the network device 130, the terminal device 110 may perform (208) operations associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX. Specifically, in some examples, the terminal device 110 may wait for a length of time before operations associated with PDCCH monitoring or DRX or both based on determining that the indication includes a value in the first subset. In some other examples, the terminal device 110 may prevent waiting for a length of time before operations associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX based on determining that the indication includes a value in the second subset. In some embodiments, the above-mentioned length of time may be equal to a round trip time (RTT) plus a predetermined duration. The predetermined duration may be a predetermined network device processing time. In some examples for PDCCH monitoring, the predetermined duration may be 3ms, for example, based on determining that the indication includes a value in the first subset, the terminal device 110 may wait for RTT+3ms before operations associated with PDCCH monitoring, or based on determining that the indication includes a value in the second subset, the terminal device will not wait for RTT+3ms before operations associated with PDCCH monitoring. In some other examples of DRX, the predetermined duration may be 0 ms, for example, based on determining that the indication includes a value in the first subset, the terminal device 110 may wait for the RTT before an operation associated with the DRX, or based on determining that the indication includes a value in the second subset, the terminal device does not wait for the RTT before an operation associated with the DRX.

[0071] In some embodiments, in order to prevent waiting for a period of time, for the case of operations associated with PDCCH monitoring, specifically, the terminal device 110 can prevent waiting for a period of time (which can be referred to as a first time length in this example) before the operation associated with PDCCH monitoring, and can monitor the PDCCH in a subframe (which can be any subframe) starting from the end of the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback transmission plus a second time length. Here, the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback transmission corresponds to a PDSCH scheduled by a DCI in which an indication is included. In some embodiments, the second time length can be a protection period for uplink to downlink switching, such as 1 millisecond (ms). For example, the UE (an example of the terminal device 110) can monitor the NPDCCH in any subframe starting from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus 1ms.

[0072] In some other embodiments, in order to prevent waiting for a period of time, for the case of an operation associated with DRX, specifically, in some examples, the terminal device 110 may prevent waiting for a period of time before the operation associated with DRX, and prevent starting a timer associated with the HARQ round trip time (RTT) for the HARQ process. In some examples, the timer associated with the HARQ RTT may be a HARQ RTT Timer. The terminal device 110 may not start the HARQ RTTTimer. Additionally or alternatively, in some other examples, the terminal device 110 may prevent waiting for a first time length before the operation associated with DRX, and may enter the DRX active state in a subframe starting from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length (e.g., 1ms). In some examples, in order to enter the DRX active state, the terminal device 110 may start or restart a timer associated with DRX inactivity from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length (e.g., 1ms). In some examples, the timer associated with DRX inactivity may be a drx-InactivityTimer.

[0073] If the terminal device 110 enters the DRX active state, as an example, the terminal device 110 may be active for a duration. The duration may be associated with one of: a timer associated with DRX retransmission or a short TTI of a timer associated with DRX retransmission for a HARQ process, or a timer associated with DRX inactivity. In some examples, the timer associated with DRX inactivity may be drx-InactivityTimer. The timer associated with HARQ RTT may be HARQ RTT Timer. The timer associated with DRX retransmission may be drx-RetransmissionTimer. The short TTI of the timer associated with DRX retransmission may be drx-RetransmissionTimerShortTTI. In these embodiments, for example, if the indication indicates that the UE will not wait for a time length before an operation associated with DRX, the UE may enter the DRX active state after the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a time length, specifically, the UE may start / restart the drx-InactivityTimer, additionally or alternatively, the UE may enter the active state after the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a time length (e.g., 1 ms), and maintain activation for a duration equal to the drx-RetransmissionTimer, or drx-RetransmissionTimerShortTTI for the corresponding HARQ process, or drx-InactivityTimer.

[0074] In some other embodiments, in order to wait for the time length, for the case of an operation associated with DRX, specifically, the terminal device 110 may wait for a time length before the operation associated with DRX, wherein a timer associated with the HARQ RTT for the HARQ process is increased by RTT. In some examples, the timer associated with the HARQ RTT may be a HARQ RTT Timer. The HARQ RTT Timer is increased by RTT.

[0075] On the network device 130 side, in some examples, for a HARQ process associated with an operation associated with PDCCH monitoring or DRX or a combination of the two, the network device 130 may configure HARQ feedback to be disabled through radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and indicate HARQ feedback to be enabled by DCI. In other words, for the terminal device 110, the HARQ feedback in the HARQ process associated with the operation is configured to be disabled through RRC signaling, and the DCI indicates that the HARQ feedback is enabled. For example, in the case where the above-mentioned HARQ feedback is configured to be disabled through RRC signaling and then indicated to be enabled by DCI, the terminal device 110 receives a DCI including an indication of the above-mentioned operation associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX, that is, the operation associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX can be dynamically indicated by the network device 130 via DCI. For example, for IoT on NTN, when both option 1 (RRC-based signaling) and option 3 (DCI-based signaling) are configured as indications of HARQ feedback enable and disable, for the HARQ process that is configured as HARQ feedback disable through per-HARQ process bitmap signaling and further inverted to HARQ feedback enable by DCI, the PDCCH monitoring timing can be dynamically indicated by the NW (e.g., gNB, an example of network device 130) to the UE (an example of terminal device 110).

[0076] The solution of some embodiments has the advantage of fully dynamically informing the UE about PDCCH monitoring and provides flexibility regarding scheduling timing and power consumption optimization.

[0077] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the proposed DCI-based solution for indication of PDCCH monitoring in IoT on NTN can be applied to the case where both option 1 (RRC-based signaling) and option 3 (DCI-based signaling) are configured as indications of HARQ feedback enablement and disablement. With this solution, the NW (i.e., the network, such as the network device 130) can dynamically notify the UE about PDCCH monitoring, and provide flexibility in scheduling timing and optimization of power consumption of the UE, because the NW accurately knows whether it schedules the UE after the previous transmission and whether the UE needs or does not need to wait for RTT+3 milliseconds to monitor the PDCCH.

[0078] If both option 1 (HARQ feedback disable / enable based on RRC signaling) and option 3 (HARQ feedback disable / enable based on DCI signaling) are configured, DCI-based signaling will override RRC signaling as the current RAN1 protocol. Figure 3 Describe the details of the solution.

[0079] Figure 3FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a process 300 for dynamic indication of PDCCH monitoring according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure. Figure 3 In the example, the terminal device (e.g., the terminal device 110) may be a UE, the network device may be referred to as a network or NW, and the network device may be a network device 130, such as a gNB. Figure 3 As shown, the process can be performed by the UE, and at 310, option 1 (i.e., RRC-based HARQ feedback disabled or enabled) and option 3 (i.e., DCI-based HARQ feedback disabled or enabled) are configured. In addition, a subset of "HARQ-ACK resources" (or "MCS" or "number of repetitions") for option 1A and option 1B are configured. Specifically, option 1A and option 1B are as follows. Option 1A: The NBIoT UE shall wait for RTT+3ms (i.e., until subframe n+Kmac+3 in TS36.213 section 16.6) before monitoring the NPDCCH for the same HARQ process, and the DRX behavior will follow the solution where HARQ feedback is enabled, for example, the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL length is increased by the UE-gNB RTT. Option 1B: The NBIoT UE does not wait for RTT+3ms (i.e., until subframe n+Kmac+3 in TS36.213 section 16.6) before monitoring the NPDCCH for the same HARQ process, the DRX behavior will follow the solution where HARQ feedback is disabled, for example, drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL is not started or the NBIoT UE enters the active state in the subframe starting from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus the second time length.

[0080] For a HARQ process that is configured as HARQ feedback disabled through per-HARQ process bitmap signaling and further reversed to HARQ feedback enabled through DCI, the NW may dynamically inform the UE whether to monitor the PDCCH after the RTT, i.e., case 2 or case 4 in Table 1. Specifically, in some embodiments, the network may configure a subset (which may be referred to as a first subset) of the "HARQ-ACK resources" field (or "number of repetitions", or "MCS") for indication of option 1A (i.e., case 2 in Table 1), and configure another subset (which may be referred to as a second subset) of the "HARQ-ACK resources" field (or "number of repetitions", or "MCS") for indication of option 1B (i.e., case 4 in Table 1).

[0081] Continue to refer Figure 3, at 320, the UE may determine whether one HARQ process is configured with HARQ feedback disabled, and if so, at 330, the UE may determine whether HARQ feedback is indicated by the DCI as enabled. In the event that the UE determines that HARQ feedback is indicated by the DCI as enabled, as shown at 340, the UE determines whether Option 1A (i.e., using a value in a configured subset (e.g., a first subset)) is indicated via the DCI, and if so, 350 is performed, otherwise, 360 is performed. In some examples, if the field of "HARQ-ACK resources" is used to indicate Option 1A or Option 1B, 330 and 340 may be performed together, in these examples (330 and 340 are combined to be performed), the UE may determine whether HARQ feedback is indicated by the DCI as enabled and whether Option 1A (i.e., using a value in a configured subset (e.g., a first subset)) is indicated by the DCI, otherwise, the UE may determine whether HARQ feedback is indicated by the DCI as enabled and whether Option 1B is indicated by the DCI. In other words, if the field is "HARQ-ACK resources", the indication may indicate "both HARQ feedback enabled and option 1A" or "both HARQ feedback enabled and option 1B". At 350, when the UE receives a DCI indicating option 1A with a value from a configured subset (e.g., the first subset), the UE shall wait for a time length of RTT+3ms before monitoring the NPDCCH for the same HARQ process, and the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL length is increased by the UE-gNB RTT. At 360, the UE may determine whether option 1B (i.e., using a value in a configured subset (e.g., a second subset)) is indicated by the DCI, and if so, as shown at 370, when the UE receives a DCI indicating option 1B with a value from a configured subset (e.g., a second subset), the UE does not wait for RTT+3ms before monitoring the NPDCCH for the same HARQ process, and drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL is not started, or the UE enters an active state in a subframe starting from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length. In this way, the NW can provide flexibility regarding scheduling timing and optimization of power consumption.

[0082] According to the above embodiment, the DCI indication can be implemented by reusing / reinterpreting some fields in the DCI (such as "HARQ-ACK resources" or "repetition number" or "MCS" field). Some examples corresponding to the "HARQ-ACK resources" or "repetition number" or "MCS" field will be further described below accordingly.

[0083] In some examples (which may be referred to as Option 2A), in Option 2A, the above DCI indication is implemented by reusing / reinterpreting the "HARQ-ACK resources" field in the DCI. In some embodiments, one state of the "HARQ-ACK resources" field in the DCI format N1 is used for an indication of HARQ feedback disabled, and the remaining states for the indication of HARQ feedback enabled can be divided into two subsets, one subset (e.g., a first subset) can be used for Option 1A and an indication of HARQ feedback enabled, and another subset (e.g., a second subset) can be used for Option 1B and an indication of HARQ feedback enabled. As described above, the subsets for Option 1A and Option 1B are configured, specifically, the mapping of field values / states to each subset can be predefined or configured. In some embodiments, the field value / state for each subset can be configured / reconfigured by the NW through RRC signaling. The NW can indicate HARQ-ACK resources via DCI from different subsets based on the requirement of whether the UE needs to wait for RTT+3ms for PDCCH monitoring. In some other embodiments, the network may configure a table with an index and a corresponding subset value through RRC signaling. The NW may use the resource index indicated by the new MAC CE to indicate the HARQ-ACK resource for each grant in the PDSCH scheduled by the DCI.

[0084] In some other examples (which may be referred to as Option 2B), the above-mentioned DCI indication may be implemented by reusing / reinterpreting the "number of repetitions" or "MCS" field in the DCI. The NW may configure a value subset in the DCI for "number of repetitions" or "MCS", so that the number of bits used to indicate the "number of repetitions" or "MCS" is smaller, and the remaining one bit may be used to indicate Option 1A or Option 1B. The above-mentioned Option 1A may be an example of an embodiment corresponding to the terminal device 110 waiting for a period of time before operations associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX, and the above-mentioned Option 1B may be an example of an embodiment corresponding to the terminal device 110 preventing the terminal device 110 from waiting for a period of time before operations associated with PDCCH monitoring and / or DRX.

[0085] Figure 4 FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a method implemented at a terminal device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, reference will be made to Figure 1 The method 400 is described from the perspective of the terminal device 110 .

[0086] At block 410, the terminal device 110 may receive downlink control information (DCI) from the network device 130, the DCI including an indication of operations associated with physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring and / or discontinuous reception (DRX). At block 420, the terminal device 110 may perform the operations based on the indication.

[0087] In some embodiments, terminal device 110 may receive, from network device 130, a configuration comprising at least one set of values ​​associated with a field of the DCI, wherein the indication comprises one value in one set of values ​​in the at least one set of values.

[0088] In some embodiments, the set of values ​​may include: a first subset associated with waiting for a certain length of time before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, and a second subset associated with not waiting for the certain length of time before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX.

[0089] In some embodiments, in order to perform an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, the terminal device 110 may: based on determining that the indication includes a value in the first subset, wait for a period of time before the operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, or based on determining that the indication includes a value in the second subset, prevent waiting for the period of time before the operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX.

[0090] In some embodiments, the time length may be referred to as a first time length. To prevent waiting for the time length, the terminal device 110 may prevent waiting for the first time length before an operation associated with PDCCH monitoring, and may monitor the PDCCH in a subframe starting from the end of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback transmission plus a second time length.

[0091] In some embodiments, to prevent waiting for this length of time, the terminal device 110 may prevent waiting for this length of time before operations associated with DRX and may prevent starting a timer associated with a HARQ round trip time (RTT) for the HARQ process.

[0092] In some embodiments, the time length may be referred to as a first time length. In order to prevent waiting for the time length, the terminal device 110 may prevent waiting for the first time length before an operation associated with DRX, and may enter a DRX active state in a subframe starting from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length. In some embodiments, in order to enter the DRX active state, the terminal device 110 may start or restart a timer associated with DRX inactivity from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length. In some embodiments, in the event that the terminal device 110 enters the DRX active state, the terminal device 110 may be active for a duration. The duration may be associated with one of the following: a short transmission time interval (TTI) of a timer associated with a DRX retransmission or a timer associated with a DRX retransmission for a HARQ process; or a timer associated with DRX inactivity. In some embodiments, the timer associated with DRX inactivity is a drx-InactivityTimer.

[0093] In some embodiments, the second time length may be a guard period for uplink-to-downlink switching, such as 1 millisecond.

[0094] In some embodiments, to wait for the length of time, the terminal device 110 may wait for the length of time prior to operations associated with DRX, wherein a timer associated with a HARQ RTT for a HARQ process is increased by the RTT.

[0095] In some embodiments, in the event that the configuration includes a set of values, the field of the DCI may be a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) resource field, or a Repetition Number field, or a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

[0096] In some embodiments, in the event that the configuration includes multiple value sets, the field of the DCI may be a HARQ-ACK resource field.

[0097] In some embodiments, a plurality of value sets may be configured in a table. Each value set in the plurality of value sets corresponds to an index, and an index corresponding to a value set in the plurality of value sets may be included in the MAC CE.

[0098] In some embodiments, HARQ feedback in a HARQ process associated with the operation may be configured to be disabled via radio resource control (RRC) signaling; and the DCI indicates that HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0099] In some embodiments, the length of time is equal to the RTT plus a predetermined duration. In some examples, the predetermined duration may be a predetermined network device processing time.

[0100] In some embodiments, the terminal device according to claim 4, wherein in the event that the field of the DCI is a HARQ-ACK resource field, the value set including the first subset and the second subset is used to indicate that HARQ feedback in the HARQ process associated with the operation is enabled.

[0101] Figure 5 FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing an example method 500 implemented at a network device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, reference will be made to Figure 1 Method 500 is described from the perspective of network device 130 .

[0102] At block 510, the network device 130 determines an indication indicating operations associated with physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring and / or discontinuous reception (DRX) for the terminal device 110. At block 520, the network device 130 sends the indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0103] In some embodiments, the network device 130 may send a configuration including at least one value set associated with a field of the DCI to the terminal device 110 , wherein the indication includes one value in one value set of the at least one value set.

[0104] In some embodiments, the set of values ​​includes: a first subset associated with waiting for a period of time before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, and a second subset associated with not waiting for the period of time before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX.

[0105] In some embodiments, in the event that the configuration includes a set of values, the field of the DCI may be a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) resource field, or a Repetition Number field, or a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

[0106] In some embodiments, in the event that the configuration includes multiple value sets, the field of the DCI may be a HARQ-ACK resource field.

[0107] In some embodiments, a plurality of value sets may be configured in a table, each value set in the plurality of value sets corresponds to an index, and an index corresponding to one of the plurality of value sets may be included in the MAC CE.

[0108] In some embodiments, for a HARQ process associated with the operation, the network device 130 may configure HARQ feedback to be disabled via radio resource control (RRC) signaling; and the DCI indicates that HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0109] In some embodiments, the length of time is equal to the RTT plus a predetermined duration. In some examples, the predetermined duration may be a predetermined network device processing time.

[0110] In some embodiments, a device capable of executing any of the method 400 (e.g., terminal device 110) may include a component for executing the corresponding step of the method 400. The component may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the device may be implemented as a circuit system or a software module.

[0111] In some embodiments, the apparatus includes a component for receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, the DCI including an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and a component for performing the operation based on the indication.

[0112] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for receiving, from the network device, a configuration comprising at least one set of values ​​associated with a field of the DCI, wherein the indication comprises one value of one of the at least one set of values.

[0113] In some embodiments, the set of values ​​includes: a first subset associated with waiting for a period of time before operations associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, and a second subset associated with not waiting for the period of time before operations associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX.

[0114] In some embodiments, the component for performing the operation includes: a component for waiting for a time length before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX based on determining that the indication includes a value in the first subset; or a component for preventing waiting for a time length before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX based on determining that the indication includes a value in the second subset.

[0115] In some embodiments, the time length is a first time length, and the component for preventing waiting for the time length includes: a component for preventing waiting for the first time length before an operation associated with PDCCH monitoring; and a component for monitoring the PDCCH in a subframe starting from the end of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback transmission plus a second time length.

[0116] In some embodiments, the means for preventing waiting for a time length includes: means for preventing waiting for a time length before an operation associated with DRX; and means for preventing starting a timer associated with a HARQ round trip time (RTT) for a HARQ process.

[0117] In some embodiments, the time length is a first time length, and the component for preventing waiting for the time length includes: a component for preventing waiting for the first time length before an operation associated with DRX; and a component for entering a DRX active state in a subframe starting from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length.

[0118] In some embodiments, the means for entering the DRX active state comprises means for starting or restarting a timer associated with DRX inactivity from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus the second length of time.

[0119] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for being active for a period of time in the event that the terminal device enters a DRX active state. The period of time is associated with one of: a short transmission time interval (TTI) of a timer associated with a DRX retransmission or a timer associated with a DRX retransmission for a HARQ process; or a timer associated with DRX inactivity.

[0120] In some embodiments, the timer associated with DRX inactivity is a drx-InactivityTimer.

[0121] In some embodiments, the second time length is a guard period for uplink to downlink switching, such as 1 millisecond.

[0122] In some embodiments, the means for waiting the time length comprises: means for waiting the time length before an operation associated with DRX.A timer associated with a HARQ RTT of the HARQ process is incremented by the RTT.

[0123] In some embodiments, in the event that the configuration includes a set of values, the field of the DCI is a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) Resource field; or a Repetition Number field; or a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

[0124] In some embodiments, in the event that the configuration includes multiple value sets, the field of the DCI is a HARQ-ACK resource field.

[0125] In some embodiments, the plurality of value sets are configured in a table. Each value set in the plurality of value sets corresponds to an index, and the index corresponding to one of the plurality of value sets is included in the MAC CE.

[0126] In some embodiments, HARQ feedback in a HARQ process associated with the operation is configured to be disabled via radio resource control (RRC) signaling; and the DCI indicates that the HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0127] In some embodiments, the length of time is equal to the RTT plus a predetermined duration. In some examples, the predetermined duration may be a predetermined network device processing time.

[0128] In some embodiments, in the event that the field of the DCI is a HARQ-ACK resource field, the value set including the first subset and the second subset is used to indicate that HARQ feedback in a HARQ process associated with the operation is enabled.

[0129] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other steps in some embodiments of method 400. In some embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to cause execution of the apparatus together with the at least one processor.

[0130] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing any of the methods 500 (e.g., network device 130) may include a component for performing the corresponding steps of the method 500. The component may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the component may be implemented in a circuit system or a software module.

[0131] In some embodiments, the apparatus includes means for determining an indication for a terminal device indicating an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and means for sending the indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0132] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for transmitting to the terminal device a configuration comprising at least one set of values ​​associated with a field of the DCI.The indication comprises a value in one of the at least one set of values.

[0133] In some embodiments, the value set includes: a first subset associated with a waiting time length before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX, and a second subset associated with a not waiting time length before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX.

[0134] In some embodiments, in the event that the configuration includes a set of values, the field of the DCI is a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) Resource field; or a Repetition Number field; or a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

[0135] In some embodiments, in the event that the configuration includes multiple value sets, the field of the DCI is a HARQ-ACK resource field.

[0136] In some embodiments, a plurality of value sets are configured in a table, and each value set in the plurality of value sets corresponds to an index. The index corresponding to a value set in the plurality of value sets is included in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE).

[0137] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for configuring HARQ feedback as disabled for a HARQ process associated with the operation and via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and means for indicating HARQ feedback as enabled via DCI.

[0138] In some embodiments, the length of time is equal to the round trip time (RTT) plus the predetermined duration. In some examples, the predetermined duration may be a predetermined network device processing time.

[0139] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other steps in some embodiments of method 500. In some embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to cause the performance of the apparatus together with the at least one processor.

[0140] Figure 6 600 is a simplified block diagram of a device suitable for implementing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 600 may be provided to implement a communication device, such as Figure 1 The terminal device 110 and the network device 120 are shown. As shown in the figure, the device 600 includes one or more processors 610, one or more memories 620 coupled to the processors 610, and one or more communication modules 640 coupled to the processors 610.

[0141] The communication module 640 is used for two-way communication. The communication module 640 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface necessary to communicate with other network elements.

[0142] Processor 610 may be of any type suitable for the local technology network, and may include, as non-limiting examples, one or more of: a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a processor based on a multi-core processor architecture. Device 600 may have multiple processors, such as application specific integrated circuit chips, which are time-slaved to a clock synchronized with a main processor.

[0143] The memory 620 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) 624, electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, hard disk, compact disk (CD), digital video disk (DVD), and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of volatile memories include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM) 622 and other volatile memories that do not persist during the duration of a power outage.

[0144] Computer program 630 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by associated processor 610. Program 630 may be stored in ROM 624. Processor 610 may perform any appropriate actions and processes by loading program 630 into RAM 622.

[0145] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by the program 630, so that the device 600 may perform any process of the present disclosure, such as referring to Figures 2 to 5 The embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or a combination of software and hardware.

[0146] In some example embodiments, the program 630 may be tangibly embodied in a computer-readable medium that may be included in the device 600 (such as in the memory 620) or in other storage devices accessible by the device 600. The device 600 may load the program 630 from the computer-readable medium to the RAM 622 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer-readable medium may include any type of tangible non-volatile memory, such as ROM, EPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD, DVD, etc. Figure 7 An example of a computer readable medium 700 in the form of a CD or DVD is shown. The computer readable medium has a program 630 stored thereon.

[0147] In general, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuits, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software that may be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Although various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are shown and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other graphical representations, it should be understood that, as non-limiting examples, the boxes, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuits or logic, general hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0148] Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer executable instructions, such as those included in a program module, executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor to perform the above-mentioned reference Figures 2 to 5 Described method 400 or 500.Usually, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform specific tasks or realize specific abstract data types.The functions of program modules can be combined or split between program modules in various embodiments as needed.Machine executable instructions for program modules can be executed in local or distributed devices.In distributed devices, program modules can be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0149] The program code for executing the disclosed method can be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes can be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer or other programmable data processing device, so that the program code causes the function / operation specified in the flow chart and / or block diagram to be implemented when executed by the processor or controller. The program code can be executed completely on the machine, partially on the machine, as an independent software package, partially on the machine and partially on a remote machine, or completely on a remote machine or server.

[0150] In the context of the present disclosure, computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable a device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of carriers include signals, computer readable media, etc.

[0151] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. The computer readable medium may include, but is not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared or semiconductor systems, devices or apparatuses, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of computer readable storage media would include an electrical connection with one or more wires, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. The term "non-transient" as used herein is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal), not a limitation of data storage persistence (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0152] In addition, although the operations are depicted in a particular order, it should not be understood as requiring that the operations be performed in the particular order or sequence order shown, or requiring that all the operations shown be performed, to achieve the desired results. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, although several specific implementation details are included in the above discussion, these should not be interpreted as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but should be interpreted as descriptions of features that may be specific to a particular embodiment. Unless explicitly stated, certain features described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. On the contrary, unless explicitly stated, the various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented separately in multiple embodiments or in any suitable sub-combination.

[0153] Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it should be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Instead, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

[0154] Implementations of the present disclosure may be described according to the following clauses, and features thereof may be combined in any reasonable manner.

[0155] Clause 1. A terminal device, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to at least: receive downlink control information DCI from a network device, the DCI comprising: an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel PDCCH monitoring or discontinuous reception DRX; and perform operations based on the indication.

[0156] Clause 2. A terminal device according to clause 1, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: receive from a network device a configuration comprising at least one value set associated with a field of the DCI, wherein the indication comprises: a value in one value set of the at least one value set.

[0157] Clause 3. A terminal device according to clause 2, wherein the value set comprises: a first subset associated with a length of time to wait before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX; and a second subset associated with a length of time not to wait before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX.

[0158] Clause 4. A terminal device according to clause 3, wherein the terminal device is caused to perform an operation by one of the following: waiting for a length of time before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX based on determining that the indication includes a value in a first subset; or preventing waiting for a length of time before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX based on determining that the indication includes a value in a second subset.

[0159] Clause 5. A terminal device according to clause 3 or 4, wherein the time length is a first time length and the terminal device is caused to prevent waiting for the time length by: preventing waiting for the first time length before an operation associated with PDCCH monitoring; and monitoring PDCCH in a subframe starting from the end of a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length.

[0160] Clause 6. A terminal device according to clause 3 or 4, wherein the terminal device is caused to prevent waiting for the time length by: preventing waiting for the time length before an operation associated with DRX; and preventing starting a timer associated with a HARQ round trip time (RTT) for a HARQ process.

[0161] Clause 7. A terminal device according to clause 3 or 4, wherein the time length is a first time length and the terminal device is caused to prevent waiting for the time length by: preventing waiting for the first time length before an operation associated with DRX; and entering a DRX active state in a subframe starting from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length.

[0162] Clause 8. A terminal device according to clause 7, wherein the terminal device is caused to enter the DRX active state by starting or restarting a timer associated with DRX inactivity from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second length of time.

[0163] Clause 9. A terminal device according to clause 7, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: in the event that the terminal device enters a DRX active state, be active for a certain duration, wherein the duration is associated with one of the following: a short transmission time interval TTI of a timer associated with DRX retransmission, or a timer associated with DRX retransmission for a HARQ process; or a timer associated with DRX inactivity.

[0164] Clause 10. A terminal device according to clause 8 or 9, wherein the timer associated with DRX inactivity is a drx-InactivityTimer.

[0165] Clause 11. A terminal device according to any of clauses 5, 7 or 8, wherein the second length of time is a guard period for uplink to downlink switching.

[0166] Clause 12. A terminal device according to clause 3 or 4, wherein the terminal device is caused to wait for the time length by: waiting for the time length before an operation associated with DRX, wherein a timer associated with a HARQ RTT for a HARQ process is increased by the RTT.

[0167] Clause 13. A terminal device according to any one of clauses 2 to 12, wherein in the event that the configuration includes a value set, the field of the DCI is one of: a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement HARQ-ACK resource field; a repetition number field; or a modulation and coding scheme MCS field.

[0168] Clause 14. A terminal device according to any of clauses 2 to 12, wherein in the event that the configuration comprises a plurality of value sets, the field of the DCI is a HARQ-ACK resource field.

[0169] Clause 15. A terminal device according to clause 14, wherein a plurality of value sets are configured in a table, wherein each value set in the plurality of value sets corresponds to an index, and the index corresponding to one of the plurality of value sets is included in a media access control MAC control element CE.

[0170] Clause 16. A terminal device according to any of clauses 1 to 15, wherein: HARQ feedback in a HARQ process associated with the operation is configured to be disabled via radio resource control (RRC) signalling; and the DCI indicates that the HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0171] Clause 17. A terminal device according to clause 3 or 4, wherein the length of time is equal to the RTT plus the predetermined duration.

[0172] Clause 18. A terminal device according to clause 4, wherein in the event that the field of the DCI is a HARQ-ACK resource field, the set of values ​​comprising the first subset and the second subset is used to indicate that HARQ feedback in a HARQ process associated with the operation is enabled.

[0173] Clause 19. A network device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network device to at least: determine for a terminal device an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and send an indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0174] Clause 20. Network device according to clause 19, wherein the network device is further caused to: send a configuration including at least one value set associated with a field of the DCI to the terminal device, wherein the indication includes: a value in one value set of the at least one value set.

[0175] Clause 21. A network device according to clause 20, wherein the values ​​include: a first subset associated with a length of time to wait before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX; and a second subset associated with a length of time not to wait before an operation associated with at least one of PDCCH monitoring or DRX.

[0176] Clause 22. A network device according to clause 20 or 21, wherein in the event that the configuration includes a value set, the field of the DCI is one of: a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement HARQ-ACK resource field; a repetition number field; or a modulation and coding scheme MCS field.

[0177] Clause 23. The network device of clause 20 or 21, wherein in the event that the configuration comprises a plurality of value sets, the field of the DCI is a HARQ-ACK resource field.

[0178] Clause 24. A network device according to clause 23, wherein the plurality of value sets are configured in a table, wherein each value set in the plurality of value sets corresponds to an index, and the index corresponding to one of the plurality of value sets is included in a medium access control MAC element CE.

[0179] Clause 25. A network device according to any of clauses 19 to 24, wherein the network device is further caused to: configure HARQ feedback as disabled for a HARQ process associated with the operation and through radio resource control (RRC) signaling; and indicate by DCI that HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0180] Clause 26. The network device of clause 21, wherein the length of time is equal to a round trip time (RTT) plus a predetermined duration.

[0181] Clause 27. A method comprising: at a terminal device, receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, the DCI comprising: an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and performing an operation based on the indication.

[0182] Clause 28. A method comprising: determining, at a network device, for a terminal device, an indication indicating an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and transmitting the indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0183] Clause 29. An apparatus comprising: a component for receiving downlink control information DCI from a network device at a terminal device, the DCI comprising: an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel PDCCH monitoring or discontinuous reception DRX; and a component for performing an operation based on the indication.

[0184] Clause 30. An apparatus comprising: means for determining, at a network device, for a terminal device, an indication indicating an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring or discontinuous reception (DRX); and means for sending the indication via downlink control information (DCI).

[0185] Clause 31. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the method according to clause 27 or 28.

Claims

1. A terminal device, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to at least: Receiving downlink control information DCI from a network device, the DCI comprising: an indication of an operation associated with at least one of physical downlink control channel PDCCH monitoring or discontinuous reception DRX; as well as The operation is performed based on the indication.

2. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: Receiving, from the network device, a configuration including at least one set of values ​​associated with a field of the DCI, wherein the indication includes: A value in a value set of the at least one value set.

3. The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein the value set comprises: a first subset associated with a length of time to wait before said operation associated with at least one of said PDCCH monitoring or said DRX; as well as A second subset is associated with not waiting for the length of time before the operation associated with at least one of the PDCCH monitoring or the DRX.

4. The terminal device according to claim 3, wherein the terminal device is caused to perform the operation by one of the following: based on determining that the indication includes a value in the first subset, waiting for a length of time before the operation associated with at least one of the PDCCH monitoring or the DRX; or Based on determining that the indication includes a value in the second subset, preventing waiting for the length of time before the operation associated with at least one of the PDCCH monitoring or the DRX.

5. The terminal device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the time length is a first time length, and the terminal device is caused to prevent waiting for the time length by: preventing waiting for the first time length before the operation associated with the PDCCH monitoring; and The PDCCH is monitored in subframes starting from the end of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback transmission plus a second time length.

6. The terminal device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the terminal device is caused to prevent waiting for the time length by: preventing waiting for said length of time before said operation associated with said DRX; and A timer associated with a HARQ round trip time, RTT, for a HARQ process is prevented from starting.

7. The terminal device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the time length is a first time length, and the terminal device is caused to prevent waiting for the time length by: preventing waiting for the first time length before the operation associated with the DRX; and Entering the DRX active state in a subframe starting from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus a second time length.

8. The terminal device according to claim 7, wherein the terminal device is caused to enter the DRX active state by: A timer associated with DRX inactivity is started or restarted from the end of the HARQ feedback transmission plus the second time length.

9. The terminal device according to claim 7, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: In the event that the terminal device enters the DRX active state, it is active for a certain duration, wherein the duration is associated with one of the following: a timer associated with DRX retransmission, or a short transmission time interval TTI of the timer associated with DRX retransmission for a HARQ process; or a timer associated with DRX inactivity.

10. The terminal device according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the timer associated with DRX inactivity is a drx-InactivityTimer.

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