System and method for system information duplication

Abstract

Systems and methods for system information duplication are presented. A wireless communication device may identify a plurality of system information (SI) windows for repeated transmissions of system information blocks (SIBs). The wireless communication device may determine an epoch time based on the at least one SI window.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, including but not limited to systems and methods for system information repetition. Background Art

[0002] The third generation partnership project (3GPP), a standardization organization, is currently specifying a new radio interface called 5G New Radio (5G NR) and the next generation packet core network (NG-CN or NGC). 5G NR will have three main components: 5G access network (5G-AN), 5G core network (5GC) and user equipment (UE). In order to facilitate the implementation of different data services and requirements, the elements of 5GC (also called network functions) have been simplified, some of which are software-based and some of which are hardware-based, so that these elements can be adjusted as needed. Summary of the invention

[0003] The exemplary embodiments disclosed herein are intended to solve problems related to one or more problems raised in the prior art, and when combined with the accompanying drawings, by reference to the following detailed description, additional features will be provided that are easily understood. According to various embodiments, example systems, methods, devices, and computer program products are disclosed herein. However, it should be understood that these embodiments are given as examples rather than limitations, and it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art who have read this disclosure that various modifications may be made to the disclosed embodiments while still within the scope of this disclosure.

[0004] At least one aspect relates to a system, method, apparatus, or computer-readable medium. A wireless communication device (e.g., UE) may identify multiple system information (SI) windows for repeated transmission of a system information block (SIB). The wireless communication device may determine an epoch time based on at least one SI window. The wireless communication device may identify at least one SI window based on at least one of a modification period and a number of SI windows.

[0005] In some embodiments, the wireless communication device may receive the number of SI windows from a wireless communication node (e.g., a network) via signaling. The signaling may include at least one of the following: dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, master information block (MIB) signaling, or system information block (SIB) signaling.

[0006] In some implementations, the SIB may include at least one of the following: a common timing advance (TA) parameter, ephemeris data, or epoch time information. The wireless communication device may determine the number of SI windows for repeated transmission of the SIB based on the ephemeris data.

[0007] In some embodiments, the wireless communication device may determine a transmission setting for coverage enhancement (CE). The wireless communication device may determine the number of SI windows for repeated transmission of SIBs based on the transmission setting for CE. The transmission setting for CE may include one of CE level 0, CE level 1, CE level 2, or CE level 3. The transmission setting for CE may include one of CEModeA or CEModeB. In some embodiments, the wireless communication device may use a mapping configuration for multiple candidate transmission settings to determine the number of SI windows for repeated transmission of SIBs based on the transmission setting for CE.

[0008] In some embodiments, at least one SI window may include at least one of the following: a first SI window in a SI window, a last SI window in a SI window, or an intermediate SI window in a SI window. The epoch time may correspond to at least one of the following: a start time of at least one SI window or an end time of at least one SI window.

[0009] In some embodiments, the epoch time information may include at least one of the following: a system frame number (SFN) or a subframe number. The SFN may correspond to at least one of the following: a current SFN of a frame in which a message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window may be received, a next upcoming SFN after a frame in which a message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window may be received, a most recent previous SFN before a frame in which a message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window may be received, or a SFN closest to a frame in which a message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window may be received. The epoch time may correspond to at least one of the following: a start time of a downlink (DL) subframe or an end time of a DL subframe determined by the epoch time information. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] Various exemplary embodiments of the present solution are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings or drawings. The drawings are provided for illustrative purposes only and depict only exemplary embodiments of the present solution to facilitate the reader's understanding of the present solution. Therefore, the drawings should not be considered as limiting the breadth, scope or applicability of the present solution. It should be noted that for clarity and ease of illustration, these drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

[0011] Figure 1 An example cellular communication network in which the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown;

[0012] Figure 2 A block diagram showing an example base station and user equipment device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0013] Figure 3 illustrates an example implementation of a non-terrestrial network (NTN) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0014] Figure 4 shows an example representation of system information repetition according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0015] Figure 5 shows an example representation of system information repetition according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0016] Figure 6 shows an example representation of system information repetition according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0017] Fig. 7A and Figure 7B illustrates aspects of the configuration of system information repetition according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0018] Figure 8 An example representation showing system information repetition according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0019] Fig. 9 A flow chart of system information duplication according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] 1. Mobile communication technology and environment

[0021] Figure 1 An example wireless communication network and / or system 100 is shown in which the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the following discussion, the wireless communication network 100 may be any wireless network, such as a cellular network or a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network, and is referred to herein as "network 100". Such an example network 100 includes a base station 102 (hereinafter referred to as "BS 102"; also referred to as a wireless communication node) and a user equipment device 104 (hereinafter referred to as "UE 104"; also referred to as a wireless communication device) that may communicate with each other via a communication link 110 (e.g., a wireless communication channel), and a cluster of cells 126, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, and 140 covering a geographic area 101. In Figure 1 1, BS 102 and UE 104 are contained within the respective geographic boundaries of cell 126. Each of the other cells 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, and 140 may include at least one base station operating with its allocated bandwidth to provide adequate radio coverage to its intended users.

[0022] For example, BS 102 can operate on the allocated channel transmission bandwidth to provide sufficient coverage to UE 104. BS 102 and UE 104 can communicate via downlink radio frame 118 and uplink radio frame 124, respectively. Each radio frame 118 / 124 can be further divided into subframes 120 / 127, and subframes 120 / 127 can include data symbols 122 / 128. In the present disclosure, BS 102 and UE 104 are described herein as non-limiting examples of "communication nodes", which can generally practice the methods disclosed herein. According to various embodiments of the present solution, such communication nodes are capable of wireless and / or wired communication.

[0023] Figure 2 A block diagram of an example wireless communication system 200 for sending and receiving wireless communication signals (e.g., OFDM / OFDMA signals) according to some embodiments of the present solution is shown. The system 200 may include components and elements configured to support known or conventional operating features that need not be described in detail herein. In one illustrative embodiment, as described above, the system 200 may be used in applications such as Figure 1 The wireless communication environment 100 of the present invention may be used to transmit (eg, transfer and receive) data symbols.

[0024] The system 200 generally includes a base station 202 (hereinafter referred to as "BS 202") and a user equipment device 204 (hereinafter referred to as "UE 204"). The BS 202 includes a BS (base station) transceiver module 210, a BS antenna 212, a BS processor module 214, a BS memory module 216, and a network communication module 218, each of which is coupled to and interconnected with each other via a data communication bus 220 as needed. The UE 204 includes a UE (user equipment) transceiver module 230, a UE antenna 232, a UE memory module 234, and a UE processor module 236, each of which is coupled to and interconnected with each other via a data communication bus 240 as needed. The BS 202 communicates with the UE 204 via a communication channel 250, which may be any wireless channel or other medium suitable for data transmission as described herein.

[0025] As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the system 200 may also include Figure 2Any number of modules outside the modules shown. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the various illustrative blocks, modules, circuits, and processing logic described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in hardware, computer-readable software, firmware, or any actual combination thereof. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability and compatibility of hardware, firmware, and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are generally described according to their functions. Whether such functions are implemented as hardware, firmware, or software depends on the specific application and design constraints imposed on the entire system. People familiar with the concepts described herein can implement such functions in a manner suitable for each specific application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.

[0026] According to some embodiments, the UE transceiver 230 may be referred to herein as an "uplink" transceiver 230, which includes a radio frequency (RF) transmitter and an RF receiver, each including circuitry coupled to an antenna 232. A duplex switch (not shown) may alternatively couple the uplink transmitter or receiver to the uplink antenna in a time duplex manner. Similarly, according to some embodiments, the BS transceiver 210 may be referred to herein as a "downlink" transceiver 210, which includes an RF transmitter and an RF receiver, each including circuitry coupled to an antenna 212. The downlink duplex switch may alternatively couple the downlink transmitter or receiver to the downlink antenna 212 in a time duplex manner. The operation of the two transceiver modules 210 and 230 may be coordinated in time such that the uplink receiver circuit is coupled to the uplink antenna 232 to receive transmissions over the wireless transmission link 250 while the downlink transmitter is coupled to the downlink antenna 212. Instead, the operation of the two transceivers 210 and 230 may be coordinated in time such that the downlink receiver coupled to the downlink antenna 212 receives transmissions over the wireless transmission link 250 at the same time as the uplink transmitter coupled to the uplink antenna 232. In some embodiments, tight time synchronization with minimal guard times between changes in duplex direction is provided.

[0027] The UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 are configured to communicate via a wireless data communication link 250 and cooperate with an appropriately configured RF antenna arrangement 212 / 232 that can support a specific wireless communication protocol and modulation scheme. In some illustrative embodiments, the UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 are configured to support industry standards such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and emerging 5G standards. However, it should be understood that the present disclosure is not necessarily limited to application to specific standards and related protocols. Instead, the UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 can be configured to support alternative or additional wireless data communication protocols, including future standards or variations thereof.

[0028] According to various embodiments, for example, BS202 can be an evolved node B (eNB), a serving eNB, a target eNB, a femtocell or a microcell. In some embodiments, UE 204 can be embodied in various types of user equipment, such as mobile phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, laptop computers, wearable computing devices, etc. Processor modules 214 and 236 can be implemented or completed with a general-purpose processor, a content addressable memory, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, any suitable programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic, a discrete hardware component, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. In this way, the processor can be implemented as a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a state machine, etc. The processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a digital signal processor core, or any other such configuration.

[0029] In addition, the steps of the methods or algorithms described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein may be directly embodied in hardware, in firmware, in software modules executed by the processor modules 214 and 236, respectively, or in any practical combination thereof. The memory modules 216 and 234 may be implemented as RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. In this regard, the memory modules 216 and 234 may be coupled to the processor modules 210 and 230, respectively, so that the processor modules 210 and 230 can read information from and write information to the memory modules 216 and 234, respectively. The memory modules 216 and 234 may also be integrated into their respective processor modules 210 and 230. In some embodiments, the memory modules 216 and 234 may each include a cache memory for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during the execution of instructions executed by the processor modules 210 and 230, respectively. Memory modules 216 and 234 may also each include non-volatile memory for storing instructions to be executed by processor modules 210 and 230, respectively.

[0030] The network communication module 218 generally represents the hardware, software, firmware, processing logic and / or other components of the base station 202 that enable bidirectional communication between the base station transceiver 210 and other network components and communication nodes configured to communicate with the base station 202. For example, the network communication module 218 can be configured to support Internet or WiMAX services. In a typical deployment, but not limited to, the network communication module 218 provides an 802.3 Ethernet interface so that the base station transceiver 210 can communicate with a traditional Ethernet-based computer network. In this way, the network communication module 218 can include a physical interface for connecting to a computer network (e.g., a mobile switching center (MSC)). The terms "configured for", "configured to" and their conjugates used herein for a specific operation or function refer to a device, component, circuit, structure, machine, signal, etc. that is physically constructed, programmed, formatted and / or arranged to perform a specific operation or function.

[0031] The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (referred to herein as the "Open Systems Interconnection Model") is a conceptual and logical layout that defines network communications used by systems (e.g., wireless communication devices, wireless communication nodes) that are open to interconnection and communication with other systems. The model is divided into seven subcomponents or layers, each representing a conceptual set of services provided to the layers above and below it. The OSI model also defines a logical network and effectively describes computer packet transmission by using different layer protocols. The OSI model may also be referred to as a seven-layer OSI model or a seven-layer model. In some embodiments, the first layer may be a physical layer. In some embodiments, the second layer may be a media access control (MAC) layer. In some embodiments, the third layer may be a radio link control (RLC) layer. In some embodiments, the fourth layer may be a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer. In some embodiments, the fifth layer may be a radio resource control (RRC) layer. In some embodiments, the sixth layer may be a non-access (NAS) layer or an Internet Protocol (IP) layer, and the seventh layer is another layer.

[0032] Various exemplary embodiments of the present solution are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the present solution. It is apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art that, after reading this disclosure, various changes or modifications may be made to the examples described herein without departing from the scope of the present solution. Therefore, the present solution is not limited to the exemplary embodiments and applications described and illustrated herein. In addition, the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed herein are merely example methods. Based on design preferences, the specific order or hierarchy of steps of the disclosed methods or processes may be rearranged while remaining within the scope of the present solution. Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the methods and techniques disclosed herein present various steps or actions in a sample order, and unless otherwise expressly stated, the present solution is not limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

[0033] 2. Systems and methods for system information duplication

[0034] In non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), it may be agreed to indicate common timing advance (TA) and ephemeris in the system information block (SIB) to enable time and frequency pre-compensation at the UE. Due to the high satellite mobility, the valid duration of common TA and ephemeris may be short in the low earth orbit (LEO) case. In this case, it may be difficult to maintain uplink (UL) synchronization for the SIB update mechanism that updates the parameters at the start time of each modification period, because the modification period may be much longer than the valid duration. In order to maintain UL synchronization, the 3GPP specification allows updating the common TA and ephemeris parameters at any time within the modification period. The corresponding epoch time may be implicitly indicated as the end time of the system information (SI) window.

[0035] However, since the common TA and ephemeris parameters are allowed to be updated at any time, there may be an ambiguity problem when the parameters are repeated over multiple SI windows, because the UE cannot determine which SI window is used for the implicit epoch time indication. If repetition over SI windows is not allowed, coverage performance may be degraded, which may not be preferred in Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios (e.g., massive machine type communication (eMTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), lower capabilities (RedCap)). Therefore, in the present disclosure, how to solve the ambiguity problem without prohibiting repetition over SI windows is studied.

[0036] Non-terrestrial network (NTN) architecture

[0037] Figure 3The structure of a transparent non-terrestrial network (NTN) is shown. The link between the UE and the satellite can be a serving link. The link between the BS and the satellite can be a feeder link. The feeder link delay can be common to all UEs in the same cell. To handle long propagation delays, the BS can broadcast the satellite's ephemeris parameters, which can help the UE pre-compensate for the serving link delay. The BS can broadcast common TA parameters, which can help the UE pre-compensate for the feeder link delay.

[0038] System Information Block (SIB) Update Mechanism

[0039] In terrestrial networks (TNs), the system information block (SIB) can be updated at the beginning of a modification period. During the modification period, the SIB can be considered unchanged. In NTNs, due to the high mobility of satellites, the validity duration of common TA and ephemeris parameters is usually shorter than the modification period, especially in the LEO case. In order to avoid the loss of UL synchronization, the 3GPP specification supports the update of common TA and ephemeris parameters during the modification period. In addition, the epoch time and the validity duration can be indicated to let the UE know in which period the common TA and ephemeris parameters are accurate enough.

[0040] Indication of epoch time

[0041] When common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters are indicated in the SIB, there are two ways to indicate the epoch time. The first way may be an explicit indication. The system frame number (SFN) and subframe index of the epoch time may be directly indicated together with the common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters in the SIB. The epoch time may correspond to the start time of the downlink subframe indicated by the SFN and subframe index. The second way may be an implicit indication. The epoch time of the common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters indicated in the SIB may be considered as the end time of the corresponding SI window, such as Figure 6 As shown. A SIB containing common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters may be transmitted in a corresponding SI window. The SI window may be configured by the network through SIB1. The period and length of the SI window may remain unchanged during the modification period. Within the SI window, SIB transmission may be repeated according to the network configuration. However, since the SI window length is limited (e.g., up to 1600ms in NB-IoT), the maximum number of repetitions (e.g., 2048 times in NB-IoT) cannot be achieved within a single SI window.

[0042] Coverage Enhancement (CE) Level

[0043] In eMTC and NB-IoT, repeated transmissions can be applied to enhance coverage. For example, the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) can be configured to transmit 128 times to let the UE combine repeated transmissions in detection. When the number of repetitions is large enough, the receiver is able to decode the message with a very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The high path loss caused by the larger coverage can be mitigated.

[0044] In order to handle different scenarios, multiple CE levels can be defined in NB-IoT and eMTC. In NB-IoT, there can be three types of CE levels (i.e., CE level 0, CE level 1, and CE level 2) to handle scenarios with maximum coupling loss (MCL) equal to 144dB, 154dB, and 164dB, respectively. In eMTC, four types of CE levels (e.g., CE level 0, CE level 1, CE level 2, and CE level 3) can be defined for IDLE mode. In eMTC, two types of CE modes (CEmodeA and CEmodeB) can be defined for RRC_CONNECTED mode. For different CE levels or CE modes, the UE and / or BS can select different numbers of repetitions to mitigate channel loss.

[0045] Implementation Example 1: Method to avoid ambiguity when repeating SI over SI window

[0046] As described above, due to the limited SI window length, the maximum number of repetitions of the SIB may not be achieved within a single SI window. If repeated transmissions are not allowed over an SI window, coverage performance may be degraded. However, if repeated transmissions are allowed over an SI window, different SI windows may indicate different epoch times for the same common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters, which may lead to ambiguity issues. To avoid ambiguity issues, the epoch time may be set to the end time of a specific SI window (e.g., the last SI window in the SI windows for repeated transmissions of the same common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters), such as Figure 8 shown.

[0047] The ambiguity problem may not be completely resolved by simply defining the epoch time as the end of a certain SI window, because the UE may not know which SI window may be the window for the epoch time indication. Figure 8In the case shown, the end of the last SI window can be configured as the epoch time of the common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters transmitted in the first three SI windows. However, if the UE does not know how many SI windows are available for repeated transmission, the UE cannot determine which SI window can be the last SI window. In order to handle / solve this problem, the network can broadcast multiple SI windows for repeated transmission of the same SIB. In some embodiments, the network can indicate multiple SI windows for repeated transmission of the same SIB via at least one of the master information block (MIB) signaling, SIB signaling, or dedicated RRC signaling. In some embodiments, the number of SI windows can be broadcast in at least one of SIB1, SIB2, or the SIB for repeated transmission. Since the UE can know the start of the SI window period and the modification period, the UE can derive which SI window is the last SI window for repeated transmission of the same SIB (i.e., which SI window is used for epoch time indication). In some embodiments, if other SI windows (e.g., the first SI window in the SI window for repeated transmission of the same common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters) are used for epoch time indication, the UE may also derive which SI window is the other SI window for repeated transmission of the same SIB. The SIB may include at least one of the following: common timing advance (TA) parameters, ephemeris data, or epoch time information. The common TA parameters may include at least one of common TA, common TA drift, or common TA drift change.

[0048] When SIB repetition / accumulation is allowed on the SI window, the following functions may be supported to handle / solve ambiguity issues. The epoch time may be configured based on a specific SI window in the SI window for repeated transmission of the same SIB. The specific SI window may include at least one of the following: the first SI window in the SI window, the last SI window in the SI window, or the middle SI window in the SI window. The specific SI window may be configured by the network via SIB broadcast or dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling. In some embodiments, the specific SI window may be predefined.

[0049] In some embodiments, if an implicit epoch time indication method is used, the epoch time may be at least one of: the start time of at least one SI window (eg, a specific SI window) or the end time of at least one SI window (eg, a specific SI window).

[0050] In some embodiments, if an explicit epoch time indication method is used, epoch time parameters (e.g., system frame number (SFN) and subframe number) may be indicated. The SFN may refer to at least one of the following: the current SFN of the frame in which the message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window is received, the next upcoming SFN after the frame in which the message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window is received, the nearest previous SFN before the frame in which the message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window is received, or the SFN closest to the frame in which the message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window is received. The epoch time information may include at least one of the following: SFN or subframe number. In some embodiments, the epoch time may correspond to at least one of the following: the start time of a downlink (DL) subframe or the end time of a DL subframe determined by the epoch time information. The network may indicate the number of SI windows for repeating the SIB carrying common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters via at least one of MIB signaling, SIB signaling, or dedicated RRC signaling. In some embodiments, the number of SI windows may be broadcast in at least one of SIB1, SIB2 or SIBs that carry common TA parameters and / or ephemeris parameters.

[0051] Implementation Example 2: Implicit Indication of Multiple SI Windows for SIB Repetitive Transmission

[0052] In addition to explicitly indicating how many SI windows are available for SIB repetition transmission as shown in implementation example 1, an implicit configuration method can also be considered. When coverage is poor, SI decoding may require SIB repetition / accumulation over multiple SI windows. Therefore, the number of SI windows used for SIB repetition / accumulation can be associated with other coverage-related parameters to achieve implicit configuration.

[0053] For example, the number of SI windows can be mapped to a coverage enhancement (CE) level or a CE mode. The transmission setting for CE may include one of CE level 0, CE level 1, CE level 2, or CE level 3. In some embodiments, the transmission setting for CE may include one of CE Mode A or CE Mode B. For high CE levels / modes, due to poor coverage, a larger number of SI windows can be used for SIB repetition / accumulation. For low CE levels / modes, due to better coverage, fewer SI windows can be used for SIB repetition / accumulation. The network can predefine or configure the detailed number of SI windows and the mapping pattern between CE levels / modes (for example, as shown in Table 1) through SIB broadcast / dedicated RRC signaling. When the CE level / mode is known, the UE and the network can reach a consensus on how many SI windows can be used for SIB repetition / accumulation.

[0054] Coverage Enhancement Level Number of SI windows for SIB repetition / accumulation CE Level 0 <![CDATA[X0]]> CE Level 1 <![CDATA[X1]]> CE Level 2 <![CDATA[X2]]>

[0055] Table 1

[0056] In some embodiments, the number of SI windows may be associated with the orbital altitude / satellite type. When the satellite has a higher orbit and lower transmission power, the coverage may be poorer and a greater number of SI windows may be used for SIB repetition / accumulation. Otherwise, if the satellite has a lower orbit and higher transmission power, the coverage may be better and a smaller number of SI windows may be required for SIB repetition / accumulation. The satellite type may depend on the transmission frequency of the satellite. For example, if the transmission frequency is high, the number of SI repetitions may be lower.

[0057] Fig. 9 A flow chart of a method 900 for system information repetition is shown. The method 900 may be used in conjunction with the present invention. Figure 1 and Figure 2 The method 900 may be implemented by any one or more components and devices described in detail. In general, in some embodiments, the method 900 may be performed by a wireless communication device. Depending on the embodiment, additional, fewer or different operations may be performed in the method 900. At least one aspect of the operation relates to a system, method, apparatus or computer-readable medium.

[0058] A wireless communication device (e.g., UE) may identify multiple system information (SI) windows for repeated transmission of a system information block (SIB). The wireless communication device may determine an epoch time based on at least one SI window. The wireless communication device may identify at least one SI window based on at least one of a modification period and a number of SI windows.

[0059] In some embodiments, the wireless communication device may receive the number of SI windows from a wireless communication node (e.g., a network) via signaling. The signaling may include at least one of the following: dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, master information block (MIB) signaling, or system information block (SIB) signaling.

[0060] In some implementations, the SIB may include at least one of the following: a common timing advance (TA) parameter, ephemeris data, or epoch time information. The wireless communication device may determine the number of SI windows for repeated transmission of the SIB based on the ephemeris data.

[0061] In some embodiments, the wireless communication device may determine a transmission setting for coverage enhancement (CE). The wireless communication device may determine the number of SI windows for repeated transmission of SIBs based on the transmission setting for CE. The transmission setting for CE may include one of CE level 0, CE level 1, CE level 2, or CE level 3. The transmission setting for CE may include one of CEModeA or CEModeB. In some embodiments, the wireless communication device may use a mapping configuration for multiple candidate transmission settings to determine the number of SI windows for repeated transmission of SIBs based on the transmission setting for CE.

[0062] In some embodiments, at least one SI window may include at least one of the following: a first SI window in a SI window, a last SI window in a SI window, or an intermediate SI window in a SI window. The epoch time may correspond to at least one of the following: a start time of at least one SI window or an end time of at least one SI window.

[0063] In some embodiments, the epoch time information may include at least one of the following: a system frame number (SFN) or a subframe number. The SFN may correspond to at least one of the following: a current SFN of a frame in which a message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window may be received, a next upcoming SFN after a frame in which a message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window may be received, a most recent previous SFN before a frame in which a message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window may be received, or a SFN closest to a frame in which a message indicating the epoch time information in at least one SI window may be received. The epoch time may correspond to at least one of the following: a start time of a downlink (DL) subframe or an end time of a DL subframe determined by the epoch time information.

[0064] Although various embodiments of the present solution have been described above, it should be understood that they are given only by way of example and not by way of limitation. Similarly, various figures may depict example architectures or configurations, which are provided to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to understand the exemplary features and functions of the present solution. However, these personnel will understand that the present solution is not limited to the example architectures or configurations shown, but may be implemented using a variety of alternative architectures and configurations. In addition, as will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, one or more features of an embodiment may be combined with one or more features of another embodiment described herein. Therefore, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments.

[0065] It should also be understood that any reference to an element herein using names such as "first," "second," etc. does not generally limit the number or order of those elements. Rather, these names may be used herein as a convenient means of distinguishing between two or more elements or instances of an element. Thus, a reference to a first and a second element does not mean that only two elements can be used, or that the first element must be located before the second element in some manner.

[0066] In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, and symbols that may be referenced in the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0067] Those of ordinary skill in the art will further understand that any of the various illustrative logic blocks, modules, processors, devices, circuits, methods, and functions described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented by electronic hardware (e.g., digital implementation, analog implementation, or a combination of both), firmware, various forms of programs or design codes containing instructions (for convenience, referred to herein as "software" or "software modules"), or any combination of these technologies. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware, firmware, and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functions. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware, firmware, or software, or a combination of these technologies, depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. Technicians may implement the described functions in various ways for each specific application, but such implementation decisions will not cause a departure from the scope of this disclosure.

[0068] In addition, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the various illustrative logic blocks, modules, devices, components, and circuits described herein may be implemented or performed within or by an integrated circuit (IC) including a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof. The logic blocks, modules, and circuits may further include antennas and / or transceivers to communicate with various components within a network or within a device. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but alternatively, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a DSP core, or any other suitable configuration to perform the functions described herein.

[0069] If implemented in software, the function can be stored as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Therefore, the steps of the method or algorithm disclosed herein can be implemented as software stored on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include computer storage media and communication media, and communication media include any media that can enable a computer program or code to be transferred from one place to another. The storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access. As an example and not limitation, such a computer-readable medium can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, disk storage or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer.

[0070] As used herein, the term "module" refers to software, firmware, hardware, and any combination of these elements to perform the relevant functions described herein. In addition, for the purpose of discussion, various modules are described as discrete modules; however, it is obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art that more than two modules can be combined to form a single module that performs the relevant functions according to the implementation of the present solution.

[0071] In addition, memory or other storage and communication components can be used in the implementation of the present solution. It should be understood that, for the sake of clarity, the above description has described the implementation of the present solution with reference to different functional units and processors. However, it will be apparent that any appropriate functional distribution between different functional units, processing logic elements or domains can be used without departing from the present solution. For example, the function illustrated as being performed by a separate processing logic element or controller can be performed by the same processing logic element or controller. Therefore, reference to a specific functional unit is only a reference to a suitable device for providing the described function, rather than indicating a strict logical or physical structure or organization.

[0072] Various modifications to the embodiments described in this disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Therefore, this disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is to be given the widest scope consistent with the novel features and principles disclosed herein, as described in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method comprising: identifying, by a wireless communication device, a plurality of system information (SI) windows for repeated transmission of a system information block (SIB); as well as An epoch time is determined by the wireless communication device based on at least one SI window.

2. The method according to claim 1, comprising: The at least one SI window is identified by the wireless communication device according to at least one of a modification period and a number of SI windows.

3. The method according to claim 1, comprising: The number of SI windows is received by the wireless communication device from the wireless communication node via signaling.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein: The signaling includes at least one of: dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, master information block (MIB) signaling, or system information block (SIB) signaling.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The SIB includes at least one of: common timing advance (TA) parameters, ephemeris data, or epoch time information.

6. The method according to claim 5, comprising: The wireless communication device determines, according to the ephemeris data, the number of SI windows used for repeated transmission of the SIB.

7. The method according to claim 1, comprising: determining, by the wireless communication device, a transmission setting for coverage enhancement (CE); as well as The wireless communication device determines the number of SI windows for repeated transmission of the SIB according to the transmission setting for the CE.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The transmission setting for CE includes one of CE level 0, CE level 1, CE level 2 or CE level 3.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The transmission setting for CE includes one of CEModeA or CEModeB.

10. The method according to claim 7, comprising: The wireless communication device determines, using a mapping configuration for a plurality of candidate transmission settings, the number of SI windows for repeated transmission of the SIB according to the transmission setting for the CE.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The at least one SI window includes at least one of the following: a first SI window among SI windows, a last SI window among the SI windows, or a middle SI window among the SI windows.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The epoch time corresponds to at least one of: a start time of the at least one SI window or an end time of the at least one SI window.

13. The method according to claim 5, wherein: The epoch time information includes at least one of the following: a system frame number (SFN) or a subframe number.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein: The SFN corresponds to at least one of: the current SFN of the frame in which the message indicating the epoch time information in the at least one SI window is received, the next upcoming SFN after the frame in which the message indicating the epoch time information in the at least one SI window is received, the most recent previous SFN before the frame in which the message indicating the epoch time information in the at least one SI window is received, or the SFN closest to the frame in which the message indicating the epoch time information in the at least one SI window is received.

15. The method according to claim 5, wherein: The epoch time corresponds to at least one of: a start time of a downlink (DL) subframe or an end time of a DL subframe determined by the epoch time information.

16. A wireless communication device, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein: The processor is configured to read code from the memory and implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15.

17. A computer program product comprising computer readable program medium code stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15.

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