User equipment, scheduling node, method for user equipment and method for scheduling node

Abstract

The invention relates to a communication device, a scheduling device and corresponding methods for the communication device and the scheduling device. For example, a communication device is a user equipment (UE) including circuitry and a transceiver. The transceiver may be configured to receive a first signaling and a second signaling, wherein the first signaling is a cell common signaling. The circuitry may be configured to obtain, from the first signaling, a first indication indicating a first slot format for a frequency band, and to obtain, from the second signaling, a second indication indicating a second slot format for the frequency band. The first slot format specifies, for each of the plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, uplink direction or downlink direction. The second slot format specifies, for each time interval or subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, uplink direction or downlink direction. Further, the second slot format specifies (i) a time interval in which the transmission direction is a downlink direction, a transmission direction different from the first slot format, for a first slot format of the plurality of time intervals, and / or (ii) a time interval in which the transmission direction is an uplink direction, for a first slot format of the plurality of time intervals, a transmission direction different from the first slot format, and a transmission direction different from the first slot format. The transmission direction is different from the first time slot format.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the transmission and reception of signals in a communication system (such as a 3GPP communication system). In particular, the present disclosure relates to methods and apparatus for such transmission and reception. Background Art

[0002] The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) works on technical specifications for the next generation of cellular technology, also known as fifth generation (5G) including the "New Radio" (NR) radio access technology (RAT), which operates in the frequency range up to 100 GHz. NR is a follower of technologies represented by Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE Advanced (LTE-A).

[0003] For LTE- and NR-like systems, further improvements and options may facilitate efficient operation of the communication system and specific equipment related to the system. Summary of the invention

[0004] A non-limiting and exemplary embodiment helps to improve the efficiency and / or flexibility of current communication systems. In particular, it may become possible to flexibly configure the time slot configuration / format for (one or more) individual UEs or (one or more) specific UE groups, and implement sub-band non-overlapping full duplex (SFBD) within a conventional / legacy (e.g., Rel-15 / 16 / 17 NR) time division duplex (TDD) band. In particular, a technique is disclosed that may allow support for SBFD operation in Rel-18 and later releases with minimal impact on legacy NR deployments.

[0005] In an embodiment, the technology disclosed herein is characterized by an apparatus (e.g., a communication device, in particular a user equipment (UE)). The apparatus includes a transceiver and a circuit. The transceiver receives first signaling and second signaling, wherein the first signaling is a cell common signaling. The circuit obtains a first indication indicating a first time slot format for a frequency band from the first signaling, and obtains a second indication indicating a second time slot format for a frequency band from the second signaling. The first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction. The second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction. In addition, the second time slot format specifies: (i) for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction as a downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format, and / or (ii) for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction as an uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format.

[0006] It should be noted that the general or specific embodiments may be implemented as a system, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program, a storage medium, or any selective combination thereof.

[0007] Additional benefits and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will become apparent from the description and drawings. Benefits and / or advantages may be obtained individually from the various embodiments and features of the description and drawings, and these embodiments and features do not need to be provided in full in order to obtain one or more such benefits and / or advantages. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments are described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0009] Figure 1 An exemplary architecture of a 3GPP NR system is shown;

[0010] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the functional division between NG-RAN and 5GC;

[0011] Figure 3 is a sequence diagram of the RRC connection establishment / reconfiguration process;

[0012] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing usage scenarios of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communication (mMTC) and ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC);

[0013] Figure 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary 5G system architecture for a non-roaming scenario;

[0014] Figure 6 The relationship between bandwidth parts, control resource sets (CORESET), search spaces, search space sets and PDCCH candidates is shown;

[0015] Figure 7 An exemplary time domain structure in a communication system such as 5G NR is shown, including radio frames, subframes, time slots, and OFDM symbols for different subcarrier spacings;

[0016] Figure 8 shows the use of dedicated legacy signaling to configure flexible time slots of a first (legacy cell common) time slot format for downlink for some UEs (UE1 and UE3) and for uplink for another UE (UE2);

[0017] Fig. 9 is a block diagram of a communication system including a user equipment and a base station having respective exemplary functional structures thereof;

[0018] Fig.10is a block diagram showing an exemplary functional structure of a processing circuit on the user equipment side;

[0019] Fig.11 is a block diagram showing an exemplary functional structure of a processing circuit on the base station side;

[0020] Fig.12 is a flow chart showing exemplary steps performed by a user equipment and exemplary steps performed by a base station;

[0021] Fig.13 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps performed by a user equipment to determine a transmission direction for a time interval, wherein a second (non-legacy) time slot format indicates a different transmission direction for a non-flexible time interval of a first (legacy) time slot format;

[0022] Fig.14 is a diagram showing the steps performed by a user equipment to determine a transmission direction for a time interval. Fig.13 A flowchart of exemplary steps different from the steps of, wherein the second (non-legacy) time slot format indicates a different transmission direction for the non-flexible time intervals of the first (legacy) time slot format;

[0023] Fig.15 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps performed by a base station for performing SBFD on downlink symbols of a first (legacy) slot format;

[0024] Fig.16 shows the use of second (cell common) signaling to obtain a "D→U" configuration in the n+1st to n+3rd time slots of a second (non-legacy) time slot format "DUUUU" relative to a first (legacy cell common) time slot format "DDDDU";

[0025] Fig.17 shows the use of second (cell common) signaling to obtain a "D→F" configuration in the n+1st to n+3rd time slots of a second (non-legacy) time slot format "DFFFU" relative to a first (legacy cell common) time slot format "DDDDU";

[0026] Fig.18 It is shown that two second (dedicated) signalings are used to obtain two corresponding second (non-legacy) time slot formats: a second time slot format "DUUUU" having a "D→U" configuration in the n+1th to n+3th time slots relative to the first (legacy cell common) time slot format "DDDDU", and a second time slot format "DDFFU" having a "D→F" configuration in the n+2th and n+3th time slots relative to the above first time slot format;

[0027] Fig.19The use of the second (cell common) signaling to obtain a "D→U" configuration in the n+1th time slot, a "D→U" configuration in the n+2th time slot, and a "U→D" configuration in the n+3th time slot of the second (non-legacy) time slot format "DUUDU" relative to the first (legacy cell common) time slot format "DDDUU" is shown;

[0028] Fig. 20 The use of second (cell common) signaling to obtain a "D→U" configuration in the n+1th time slot, a "D→U" configuration in the n+2th time slot, and a "U→F" configuration in the n+3th time slot of the second (non-legacy) time slot format "DUUFU" relative to the first (legacy cell common) time slot format "DDDUU" is shown; and

[0029] Fig.21 It is shown that two second (dedicated) signalings are used to obtain two corresponding second (non-traditional) time slot formats: a second time slot format "DUUDU" having a "D→U" configuration in the n+1th time slot, a "D→U" configuration in the n+2th time slot, and a "U→D" configuration in the n+3th time slot relative to the first (traditional cell common) time slot format "DDDUU", and a second time slot format "DFFFU" having a "D→F" configuration in the n+1th to n+3th time slots relative to the above-mentioned first time slot format. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] 5G NR system architecture and protocol stack

[0031] 3GPP has been working on the next version of the fifth generation of cellular technology, known as 5G, including the development of a new radio access technology (NR) operating in the frequency range up to 100 GHz. The first version of the 5G standard was completed at the end of 2017, which allowed the continuation of 5G NR standard-compliant trials and commercial deployment of smartphones.

[0032] Apart from this, the overall system architecture assumes a NG-RAN (Next Generation Radio Access Network) comprising gNBs, thereby providing NG Radio Access user plane (SDAP / PDCP / RLC / MAC / PHY) and control plane (RRC) protocol terminations to the UE. The gNBs are interconnected with each other by means of Xn interfaces. The gNBs are also connected to the NGC (Next Generation Core) via a Next Generation (NG) interface, more specifically to the AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) (e.g. a specific core entity executing AMF) via a NG-C interface, and to the UPF (User Plane Function) (e.g. a specific core entity executing UPF) via a NG-U interface. The NG-RAN architecture is Figure 1 (see, for example, 3GPP TS 38.300 v15.6.0, Section 4).

[0033] The user plane protocol stack for NR (see e.g. 3GPP TS 38.300, Section 4.4.1) consists of the PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol, see Section 6.4 of TS 38.300), RLC (Radio Link Control, see Section 6.3 of TS 38.300) and MAC (Medium Access Control, see Section 6.2 of TS 38.300) sublayers, which terminate in the gNB on the network side. In addition, a new access stratum (AS) sublayer (SDAP, Service Data Adaptation Protocol) is introduced on top of PDCP (see e.g. subclause 6.5 of 3GPP TS 38.300). A control plane protocol stack is also defined for NR (see e.g. TS 38.300, Section 4.4.2). An overview of the Layer 2 functionality is given in subclause 6 of TS 38.300. The functionality of the PDCP, RLC and MAC sublayers is listed in Sections 6.4, 6.3 and 6.2 of TS 38.300, respectively. The functions of the RRC layer are listed in subclause 7 of TS 38.300.

[0034] For example, the medium access control layer handles logical channel multiplexing as well as scheduling and scheduling-related functions, including handling different parameter sets.

[0035] The physical layer (PHY) is responsible for, for example, coding, PHY HARQ processing, modulation, multi-antenna processing, and mapping signals to appropriate physical time-frequency resources. It also handles the mapping of transport channels to physical channels. The physical layer provides services to the MAC layer in the form of transport channels. A physical channel corresponds to a set of time-frequency resources used for the transmission of a specific transport channel, and each transport channel is mapped to a corresponding physical channel. For example, the physical channels are PRACH (Physical Random Access Channel), PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) for uplink, and PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel), PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and PBCH (Physical Broadcast Channel) for downlink.

[0036] NR use cases / deployment scenarios may include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), massive machine type communications (mMTC), which have different requirements in terms of data rate, latency, and coverage. For example, eMBB is expected to support peak data rates (20Gbps for downlink and 10Gbps for uplink) and user-experienced data rates that are approximately three times higher than those provided by IMT-Advanced. On the other hand, in the case of URLLC, there are requirements for ultra-low latency (0.5 ms for both UL and DL for user plane latency) and high reliability (1-10 ms within 1ms). -5) puts forward more stringent requirements. Finally, mMTC may preferably require high connection density (1,000,000 devices / km in urban environments) 2 ), large coverage in harsh environments, and extremely long battery life (15 years) for low-cost devices.

[0037] Therefore, an OFDM parameter set (e.g., subcarrier spacing, OFDM symbol duration, cyclic prefix (CP) duration, number of symbols per scheduling interval) that is suitable for one use case may not be well suited for another use case. For example, low-latency services may preferably require shorter symbol duration (and therefore larger subcarrier spacing) and / or fewer symbols per scheduling interval (a.k.a. TTI) compared to mMTC services. Furthermore, deployment scenarios with large channel delay spread may preferably require longer CP duration than scenarios with short delay spread. The subcarrier spacing should be optimized accordingly to retain similar CP overhead. NR can support more than one value of subcarrier spacing. Accordingly, subcarrier spacings of 15kHz, 30kHz, 60kHz, ... are currently being considered. Symbol duration T u and subcarrier spacing Δf by the formula Δf=1 / T u In a similar manner as in the LTE system, the term "resource element" may be used to denote a minimum resource unit consisting of one subcarrier of the length of one OFDM / SC-FDMA symbol.

[0038] In the new radio system 5G-NR, for each parameter set and carrier, a resource grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols is defined for uplink and downlink, respectively. Each element in the resource grid is called a resource element and is identified based on a frequency index in the frequency domain and a symbol position in the time domain (see 3GPP TS 38.211 v15.6.0 or, for example, v16.2.0, Section 4). For example, downlink and uplink transmissions are organized into frames with a duration of 10ms, each consisting of ten subframes with a duration of 1ms respectively. In a 5g NR implementation, the number of consecutive OFDM symbols per subframe depends on the subcarrier spacing configuration. For example, for a 15-kHz subcarrier spacing, a subframe has 14 OFDM symbols (similar to an implementation compliant with LTE, assuming a normal cyclic prefix). On the other hand, for a 30-kHz subcarrier spacing, a subframe has two slots, each of which includes 14 OFDM symbols.

[0039] Compared to LTE parameter sets (subcarrier spacing and symbol length), NR supports multiple different types of subcarrier spacing marked by the parameter μ (in LTE, there is only 15kHz subcarrier spacing, corresponding to μ=0 in NR). The types of NR parameter sets are summarized in 3GPP TS 38.211, v 15.7.0.

[0040] 5G NR functional division between NG-RAN and 5GC

[0041] Figure 2 The functional division between NG-RAN and 5GC is shown. The NG-RAN logical node is gNB or ng-eNB. 5GC has logical nodes AMF, UPF and SMF.

[0042] In particular, gNB and ng-eNB host the following key functions:

[0043] - Functions for radio resource management, such as radio bearer control, radio admission control, connection mobility control, dynamic allocation of resources to UEs in both uplink and downlink (scheduling);

[0044] - IP header compression, encryption and data integrity protection;

[0045] - Select the AMF at UE attach when the route to the AMF cannot be determined from the information provided by the UE;

[0046] - Routing of user plane data towards UPF(s);

[0047] - Routing of control plane information to AMF;

[0048] - Connection establishment and release;

[0049] - Scheduling and transmission of paging messages;

[0050] - Scheduling and transmission of system broadcast information (originating from AMF or OAM);

[0051] - Measurements and measurement reporting configuration for mobility and scheduling;

[0052] - Transport level packet marking in uplink;

[0053] - Session management;

[0054] - Network slicing support;

[0055] - QoS flow management and mapping to data radio bearers;

[0056] - Support for UEs in RRC_INACTIVE state;

[0057] - NAS message distribution function;

[0058] - Radio access network sharing;

[0059] - Dual connectivity;

[0060] - Tight interworking between NR and E-UTRA.

[0061] The Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) hosts the following key functions:

[0062] - Non-access stratum NAS signaling termination;

[0063] - NAS signaling security;

[0064] - Access layer AS security control;

[0065] - Core Network Inter-CN Node Signalling for mobility between 3GPP Access Networks;

[0066] - Idle mode UE reachability (including control and execution of paging retransmissions);

[0067] - Registration area management;

[0068] - Support for intra-system and inter-system mobility;

[0069] - Access authentication;

[0070] - Access authorization, including roaming rights checks;

[0071] - Mobility management control (subscription and policy);

[0072] - Network slicing support;

[0073] - Session management function SMF selection.

[0074] Additionally, the User Plane Function (UPF) hosts the following key functions:

[0075] - Anchor point for intra / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable);

[0076] - External PDU session point interconnected with the data network;

[0077] - Packet routing and forwarding;

[0078] - Packet inspection and user plane part of policy rule enforcement;

[0079] - Traffic usage report;

[0080] - Uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network;

[0081] - Support branching points for multi-host PDU sessions;

[0082] - QoS processing in the user plane, such as packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement;

[0083] - Uplink traffic verification (SDF to QoS flow mapping);

[0084] - Downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering.

[0085] Finally, the session management function SMF hosts the following main functions:

[0086] - Session management;

[0087] - UE IP address allocation and management;

[0088] - Selection and control of UP function;

[0089] - Configure traffic steering at the User Plane Function (UPF) to route traffic to the appropriate destination;

[0090] - Policy implementation and QoS control part;

[0091] - Downlink data notification.

[0092] RRC connection establishment and reconfiguration process

[0093] Figure 3 Some interactions between the UE, gNB and AMF (5GC entity) are shown in the context of the UE transitioning from RRC_IDLE to RRC_CONNECTED for the NAS part (see e.g. TS 38.300 v15.6.0).

[0094] RRC is a higher layer signaling (protocol) used for UE and gNB configuration. Specifically, the transition involves the AMF preparing UE context data (including, for example, PDU session context, security keys, UE radio capabilities and UE security capabilities, etc.) and sending it to the gNB with an INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST. The gNB then activates AS security with the UE, which is performed by the gNB sending a SecurityModeCommand message to the UE and by the UE responding to the gNB with a SecurityModeComplete message. Thereafter, the gNB performs reconfiguration to set up Signaling Radio Bearer 2 (SRB2) and (one or more) Data Radio Bearers DRB by sending an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE and receiving an RRCReconfigurationComplete message from the UE by the gNB in ​​response. For a signaling-only connection, the steps related to RRC reconfiguration are skipped as SRB2 and DRBs are not set up. Finally, the gNB notifies the AMF that the setup process is complete using the INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP RESPONSE.

[0095] Therefore, in the present disclosure, an entity (e.g., AMF, SMF, etc.) of a fifth generation core (5GC) is provided, which includes a control circuit and a transmitter, the control circuit establishes a next generation (NG) connection with a gNodeB, and the transmitter sends an initial context setup message to the gNodeB via the NG connection to cause a signaling radio bearer setup between the gNodeB and the user equipment (UE). Specifically, the gNodeB transmits a radio resource control RRC signaling containing a resource allocation configuration information element to the UE via the signaling radio bearer. Then, the UE performs uplink transmission or downlink reception based on the resource allocation configuration.

[0096] IMT usage scenarios in 2020 and beyond

[0097] Figure 4 Some use cases for 5G NR are shown. In the 3rd Generation Partnership Project New Radio (3GPP NR), three use cases that have been envisioned for IMT-2020 to support a wide variety of services and applications are being considered. Specifications for Phase 1 of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) have been agreed. In addition to further extending eMBB support, current and future work will also involve standardization of ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) and massive machine-type communications. Figure 4Some examples of envisaged usage scenarios for IMT for 2020 and beyond are shown (see e.g. ITU-R M.2083 Figure 2 ).

[0098] URLLC use cases have stringent requirements on capabilities such as throughput, latency, and availability, and have been envisioned as one of the enablers for future vertical applications such as wireless control of industrial manufacturing or production processes, telemedicine surgery, distribution automation in smart grids, transportation safety, etc. Ultra-reliability for URLLC will be supported by identifying technologies that meet the requirements set by TR 38.913. For NR URLLC in Release 15, the key requirements include a target user plane latency of 0.5 ms for UL (uplink) and a target user plane latency of 0.5 ms for DL ​​(downlink). The general URLLC requirement for one transmission of a packet is a BLER (block error rate) of 1E-5 for a packet size of 32 bytes with a user plane latency of 1 ms.

[0099] From a physical layer perspective, reliability can be improved in a number of possible ways. The current scope for improving reliability involves defining a separate CQI table for URLLC, more compact DCI formats, repetition of PDCCH, etc. However, as NR becomes more stable and developed (a key requirement for NR URLLC), the scope for achieving ultra-reliability may widen. Specific use cases for NR URLLC in Rel. 15 include augmented reality / virtual reality (AR / VR), e-health, e-safety, and mission-critical applications.

[0100] In addition, the technical enhancements targeted by NR URLLC are aimed at latency improvement and reliability improvement. Technical enhancements for latency improvement include configurable parameter sets, non-slot-based scheduling with flexible mapping, unlicensed (configured granted) uplink, slot-level repetition for data channels, and downlink preemption. Preemption means stopping the transmission for which resources have been allocated, and the allocated resources are used for another transmission that has been requested later, but with lower latency / higher priority requirements. Therefore, the already authorized transmission is preempted by the later transmission. Preemption can be applied independently of a specific service type. For example, a transmission for service type A (URLLC) can be used to preempt transmissions for service type B (such as eMBB). Technical enhancements for reliability improvement include a dedicated CQI / MCS table for a target BLER of 1E-5.

[0101] The use case of mMTC (Massive Machine Type Communications) is characterized by a very large number of connected devices that typically send relatively small amounts of non-delay sensitive data. The devices are required to be low-cost and have very long battery life. From the NR perspective, utilizing very narrow bandwidth portions is a possible solution to save energy from the UE's perspective and achieve long battery life.

[0102] As mentioned above, the range of reliability in NR is expected to widen. A key requirement for all cases, especially required for URLLC and mMTC, is high or ultra-reliability. Several mechanisms can be considered to improve reliability from a radio perspective and a network perspective. In general, there are several key potential areas that can help improve reliability. These areas include compact control channel information, data / control channel repetition, and diversity with respect to frequency, time and / or spatial domains. These areas are generally applicable to reliability, regardless of the specific communication scenario.

[0103] For NR URLLC, further use cases with more stringent requirements have been identified, such as factory automation, transportation industry and power distribution. The more stringent requirements are higher reliability (up to 10 -6 level), higher availability, packet sizes up to 256 bytes, time synchronization down to the order of a few μs, where the value can be 1 or a few μs, depending on the frequency range, and short latency of about 0.5 to 1 ms, specifically a target user plane latency of 0.5 ms, depending on the use case.

[0104] In addition, for NR URLLC, several technical enhancements from a physical layer perspective have been identified. These include PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) enhancements related to compact DCI, PDCCH repetition, increased PDCCH monitoring. In addition, UCI (Uplink Control Information) enhancements are related to enhanced HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) and CSI feedback enhancements. In addition, PUSCH enhancements related to mini-slot level hopping and retransmission / repetition enhancements have been identified. The term "mini-slot" refers to a transmission time interval (TTI) that includes a smaller number of symbols than a slot (a slot including fourteen symbols).

[0105] QoS Control

[0106] The 5G QoS (Quality of Service) model is based on QoS flows and supports both QoS flows that require guaranteed flow bitrate (GBR QoS flows) and QoS flows that do not require guaranteed flow bitrate (non-GBR QoS flows). At the NAS level, QoS flows are therefore the finest granularity of QoS differentiation within a PDU session. QoS flows are identified within a PDU session by the QoS Flow ID (QFI) carried in the encapsulation header on the NG-U interface.

[0107] For each UE, the 5GC establishes one or more PDU Sessions. For each UE, the NG-RAN establishes at least one Data Radio Bearer (DRB) together with the PDU Session and may subsequently configure (one or more) additional DRBs for (one or more) QoS Flows of that PDU Session (it is up to the NG-RAN when to do so), e.g. as referenced above Figure 3 As shown in Figure 2. NG-RAN maps packets belonging to different PDU sessions to different DRBs. NAS-level packet filters in UE and 5GC associate UL and DL packets with QoS flows, while AS-level mapping rules in UE and NG-RAN associate UL and DL QoS flows with DRBs.

[0108] Figure 5 The 5G NR non-roaming reference architecture is shown (see TS 23.501 v16.1.0, section 4.23). Figure 4 The application function (AF) described in the example (e.g., an external application server hosting 5G services) interacts with the 3GPP core network to provide services, such as to support the application's influence on traffic routing, access the network exposure function (NEF), or interact with the policy framework for policy control (see Policy Control Function, PCF), such as QoS control. Based on the operator deployment, application functions that are considered to be trusted by the operator may be allowed to interact directly with related network functions. Application functions that are not allowed by the operator to directly access network functions interact with related network functions using an external exposure framework via NEF.

[0109] Figure 5 Other functional units of the 5G architecture are shown, namely the network slice selection function (NSSF), the network repository function (NRF), the unified data management (UDM), the authentication server function (AUSF), the access and mobility management function (AMF), the session management function (SMF) and the data network (DN), such as operator services, Internet access or third-party services. All or part of the core network functions and application services can be deployed and run on a cloud computing environment.

[0110] Therefore, in the present disclosure, an application server (e.g., AF of 5G architecture) is provided, the application server including a transmitter and a control circuit, the transmitter sends a request including QoS requirements of at least one of URLLC, eMMB and mMTC services to at least one of the functions of 5GC (e.g., NEF, AMF, SMF, PCF, UPF, etc.) to establish a PDU session including a radio bearer between a gNodeB and a UE according to the QoS requirements, and the control circuit uses the established PDU session to perform the service.

[0111] Control Signal

[0112] In the present disclosure, a downlink control signal (information) related to the present disclosure may be a signal (information) transmitted through a PDCCH of a physical layer, or may be a signal (information) transmitted through a MAC control element (CE) or RRC of a higher layer. The downlink control signal may be a predefined signal (information).

[0113] The uplink control signal (information) related to the present disclosure may be a signal (information) transmitted through the PUCCH of the physical layer, or may be a signal (information) transmitted through the MAC CE or RRC of a higher layer. In addition, the uplink control signal may be a predefined signal (information). The uplink control signal may be replaced with uplink control information (UCI), first-stage sidelink control information (SCI), or second-stage SCI.

[0114] Uplink / Downlink / Sidelink

[0115] The present disclosure may be applied to any one of an uplink, a downlink, and a sidelink.

[0116] The present disclosure can be applied to, for example, uplink channels (such as PUSCH, PUCCH and PRACH), downlink channels (such as PDSCH, PDCCH and PBCH), and sidelink channels (such as physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH)).

[0117] PDCCH, PDSCH, PUSCH and PUCCH are examples of downlink control channels, downlink data channels, uplink data channels and uplink control channels, respectively. PSCCH and PSSCH are examples of sidelink control channels and sidelink data channels, respectively. PBCH and PSBCH are examples of broadcast channels, respectively, and PRACH is an example of a random access channel.

[0118] Data channel / control channel

[0119] The present disclosure may be applied to any one of a data channel and a control channel. The channels in the present disclosure may be replaced with data channels including PDSCH, PUSCH and PSSCH and / or control channels including PDCCH, PUCCH, PBCH, PSCCH and PSBCH.

[0120] Reference signal

[0121] In the present disclosure, a reference signal is a signal known to both a base station and a mobile station, and each reference signal may be referred to as a reference signal (RS) or sometimes referred to as a pilot signal. The reference signal may be any one of a DMRS, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a tracking reference signal (TRS), a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), and a sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0122] Time interval

[0123] In the present disclosure, the time resource unit is not limited to one or a combination of a time slot and a symbol, and may be a time resource unit such as a frame, a superframe, a subframe, a time slot, a time slot subslot, a mini-slot, or a time resource unit such as a symbol, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, a single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbol, or other time resource units. The number of symbols included in a time slot is not limited to any number of symbols exemplified in the described (one or more) embodiments, and may be other numbers of symbols.

[0124] frequency band

[0125] The present disclosure may be applied to any of licensed bands and unlicensed bands.

[0126] communication

[0127] The present disclosure can be applied to any one of the communication between a base station and a terminal (Uu link communication), the communication between terminals (side link communication), and the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. The channels in the present disclosure can be replaced by PSCCH, PSSCH, physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), PSBCH, PDCCH, PUCCH, PDSCH, PUSCH, and PBCH.

[0128] In addition, the present disclosure can also be applied to any network in a terrestrial network or a network other than a terrestrial network (NTN: non-terrestrial network) using a satellite or a high altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS). In addition, the present disclosure can be applied to a network with a large cell size, and a terrestrial network with a large delay compared to a symbol length or a time slot length, such as an ultra-wideband transmission network.

[0129] Antenna Port

[0130] An antenna port refers to a logical antenna (antenna group) formed by one or more physical antennas. That is, an antenna port does not necessarily refer to one physical antenna, but sometimes refers to an array antenna formed by multiple antennas, etc. For example, it is not defined how many physical antennas form an antenna port, but the antenna port is defined as the minimum unit through which the terminal is allowed to send a reference signal. The antenna port can also be defined as the minimum unit for multiplication of precoding vector weights.

[0131] Downlink Control Channel Monitoring PDCCH DCI

[0132] Many functions operated by the UE involve monitoring a downlink control channel (eg, PDCCH, see 3GPP TS 38.300 v15.6.0, section 5.2.3) to receive, for example, specific control information or data destined for the UE.

[0133] A non-exhaustive list of these features is given below:

[0134] - Paging message monitoring function,

[0135] - System information acquisition function,

[0136] - Signalling monitoring operation for discontinuous reception (DRX) function,

[0137] - Inactivity monitoring operation for Discontinuous Reception (DRX) functionality,

[0138] - Random Access Response reception for random access function,

[0139] - Reordering function of the Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDCP layer.

[0140] As described above, PDCCH monitoring is performed by the UE in order to identify and receive information intended for the UE, such as control information and user traffic (eg, DCI on the PDCCH, and user data on the PDSCH indicated by the PDCCH).

[0141] The DCI format indicates a predetermined format for forming and transmitting corresponding information. In particular, DCI formats 0_1 and 1_1 are used for scheduling PUSCH and PDSCH in one cell, respectively.

[0142] The PDCCH monitoring of each of these functions is used for a specific purpose and therefore starts and ends as described. PDCCH monitoring is usually controlled based on at least a timer operated by the UE. The timer has the purpose of controlling PDCCH monitoring, such as limiting the maximum amount of time the UE monitors the PDCCH. For example, the UE may not need to monitor the PDCCH indefinitely, but may stop monitoring after a period of time in order to save energy.

[0143] As mentioned above, one of the purposes of DCI on PDCCH is the dynamic scheduling of resources in the downlink or uplink or even the sidelink. In particular, some formats of DCI are provided to carry an indication of the resources (resource allocation RA) allocated to the data channel for a specific user. The resource allocation may include the specification of resources in the frequency domain and / or time domain.

[0144] Physical Resource Block

[0145] In general, the term "physical resource block" (PRB) refers to the smallest allocatable unit of resources that can be used for (user) data transmission. In LTE and NR, a PRB has a predetermined number (e.g., 12) of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and a predetermined number of symbols in the time domain (e.g., 14 OFDM symbols in LTE).

[0146] Bandwidth part——BWP

[0147] NR systems will support a maximum channel bandwidth that is much wider than the 20MHz bandwidth of LTE (e.g., 100MHz). Wideband communications are also supported in LTE via carrier aggregation (CA) of up to 20-MHz component carriers. By defining a wider channel bandwidth in NR, frequency resources can be dynamically allocated via scheduling, which can be more efficient and flexible than LTE's carrier aggregation operation, whose activation / deactivation is based on MAC control elements. Having a single wideband carrier also has advantages in terms of low control overhead, as it only requires a single control signaling (carrier aggregation requires separate control signaling for each aggregated carrier).

[0148] In addition, similar to LTE, NR can also support aggregation of multiple carriers via carrier aggregation or dual connectivity.

[0149] Since UEs do not always require high data rates, using wide bandwidths may result in higher idle power consumption from the perspective of RF and baseband signal processing. In this regard, the newly developed concept of bandwidth portioning for NR provides a means to operate UEs with a bandwidth smaller than the configured channel bandwidth in order to provide an energy-efficient solution despite supporting wideband operation. Any low-end terminal that cannot access the entire bandwidth of NR can benefit from this.

[0150] A bandwidth part (BWP) is a subset of the total cell bandwidth of a cell, e.g. defined by the location and number of consecutive physical resource blocks (PRBs). It may be defined separately for uplink and downlink. Furthermore, each bandwidth part may be associated with a specific set of OFDM parameters, e.g. associated with a subcarrier spacing and a cyclic prefix. Bandwidth adaptation is achieved, for example, by configuring a UE with (one or more) BWPs and by informing the UE which of the configured BWPs is currently the active BWP.

[0151] Exemplarily, in 5G NR, a specific BWP is configured only for a UE in RRC_Connected state. For example, except for the initial BWP (e.g., one for UL and one for DL, respectively), the BWP only exists for a UE in connected state. To support the initial data exchange between the UE and the network, for example, during the process of moving the UE from RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE state to RRC_CONNECTED state, the initial DL BWP and the initial UL BWP are configured in the minimum system information.

[0152] Although a UE may be configured with more than one BWP (e.g., up to 4 BWPs per serving cell, as currently defined for NR), the UE has only one active DL BWP at a time.

[0153] More information on BWP operation can be found in section 5.15 of 3GPP TS 38.321 (e.g. v16.6.0).

[0154] Switching between configured BWPs can be achieved in different ways. The operation of bandwidth parts in uplink and downlink is defined, for example, in 5G NR compatible implementations in 3GPP 38.321 (e.g., v16.8.0 Section 5.15). The BWP can be switched, for example, by means of downlink control information (DCI) (e.g., using bandwidth part indicators in DCI format 0_1 ​​(UL grant) and DCI format 1_1 (DL scheduling)), using BWP inactivity timers, using RRC signaling, and by the MAC entity itself when initiating a random access procedure. For the primary cell (PCell), the initial BWP is the BWP used for initial access, and the default BWP is the initial BWP unless another initial BWP is explicitly configured. For the secondary cell (SCell), the initial BWP is always explicitly configured, and the default BWP can also be configured. When a default BWP is configured for a serving cell, the expiration of the inactivity timer associated with the cell switches the active BWP to the default BWP.

[0155] Some DCI formats do not contain a BWP ID (such as formats 0_0 and 1_0), while in other DCI formats, the number of bits of the BWP ID is RRC configurable and can be 0, 1, 2 bits (such as for formats 0_1, 0_2, 1_1, and 1_2).

[0156] Figure 6A scenario is shown in which three different BWPs are configured, namely BWP1 with a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, BWP2 with a width of 10 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, and BWP3 with a width of 20 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 60 kHz.

[0157] Different BWPs may be configured, for example, using appropriate information elements of the RRC protocol.A carrier bandwidth part is a contiguous set of physical resource blocks selected from a contiguous subset of common resource blocks for a given numerology set (u) on a given carrier.

[0158] According to an exemplary 5G NR compatible implementation compliant with 3GPP 38.331 (e.g., v16.8.0), different RRC reconfiguration information elements may be used.

[0159] Control Information - Search Space Set

[0160] PDCCH monitoring is done by the UE in order to identify and receive information intended for the UE, such as control information and user traffic (eg, DCI on the PDCCH, and user data on the PDSCH indicated by the PDCCH).

[0161] The control information in the downlink (which may be referred to as e.g. downlink control information DCI) has essentially the same purpose in 5G NR as DCI in LTE, namely a special set of control information for scheduling, for example, a downlink data channel (e.g. PDSCH) or an uplink data channel (e.g. PUSCH). In an exemplary 5G NR compatible implementation, a number of different DCI formats have been defined (see TS 38.212, e.g. v17.1.0 Section 7.3.1). The following table gives an overview.

[0162] DCI format usage 0_0 PUSCH Scheduling in a Cell 0_1 PUSCH Scheduling in a Cell 0_2 PUSCH Scheduling in a Cell 1_0 Scheduling of PDSCH in a cell 1_1 PDSCH scheduling in a cell 1_2 Scheduling of PDSCH in a cell 2_0 Notify a group of UEs of the timeslot format 2_1 Notify a group of UEs of PRB(s) and OFDM symbol(s) where the UEs can assume there is no transmission for the UEs 2_2 Transmission of TPC commands for PUCCH and PUSCH 2_3 Transmission of a set of TPC commands for SRS transmission by one or more UEs 2_4 Cancel UL transmission 2_5 Notify of soft resource availability 2_6 Notification of energy saving information 3_0 Scheduling sidelinks in one cell: NR PSCCH and NR PSSCH; 3_1 Scheduling sidelinks in a cell: LTE PSCCH and LTE PSSCH

[0163] In 5G NR, PDCCH is sent in a region of radio resources called a Control Resource Set (CORESET). In LTE, the concept of a CORESET does not exist explicitly. Instead, PDCCH in LTE uses the full carrier bandwidth in the first 1-3 OFDM symbols (four for the narrowest case). In contrast, CORESETs in 5G NR can occur anywhere within a timeslot and anywhere in the frequency range of the carrier, except for CORESETs outside of the active bandwidth part (BWP) that the UE is not expected to process.

[0164] Therefore, the UE performs a monitoring operation of the PDCCH, for example, as defined in Sections 10 and 11 of 3GPP TS 38.213 (e.g., Version 17.1.0). As exemplarily defined therein, the UE monitors a set of PDCCH candidates, which is defined according to a PDCCH search space set. The search space set may be a common search space set (CSS set) or a UE-specific search space set (USS set).

[0165] As exemplarily defined in 3GPP TS 38.213 section 10.1, the UE monitors PDCCH candidates in one or more of the following CSS and USS sets:

[0166] - For DCI formats with CRC scrambled by SI-RNTI on the primary cell of the MCG, Type0-PDCCH CSS set configured by pdcch-ConfigSIB1 in the MIB or searchSpaceSIB1 in PDCCH-ConfigCommon or searchSpaceZero in PDCCH-ConfigCommon

[0167] - For DCI formats with CRC scrambled by SI-RNTI on the primary cell of the MCG, the Type0A-PDCCH CSS set configured by searchSpaceOtherSystemInformation in PDCCH-ConfigCommon

[0168] - For DCI formats with CRC scrambled by RA-RNTI, MsgB-RNTI or TC-RNTI on the primary cell, the Type1-PDCCH CSS set configured by ra-SearchSpace in PDCCH-ConfigCommon

[0169] - For DCI formats with CRC scrambled by the P-RNTI on the primary cell of the MCG, the Type2-PDCCH CSS set configured by pagingSearchSpace in PDCCH-ConfigCommon

[0170] - for DCI formats with CRC scrambled by INT-RNTI, SFI-RNTI, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-SRS-RNTI or CI-RNTI (and for primary cell only, C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, CS-RNTI(s) or PS-RNTI), Type3-PDCCH CSS set with searchSpaceType = common configured by SearchSpace in PDCCH-Config, and

[0171] - For DCI formats with CRC scrambled by C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, SP-CSI-RNTI, CS-RNTI(s), SL-RNTI, SL-CS-RNTI or SL Semi-persistent scheduling V-RNTI, the USS set with searchSpaceType = ue-Specific configured by SearchSpace in PDCCH-Config.

[0172] The search space sets are monitored in one or more CORESETs on the active DL BWP on each activated serving cell configured with PDCCH monitoring using the corresponding search space sets, where monitoring implies decoding each PDCCH candidate according to the monitored DCI format.

[0173] Conceptually, Figure 6 An exemplary illustration of the relationship between the bandwidth part, CORESET, search space, search space set and PDCCH candidates that the UE can monitor is provided. Figure 6 As can be seen, one CORESET is shown per BWP, but more than one is possible. Each CORESET can then have several search spaces for one or more PDCCH candidates of a specific aggregation level (such as AL2, 4, or 8), which can then be grouped into search space sets, such as a common SS set and a UE-specific SS set.

[0174] Time Domain in 5G NR

[0175] In the time domain, transmissions in 5G NR are organized into frames of length 10ms, each of which is divided into 10 equally sized subframes of length 1ms. A subframe is in turn divided into one or more slots, each consisting of 14 OFDM symbols. The duration of a slot in milliseconds depends on the parameter set. For example, for a 15kHz subcarrier spacing, the NR slot thus has the same structure as an LTE subframe with a normal cyclic prefix. The subframes in 5G NR serve as a time reference independent of the parameter set, which is useful, especially in cases where multiple parameter sets are mixed on the same carrier, while the slot is a typical dynamically scheduled unit. This frame structure, on which 3GPP 5G NR communications are based, is described in [3GPP 5G NR Regulations]. Figure 7 It is shown as an example in FIG.

[0176] Timeslot format in Rel-15 / 16 / 17NR

[0177] In Rel-15 / 16 / 17NR, the gNB informs the UE of the transmission direction via the slot format (the transmission directions are uplink (U), downlink (D) and flexible (F)). The slot format can be configured semi-statically by RRC and / or dynamically by DCI. For semi-static configuration, cell-level common signaling (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon) or dedicated RRC signaling (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated) can be used. In order to dynamically configure the slot format, the slot format indicator (SFI) is sent to the UE (via SlotFormatIndicator of DCI format 2_0).

[0178] According to the Rel-15 / 16 / 17 specifications, when configuring the slot format, the semi-static cell-common D and U symbols cannot be changed by UE-specific RRC or dynamic configuration (DCI 2_0). Therefore, currently, conflicting configurations between the cell-common slot configuration and the dedicated RRC or dynamic configuration of (one or more) specific UEs are not allowed on the one hand (i.e., for each time interval and UE, the transmission direction must conform to the cell-common slot configuration or be "allowed" by the cell-common slot configuration). In other words, only the semi-static cell-common F symbols can be rewritten to D or U by UE-specific RRC or DCI 2_0. If the semi-static cell-common F symbols are not changed to D or U symbols (by UE-specific RRC or DCI 2_0), the UE follows the scheduling DCI (DCI format 0_0 / 0_1 / 0_2 / 1_0 / 1_1 / 1_2) to decide whether to send or receive.

[0179] Further Improvements

[0180] 3GPP is constantly looking for further possibilities to enhance coverage (UL and / or DL), improve resource utilization, reduce latency, etc. For example, the objectives in Rel.18 refer to "Studies on the evolution of NR duplex operation" (with no or minimal impact on legacy UEs if possible).

[0181] In the above, the slot format configuration in Rel-15 / 16 / 17 NR is briefly presented. The inventors have identified problems related to the above. For example, in traditional time division duplex (TDD) operation, allocating limited duration for uplink in TDD may lead to reduced coverage, increased latency and reduced capacity. Providing full-duplex operation in the TDD band can achieve more UL duration to enhance UL coverage, reduce latency and allow increased UL capacity, which is a main topic of the research project "Study on the evolution of NR duplex operation".

[0182] However, for sub-band non-overlapping full-duplex (SFBD) operation at the gNB, the gNB may have to be able to configure different transmission directions to different UEs in the same symbol / slot. With Rel-15 / 16 / 17 specifications, this can be done only by UE-specific RRC slot format configuration or DCI 2_0. Figure 8 An example of using UE-specific RRC is explained in . More specifically, Figure 8 The first row in shows an exemplary semi-static configuration configured by the base station via cell-level common signaling (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon). The semi-static configuration is "DDDFU" for five time slots (e.g., each symbol in a D time slot can be a D symbol, which is the same for U and F time slots). However, as Figure 8 As shown, the existing signaling scheme (UE-specific RRC time slot format configuration or DCI 2_0 ( Figure 8 (not shown)) can only rewrite semi-static flexible symbols / slots. For example, Figure 8 In the example of , the scheduling device can only rewrite the flexible fourth time slot (ie, further configure the time slot for each UE as a U or D time slot). Figure 8 As shown in the second row of , three dedicated RRC signalings (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated) are used to indicate to the three UEs whether the F time slot is a D or U time slot. More specifically, UE1 and UE3 are indicated that the F time slot (for them) is a D time slot, and UE2 is indicated that the F time slot (for it / UE2) is a U time slot.

[0183] Therefore, this may allow SBFD for only F slots / symbols, where SBFD refers to full-duplex operation on the gNB side and half-duplex operation on the UE side. In other words, when performing full-duplex operation, the gNB uses resources in the same frequency band for both transmission and reception. However, at a given time, each UE is only transmitting or receiving in the resources of the frequency band. In other words, in Figure 8 SBFD is performed only in the fourth time slot, where UE2 is configured with a transmission direction (ie, U) that is different from the transmission directions (D) configured with the other two UEs.

[0184] In particular, the term SBFD thus refers to the simultaneous presence of downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) in a communication system within a frequency band or frequency sub-band (e.g. within a (conventional / legacy) time division duplex (TDD) band) for which the same cell-common time slot format is used (each or some frequency bands may use / have a different corresponding cell-common time slot format). When SBFD is performed, the sub-bands used are thus used to divide the transmission directions. In other words, when SBFD is performed in a frequency (sub)band, different transmission directions exist simultaneously in said frequency (sub)band. Note that, at least from the perspective of the base station, the TDD band used for SBFD may no longer operate in TDD mode.

[0185] Performing SBFD based on specifying semi-static F symbols may not be sufficient or limit the flexibility of the base station, especially because F symbols are not widely used in current 5G NR deployments. For example, in Japan 5G deployments, the TDD pattern (in time slots) "DDDSUUDDDD" is used, where S is a special time slot containing D, F, and U symbols, and F symbols are only used in the gaps for switching between D and U.

[0186] Although the problems identified above are motivated from subband non-overlapping full-duplex operation, the same problems also exist for full-duplex operation with overlapping subbands. In other words, it does not matter how the frequency resource allocation for full-duplex operation is performed. As long as the base station operates in full-duplex and the UE operates in half-duplex, the identified problems and the corresponding solutions mentioned below can be applicable.

[0187] Implementation

[0188] The inventors have therefore identified the possibility of providing an improved procedure allowing one or more of the above-mentioned disadvantages to be avoided. The present invention relates to different solutions and variants for such an improved procedure.

[0189] Therefore, the present disclosure provides techniques for improving resource usage efficiency and / or flexibility in current communication systems.

[0190] In particular, it is possible to flexibly configure the time slot configuration / format for (one or more) individual UEs or (one or more) specific UE groups, and implement SBFD within a conventional / legacy (e.g., Rel-15 / 16 / 17 NR) TDD band. In particular, a technique is disclosed that may allow SBFD operation in Rel-18 or later with minimal impact on legacy NR deployment.

[0191] The present disclosure specifically provides a scheduling device, a corresponding method for a scheduling device, a user device, a corresponding method for a user device, a communication system including such a scheduling device and a user device, and an integrated circuit that controls the processing of the scheduling device / user device to execute the corresponding method.

[0192] the term

[0193] In the following, UE, base station and process will be described for the new radio access technology envisioned for 5G mobile communication system, but UE, base station and process can also be used in LTE mobile communication system or future mobile communication system. Different implementations and variations will also be explained. The following disclosure is promoted by the discussion and discovery as described above, and can be based on at least part thereof, for example.

[0194] In general, it should be noted that many assumptions have been made herein in order to be able to explain the basic principles of the present disclosure in a clear, concise and understandable manner. However, these assumptions should be understood as examples made herein for illustrative purposes only, which are not necessarily necessary for the present invention and therefore should not limit the scope of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the principles disclosed below and the principles set forth in the claims can be applied to different scenarios and in ways not explicitly described herein.

[0195] In addition, some of the terms for processes, entities, layers, etc. used below are closely related to the terms used in LTE / LTE-A systems or the current 3GPP 5G standardization, even though the specific terms used in the context of new radio access technologies for the next communication system have not yet been fully decided or may eventually change. Therefore, the terms may be changed in the future without affecting the functionality of the embodiments. Therefore, those skilled in the art appreciate that the embodiments and their scope of protection should not be limited to the specific terms used exemplarily herein due to the lack of updated or ultimately agreed terms, but should be understood more broadly in terms of the functions and concepts that underlie the functions and principles of the present disclosure. In particular:

[0196] terminal

[0197] A terminal or user terminal or user equipment or mobile station or mobile node is referred to as a user equipment (UE) in LTE and NR. This can be a mobile device or communication device / equipment, such as a wireless phone, a smart phone, a tablet computer, or a USB (Universal Serial Bus) stick with the functionality of a user equipment. However, the term mobile device is not limited to this, and generally, a repeater can also have the functionality of such a mobile device, and a mobile device can also be used as a repeater. For example, a terminal is a physical entity (physical node) within a communication network. Furthermore, a communication device can be any machine type communication device, such as an IoT device, etc. A node can have several functional entities. A functional entity refers to a software or hardware module that implements and / or provides a predetermined set of functions to other functional entities of the same or another node or network. A node may have one or more interfaces that attach the node to a communication facility or medium through which the node can communicate. Similarly, a network entity may have a logical interface that attaches the functional entity to a communication facility or medium through which the network entity can communicate with other functional entities or communication nodes.

[0198] Base Station

[0199] In the present disclosure, a base station may be, for example, a transmit-receive point (TRP), a cluster head, an access point, a remote radio head (RRH), an eNodeB (eNB), a gNodeB (gNB), a base station (BS), a base transceiver station (BTS), a base station unit, or a gateway. In addition, in sidelink communication, a terminal may be employed instead of a base station. A base station may be a relay device that relays communications between a higher node and a terminal. A base station may also be a roadside unit. A base station may be a scheduling node or a network node, for example, forming part of a network for providing services to a terminal. In particular, a base station may provide wireless access to a terminal. Communications between a communication device (e.g., a UE or a terminal) and a scheduling device (e.g., a base station) are generally standardized and may be defined by different layers such as PHY, MAC, RRC, etc. (see also the discussion above). In LTE and NR, the radio interface protocol stack includes a physical layer, a medium access layer (MAC), and higher layers. In the control plane, a higher layer protocol radio resource control protocol is provided. Via RRC, the base station may control the configuration of the terminal, and the terminal may communicate with the base station to perform control tasks such as connection and bearer establishment, modification, etc., measurements, and other functions. The terminology used in LTE is eNB (or eNodeB), while the current terminology used for 5G NR is gNB. The term "base station" or "radio base station" here refers to a physical entity within a communication network. Like a mobile station, a base station may have several functional entities. A functional entity refers to a software or hardware module that implements and / or provides a predetermined set of functions to other functional entities of the same or another node or network. The physical entity performs some control tasks regarding the communication device, including one or more of scheduling and configuration. Note that the base station function and the communication device function can also be integrated in a single device. For example, a mobile terminal can also implement the function of a base station for other terminals. The terminology used in LTE is eNB (or eNodeB), while the current terminology used for 5G NR is gNB. In particular, a base station can also be a gNB in ​​a non-terrestrial network (NTN) NR system.

[0200] As described above, the present disclosure provides a scheduling device (e.g., a base station) and a communication device (e.g., a scheduled device or a user equipment). The present disclosure further provides a system including a scheduled and scheduling device, and a corresponding method and program. An example of such a communication system is Fig. 9 The communication system 900 may be a wireless communication system according to the technical specifications of 5G, in particular, a NR communication system. However, the present disclosure is not limited to 3GPP NR terrestrial networks (TNs), and may also be applied to NTNs or other wireless or cellular systems.

[0201] Fig. 9A general, simplified and exemplary block diagram of a communication device 910 (here exemplarily assumed to be a UE) and a scheduling device 960 (here exemplarily assumed to be located in a base station, such as in an LTE eNB (alternatively referred to as ng-eNB) or a gNB in ​​5G NR) is shown. However, in general, in the case of a sidelink connection between two terminals, the scheduling device may also be a terminal. In addition, in particular with regard to the use cases of URLLC, eMBB and mMTC, the communication device 910 may also be a sensor device, a wearable device or a connected vehicle, or a controller of an automated machine in an industrial plant. In addition, the communication device 910 may be able to act as a repeater between a base station and another communication device (e.g., the present disclosure is not limited to a communication "terminal" or a user "terminal").

[0202] like Fig. 9 As shown, the communication device 910 and the scheduling device 960 (eNB / gNB) can communicate with each other through a (wireless) physical channel 950 using their transceivers 920 (UE side) and 970 (base station side), respectively. The scheduling device 960 and the terminal 910 together form a communication system 900. The communication system 900 may also include other entities, such as Figure 1 Those entities shown in .

[0203] like Fig. 9 As shown (left-hand side), the communication device may include a transceiver and a circuit (or processing circuit), and the scheduling device may include a transceiver and a (processing) circuit. The transceiver may in turn include and / or be used as a receiver and / or a transmitter. In other words, in the present disclosure, the term "transceiver" is used to allow a communication device or a base station to send and / or receive radio signals through a wireless channel. Therefore, a transceiver corresponds to a receiver, a transmitter, or a combination of a receiver and a transmitter. Generally, it is assumed that the base station and the communication device are capable of sending as well as receiving radio signals. However, in particular with respect to some applications of eMBB, mMTC, and URLLC (smart home, smart city, industrial automation, etc.), it is conceivable that a device such as a sensor only receives a signal. In addition, the term "circuit" includes a processing circuit formed by one or more processors or processing units, etc.

[0204] The sender may be responsible for performing the transmission process and other processes associated therewith. The receiver may be responsible for performing the reception process and other processes associated therewith, such as monitoring a channel.

[0205] The circuit or processing circuit may be one or more hardware, such as one or more processors or any LSI. There may be an input / output point (or node) between the transceiver and the processing circuit, through which the processing circuit can control the transceiver, that is, control the receiver and / or transmitter and exchange receive / transmit data. The transceiver as a transmitter and receiver may include an RF (radio frequency) front end, which includes one or more antennas, amplifiers, RF modulators / demodulators, etc. The processing circuit may implement control tasks, such as controlling the transceiver to send user data and control data provided by the processing circuit and / or receiving user data and control data further processed by the processing circuit. The processing circuit may also be responsible for performing other processing, such as determining, deciding, calculating, measuring, etc.

[0206] According to an exemplary embodiment, there is provided, for example, Fig. 9 A communication device 910 is shown (left hand side). The communication device 910 comprises a transceiver 920 and a circuit 930.

[0207] The transceiver 920 receives the "first signaling" and the "second signaling", which will be further explained below. Note that the transceiver can also perform other transmission / reception of data and / or other control signals. The transceiver can perform transmission / reception according to the time slot format (specifically, according to the second time slot format). The (processing) circuit 930: (i) obtains a first indication indicating a "first time slot format" used for the frequency band from the first signaling, and (ii) obtains a second indication indicating a "second time slot format" used for the frequency band from the second signaling. Note that the first time slot format and the second time slot format are further explained below. For example, the UE can obtain the first and second time slot formats from the first and second signaling, respectively, by parsing the first / second signaling and / or extracting the first / second indication and / or the first / second time slot format from the first / second signaling.

[0208] Note that the circuit 930 can achieve more functions than obtaining the first and second indications as described above, because it can, for example, further control the transceiver 920 to receive control signaling (particularly the first and second signaling), receive data and / or send data. Such control of the transceiver can be performed according to the first time slot format and / or the second time slot format.

[0209] Therefore, the circuit 930 is exemplarily considered to include a resource processing circuit 935, which is configured to perform said obtaining of the first and second indications. This configuration may be provided by hardware adaptation and / or by software.

[0210] Fig.10: shows an exemplary functional structure of the resource processing circuit 935. Specifically, the resource processing circuit 935 may include a time slot format obtaining circuit 1010, which may obtain the first indication and the second indication; and a transmission direction determining circuit 1020, which may determine the transmission direction for the time interval according to the first time slot format and / or the second time slot format.

[0211] Note that the resource processing circuit 935 can implement more functions, because it can also determine the resources for sending / receiving data based on the received scheduling grant (e.g., DCI / PDCCH), which can be performed according to the determined transmission direction. This function can be provided by the grant processing circuit 1030, which is exemplarily assumed to be part of the resource processing circuit 935.

[0212] Corresponding to the above communication device, a communication method performed by the communication device is provided. Fig.12 As shown, the method comprises the following steps: receiving S1225 a first signaling; obtaining S1235 a first indication indicating a first time slot format for a frequency band from the first signaling; receiving S1265 a second signaling; and obtaining S1275 a second indication indicating a second time slot format for a frequency band from the second signaling. Obtaining steps S1235 and S1275 may be performed by parsing / extracting as described above. Note that the order of the steps may be different from Fig.12 For example, the second signaling may be received S1265 before obtaining the indication of the first time slot format. In particular, the first signaling and the second signaling may be received together, for example as part of the same transmission.

[0213] like Fig.12As further shown in, the UE may also send S1285 and / or receive S1285 data or control signals according to the first time slot format and / or the second time slot format. Specifically, the UE may interpret the scheduling authorization for allocating resources to the UE according to the transmission direction determined by the transmission direction determination circuit 1020. Therefore, step S1285 may include the following steps or the following steps: determining the transmission direction of the allocated resources according to the first time slot format and / or the second time slot format, and in particular according to the transmission direction determined for the time interval and frequency band in which the allocated resources are located. More specifically, the resources allocated in the time interval and frequency band in which the transmission direction is determined to be UL may be interpreted as UL resources without further explicit indication from the base station (similarly, the resources in the DL time interval may be interpreted as intended for reception by the UE without further explicit indication). Therefore, the UE may assume that there are only DL or UL authorizations for the DL or UL intervals, respectively, and plan its behavior accordingly (e.g., in terms of buffering, sleep behavior, etc.). If the granted resources are determined in their direction as being in a flexible time interval and frequency band, the UE may desire to further indicate in the scheduling grant whether the allocated resources are for transmission or reception of the UE.

[0214] Also like Fig. 9 As shown in the right-hand side, according to another exemplary embodiment, a scheduling device 960 is provided. The scheduling device 960 includes a transceiver 970 and a circuit 980. The (processing) circuit 980 (i) determines a first time slot format for a frequency band, (ii) generates a first signaling including a first indication indicating the first time slot format, (iii) determines a second time slot format for the frequency band, and (iv) generates a second signaling indicating the second time slot format. In addition, the transceiver 970 sends the first signaling and the second signaling.

[0215] The circuit 980 can implement more functions than the above-mentioned determination and generation, because it can, for example, further control the transceiver 970 to send the first signaling and the second signaling, and / or control the transceiver to receive or send data. Therefore, the circuit 980 is exemplarily considered to include a scheduling circuit 985, which is configured to perform the determination and generation. This configuration can be provided by hardware adaptation and / or by software.

[0216] Fig.11An exemplary functional structure of the scheduling circuit 985 is shown in FIG. Specifically, the scheduling circuit 985 may include a time slot format determination circuit 1110, which may determine a first time slot format and a second time slot format; and a signaling generation circuit 1120, which may generate a first signaling and a second signaling. Note that the scheduling circuit 985 may also implement more functions, because it may, for example, also be responsible for allocating resources to the UE and generating corresponding scheduling grants (e.g., PDCCH / DCI) according to the first time slot format and the second time slot format and the corresponding transmission direction for the time interval. This function may be provided by a resource allocation circuit 1130, which is exemplarily assumed to be part of the scheduling circuit 985.

[0217] In addition, corresponding to the above-mentioned scheduling device, a communication method performed by the scheduling device is provided. Fig.12 As shown, the method includes the following steps: determining S1200 a first time slot format for a frequency band; generating S1210 a first signaling including a first indication indicating the first time slot format; sending S1220 the first signaling; determining S1240 a second time slot format for the frequency band; generating S1250 a second signaling indicating the second time slot format; and sending S1260 the second signaling.

[0218] like Fig.12 As further shown in, the scheduling device may also receive S1280 and / or send S1280 further transmissions (in addition to the transmission of the first signaling and the second signaling) based on the first time slot format and the second time slot format and the transmission direction indicated to the UE thereby. Step S1280 may also include or be the step of allocating resources for transmission / reception to the UE based on (one or more) time slot formats and (one or more) transmission directions, generating (one or more) corresponding scheduling grants, and sending the (one or more) grants to the UE. Typically, step S1280 may be performed in conjunction with the scheduling of other transmission / reception resources for other UEs, taking into account the traffic conditions and quality requirements of the services used by one or more UEs. As already noted above for the UE, the order of steps may be the same as Fig.12 . This also applies to the scheduling device. For example, the first signaling may be sent S1220 after determining S1250 the second time slot format and generating S1250 the second signaling. For example, the first time slot and the second time slot format may be determined together (e.g., in one step / jointly), the first and second formats may be generated together, and / or the first and second time slot formats may be sent together, e.g., as part of the same transmission.

[0219] In particular, in this regard, note that since the present disclosure relates to resource usage and scheduling, both entities, namely the scheduled device (typically a communication device / transceiver device) and the scheduling device (typically a network node) are involved. Therefore, in the further description, unless explicitly stated or otherwise indicated by the context, the details and embodiments apply to each of the communication device, the scheduling device (or scheduling node) and the corresponding method (and can be implemented by them). Specifically, the scheduling device can be configured to generate and send control signals as described below, and the communication device / UE can be configured to receive such signaling and obtain corresponding indications therefrom. In particular, any steps / operations described below can be performed or controlled by circuit 930 (on the UE side) and / or circuit 980 (on the base station side). In addition, any receiving and sending steps can be performed by transceiver 920 (on the UE side) and / or transceiver 970 (on the base station side) (e.g., by being controlled by the corresponding circuit).

[0220] With respect to the determination of the slot format and transmission direction by the UE and the scheduling device, it is noted that since, as previously described, the UE and the scheduling device form a communication system, the two devices should generally obtain the same transmission direction for a particular resource granted to the UE. In other words, the two devices should know the same slot format and transmission direction. However, the slot format determination by the UE may differ from the slot format determination by the scheduling device in several respects.

[0221] The determination of the scheduling device may be a step of setting / defining the time slot format and the transmission direction, while the UE typically only infers the time slot format and the transmission direction determined by the scheduling device (from the corresponding signaling or indications in the signaling). Specifically, the scheduling device may take into account additional parameters such as available resources, quality of service, requests from (one or more) UEs (and other (one or more) UEs), received channel state information, traffic load, battery status of (one or more) UEs, etc. For example, the scheduling device may try to optimize all these additional parameters and find the most suitable time slot format and transmission direction based on all of them. Although some of these parameters may be known to the UE, or may even be indicated via transmissions from the UE to the scheduling device, other of these parameters (particularly parameters involving other (one or more) UEs) may not be known to the UE.

[0222] Therefore, typically, the scheduling device is the device that decides the time slot format and transmission direction in its determination (e.g., steps 1200 and 1240, depending on the flexible time interval, this can be decided later), while the UE typically only determines / infers the time slot format and transmission direction set by the base station (for the UE). The UE's determination is based on the first signaling and the second signaling. Since the UE's determination should produce the same result as the scheduling device's determination (for the UE), the method according to the present disclosure is generally applicable to the UE and base station sides (network node, scheduling device).

[0223] Furthermore, the use of the transmission direction may involve the base station in different ways: the base station must generate further control signaling / grants so that the UE can / will determine the desired / correct transmission direction based on the further control signaling and the first and second signaling. Therefore, the generated first and second signaling should allow the UE to determine the transmission direction in the case of UL and DL directions, and further indications about the resources allocated in flexible time intervals should be sent to the UE. Therefore, as described above, there may be a step (on the base station side) of allocating UL or DL ​​resources to the UE according to the transmission direction. More specifically, when UL resources are to be allocated, the transmission direction is selected to be uplink or resources in a flexible time interval for the UE; and when DL resources are to be allocated to the UE, the transmission direction is selected to be downlink or resources in a flexible time interval for the UE. The base station can then generate a corresponding grant / signaling indicating the allocated resources to the UE. The UE can then receive the grant / signaling and determine the allocated resources according to the slot format, i.e., the UE can determine whether the allocated resources are UL resources or DL ​​resources, which depends on the transmission direction at the time / frequency of the allocated resources (or further indications are expected in the case of flexible directions).

[0224] In the above description, although the first signaling and the second signaling are used to indicate the first slot format and the second slot format, respectively. This does not necessarily mean that the first slot format and the second slot format should be sent by the base station (and received by the UE) in a specific order. For example, it may happen that both the first slot format and the second slot format are sent by the base station (and received by the UE) at the same time, for example, within the same SIB. In this case, the first signaling and the second signaling can be understood as two different parameters within the same SIB (the same RRC signaling).

[0225] Time slot format

[0226] Typically, a slot format (in particular, the slot formats referred to herein as "first slot format" and "second slot format") specifies for each of a plurality of time intervals whether the direction of transmission in the time interval is flexible, in the uplink direction or in the downlink direction. The details of this statement will now be further explained below. Typically, the second slot format and in particular the second signaling may not specify the transmission direction (explicitly) for each time interval in which the first slot format specifies the transmission direction, but only for a subset of time intervals in which the first slot format specifies the transmission direction (explicitly). Then, the transmission direction in the time interval in which the second slot format and / or the second signaling do not explicitly specify the transmission direction may correspond to (e.g., be the same as) the corresponding transmission direction specified by the first slot format for the time interval. In other words, the second signaling may specify the transmission direction only for time intervals in which the transmission directions of the second slot format and the first slot format are different from each other. An example of such a second signaling is presented below in the "Second Signaling - Cell Common Signaling" section in two syntax examples, where "slotIndex" is used to identify those time slots in which the second slot format has different transmission directions.

[0227] Timeslot format – frequency band

[0228] The time slot format is generally used for (or applied to) one or more frequency bands, that is, other time slot formats may be applied in other frequency bands. In other words, at the same time, the transmission directions of two frequency bands applying different time slot formats may be different from each other. The frequency band may be indicated in the first signaling and the second signaling, or may be implicitly known to the UE. For example, the frequency to which the first signaling and the second signaling are applied may be the frequency band in which the first signaling and the second signaling are received.

[0229] The time slot formats referred to here as "first time slot format" and "second time slot format" are assumed to be used for the same frequency band. For example, the frequency band for which the first time slot format and the second time slot format specify the transmission direction may be a (legacy) TDD band and / or may be or correspond to a bandwidth part (BWP). Typically, a frequency band may be only a specific frequency range or multiple frequency ranges. The (one or more) ranges may be indicated to the UE (e.g., semi-statically), predefined or preconfigured (e.g., defined in a standard). The UE and the base station may use other frequency bands in addition to the frequency bands to which the first time slot format and the second time slot format are applied. For ease of understanding only, such other frequency bands may not always be explicitly mentioned (e.g., it may be stated that the transmission direction indicated by the time slot format for the time interval is a specific direction without explicitly stating that in other frequency bands, the transmission direction may be different from the transmission direction indicated by the first / second time slot format for the (one or more) frequency bands to which they are applied).

[0230] Slot format - time interval

[0231] As mentioned above, the time slot format specifies a corresponding transmission direction for each time interval of the plurality of time intervals (corresponding to the time interval). The time intervals are usually non-overlapping and may be consecutive, i.e. there is no time gap between two consecutive / adjacent time intervals. In particular, the plurality of time intervals may be a division of a time period in the plurality of time intervals. Thus, the time intervals may be mutually non-overlapping and cover the time period (which is therefore itself a time interval).

[0232] Since time intervals are usually symbols, such time intervals are also referred to herein as flexible (F) symbols, uplink (U) symbols, or (D) downlink symbols, respectively. For example, a slot format may include downlink (D), uplink (U), and flexible (F) symbols, thereby specifying which symbols are D symbols, which are U symbols, and which are F symbols. In the accompanying drawings, time intervals are shown as slots, which may mean that each symbol in such an F / U / D slot has the same F / U / D type, which is also often the case.

[0233] However, the present disclosure is not limited to any particular time interval used by the time slot format. In particular, the time interval may be a symbol, a frame, a subframe, a time slot, etc. or any number of symbols, frames, subframes or time slots. Furthermore, typically, the time intervals may have the same length (duration) or may have different lengths (again, this may be the length of a time slot / symbol / frame / subframe, etc.). The time intervals and (or any of their attributes, such as length and position) may be predetermined, and / or the time intervals may be the basic time unit of the resource grid adopted by the UE, or may be an integer multiple of said basic time unit of the resource grid adopted. Alternatively, the signaling (e.g., "first signaling", "second signaling" and / or different control signaling, e.g., another DCI or RRC message) may include an indication of the (one or more) time intervals, in particular an indication of the length of the time interval.

[0234] The first time interval (the first when multiple time intervals are ordered in time) may start at the beginning of a (reference) time (such as a reference frame, subframe, time slot or symbol). This reference time may be given by the system broadcast, or may be a time slot / frame / symbol at which signaling indicating the time slot format is received. Alternatively, the pattern may start at the beginning of a frame, subframe, time slot or symbol plus a predetermined time offset. Typically, the value of such an offset may be predetermined, indicated to the UE by the scheduling device, or set by other means.

[0235] Slot Format - Repeating Pattern

[0236] In general, the slot format may indicate a sequence of direction indications (F is considered here as one of the indicative directions). The first indicated direction may be considered as the transmission direction indicated for the first time interval (first when ordered in time), the second indicated direction may be considered as the transmission direction in the second time interval, etc. In general, however, the association between the indicated transmission directions may be different as long as the UE and the base station use the same convention.

[0237] In particular, the time slot format may indicate a pattern of transmission direction indications (possibly including a flexible transmission direction as indicated). Such a pattern may start at the beginning of the first time interval and repeat itself after the end of the last time interval (also the last when the time intervals are ordered in time). In other words, a plurality of time intervals may correspond to a division of a (repeating) period of a corresponding time slot format (e.g., of the first and / or second time slot format) into (the) time intervals. Thus, the above-mentioned period covered by the time interval may be a (repeating) period of the pattern. In this regard, it is noted that, in general, the first time slot format and the second time slot format may have the same repetition period or different repetition periods. Then, the plurality of time intervals may be (i) a division of a repetition period of the first time slot format, (ii) a division of a repetition period of the second time slot format, and / or, for example (iii) a division of a common repetition period of the first time slot format and the second time slot format (e.g., if the first time slot format has a repetition period of 5 time slots and the second time slot format has a repetition period of 10 time slots, the common repetition period is 10 time slots, 20 time slots, etc.).

[0238] In general, a (repeating) period of a slot format refers to a duration after which the pattern of transmission direction specified by the slot format repeats itself. More specifically, after the last time interval (of a plurality of time intervals), there may be a time interval with the same length and transmission direction as the first time interval that started, the last time interval is followed by a time interval with the same length and transmission direction as the first time interval, and so on. For example, if Figure 8 If the pattern (DDDFU) has a repetition period of 5 time slots, it will continue DDDFUDDDFUDDDFU in the 6th to 20th time slots.

[0239] Timeslot format – transmission direction

[0240] Typically, from the perspective of a UE performing half-duplex operation in a frequency band where the slot format indicates the direction of transmission, in each time interval, all resources in the band are indicated as having the same transmission direction (UL / DL) or all are indicated as having flexible transmission directions. In the latter case, the UE may expect further signaling that specifies the direction of transmission. This can be accomplished by further semi-statically specifying the slot format via a dedicated RRC, dynamically specifying the slot format via a DCI, or explicitly specifying the slot format using a grant that allocates resources for a particular transmission (e.g., a scheduling DCI). Note also that the above applies to resources allocated to the UE; other UEs may not perform half-duplex in the band, use different slot formats, and / or may have transmission directions associated with specific resources, which these other UEs adopt when these resources are allocated to them.

[0241] In particular, if the transmission direction for a specific time interval is indicated as the downlink direction, the UE may expect to receive only transmissions (in particular from the base station from which the UE received the time slot format). In particular, it may be expected that each resource grant for said time interval is / will be a DL grant. Therefore, the UE may expect to receive only DL grants in such a time interval, and the grants may be interpreted in this way. In particular, the base station may not have to indicate whether the resources granted / allocated to the UE in said time interval are DL resources or UL resources. Therefore, the UE may assume that there will be only DL grants for said interval and plan its behavior accordingly (e.g. in terms of buffering, sleeping behavior, etc.). Accordingly, the base station may allocate resources for DL ​​transmissions to the UE only in said specific time interval.

[0242] If the transmission direction for a specific time interval is indicated as uplink direction, the UE may expect to send only transmissions (particularly to the base station receiving the time slot format from the UE). In particular, it may be expected that each resource grant for said time interval is / will be a UL grant. Therefore, the UE may expect to receive only UL grants in such a time interval, and the grants may be interpreted in this way. In particular, the base station may not have to indicate whether the resources granted / allocated to the UE in said time interval are DL resources or UL resources. The UE may therefore assume that there will be only UL grants for said interval when planning its behavior accordingly (e.g. in terms of buffering, sleeping behavior, etc.). Accordingly, the base station may allocate resources for UL transmissions to the UE only in said specific time interval.

[0243] If the transmission direction for a particular time interval is indicated as flexible, the resources allocated in this time interval may be UL or DL ​​resources, which will be indicated by further specification of the slot format or by, for example, directly through a grant allocating resources in such a time interval.

[0244] First signaling and first time slot format

[0245] Typically, the first signaling may be cell-common signaling indicating the first slot format (or including an indication indicating the first slot format). In other words, the first slot format is a cell-common slot format. For example, the first slot format may be a slot format that is known to all / each UE in the cell and / or all / each UE served by the base station, for example, via a broadcast (e.g., SIB1). For example, the first slot format may be a legacy format (e.g., Rel-15 / 16 / 17) that all legacy UEs are expected to follow / use, and / or the first signaling may be signaling recognized by legacy UEs (legacy UEs may not recognize the second signaling, as further explained below).

[0246] However, note that the cell-common first signaling can be sent to different UEs in different ways (e.g., dedicated, group RRC to different UE groups, ...) and at different times, and is not broadcast. In other words, the base station can generate the first signaling as cell-common signaling, which means that the transmitted control information / signaling (i.e., the first time slot format) is common / applicable to all UEs in the cell. In other words, cell-common signaling does not necessarily mean that this specific transmission of the first signaling is broadcast and / or received by each UE in the cell (other UEs may receive the cell-common signaling in different transmissions).

[0247] Second signaling

[0248] Generally, the signaling indicating the second time slot format to the UE is referred to herein as second signaling.Thus, generally, the second signaling may indicate, for each time interval in the plurality of time intervals or a subset thereof, whether the transmission direction is (i) flexible, (ii) uplink, or (iii) downlink.

[0249] Typically, the second signaling may be cell common signaling or dedicated signaling. In this regard, it should be noted that these possibilities are not mutually exclusive. That is, the second signaling as cell common signaling and the second signaling as dedicated signaling (supported by the same UE or base station at the same time) may be supported. In other words, although a specific second signaling is cell common signaling or dedicated signaling, typically some second signaling may be cell common signaling, while some other second signaling may be dedicated signaling. Therefore, the UE and the base station may typically support (e.g., be configured to receive such signaling and obtain a second time slot format therefrom) cell common second signaling and / or dedicated second signaling.

[0250] Therefore, the base station can determine whether the second time slot format is used by (i) each (non-legacy) UE; (ii) only some UEs (e.g., a group); or (iii) only one specific UE based on the current situation (e.g., traffic load, UE's QOS requirements, SR). At this time, options (ii) and (iii) may include determining which UEs will use the second time slot format. Typically, these determinations can be performed together with the determination of the second time slot format. The base station can then generate a corresponding second signaling or multiple corresponding second signalings and send them to the relevant UEs.

[0251] Dedicated second signaling can allow the base station to configure its own individual time slot format for each UE, which can increase the flexibility of the base station and improve the resource usage efficiency in the communication system. Cell-common second signaling can reduce signaling overhead and may be more appropriate when the served UEs have similar requirements (e.g., in terms of the current ratio of UL to DL traffic).

[0252] In general, the present disclosure is not limited to any particular type of second signaling, details and examples of which are now further explained below.

[0253] Second signaling - cell public signaling

[0254] As described above, the second signaling may be cell-common signaling. In particular, the new / second time slot format may be semi-static and / or may be configured in a cell-common manner. For example, a new parameter denoted here as "tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon-r18" may be used. Typically, the new parameter tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon-r18 may reuse the same structure as the existing parameter "tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon", or a new structure may be used.

[0255] Note that although it is cell common signaling, it will not be visible to legacy UEs (e.g., Rel-15 / 16 / 17 UEs) because it is a newly introduced parameter. This means that the timeslot configuration of legacy UEs will not be affected by such new cell common parameters. Therefore, for Rel-18 or later UEs, a UE capability to accept this new parameter can be optionally introduced. Then, Rel-18 or later UEs with this capability can use this new parameter (and the timeslot format indicated via the parameter), while Rel-18 or later UEs without the capability can ignore such parameters.

[0256] For example, as a first example, the following syntax can be used:

[0257]

[0258] In this example, "slotIndex" is used to identify a time slot within the time slot configuration period given in the legacy tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon. Note that this period may be a repetition period of the pattern of the second time slot format. Here, it should also be noted that the first time slot format and the second time slot format may generally have the same repetition period. In this case, it may not be necessary to indicate the period of the second time slot format to the UE (e.g., if the UE knows this, it is, for example, predefined or preconfigured).

[0259] In addition, "symbols" is used to configure the direction of the symbols in this slot (the slot identified by "slotIndex"). In particular, the value allDownlink indicates that all symbols in this slot are used for downlink, (ii) the value allUplink indicates that all symbols in this slot are used for uplink, (iii) the value allFlexible indicates that all symbols in this slot are flexible, and (iv) the value explicit explicitly indicates how many symbols in the beginning and end of this slot are allocated to downlink and uplink, respectively.

[0260] In other words, the second signaling may indicate a sequence of slot indices (or time interval indices) and a sequence of slot configurations. The elements of the two sequences may be associated with each other in a one-to-one correspondence. In particular, the slot index may be followed by the associated slot configuration. The transmission direction in a slot having an index that is not part of the indicated slot index sequence may be the corresponding transmission direction indicated by the first slot format for the slot. In other words, the sequence of slot indices indicates in which slots the transmission direction of the second slot format is different from the transmission direction of the first slot format (at least for some symbols).

[0261] In addition, the slot configuration for a time slot may be indicated by indicating (i) that all symbols in the relevant time slot are DL symbols, (ii) by indicating that all symbols in the relevant time slot are DL symbols, (iii) by indicating that all symbols in the relevant time slot are flexible symbols, (iv) or by explicitly indicating the number of UL symbols and the number of DL symbols. In (iv), it may be assumed that the DL symbol is the beginning of the time slot, the UL symbol is taken at the end, and the remaining symbols are flexible symbols in the middle. For example, if the time slot has a total of X symbols, the number of DL symbols is m and the number of UL symbols is n: the first m symbols may be DL symbols, followed by Xmn flexible symbols, followed by n UL symbols at the end of the time slot. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, whether the first symbol is a UL symbol or a DL symbol may also depend on the transmission direction in the time slot preceding the currently considered time slot to which the explicit configuration applies.

[0262] As a second example, the following syntax could be used:

[0263]

[0264] In the above example, slotIndex is used to identify a time slot within a time slot configuration period given in the traditional tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon. In addition, the position of the UL symbol of the time slot is indicated by a bitmap. In other words, this example differs from the above in terms of the indication of the time slot configuration. In particular, as in the above example, using a bitmap, the position of the uplink symbol is not limited to the end of the time slot as shown in the first example. In addition, the transmission direction in a time slot having an index that is not part of the sequence of the indicated time slot index can be the corresponding transmission direction indicated by the first time slot format. In addition, the transmission direction of a symbol indicated as an uplink direction can be the corresponding transmission direction indicated by the first time slot format. For such a symbol, the first time slot format can generally indicate that the transmission direction is a DL direction or flexible.

[0265] Second signaling - dedicated RRC

[0266] As described above, the second signaling may be dedicated signaling, such as dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling. In particular, the new / second time slot format may be semi-static and / or may be configured in a UE-specific manner. For example, existing parameters (in a legacy configuration) may be reused, such as the existing parameter "tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated" of Rel-15 / 16 / 17 NR. Alternatively or additionally, a new parameter, denoted here as "tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated-r18", may be introduced. The provision of a dedicated second signaling may provide the gNB with flexibility in selecting which UE (or multiple UEs) to configure, as well as the flexibility to configure different non-legacy UEs having a different time slot format than other non-legacy UEs.

[0267] The new parameter tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated-r18 may reuse the same structure as the existing parameter tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated or a new structure. If a new structure is used (i.e., a structure different from the structure used for the first signaling, such as the structure in Rel-15 / 16 / 17 NR), one or more of the following elements may be included in the new parameter:

[0268] - the location of the U time interval (e.g. which symbols and / or time slots) within a certain period of the time slot (particularly when the second time slot format has a "D→U" configuration with respect to the first time slot format);

[0269] - the position of the F time interval (e.g. which symbols and / or time slots) within a certain period of the time slot (particularly when the second time slot format has a "D→F" and / or "U→F" configuration relative to the first time slot format); and / or

[0270] - The location of the D time interval (e.g., which symbols and / or time slots) is within a certain period of the time slot (particularly when the second time slot format has a "U→D" and / or "U→F" configuration relative to the first time slot format).

[0271] The above-mentioned "specific time period" may be, for example, a repetitive time period of the second time slot format. In other words, the position of each "D→U", "D→F", "U→D" and "U→F" time interval may be indicated. The transmission direction of these time intervals (whose positions are included / indicated by the second signaling) may also be specifically indicated in the following cases: (i) both "D→U" and "D→F" are allowed, and / or (ii) both "U→D" and "U→F" are allowed. That is, for each of these time intervals that are D time intervals of the first time slot format, it may be indicated whether it is a U interval or an F interval in the second time slot format; and / or for each of these time intervals that are U time intervals of the first time slot format, it may be indicated whether it is a D interval or an F interval in the second time slot format.

[0272] Second signaling - dynamic DCI

[0273] It should also be noted that the present disclosure is not limited to a semi-static second slot format, as is the case in the above two examples of cell common signaling and RRC dedicated signaling. For example, in addition to configuring a semi-static symbol / slot with a transmission direction different from the transmission direction indicated by the first slot format for the symbol / slot, as described in the above two examples, a special DCI (e.g., a new DCI) can be used to dynamically schedule transmissions with different transmission directions. For example, in a semi-static DL symbol, such a DCI can schedule UL transmissions for a UE.

[0274] Second time slot format

[0275] Typically, the second time slot format specifies: (i) for time intervals in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction that is an uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format, and / or (ii) for time intervals in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction that is a downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format. In other words, the second format changes the transmission direction of time intervals that are not flexible time intervals of the first time slot format.

[0276] For example, a Rel-18 (and later) UE may be configured with a new semi-static time slot format, in which a direction different from that configured by the conventional cell common semi-static time slot format (i.e., by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon) is indicated for a time slot or symbol. As already mentioned above, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and therefore, generally, the second time slot format may be semi-static.

[0277] Typically, a (non-legacy) UE may be configured to determine, for each time interval in a time interval (in a subset of time intervals in which the second time slot format (explicitly) specifies a transmission direction), to apply the transmission direction indicated by the second time slot format (and ignore the transmission direction indicated by the first time slot format). The base station may be configured to schedule only the transmission direction according to the transmission direction indicated to the UE by the second time slot format. For example, in each time interval in the time interval: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction, the transmission direction may be the uplink direction (specifically, the UE may determine that the transmission direction is the uplink direction). Note that if both time slot formats indicate an uplink direction, it may also be determined that the transmission direction is the uplink direction. The above condition (i) is primarily included to emphasize that the two time slot formats indicate opposite directions for a particular time interval.

[0278] This is Fig.13 , where the UE receives a conventional cell common time slot configuration (corresponding to a first time slot format) in step S1320, and receives another time slot format (corresponding to a second time slot format) in step S1340, for example, through a new cell common parameter or a dedicated RRC configuration, which configures all or a subset of symbols / time slots (corresponding to a time interval) configured by the conventional cell common configuration. The UE can then determine S1360 whether the second time slot format indicates a different transmission direction from the first time slot format for any time terminal that the first time slot format indicates an uplink or downlink direction (i.e., the first time slot does not indicate that the transmission direction is flexible). Note that in Fig.13In the example of , step S1360 may be omitted. In step S1380, the UE then determines to apply the second time slot format. More specifically, the UE may determine, for each time interval, that the transmission direction in the time interval is the transmission direction indicated by the second time slot format.

[0279] However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Fig.14 As shown, a (non-legacy) UE may typically be configured to determine, for each time interval, whether the second time slot format indicates, for any time interval in which the first time slot format indicates an uplink (U) or downlink (D) direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format. In other words, the UE may determine whether there are any time intervals in which (i) the first time slot format does not indicate that the transmission direction is flexible (i.e., indicates U or D) and (ii) the second time slot format indicates U or indicates D. Specifically, the UE may determine intervals in which the transmission direction indicated by the first time slot format is not flexible and the second time slot format indicates a different transmission direction (or may determine in which time intervals). This step S1460 and receiving steps S1420 and S1440 may be similar to those already described regarding Fig.13 The described steps S1660, S1420 and S1440 are the same.

[0280] The UE may then determine S1480 that the transmission direction in the time interval determined in step S1460 is not determined by the time slot format, and the conventional rules for processing semi-static F symbols may be reused. For example, the transmission direction may be flexible in each of the following multiple time intervals, where: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction. In other words, the UE may determine S1480 that the transmission direction in the time interval determined in step S1460 is flexible or at least considered to be flexible. Therefore, the gNB may configure the UE to receive or transmit (but not at the same time) on these symbols / time slots, or to indicate the transmission direction of the grant that allocates resources for transmission.

[0281] The provision of a second slot format may allow for enhanced UL coverage, which may be an issue in legacy (Rel-15 / 16 / 17) NR settings. For example, the total number (or, e.g., total number, amount, count) of time intervals in which the second slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction may be greater than the total number (or, e.g., total number, amount, count) of time intervals in which the first slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction. Here, the two totals for the first slot format and the second slot format are totals for the same duration (e.g., the totals in a repeating common period of the two slot formats). In other words, the number of UL slots / symbols of the new semi-static slot format may be greater than the number of UL slots / symbols of the legacy slot format, which may increase UL coverage. Alternatively or additionally, the sum of the total number of flexible time intervals of the second slot format and the total number of UL time intervals of the second slot format may be greater than the total number of flexible time intervals of the first slot format and the total number of UL time intervals of the first slot format.

[0282] In addition, the provision of the second time slot format can avoid the change of the time slot format configuration in the legacy deployment. It can also achieve SBFD operation by using different transmission directions between, for example, legacy UEs and Rel-18 or later version UEs, such as referring to Fig.15 This is further explained in the gNB flow diagram shown in . Fig.15 In the example, the gNB sends S1520 traditional cell common time slot configuration (corresponding to the first signaling indicating the first time slot format).

[0283] The gNB then decides or determines S1540 in which symbol it will operate SBFD. In other words, the base station determines which time intervals are suitable for (simultaneously) performing transmission(s) to some UEs and reception(s) from other UE(s). For example, the gNB may determine for a legacy D symbol that a first UE (UE1) will receive transmission(s) and another second UE (UE2) will send a transmission. In other words, the gNB determines that the time interval corresponding to said D symbol will be used for SBFD and the transmission direction of said time interval will be DL for the first UE and UL for the second UE. In step S1560, the gNB therefore issues a dedicated slot configuration (corresponding to a second signaling) to UE2 to configure U for the above-mentioned legacy D symbol (i.e., from the perspective of UE2, s becomes a D->U symbol). In other words, the gNB sends a second signaling to UE2 including an indication indicating a second slot format, the second slot format indicating that the transmission direction in the time interval corresponding to said legacy D symbol is the UL direction. In step S1580, the gNB starts / performs DL transmission for UE1 and UL reception for UE2 at the above symbols (e.g., at the same time).

[0284] Allow D->U configuration

[0285] Typically, for time intervals (eg, one or more / at least one / some time intervals) in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction, the second time slot format may specify that the transmission direction is an uplink direction.

[0286] Note that in the present invention, for ease of presentation, this situation is represented by "D->U". In addition, generally, the situation where the first slot format indicates X (X is U / D / F) and the second slot format indicates Y (Y is U / D / F and is generally different from X) is represented as "X->Y". Note that this is not intended to imply that the first slot format is changed (especially not for legacy UEs) or that the second signaling indicates a difference relative to the first slot format.

[0287] For example, the "D" in tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon (corresponding to the first signaling) may be configured to "U" by the second slot format. The UE may then employ (one or more) UL transmissions in the "D->U" time interval (i.e., the UE may follow the "new" configuration "U" and ignore the legacy configuration "D" indicated by the first slot format), and the gNB may / will not configure any DL reception in these symbols / slots, as already referred to Fig.13 Alternatively, the UE and the base station may follow the reference Fig.14 The scenario discussed is that the gNB can configure the UE to receive or transmit (but not at the same time) in these symbols / time slots.

[0288] In the "D->U" example, Fig.16As shown. It is assumed that the first time slot format and the second time slot format are indicated by two parameters tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon (e.g., as specified by Rel-15 / 16 / 17 NR) and tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon-r18, respectively, as explained, for example, in one of the above examples. It is assumed that both parameters are broadcast by the SIB and a periodic time slot format for 5 time slots is configured exemplarily. In other words, both time slot formats have a repetition period of 5 time slots. Rel-15 / 16 / 17 UEs (only) recognize tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon and obtain the time slot format as "DDDDU". UEs of Rel-18 or later versions can recognize the two parameters and obtain a different time slot format "DUUUU" from tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon-r18. As a result, SBFD operation at the gNB is enabled by simultaneously transmitting DL and receiving UL on the "D->U" symbols (i.e., symbols contained in the n+1, n+2, and n+3 time slots). More specifically, at the times of these "D->U" symbols, legacy UEs can receive transmissions from the base station and non-legacy UEs can send data to the base station.

[0289] The second slot format with the "D→U" configuration may thus use the first slot format to indicate time intervals in which the transmission direction is the downlink direction, implementing SBFD operation at the base station, such as the legacy (Rel-15 / 16 / 17NR) D symbol / slot.

[0290] Allow D->F configuration

[0291] Typically, the second slot format may specify that the transmission direction is flexible for time intervals (eg, one or more / at least one / some time intervals) in which the first slot format indicates that the transmission direction is the downlink direction.

[0292] For example, the "D" in tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon (corresponding to the first signaling) may be configured to "F" by the second slot format. The UE may assume that the transmission direction for such time intervals is not determined by the slot format. Therefore, the gNB may configure the UE to receive or transmit (but not both) in these "D->F" symbols / slots.

[0293] This example is in Fig.17 It is shown in Fig.16The only difference is that DFFFU is configured by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon-r18 (i.e., by the second slot format) in the above “D->U” case. Therefore, SBFD operation at the gNB is possible by transmitting (DL) and receiving (UL) in both “D->U” and “D->F” symbols simultaneously.

[0294] More specifically, at the times of the "D->U" and "D->F" symbols (i.e., at the times of the symbols in time slots n+1, n+2, and n+3), legacy UEs can receive transmissions from the base station, and non-legacy UEs can send data to the base station.

[0295] Combination of D->U and D->F configurations

[0296] In general, the second time slot format may specify that: (i) for some (e.g., one or more) time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, the transmission direction is the uplink direction; and (ii) for some (e.g., one or more) other time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, the transmission direction is flexible. It should be noted that the "some time intervals" under (ii) are time intervals other than the "some time intervals" under (i).

[0297] The UE's determination as to whether the second time slot format indicates that the transmission direction is flexible may be based on whether the UE is configured to monitor a DCI format (e.g., group common and / or dynamic control signaling, such as DCI format 2_0) in which the dynamic configuration of the flexible time interval is sent by the base station. More specifically, such a dynamic configuration may inform the UE of the dynamic configuration of the flexible time intervals of the first and / or second time slot formats. In particular, the dynamic configuration may specify whether the transmission direction in the flexible time interval (i.e., the time slot format indicates that the transmission is flexible) is a downlink direction or an uplink direction. It should also be noted that such a dynamic configuration may be sent in the form of an indication (also referred to herein as a dynamic time slot format indicator (SFI)) included in the DCI for receiving the dynamic configuration of the flexible time interval. For example, the time slot format indicator may include an index value associated with the time slot format (e.g., in the form of a table).

[0298] In particular, the UE may determine that: (i) if it (i.e., the UE itself) is not configured to receive dynamic configuration (e.g., SFI) of flexible time intervals (e.g., via DCI format 2_0): the second signaling may not specify that for any time interval for which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, the transmission direction is flexible, and (ii) if it is configured to receive SFI: the second signaling may specify that for any time interval for which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, the transmission direction is flexible.

[0299] In other words, if the UE is not configured (e.g., by the base station) to receive an SFI for indicating whether the flexible transmission direction is DL or UL, the second slot format does not indicate a flexible transmission direction. This may reduce overhead in the case where the UE is not configured with such a dynamic slot format indicator, since it may not have a specific need for a flexible time interval.

[0300] Examples of a UE not being configured to monitor a dynamic SFI may be that an sfi-RNTI (Radio Network Temporary Identifier) ​​value is not provided to the UE, a control resource set for DCI format 2_0 is not provided to the UE, or for example, an RRC IESlotFormatIndicator is not provided to the UE.

[0301] For example, for a UE that is not configured to monitor DCI 2_0, the "D" in tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon can be configured to (only) "U" or "D" (but not "F") by the second time slot format. On the other hand, for a UE that is configured to monitor DCI 2_0, the "D" in tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon can be configured to "F" by the second time slot format. For example, the SFI in DCI2_0 can be used to indicate the dynamic transmission direction of the flexible time intervals of the first time slot format and the second time slot format.

[0302] exist Fig.18 An example of this situation is illustrated in FIG: Rel-15 / 16 / 17 UE identifies tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon sent by the base station in SIB1 and obtains the first time slot format as "DDDDU", such as Fig.18 As shown in the first row of . As illustrated in the second row, a Rel-18 or later UE does not monitor DCI 2_0 and is configured with the second time slot format "DUUUU" by the dedicated RRC tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated. Another Rel-18 or later UE ( Fig.18 The third line of the figure) is configured with the second slot format “DDFFU” by the dedicated RRC tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated. Therefore, SBFD operation at the gNB is possible by simultaneously transmitting DL and receiving UL in “D->F” or “D->U” symbols / slots.

[0303] The second time slot format with "D→U" and / or "D→F" configuration can therefore use the first time slot format to indicate that the transmission direction is the time interval in the downlink direction, implementing SBFD operation at the base station, such as the legacy (Rel-15 / 16 / 17NR) D symbol / time slot.

[0304] Allow U->D configuration

[0305] Typically, for a time interval (e.g., one or more / at least one / some time intervals) in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, the second time slot format may specify that the transmission direction is the downlink direction. For example, the "U" (corresponding to the first signaling) in tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon may be configured as "D" by the second time slot format.

[0306] The UE may then employ DL transmission(s) in the “U->D” time intervals (i.e., the UE may follow the new configuration “D” and ignore the legacy configuration “U” indicated by the first slot format), and the gNB may / will not configure any UL reception in these symbols / slots, as described in reference to Fig.13 Specifically, the transmission direction may be a downlink direction in each of the following time intervals: (i) a first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction, and (ii) a second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction.

[0307] Alternatively, the UE and the base station may follow the reference Fig.14 The scheme discussed is that the gNB can configure the UE to receive or transmit (but not simultaneously) in these symbols / time slots. Specifically, the transmission direction can be flexible in each of the following multiple time intervals: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction.

[0308] Fig.19 The example in shows a combination of the above-mentioned "D->U" configuration (i.e., in the n+1th and n+2th time slots) and the current "U->D" configuration (in the n+3th time slot). Fig.16 and Fig.17 In the Rel-15 / 16 / 17 signaling, two parameters tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon and tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon-r18 are broadcast by the SIB and configure the first slot format with a periodicity of 5 slots. The Rel-15 / 16 / 17 UE identifies (only) tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon (corresponding to the first signaling) and obtains the slot format DDDUU, such as Fig.19As shown in the first row of . A UE of Rel-18 or later version can recognize the two parameters and obtain a different slot format as DUUDU from, for example, tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon-r18. As a result, SBFD operation at the gNB is made possible by simultaneously transmitting DL and receiving UL in "D->U" and "U->D" symbols / slots. In particular, the second slot format with the "D->U" configuration can therefore use the first slot format to indicate the time interval in which the transmission direction is the uplink direction, implementing SBFD operation at the base station, such as the legacy (Rel-15 / 16 / 17NR) D symbol / slot.

[0309] Allow U->F configuration

[0310] In general, the second time slot format may specify that the transmission direction is flexible for time intervals (eg, one or more / at least one / some time intervals) in which the first time slot format indicates that the transmission direction is the uplink direction.

[0311] For example, the "U" in tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon (corresponding to the first signaling) may be configured to "F" by the second slot format. The UE may assume that the transmission direction for such time intervals is not determined by the slot format. Therefore, the gNB may configure the UE to receive or transmit (but not both) in these "U->F" symbols / slots.

[0312] This example is in Fig. 20 It is shown in Fig.19 The only difference is that DUUFU is configured by tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon-r18 (i.e., by the second slot format) in the above “U->D” case. Therefore, SBFD operation at the gNB is possible by transmitting (DL) and receiving (UL) in both “D->U” and “U->F” symbols simultaneously.

[0313] More specifically, at the time of the "D->U" and "U->F" symbols (i.e., at the time of the symbol of the second, n+2, or n+3 time slots), the legacy UE can send transmissions to the base station, and the non-legacy UE can receive data from the base station. In particular, the second time slot format with the "U→F" configuration can therefore use the first time slot format to indicate that the transmission direction is the uplink direction. Time intervals, such as the legacy (Rel-15 / 16 / 17NR) D symbol / time slot, implement SBFD operation at the base station.

[0314] Combination of U->D and U->F configurations

[0315] In general, the second time slot format may specify that: (i) for some (e.g., one or more) time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, the transmission direction is the downlink direction; and (ii) for some (e.g., one or more) other time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, the transmission direction is flexible. It should be noted that the "some time intervals" under (ii) are time intervals other than the "some time intervals" under (i).

[0316] As in the combined case of D->U and D->F, the UE's determination as to whether the second time slot format indicates that the transmission direction is flexible may be based on whether the UE is configured to monitor a DCI format (e.g., group common and / or dynamic control signaling, such as DCI format 2_0) in which a dynamic configuration of the flexible time interval (e.g., in the form of a dynamic time slot format indicator SFI, as explained above for the combined case of D->U and D->F configurations) is sent by the base station. Details on the dynamic configuration and SFI have been described above in the section on the combined case of D->U and D->F configurations and are not repeated here.

[0317] Typically, the UE may determine that: (i) it (i.e., the UE itself) is not configured to receive dynamic configuration (e.g., SFI) of a flexible time interval (e.g., via DCI format 2_0): the second signaling may not specify that for any time interval for which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, the transmission direction is flexible, and (ii) if it is configured to receive SFI: the second signaling may specify that for any time interval for which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, the transmission direction is flexible.

[0318] In other words, if the UE is not configured (e.g., by the base station) to receive an SFI for indicating whether the flexible transmission direction is DL or UL, the second slot format does not indicate a flexible transmission direction. This may reduce overhead in the case where the UE is not configured with such a dynamic slot format indicator, since it may not have a specific need for a flexible time interval.

[0319] Examples of a UE not being configured to monitor a dynamic SFI may be that an sfi-RNTI (Radio Network Temporary Identifier) ​​value is not provided to the UE, a control resource set for DCI format 2_0 is not provided to the UE, or for example, an RRC IESlotFormatIndicator is not provided to the UE.

[0320] For example, for a UE that is not configured to monitor DCI 2_0, "U" in tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon may be configured to (only) "D" or "U" (but not "F") by the second time slot format. On the other hand, for a UE that is configured to monitor DCI 2_0, "U" in tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon may be configured to "F" by the second time slot format. As described above, for example, the SFI in DCI 2_0 may be used to indicate a dynamic transmission direction for a flexible time interval of the first time slot format and the second time slot format.

[0321] An example of this is in Fig.21 As shown in: Rel-15 / 16 / 17 UE identifies the tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon sent by the base station in the SIB, and obtains the first time slot format of the DDDUU, such as Fig.21 As shown in the first row of . As shown in the second row, a Rel-18 or later UE does not monitor DCI 2_0 and is configured with the second time slot format "DUUDU" by the dedicated RRC tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated. Another Rel-18 or later UE ( Fig.21 The third line of the figure) is configured with the second slot format of "DFFFU" by the dedicated RRC tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated. Therefore, SBFD operation at the gNB is possible by simultaneously transmitting (DL) and receiving (UL) on "D->F" (n+1th and n+2th slots), "D->U" (n+1th and n+2th slots), "U->D" (n+3th slot) and / or "U->F" symbols / slots (n+3th slot).

[0322] The second time slot format with "U→D" and / or "U→F" configuration can therefore use the first time slot format to indicate the time interval in which the transmission direction is the uplink direction, implementing SBFD operation at the base station, such as the legacy (Rel-15 / 16 / 17NR) U symbol / time slot.

[0323] It should also be noted that the time slot configurations "D→U", "D→F", "U→D" and "U→F" explained above can be combined. In other words, the second time slot format can have "D→U", "D→F", "U→D" and / or "U→F" time slots relative to the first time slot format (e.g., the cell-common legacy time slot format).

[0324] Hardware and software implementations of the present disclosure

[0325] The present disclosure can be implemented by software, hardware, or software in cooperation with hardware. Each functional block used in the description of each of the above embodiments can be partially or entirely implemented by an LSI such as an integrated circuit, and each process described in each embodiment can be partially or entirely controlled by the same LSI or a combination of LSIs. The LSI can be formed as a chip alone, or a chip can be formed to include a part or all of the functional blocks. The LSI may include data input and output coupled thereto. According to the difference in integration, the LSI here may be referred to as an IC, a system LSI, a super LSI, or an ultra LSI. However, the technology for implementing an integrated circuit is not limited to LSI, and can be implemented by using a dedicated circuit, a general-purpose processor, or a dedicated processor. In addition, an FPGA (field programmable gate array) that can be programmed after LSI manufacturing or a reconfigurable processor in which the connection and setting of the circuit unit arranged inside the LSI can be reconfigured can be used. The present disclosure can be implemented as digital processing or analog processing. If future integrated circuit technology replaces LSI as a result of the advancement of semiconductor technology or other derivative technologies, future integrated circuit technology can be used to integrate functional blocks. Biotechnology can also be applied.

[0326] The present disclosure may be implemented by any kind of device, apparatus, or system having a communication function, which is referred to as a communication device.

[0327] The communication device may include a transceiver and a processing / control circuit. The transceiver may include and / or function as a receiver and a transmitter. As a transmitter and a receiver, the transceiver may include an RF (radio frequency) module and one or more antennas, and the RF module may include an amplifier, an RF modulator / demodulator, etc.

[0328] Some non-limiting examples of such communication devices include phones (e.g., cellular (cell) phones, smart phones), tablets, personal computers (PCs) (e.g., laptops, desktops, netbooks), cameras (e.g., digital still / video cameras), digital players (digital audio / video players), wearable devices (e.g., wearable cameras, smart watches, tracking devices), game consoles, digital book readers, telehealth / telemedicine (remote health and medicine) devices, and vehicles providing communication capabilities (e.g., cars, airplanes, ships), and various combinations thereof.

[0329] Communication devices are not limited to portable or movable, and may also include any kind of device, equipment, or system that is non-portable or fixed, such as smart home devices (e.g., appliances, lighting, smart meters, control panels), vending machines, and any other "things" in the network of the "Internet of Things (IoT)".

[0330] Communications may include exchanging data via, for example, cellular systems, wireless LAN systems, satellite systems, etc., and various combinations thereof.

[0331] The communication apparatus may include a device such as a controller or a sensor coupled to a communication device that performs the communication functions described in the present disclosure. For example, the communication apparatus may include a controller or a sensor that generates a control signal or a data signal used by the communication device that performs the communication functions of the communication apparatus.

[0332] The communication devices may also include infrastructure such as base stations, access points, and any other devices, equipment, or systems that communicate with or control devices such as those in the above non-limiting examples.

[0333] In addition, various embodiments can also be implemented with the aid of software modules, which are executed by a processor or directly in hardware. A combination of software modules and hardware implementations is also possible. Software modules can be stored on any kind of computer-readable storage medium. In particular, according to another embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium is provided. The recording medium stores a program, which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of the method according to the present disclosure.

[0334] By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable storage media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage devices, magnetic disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices, flash memory, 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. In addition, any connection is appropriately referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if instructions are sent from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwaves, then coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwaves are included in the definition of the medium. However, it should be understood that computer-readable storage media and data storage media do not include connections, carrier waves, signals, or other temporary media, but are actually directed to non-temporary tangible storage media. As used herein, disks and optical disks include compact optical disks (CDs), laser optical disks, optical optical disks, digital versatile disks (DVDs), floppy disks, and Blu-ray disks, where disks typically reproduce data magnetically, and optical disks reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0335] It should also be noted that the various features of the different embodiments may be used alone or in any combination as the subject of another embodiment. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many changes and / or modifications may be made to the disclosure as shown in the specific embodiments. Therefore, the present embodiments are considered to be illustrative and non-restrictive in all respects.

[0336] Other aspects

[0337] According to a first aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device includes a transceiver and a circuit. The transceiver receives first signaling and second signaling, wherein the first signaling is a cell common signaling. The circuit obtains a first indication indicating a first time slot format for a frequency band from the first signaling, and obtains a second indication indicating a second time slot format for a frequency band from the second signaling. The first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction, and the second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset in the plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction. In particular, the second time slot format specifies: (i) for a time interval in a plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction as a downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format, and / or (ii) for a time interval in a plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction as an uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format.

[0338] According to a second aspect provided in addition to the first aspect, for a time interval in which a first slot format specifies a transmission direction as a downlink direction among the plurality of time intervals, a second slot format specifies a transmission direction as an uplink direction.

[0339] According to a third aspect provided in addition to the second aspect, the circuit determines that the transmission direction is an uplink direction in each of the following time intervals in a plurality of time intervals: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction.

[0340] According to a fourth aspect provided in addition to the second aspect, the circuit determines that the transmission direction is flexible in each of the following time intervals in the plurality of time intervals: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction.

[0341] According to a fifth aspect provided in addition to one of the first to fourth aspects, a total number of time intervals specifying that the transmission direction is the uplink direction for the second time slot format is greater than a total number of time intervals specifying that the transmission direction is the uplink direction for the first time slot format.

[0342] According to a sixth aspect provided in addition to one of the first to fifth aspects, for a time interval in which the first slot format specifies a transmission direction as a downlink direction among the plurality of time intervals, the second slot format specifies a transmission direction as flexible.

[0343] According to a seventh aspect provided in addition to one of the first to sixth aspects, the circuit determines: (i) if the communication device is not configured to monitor downlink control information (DCI) for receiving dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: the second signaling cannot specify, for a first time slot format in a plurality of time intervals, that the transmission direction is a downlink direction for any time interval, specifying that the transmission direction is flexible, and (ii) if the communication device is configured to monitor DCI for receiving dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: the second signaling can specify, for a first time slot format in a plurality of time intervals, that the transmission direction is a downlink direction for a time interval, specifying that the transmission direction is flexible.

[0344] According to the eighth aspect provided in addition to the seventh aspect: (i) the second time slot format specifies a time interval in which the transmission direction is an uplink direction for a first time slot format among multiple time intervals, and specifies a downlink direction for the transmission direction; and / or (ii) the second time slot format specifies a time interval in which the transmission direction is an uplink direction for a first time slot format among multiple time intervals, and the specified transmission direction is flexible.

[0345] According to a ninth aspect provided in addition to the eighth aspect, the circuit determines that the transmission direction is a downlink direction in each of the following time intervals in multiple time intervals: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction.

[0346] According to a tenth aspect provided in addition to the eighth aspect, the circuit determines that the transmission direction is flexible in each of the following time intervals in multiple time intervals: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction.

[0347] According to the eleventh aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to tenth aspects, the circuit determines: (i) if the communication device is not configured to monitor downlink control information (DCI) for receiving dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: the second signaling cannot specify that the transmission direction is an uplink direction for any time interval of the first time slot format in multiple time intervals, and the specified transmission direction is flexible, and (ii) if the communication device is configured to monitor DCI for receiving dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: the second signaling can specify that the transmission direction is an uplink direction for the first time slot format in multiple time intervals, and the specified transmission direction is flexible.

[0348] According to the twelfth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to eleventh aspects, the second signaling is cell common signaling or dedicated signaling; the cell common signaling or dedicated signaling indicates, for each time interval or subset of multiple time intervals, whether the transmission direction is flexible, uplink direction or downlink direction; the multiple time intervals correspond to the division of the time period into the time interval of the second time slot format; and the time period is the duration after the pattern of the transmission direction specified by the second time slot format repeats itself.

[0349] According to a thirteenth aspect, a method for a communication device is provided. The method comprises the following steps: (i) receiving a first signaling, wherein the first signaling is a cell common signaling; (ii) obtaining a first indication indicating a first time slot format for a frequency band from the first signaling, wherein the first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction; (iii) receiving a second signaling; and (iv) obtaining a second indication indicating a second time slot format for a frequency band from the second signaling, wherein the second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction. In particular, the second time slot format specifies: (i) for a time interval in which the first time slot format specifies the transmission direction as an uplink direction in a plurality of time intervals, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format, and / or (ii) for a time interval in which the first time slot format specifies the transmission direction as a downlink direction in a plurality of time intervals, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format.

[0350] According to a fourteenth aspect, a scheduling device is provided. The scheduling device includes a circuit and a transceiver. The circuit: (i) determines a first time slot format for a frequency band, wherein the first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction, (ii) generates a first signaling including a first indication indicating the first time slot format, wherein the first signaling is a cell common signaling, (iii) determines a second time slot format for the frequency band, and (iv) generates a second signaling indicating the second time slot format. The transceiver sends the first signaling and the second signaling, wherein the second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction. In particular, the second time slot format specifies: (i) for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies the transmission direction as the uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format, and / or (ii) for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies the transmission direction as the downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format.

[0351] According to the fifteenth aspect provided in addition to the fourteenth aspect, the second time slot format specifies the transmission direction as an uplink direction for a time interval in which the first time slot format specifies the transmission direction as a downlink direction among the plurality of time intervals.

[0352] According to a sixteenth aspect provided in addition to the fifteenth aspect, in each of the following time intervals in a plurality of time intervals, the transmission direction is an uplink direction: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction.

[0353] According to a seventeenth aspect provided in addition to the fifteenth aspect, in each of the following time intervals among the plurality of time intervals, the transmission direction is flexible: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction.

[0354] According to the eighteenth aspect provided in addition to one of the fourteenth to seventeenth aspects, the total number of time intervals in which the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction is greater than the total number of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction.

[0355] According to the nineteenth aspect provided in addition to one of the fourteenth to eighteenth aspects, the second time slot format specifies a transmission direction that is a downlink direction for a time interval among a plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction, and the specified transmission direction is flexible.

[0356] According to the twentieth aspect provided in addition to one of the fourteenth to eighteenth aspects: (i) if the communication device to which the second signaling is sent is not configured to monitor dedicated downlink control information (DCI) for dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals for receiving a second time slot format: the second signaling specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction for any time interval in a first time slot format among multiple time intervals, and cannot specify that the transmission direction is flexible, and (ii) if the communication device is configured to monitor dedicated DCI for dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: the second signaling specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction for a time interval in a first time slot format among multiple time intervals, and can specify that the transmission direction is flexible.

[0357] According to aspect 21 provided in addition to aspect 20: (i) the second time slot format specifies a time interval in which the transmission direction is an uplink direction for a first time slot format among multiple time intervals, and specifies a downlink direction for the transmission direction; and / or (ii) the second time slot format specifies a time interval in which the transmission direction is an uplink direction for a first time slot format among multiple time intervals, and the specified transmission direction is flexible.

[0358] According to the 22nd aspect provided in addition to the 21st aspect, in each of the following time intervals in the plurality of time intervals, the transmission direction is a downlink direction: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction.

[0359] According to the 23rd aspect in addition to the 21st aspect, in each of the following time intervals in the plurality of time intervals, the transmission direction is flexible: (i) the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction, and (ii) the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is a downlink direction.

[0360] According to aspect 24 provided in addition to any one of aspects 14 to 23, (i) if the communication device to which the second signaling is sent is not configured to monitor dedicated downlink control information (DCI) for dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals for receiving a second time slot format: the second signaling specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction for any time interval in which the first time slot format among multiple time intervals, and cannot specify that the transmission direction is flexible, and (ii) if the communication device is configured to monitor dedicated DCI for dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: the second signaling specifies that the transmission direction is an uplink direction for a time interval in which the first time slot format among multiple time intervals, and can specify that the transmission direction is flexible.

[0361] According to aspect 25 provided in addition to any one of aspects 14 to 24, the second signaling is cell common signaling or dedicated signaling; the cell common signaling or dedicated signaling indicates whether the transmission direction is flexible, uplink direction or downlink direction for each time interval or subset in multiple time intervals; the multiple time intervals correspond to the division of time periods into time intervals of the second time slot format; and the time period is the duration after the pattern of the transmission direction specified by the second time slot format repeats itself.

[0362] According to aspect 26, a method for scheduling a device is provided. The method comprises the following steps: (i) determining a first time slot format for a frequency band, wherein the first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction; (ii) generating a first signaling including a first indication indicating the first time slot format, wherein the first signaling is a cell common signaling; (iii) sending the first signaling; (iv) determining a second time slot format for the frequency band; (v) generating a second signaling indicating the second time slot format; and (vi) sending a second signaling, wherein the second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of time intervals in a plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction. In particular, the second time slot format specifies: (i) for a time interval in a plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies the transmission direction as an uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format, and / or (ii) for a time interval in a plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies the transmission direction as a downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format.

[0363] According to aspect 27, there is provided an integrated circuit which controls processing of a communication device, the processing comprising the steps of the method of aspect 13.

[0364] According to aspect 28, an integrated circuit controls processing of a scheduling device, the processing comprising the steps of the method of aspect 26.

[0365] In summary, the present disclosure relates to a communication device, a scheduling device, and corresponding methods for the communication device and the scheduling device. For example, the communication device is a user equipment (UE) including a circuit and a transceiver. The transceiver can be configured to receive a first signaling and a second signaling, wherein the first signaling is a cell common signaling. The circuit can be configured to obtain a first indication indicating a first time slot format for a frequency band from the first signaling, and obtain a second indication indicating a second time slot format for a frequency band from the second signaling. The first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction. The second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction. In addition, the second time slot format specifies: (i) for a time interval in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction as a downlink direction, a transmission direction different from the first time slot format, and / or (ii) for a time interval in which the first time slot format specifies a transmission direction as an uplink direction, a transmission direction different from the first time slot format.

Claims

1. A communication device, comprising: A transceiver, the transceiver receiving a first signaling and a second signaling, wherein the first signaling is a cell common signaling; as well as Circuit, the circuit: - obtaining from said first signalling a first indication indicating a first time slot format for a frequency band, and - obtaining from the second signaling a second indication indicating a second time slot format for the frequency band, and The first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction, The second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, the uplink direction, or the downlink direction, and The second slot format specifies: - for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that in the first time slot format, and / or - for time intervals in which said first time slot format of said plurality of time intervals specifies said transmission direction as said uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that of said first time slot format.

2. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein For time intervals in the plurality of time intervals during which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction.

3. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein The circuit determines that the transmission direction is the uplink direction in each of the following time intervals in the plurality of time intervals: - the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, and - The second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction.

4. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein The circuit determines that the transmission direction is flexible in each of the following time intervals in the plurality of time intervals: - the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, and - The second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction.

5. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein wherein the total number of time intervals during which the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction is greater than the total number of time intervals during which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction.

6. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein For time intervals in the plurality of time intervals during which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is flexible.

7. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein The circuit determines: if the communications device is not configured to monitor downlink control information DCI for receiving dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: for any time interval in the plurality of time intervals for which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, the second signaling cannot specify that the transmission direction is flexible, and - If the communication device is configured to monitor the DCI for receiving dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: for time intervals in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction, second signaling can specify that the transmission direction is flexible.

8. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein For a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction; and / or For time intervals in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, the second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is flexible.

9. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein The circuitry determines that the transmission direction is the downlink direction in each of the following time intervals in the plurality of time intervals: - the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, and - The second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction.

10. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein The circuitry determines that the transmission direction is flexible in each of the following time intervals in the plurality of time intervals: - the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, and - The second time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the downlink direction.

11. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein The circuit determines: if the communication device is not configured to monitor downlink control information DCI for receiving dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: for any time interval in the plurality of time intervals for which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, the second signaling cannot specify that the transmission direction is flexible, and - If the communication device is configured to monitor the DCI for receiving dynamic configuration of flexible time intervals: for time intervals in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, second signaling can specify that the transmission direction is flexible.

12. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein The second signaling is cell common signaling or dedicated signaling; The cell common signaling or the dedicated signaling specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether the transmission direction is flexible, the uplink direction, or the downlink direction; The plurality of time intervals corresponds to a division of a period of the second time slot format into the time intervals; and The period is the duration after which a pattern in the transmission direction specified by the second time slot format repeats itself.

13. A method for a communication device, the method comprising the steps of: receiving first signaling, wherein the first signaling is cell common signaling; obtaining, from the first signaling, a first indication indicating a first time slot format for a frequency band, wherein the first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction; receiving a second signaling; and A second indication indicating a second time slot format for the frequency band is obtained from the second signaling, wherein The second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, the uplink direction, or the downlink direction, and The second slot format specifies: - for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that in the first time slot format, and / or - for time intervals in which said first time slot format of said plurality of time intervals specifies said transmission direction as said downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of said first time slot format.

14. A scheduling device, comprising: Circuit, the circuit: - determining a first indication of a first time slot format for a frequency band, wherein the first time slot format specifies, for each time interval of a plurality of time intervals, whether a direction of transmission in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction, - generating first signaling including a first indication indicating the first time slot format, wherein the first signaling is cell common signaling, - determining a second time slot format for said frequency band, and - generating second signaling indicating the second time slot format; as well as a transceiver, the transceiver sending the first signaling and the second signaling, wherein The second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, the uplink direction, or the downlink direction, and The second slot format specifies: - for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that in the first time slot format, and / or - for time intervals in which said first time slot format of said plurality of time intervals specifies said transmission direction as said downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of said first time slot format.

15. A method for scheduling a device, the method comprising the following steps: determining a first indication of a first time slot format for a frequency band, wherein the first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether a direction of transmission in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction; generating first signaling including a first indication indicating the first time slot format, wherein the first signaling is cell common signaling; transmitting the first signaling; determining a second time slot format for the frequency band; generating second signaling indicating the second time slot format; and The second signaling is transmitted, wherein The second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, the uplink direction, or the downlink direction, and The second slot format specifies: - for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that in the first time slot format, and / or - for time intervals in which said first time slot format of said plurality of time intervals specifies said transmission direction as said downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of said first time slot format.

16. An integrated circuit controlling a process of a communication device, the process comprising the steps of: receiving first signaling, wherein the first signaling is cell common signaling; obtaining, from the first signaling, a first indication indicating a first time slot format for a frequency band, wherein the first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction; receiving a second signaling; and A second indication indicating a second time slot format for the frequency band is obtained from the second signaling, wherein The second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, the uplink direction, or the downlink direction, and The second slot format specifies: - for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that in the first time slot format, and / or - for time intervals in which said first time slot format of said plurality of time intervals specifies said transmission direction as said downlink direction, a transmission direction different from that of said first time slot format.

17. An integrated circuit controlling a process of a scheduling device, the process comprising the steps of: determining a first indication of a first time slot format for a frequency band, wherein the first time slot format specifies, for each time interval in a plurality of time intervals, whether a direction of transmission in the time interval is flexible, an uplink direction, or a downlink direction; generating first signaling including a first indication indicating the first time slot format, wherein the first signaling is cell common signaling; transmitting the first signaling; determining a second time slot format for the frequency band; generating second signaling indicating the second time slot format; and The second signaling is transmitted, wherein The second time slot format specifies, for each time interval or a subset of the plurality of time intervals, whether a transmission direction in the time interval is flexible, the uplink direction, or the downlink direction, and The second slot format specifies: - for a time interval in the plurality of time intervals in which the first time slot format specifies that the transmission direction is the uplink direction, a transmission direction different from that in the first time slot format, and / or For the first time slot format in the plurality of time intervals, a time interval in which the transmission direction is the downlink direction is specified, a transmission direction different from that of the first time slot format.

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