Indication of association of phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) port with demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port

Abstract

Some aspects of the present disclosure relate to apparatuses and methods for supporting transmission of a Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) based on an association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) ports of a User Equipment (UE) having a plurality of uplink (UL) antenna elements. In some embodiments, the UE may receive downlink control information (DCI) that includes an association indication included in an association field of the DCI to indicate an association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more DMRS ports. The association field may have a bit width determined based on an antenna architecture of the UE, the antenna architecture including a number of UL antenna elements. The UE may also determine a DMRS port associated with a PTRS port based on the association indication included in the association field and the antenna architecture.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. non-provisional application No. 18 / 362,020 filed on July 31, 2023, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 396,781 filed on August 10, 2022, the contents of both applications being incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

[0003] background Technical Field

[0004] The described aspects are generally directed to indicating an association between one or more Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) ports and one or more Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) ports in a wireless communication system. Background Art

[0005] User equipment (UE) communicates with a base station (such as an evolved Node B (eNB), a next generation Node B (gNB), or other base stations) in a wireless communication network or system. The wireless communication system may include a fifth generation (5G) system, a new radio (NR) system, a long term evolution (LTE) system, a combination thereof, or some other wireless system. In addition, the wireless communication system may support a wide range of use cases, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC), ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC), and enhanced vehicle-to-everything communications (eV2X). There are challenges in various technologies such as NR wireless systems. Summary of the invention

[0006] Some aspects of the present disclosure relate to apparatus and methods for implementing techniques for user equipment (UE) or base station to support phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) using multiple uplink (UL) antenna elements of the UE. The transmission of PTRS may be based on an association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports for a UE having multiple UL antenna elements. The implemented techniques may be applicable to many wireless systems, such as wireless communication systems based on 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 15 (Rel-15), Release 16 (Rel-16), Release 17 (Rel-17), Release 18 (Rel-18), etc.

[0007] Some aspects of the present disclosure relate to a UE. The UE may include a transceiver and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver. The transceiver is configured to communicate with a base station. The processor is configured to receive downlink control information (DCI) from the base station, and the downlink control information (DCI) includes an association indication contained in an association field of the DCI to indicate the association between one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) ports and one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports. In some embodiments, the association indication is contained in an association field of the DCI in DCI format 0_1 ​​or DCI format 0_2. The association indication is used to configure UL transmission using a certain number of uplink (UL) antenna elements of the UE. The association field may have a bit width determined based on the antenna architecture of the UE, and the antenna architecture includes the number of UL antenna elements, the number of UL antenna panels, and UL coherence. The processor may be further configured to determine the DMRS port associated with the PTRS port based on the association indication contained in the association field and the antenna architecture.

[0008] In some embodiments, the antenna architecture of the UE including this number of UL antenna elements may include a non-coherent antenna architecture, a fully coherent antenna architecture, or a partially coherent antenna architecture including multiple antenna panels. In some embodiments, the multiple antenna panels may be stacked vertically or stacked horizontally. In addition, the partially coherent antenna architecture may include two antenna panels, each antenna panel including four antenna elements; or four antenna panels, each antenna panel including two antenna elements.

[0009] In some embodiments, the bit width of the association field of the DCI may be higher than the number of bits used for the association indication. In some embodiments, the base station is a first base station, the association indication is a first association indication for the first base station, and the association field of the DCI may include a second association indication to indicate a second association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more DMRS ports for configuring UL transmission from the UE to the second base station.

[0010] In some embodiments, the processor may be further configured to determine a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) antenna port associated with a PTRS port based on an antenna architecture of the UE; and send a PTRS to a base station via the PUSCH antenna port and the DMRS port associated with the PTRS port. The PUSCH antenna port associated with the PTRS port may be determined based on a predetermined mapping. In some embodiments, the bit width of the associated field of the DCI may be further determined based on the rank configuration of the PUSCH and the coherence of the antenna architecture. In some embodiments, the antenna architecture of the UE may include a partially coherent antenna architecture with multiple antenna panels, and the bit width of the associated field of the DCI includes at least 4 bits.

[0011] The present invention is provided for the purpose of illustrating some aspects only, so as to provide an understanding of the subject matter described herein. Therefore, the above-mentioned features are only examples and should not be understood as narrowing the scope or essence of the subject matter in the present disclosure. Other features, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description, drawings and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate the present disclosure and, together with the description, further serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure and enable those skilled in the relevant art to make and use the present disclosure.

[0013] Figures 1A to 1C An example wireless system supporting association between a Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) port and a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) port in a wireless communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0014] Figure 2 A block diagram of a UE implementing support for association between a PTRS port and a DMRS port in a wireless communication system is illustrated according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0015] Figure 3

[0013] Example procedures performed by a UE supporting association between PTRS ports and DMRS ports in a wireless communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0016] Figure 4 is an example computer system for implementing some aspects or portions of the disclosure provided herein.

[0017] The present disclosure is described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, generally, like reference numerals indicate identical or functionally similar elements. Additionally, generally, the leftmost digit of a reference numeral identifies the drawing in which the reference numeral first appears. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] In a wireless communication network or system, a user equipment (UE) communicates with a base station (such as an evolved Node B (eNB), a next generation Node B (gNB), or other base stations). The wireless communication system may include a fifth generation (5G) system, a new radio (NR) system, a long term evolution (LTE) system, a combination thereof, or some other wireless system. In a 5G NR or 4G LTE wireless system, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission may be an important technology. The UE may include an antenna array or system with multiple antenna panels, wherein the antenna panel may include an array of antenna elements that may be located in physical locations close to each other. In some examples, the antenna may be a smart antenna system in which all antenna elements are considered to be pseudo-omnidirectional antenna elements or quasi-sector omnidirectional antenna elements including phase shifters. Directional beams (such as transmit (Tx) beams or receive (Rx) beams) may be formed by adjusting the phase shifters of the antenna elements.

[0019] In wireless systems such as NR wireless systems, the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) is a physical uplink (UL) channel that carries user data. Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) and Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) are reference signals associated with PUSCH. DMRS can be used for channel estimation as part of coherent demodulation of PUSCH. In addition, PTRS can be used to facilitate the receiver to estimate the phase noise of PUSCH. The phase noise of the transmitter increases with the increase of operating frequency, and PTRS can be used to mitigate the phase noise at the receiver. For example, PTRS plays an important role at mmWave frequencies to minimize the impact of oscillator phase noise on system performance. PTRS can enable suppression of phase noise and common phase errors, especially at higher mmWave frequencies. PTRS can be associated with a DMRS port during transmission and can be further restricted to PUSCH transmission.

[0020] In some embodiments, a PTRS antenna port for transmitting PTRS may be associated with a DMRS antenna port, as indicated by the association between the PTRS antenna port and the DMRS antenna port. The PTRS antenna port may be referred to as a PTRS port for simplicity, and similarly, the DMRS antenna port may be referred to as a DMRS port. Therefore, the association between the PTRS port and the DMRS port indicates that the associated DMRS port is also used for the transmission of PTRS. In some specific implementations, for UL PUSCH, PTRS may be configured with up to 2 ports, and the PTRS is associated with the DMRS port by an association indication received from a network or a base station. For example, the association of DMRS with a PTRS port may be indicated by a "PTRS-DMRS association" field in a DCI having a downlink control information (DCI) format 0_1 / 0_2. Generally speaking, the existing "PTRS-DMRS association" field may be 0 or 2 bits. Such a restriction on the bit width on the association indication indicating the association between the PTRS port and the DMRS port may be applicable to some limited antenna architectures, and may not be applicable to some antenna architectures with more antenna elements.

[0021] Currently, antenna architectures may be implemented to include a higher number of antenna elements and PTRS ports that exceed the current limited capabilities of the association between PTRS ports and DMRS ports. Therefore, antenna architectures with a higher number of antenna elements may require different phase noise processing and PTRS enhancement to meet system requirements. The embodiments herein present such techniques for association indications included in an association field of a DCI to indicate the association between a PTRS port and a DMRS port. The association field may have a bit width determined based on the antenna architecture of the UE. Similarly, the DMRS port associated with the PTRS port may be determined based on the association indication included in the association field and the antenna architecture. In addition, the PUSCH antenna port associated with the PTRS port may be similarly determined based on the antenna architecture of the UE. The UE may send the PTRS port to the base station via the PUSCH antenna port and the DMRS port associated with the PTRS port.

[0022] Figures 1A to 1C An example wireless system 100 is illustrated that supports association between PTRS ports and DMRS ports in a wireless communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless system 100 is provided for illustration purposes only and is not intended to limit the disclosed aspects. Figure 1A As shown, system 100 may include, but is not limited to, a network node (referred to herein as a base station) 101, another base station 103, and one or more UEs (such as UE 102). System 100 may also include additional components not shown.

[0023] According to some aspects, a base station, such as base station 101 or base station 103, may include a node configured to operate based on a plurality of wireless communication technologies, such as, but not limited to, technologies based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard. For example, base station 101 may include a node configured to operate using Rel-16, Rel-17, or other versions. Base station 101 may be a fixed station and may also be referred to as a base transceiver system (BTS), an access point (AP), a transmit / receive point (TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a next generation Node B (gNB), or some other equivalent term. System 100 may operate using licensed cellular spectrum (referred to as in-band communication) and unlicensed spectrum (referred to as out-of-band communication).

[0024] According to some aspects, UE 102 may be configured to operate based on a wide variety of wireless communication technologies. These technologies may include, but are not limited to, technologies based on 3GPP standards. For example, UE 102 may be configured to operate using Rel-16, Rel-17, or higher. UE 102 may include, but is not limited to, wireless communication devices, smart phones, laptops, desktop computers, tablet computers, personal assistants, monitors, televisions, wearable devices, Internet of Things (IoT), communication devices of vehicles, mobile stations, user stations, remote terminals, wireless terminals, user equipment, etc.

[0025] According to some aspects, UE 102 may include an antenna array or system 120 having multiple antenna panels. In general, an antenna system may include one or more antenna panels. An antenna panel may include an array of antenna elements that may be located in physical locations close to each other. The antenna elements may be omnidirectional antenna elements, quasi-omnidirectional antenna elements, directional antenna elements, or any other antenna elements. In some examples, the antenna may be a smart antenna system in which all antenna elements are considered to be pseudo-omnidirectional antenna elements or quasi-sector omnidirectional antenna elements and include phase shifters. A directional beam (such as a transmit (Tx) beam or a receive (Rx) beam) may be formed by adjusting the phase shifters of one or more antenna elements in the antenna element. Thus, the antenna system 120 may provide corresponding antenna beams ("beams" in this article) 122, beams 124, and beams 126. In some examples, there may be more or fewer antenna panels, and the antenna panels may include 2, 4, 8, 16, or another number of antenna elements, which may include dipole antenna elements, monopole antenna elements, patch antenna elements, loop antenna elements, microstrip antenna elements, or any other type of antenna element suitable for transmission of RF signals.

[0026] In some embodiments, further details of UE 102 and antenna system 120 are provided in Figure 1BThe antenna system 120 may include a physical antenna array 130 having a physical antenna port 131 and a plurality of antenna elements (such as antenna element 133), which may form an antenna architecture 132. Various antenna architectures may be used in Figure 1C 1. Antenna element 133 may provide antenna beams, such as beam 122, beam 124, and beam 126, based on signal excitation through antenna port 131. In addition, UE 102 may include a beamforming component 135 and a resource mapper 137. In addition, UE 102 may include a set of multiple logical antenna ports 139, which may be simply referred to as "antenna ports" and stored in a memory of the UE (such as Figure 2 201 in the memory 201). Each antenna port 134 can be associated with a function performed by the UE 102. Therefore, the term "antenna port" is a logical concept related to the physical layer (L1), but is different from the visible and tangible physical RF antenna. In other words, each individual downlink or uplink transmission can be performed from a specific antenna port, the identity of which is known to the UE. In some embodiments, the antenna port can be represented as corresponding to a specific reference signal, such as a PTRS port or a DMRS port. The UE can also use the reference signal to derive channel state information related to the antenna port.

[0027] In some embodiments, as an example, the antenna port set for 5G NR defined in 3GPP specification 38.211 may be listed below:

[0028] PDSCH (Downlink Shared Channel): Antenna ports starting from 1000 (1000 series);

[0029] PDCCH (control channel): antenna port starting from 2000 (2000 series);

[0030] CSI-RS (Channel State Information): Antenna ports starting from 3000 (3000 series);

[0031] SS block / PBCH (Broadcast Channel): Antenna ports starting from 4000 (4000 series);

[0032] PUSCH / DMRS (uplink shared channel): antenna port starting from 1000 (0 series);

[0033] SRS, pre-coded PUSCH: antenna ports starting from 1000 (1000 series);

[0034] PUCCH (Uplink Control Channel): Antenna ports starting from 2000 (2000 series); and

[0035] PRACH (Random Access): Antenna ports starting from 4000 (4000 series).

[0036] As seen above, there is a defined structure in the antenna port numbering so that antenna ports for different purposes can have numbers in different ranges. For example, downlink antenna ports starting with 1000 are used for PDSCH. Different transmission layers for PDSCH can use antenna ports in this series, such as 1000 and 1001 for two-layer PDSCH transmission. Therefore, it should be understood in this article that "antenna port" can be a logical concept that depends on a specific function (e.g., PDSCH), but does not necessarily correspond to a specific physical antenna port, even if the physical antenna port is ultimately used for signal transmission. In NR and in LTE, there is no strict mapping of antenna port 139 to physical antenna port 131. There can be a one-to-one mapping between a specific antenna port 134 and physical antenna port 131. In some embodiments, there can be a multi-to-one mapping between multiple antenna ports 134 and physical antenna port 131. The mapping of antenna port 134 to physical antenna port 131 can be controlled by the beamforming component 135, because a given beam may need to send a signal on one or more specific antenna ports to form a desired beam.

[0037] In some embodiments, the antenna architecture 132 of the UE 102 may be a non-coherent antenna architecture, a fully coherent antenna architecture, or a partially coherent antenna architecture including multiple antenna panels. Figure 1C As shown, UE 102 may include a fully coherent antenna architecture 140 having eight antenna elements 145 in one antenna panel 141 and having four antenna groups 143, wherein antenna group 143 may include two antenna elements 145. Antenna panel 141 may be coherent with a phase noise within itself. Antenna panel 141 may have four antenna groups 143 stacked vertically. In some embodiments, antenna panel 142 may have four antenna groups stacked horizontally. The antenna architecture 140 shown for antenna panel 141 may be referred to as a "fully coherent architecture".

[0038] In some embodiments, a partially coherent antenna architecture may include two antenna panels, each antenna panel including four antenna elements. Figure 1CAs shown in , the partially coherent antenna architecture 150 may include two antenna panels (antenna panel 151 and antenna panel 153), each antenna panel including four antenna elements. Antenna panel 151 may be coherent with one phase noise within itself, and similarly, antenna panel 153 may be coherent with one phase noise within itself. However, antenna panel 151 and antenna 153 may be incoherent with different phase noises. In some embodiments, antenna panel 152 and antenna panel 154 may be stacked horizontally. Antenna architecture 150 may be referred to as a "partially coherent 2 architecture".

[0039] In some embodiments, the partially coherent antenna architecture 160 includes four antenna panels, each antenna panel including two antenna elements. Figure 1C As shown, the partially coherent antenna architecture may include four antenna panels (antenna panel 161, antenna panel 163, antenna panel 165, and antenna panel 167), each antenna panel including two antenna elements. Antenna panel 161 may be coherent with one phase noise within itself. Similarly, antenna panel 163, antenna panel 165, and antenna panel 167 may be coherent with one phase noise within each of themselves. However, antenna panel 161, antenna panel 163, antenna panel 165, and antenna panel 167 may be incoherent with different phase noises. In some embodiments, antenna panel 162, antenna panel 164, antenna panel 166, and antenna panel 168 may be stacked horizontally. Antenna architecture 160 may be referred to as a "partially coherent 4 architecture".

[0040] In some embodiments, various antenna architectures (such as antenna architecture 140 referred to as a "full coherence architecture", antenna architecture 150 referred to as a "partial coherence 2 architecture", antenna architecture 160 referred to as a "partial coherence 4 architecture") are used for example only and are shown as being used for only 8 Tx antenna elements, but the number of antenna elements is not meant to be limiting. For different numbers of Tx antenna elements, antenna architectures as "full coherence architecture", "partial coherence 2 architecture", and "partial coherence 4 architecture" can be similarly defined, and those skilled in the art will understand the antenna architecture based on the discussion herein. Therefore, the operations described herein for antenna architectures as "full coherence architecture", "partial coherence 2 architecture", and "partial coherence 4 architecture" are similarly applicable, as illustrated in the current disclosure.

[0041] According to some aspects, return to see Figure 1A, UE 102 may include a transceiver 121 and a processor 123 communicatively coupled to the transceiver 121. The transceiver 121 may be configured to communicate wirelessly with the base station 101 and the base station 103. According to some aspects, the processor 123 may be configured to perform various operations. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may receive downlink control information (DCI) 111 from the base station 101, which includes an association indication 115 contained in an association field 113 of the DCI 111 to indicate an association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more DMRS ports. The association indication 115 may be used to configure an uplink (UL) transmission using a certain number of uplink (UL) antenna elements of the UE 102. In some embodiments, the association field 113 may have a bit width determined based on the antenna architecture of the UE, which includes the number of UL antenna elements, and more details may be provided by the user program for the UE 102. Figure 3 In other words, the bit width (eg, size) of the associated field varies with different antenna architectures to better provide an efficient solution that takes into account phase noise associated with the antenna architecture.

[0042] In some embodiments, the bit width of the association field 113 of the DCI 111 may be greater than the number of bits of the association indication 115. Thus, the association indication 115 may be a first association indication for the base station 101, and the association field 113 of the DCI 111 may include a second association indication to indicate a second association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more DMRS ports configured for UL transmission from the UE 102 to the base station 103.

[0043] According to some aspects, it can be based on Figure 2 The illustrated block diagram implements the UE 102 .

[0044] See also Figure 2, UE 102 may have an antenna system 120, which includes one or more antenna elements for forming various beams (e.g., beam 122, beam 124, or beam 126), which are coupled to a transceiver 121 and controlled by a processor 123. The transceiver 121 and the antenna system 120 may be configured to enable wireless communications in a wireless network (such as the wireless system 100), including wireless communications with the base station 101. In detail, the transceiver 121 may include a radio frequency (RF) circuit 216, a transmission circuit 212, and a reception circuit 214 to enable wireless communications with other UEs and / or base stations, as discussed with respect to the wireless system 100. The RF circuit 216 may include a plurality of parallel RF chains for one or more of the transmission or reception functions, each RF chain being connected to one or more antenna elements of an antenna panel. In addition, the processor 123 may be communicatively coupled to a memory 201, which is further coupled to the transceiver 121. Various data may be stored in the memory 201. In some examples, the memory 201 may store the DCI 111 received from the base station 101. In detail, the DCI 111 may include an association field 113 in which an association indication 115 is included.

[0045] In some embodiments, the memory 201 may store instructions that, when executed by the processor 123, perform or cause the operations described herein to be performed, for example, operations to support association between PTRS ports and DMRS ports in a wireless communication system. Alternatively, the processor 123 may be "hard-coded" to perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, the processor 123 may be configured to perform operations for Figure 3 The operation described.

[0046] Figure 3 An example process 300 performed by a UE 102 to support association between a PTRS port and a DMRS port in a wireless communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. The process 300 may be performed by the UE 102, which may be as follows: Figure 2 Process 300 can also be implemented by Figure 4 The process 300 is not limited to the specific aspects depicted in those figures, and other systems may be used to perform the method, as will be understood by those skilled in the art. It should be understood that not all operations may be required, and that the operations may not be performed in the same order as shown in the process 300.

[0047] At 301, the processor 123 of the UE 102 may receive a DCI from the base station 101, the DCI including an association indication contained in an association field of the DCI to indicate an association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more DMRS ports. The association indication is used to configure UL transmission using a certain number of UL antenna elements of the UE. The association field has a bit width determined based on the antenna architecture of the UE, and the antenna architecture includes the number of UL antenna elements. For example, the processor 123 may receive a DCI 111, the DCI including an association indication 115 contained in an association field 113 of the DCI 111 to indicate an association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more DMRS ports. The association indication 115 is used to configure UL transmission using a certain number of UL antenna elements of the UE 102. The association field 113 may have a bit width determined based on the antenna architecture of the UE 102, and the antenna architecture includes the number of UL antenna elements.

[0048] In some embodiments, when the base station 101 configures 8Tx UL operation, more than 2 bits may be configured for the "PTRS-DMRS association" field in DCI format 0_1 ​​and DCI format 0_2 for the association field 113. In some embodiments, the association field 113 may be referred to as a "PTRS-DMRS association" field. In some embodiments, the association field 113 may have 4 bits configured as a "PTRS-DMRS association" field. The base station 101 may configure 8Tx operation by configuring a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set using a codebook of SRS resources with 8 ports, or configuring an SRS resource set using a non-codebook with 8 SRS resources, where each SRS resource has a single port in the set.

[0049] In some embodiments, the bit width of the association field 113 of the DCI 111 may be further determined based on the rank configuration of the PUSCH and the coherence of the antenna architecture. When the base station 101 configures 8Tx UL operation, the bit width of the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field in DCI format 0_1 ​​and DCI format 0_2 for the association field 113 may be determined based on the maxRank configuration in the PUSCH-Config. For maxRank=1, the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may be 0 bits. In addition, for maxRank=2, the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may be 2 or 4 bits. In addition, for maxRank>2, the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may be 4 bits.

[0050] In some embodiments, when the network or base station 101 configures 8Tx UL operation, the bit width of the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field in DCI format 0_1 ​​and DCI format 0_2 can be determined based on the coherence of the antenna architecture. For a fully coherent architecture (such as antenna architecture 140), the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may include 2 or 3 bits. For a non-coherent architecture, the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may include 4 bits. For a partially coherent 2 architecture, shown as antenna architecture 150, the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may include 4 bits. In addition, for a partially coherent 4 architecture, shown as antenna architecture 160, the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may include 4 bits.

[0051] In some embodiments, when the base station 101 configures 8Tx UL operation, Table 1 below lists some bit widths of the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field in DCI Format 0_1 ​​and DCI Format 0_2 according to the rank (eg, maxRank) and the coherence of the antenna architecture.

[0052] Table 1

[0053]

[0054]

[0055] At 303, the processor 123 of the UE 102 may determine a DMRS port associated with the PTRS port based on the association indication contained in the association field and the antenna architecture.

[0056] In some embodiments, for a fully coherent architecture such as antenna architecture 140, base station 101 may configure the "PTRS-DMRS association" field in DCI format 0_1 ​​and DCI format 0_2 in various options for 8Tx UL operation. In some embodiments, only 2 bits may be used for the "PTRS-DMRS association" field, and each codeword (CW) may contain up to 4 layers (DMRS ports). 2 bits may be used to associate a PTRS port with one of the 4 DMRS ports (layers). A CW (MCS) with a maximum transport block (TB) may be selected as a DMRS port associated with a PTRS port. If two CWs have the same TB (MCS), UE 102 may select either the first CW or the second CW and its DMRS port as a DMRS port associated with a PTRS port. Additionally or alternatively, a DMRS port with a smaller or larger index may be selected as a DMRS port associated with a PTRS port.

[0057] In some embodiments, for a fully coherent architecture, such as antenna architecture 140, there may be 3 bits used for the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field to indicate the association between a PTRS port and one of the 8 DMRS ports (layers). In some embodiments, if the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field contains multiple bits, such as 4 bits, the additional most significant bit (MSB) may be ignored. In some embodiments, if the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field contains multiple bits, such as 4 bits, the additional MSB may be used for the second TRP, i.e., the second SRS-ResourceSet. For example, if the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field contains 4 bits and 2 bits are used per TRP, 2 MSBs may be used for the first TRP and 2 LSBs may be used for the second TRP. Here, transmit / receive point (TRP) is used interchangeably with base station.

[0058] In some embodiments, for a partially coherent 2 architecture, such as antenna architecture 150, Table 2 below may be used to select a DMRS port associated with a PTRS port. For multiple TRP PUSCH repetitions, a "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may be appended to the second TRP configuration by a second SRS-ResourceSet.

[0059] Table 2

[0060]

[0061] In some embodiments, for a partially coherent 4-architecture, such as antenna architecture 160, assuming 4 bits {b3, b2, b1, b0} are used for the "PTRS-DMRS Association" field, Table 3 below may be used to select the DMRS port associated with the PTRS port. For multi-TRP PUSCH repetition, an additional "PTRS-DMRS Association" field may be configured for the second TRP (such as the second SRS-ResourceSet).

[0062] Table 3

[0063]

[0064] In some embodiments, for non-coherent antenna architectures, the “PTRS-DMRS Association” field in the DCI format 0_1 ​​and DCI format 0_2 design options may follow the same design as the partially coherent 4 architecture shown for antenna architecture 160, or follow the same design as the partially coherent 2 architecture shown for antenna architecture 150.

[0065] At 305, the processor 123 of the UE 102 may determine a PUSCH antenna port associated with the PTRS port based on the antenna architecture of the UE.

[0066] In some embodiments, for PTRS-DMRS association indication, the mapping between PUSCH antenna ports and PTRS ports can be hard-coded in the specification. Additionally and alternatively, the mapping between PUSCH antenna ports and PTRS ports can be configured by the base station 101, for example, via RRC or MAC-CE. In some embodiments, PUSCH shares the same antenna port with SRS.

[0067] In some embodiments, if the mapping between PUSCH antenna ports and PTRS ports is hard-coded in the specification, then for a non-coherent architecture, the mapping between PUSCH antenna ports and PTRS ports can be configured following the same mapping as the partially coherent 4 architecture shown for antenna architecture 160, or the partially coherent 2 architecture shown for antenna architecture 150.

[0068] In some embodiments, if the mapping between PUSCH antenna ports and PTRS ports is hard-coded in the specification, then for the partially coherent 2 architecture shown as antenna architecture 150, Table 4 below may be an example.

[0069] Table 4

[0070] PUSCH Antenna Ports Shared PTRS Port 1000、1002、1004、1006 PTRS Port 0 1001、1003、1005、1007 FIRS Port 1

[0071] In some embodiments, if the mapping between PUSCH antenna ports and PTRS ports is hard-coded in the specification, then for the partially coherent 4 architecture shown as antenna architecture 160, if the mapping between PUSCH antenna ports and PTRS ports is hard-coded in the specification, then the following are two examples.

[0072] Table 5

[0073] PUSCH Antenna Ports Shared PTRS Port 1000、1002 PTRS Port 0 1001、1003 PTRS Port 1 1004、1006 PTRS Port 2 1005、1007 PTRS Port 3

[0074] Table 6

[0075] PUSCH Antenna Ports Shared PTRS Port 1000、1004 PTRS Port 0 1001、1005 PTRS Port 1 1002、1006 PTRS Port 2 1003、1007 PTRS Port 3

[0076] At 307, the processor 123 of the UE 102 may send the PTRS to the base station via the PUSCH antenna port and the DMRS port associated with the PTRS port.

[0077] For example, one or more computer systems (such as Figure 41 ) to implement various aspects. For the operations described for processor 123 or process 300, computer system 400 can be any computer capable of performing the functions described herein, such as UE 102 or base station 101 in FIG. 1 . Computer system 400 includes one or more processors (also referred to as central processing units or CPUs), such as processor 404. Processor 404 is connected to communication infrastructure 406 (e.g., a bus). Computer system 400 also includes user input / output devices 403, such as monitors, keyboards, pointing devices, etc., that communicate with communication infrastructure 406 through user input / output interface 402. Computer system 400 also includes main memory or primary storage 408, such as random access memory (RAM). Main memory 408 may include one or more levels of cache. Main memory 408 has control logic components (e.g., computer software) and / or data stored therein.

[0078] The computer system 400 may also include one or more secondary storage devices or memories 410. The secondary storage 410 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 412 and / or a removable storage device or drive 414. The removable storage drive 414 may be a floppy disk drive, a tape drive, an optical drive, an optical storage device, a tape backup device, and / or any other storage device / drive.

[0079] The removable storage drive 414 may interact with a removable storage unit 418. The removable storage unit 418 includes a computer usable or readable storage device having computer software (control logic) and / or data stored thereon. The removable storage unit 418 may be a floppy disk, a magnetic tape, an optical disk, a DVD, an optical storage disk, and / or any other computer data storage device. The removable storage drive 414 reads from and / or writes to the removable storage unit 418 in a well-known manner.

[0080] According to some aspects, secondary memory 410 may include other components, tools, or other methods for allowing computer programs and / or other instructions and / or data to be accessed by computer system 400. Such components, tools, or other methods may include, for example, a removable storage unit 422 and an interface 420. Examples of removable storage unit 422 and interface 420 may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an EPROM or PROM) and an associated socket, a memory stick and a USB port, a memory card and an associated memory card slot, and / or any other removable storage unit and associated interface.

[0081] In some examples, for operations described for processor 123 or process 300, main memory 408, removable storage unit 418, removable storage unit 422 may store instructions that, when executed by processor 404, cause processor 404 to perform operations for UE, UE 102, or base station 101 in Figure 1.

[0082] The computer system 400 may also include a communication or network interface 424. The communication interface 424 enables the computer system 400 to communicate and interact with any combination of remote devices, remote networks, remote entities, etc. (individually and collectively referenced by reference numeral 428). For example, the communication interface 424 may allow the computer system 400 to communicate with a remote device 428 via a communication path 426, which may be wired and / or wireless and may include any combination of a LAN, a WAN, the Internet, etc. Control logic components and / or data may be sent to and from the computer system 400 via the communication path 426.

[0083] The operations in the foregoing aspects can be implemented in various configurations and architectures. Thus, some or all of the operations in the foregoing aspects can be performed in hardware, software, or in both hardware and software. In some aspects, a tangible, non-transient device or article includes a tangible, non-transient computer-usable or readable medium on which a control logic component (software) is stored, also referred to herein as a computer program product or program storage device. This includes, but is not limited to, a computer system 400, a main memory 408, an auxiliary memory 410, and a removable storage unit 418 and 422, and a tangible article embodying any combination of the foregoing. Such control logic components, when executed by one or more data processing devices (such as computer system 400), cause such data processing devices to operate as described herein.

[0084] Based on the teachings contained in this disclosure, it will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art how to use the Figure 4 The various aspects of the present disclosure may be made and used with data processing devices, computer systems, and / or computer architectures other than those shown. In particular, the various aspects may operate with software, hardware, and / or operating system implementations other than those described herein.

[0085] It should be understood that the Detailed Description section, rather than the Summary and Abstract sections, is intended to be used to interpret the claims. The Summary and Abstract sections may set forth one or more but not all exemplary aspects of the present disclosure as contemplated by the inventors, and thus are not intended to limit the present disclosure or the appended claims in any way.

[0086] Although the present disclosure has been described herein with reference to exemplary aspects of exemplary fields and applications, it should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Other aspects and modifications are possible and are within the scope and essence of the present disclosure. For example, and without limiting the generality of this paragraph, the various aspects are not limited to the software, hardware, firmware, and / or entities illustrated in the figures and / or described herein. In addition, the various aspects (whether or not explicitly described herein) have significant practicality for fields and applications beyond the examples described herein.

[0087] Various aspects have been described herein by means of functional building blocks that illustrate the specific implementation of specific functions and their relationships. For ease of description, the boundaries of these functional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined herein. As long as the specified functions and relationships (or their equivalents) are properly performed, alternative boundaries can be defined. In addition, alternative aspects can use an order different from the order described herein to perform functional blocks, steps, operations, methods, etc.

[0088] References herein to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," "an example embodiment," or similar phrases indicate that the described embodiment may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Furthermore, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Furthermore, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in conjunction with an embodiment, it is within the knowledge of those skilled in the relevant art to incorporate such feature, structure, or characteristic into other aspects, whether or not explicitly mentioned or described herein.

[0089] The breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary aspects, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

[0090] For one or more embodiments or examples, at least one of the components described in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes and / or methods described below in the Examples section. For example, circuits associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples shown below in the Examples section.

[0091] The disclosure anticipates that entities responsible for the collection, analysis, disclosure, transmission, storage or other purposes of such personal information data will comply with sound privacy policies and / or privacy measures. Specifically, such entities should implement and adhere to the use of privacy policies and measures that are recognized as meeting or exceeding the industry or government requirements for maintaining the privacy and security of personal information data. Such policies should be easy for users to access and should be updated as changes in the collection and / or use of data occur. Personal information from users should be collected for legal and reasonable entity purposes and should not be shared or sold outside these legal purposes. In addition, such collection / sharing should only be after receiving the user's informed consent. Additionally, such entities should consider taking any necessary steps to protect and safeguard access to such personal information data, and ensure that other entities with access to personal information data comply with the privacy policies and procedures of other entities. In addition, such entities can subject themselves to third-party assessments to prove that they comply with widely accepted privacy policies and privacy practices. In addition, policies and practices should be adapted to specific types of personal information data collected and / or accessed, and to applicable laws and standards including considerations of special jurisdictions. For example, in the United States, the collection or acquisition of certain health data may be governed by federal and / or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); while health data in other countries may be subject to other regulations and policies and should be handled accordingly. Therefore, different privacy measures should be advocated for different types of personal data in each country.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication between a user equipment (UE) and a base station in a wireless system, the method comprising: receiving downlink control information (DCI) from the base station, the downlink control information (DCI) including an association indication contained in an association field of the DCI to indicate an association between one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) ports and one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports, wherein the association indication is used to configure an uplink (UL) transmission using a certain number of UL antenna elements of the UE, and wherein the association field has a bit width determined based on an antenna architecture of the UE, the antenna architecture including the number of UL antenna elements of the UE; as well as A DMRS port associated with a PTRS port is determined based on the association indication contained in the association field and the antenna architecture.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the association indication is included in the association field of the DCI in DCI format 0_1 ​​or DCI format 0_2.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the antenna architecture of the UE further comprises a partially coherent antenna architecture including multiple antenna panels, a non-coherent antenna architecture, or a fully coherent antenna architecture.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the partially coherent antenna architecture comprises: two antenna panels, each antenna panel including four antenna elements; or Four antenna panels, each antenna panel includes two antenna elements. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the plurality of antenna panels are stacked vertically or horizontally. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the bit width of the association field of the DCI is greater than the number of bits used for the association indication.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the base station is a first base station, the association indication is a first association indication for the first base station, and the association field of the DCI includes a second association indication to indicate a second association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more DMRS ports for configuring UL transmission from the UE to the second base station.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: determining a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) antenna port associated with the PTRS port based on the antenna architecture of the UE; as well as The PTRS is transmitted to the base station through the PUSCH antenna port and the DMRS port associated with the PTRS port.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the PUSCH antenna port associated with the PTRS port is determined based on a predetermined mapping.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the bit width of the associated field of the DCI is further determined based on a rank configuration of a PUSCH and coherence of the antenna architecture.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the antenna architecture of the UE comprises a partially coherent antenna architecture having multiple antenna panels, and the bit width of the associated field of the DCI comprises at least 4 bits.

12. A user equipment (UE) in a wireless system, the user equipment (UE) comprising: a transceiver configured to communicate with a base station; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and configured to: receiving downlink control information (DCI) from the base station, the downlink control information (DCI) including an association indication contained in an association field of the DCI to indicate an association between one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) ports and one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports, wherein the association indication is used to configure an uplink (UL) transmission using a certain number of UL antenna elements of the UE, and wherein the association field has a bit width determined based on an antenna architecture of the UE, the antenna architecture including the number of UL antenna elements; as well as A DMRS port associated with a PTRS port is determined based on the association indication contained in the association field and the antenna architecture.

13. The UE according to claim 12, wherein the antenna architecture of the UE further comprises a partially coherent antenna architecture including multiple antenna panels, a non-coherent antenna architecture, or a fully coherent antenna architecture.

14. The UE according to claim 13, wherein the partially coherent antenna architecture comprises: two antenna panels, each antenna panel including four antenna elements; or Four antenna panels, each antenna panel includes two antenna elements.

15. The UE of claim 12, wherein the bit width of the association field of the DCI is greater than the number of bits used for the association indication.

16. A UE according to claim 15, wherein the base station is a first base station, the association indication is a first association indication for the first base station, and the association field of the DCI includes a second association indication to indicate a second association between one or more PTRS ports and one or more DMRS ports for configuring UL transmission from the UE to the second base station.

17. The UE according to claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to: determining a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) antenna port associated with the PTRS port based on the antenna architecture of the UE; and The PTRS is transmitted to the base station through the PUSCH antenna port and the DMRS port associated with the PTRS port.

18. The UE of claim 17, wherein the bit width of the associated field of the DCI is further determined based on a rank configuration of a PUSCH and the antenna architecture including coherence.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to perform operations comprising: receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a base station, the downlink control information (DCI) including an association indication contained in an association field of the DCI to indicate an association between one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) ports and one or more demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports, wherein the association indication is used to configure an uplink (UL) transmission using a certain number of UL antenna elements of the UE, and wherein the association field has a bit width determined based on an antenna architecture of the UE, the antenna architecture including the number of UL antenna elements; as well as A DMRS port associated with a PTRS port is determined based on the association indication contained in the association field and the antenna architecture.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the antenna architecture of the UE further comprises a partially coherent antenna architecture, a non-coherent antenna architecture, or a fully coherent antenna architecture comprising a plurality of antenna panels; and The partially coherent antenna architecture includes: two antenna panels, each antenna panel including four antenna elements; or Four antenna panels, each antenna panel includes two antenna elements.

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