User equipment capability signaling enhancements

Abstract

The invention relates to user equipment capability signaling enhancements. Embodiments relate to techniques for implementing full power transmissions in a user equipment (UE). An embodiment of a user equipment (UE) comprises: an antenna array comprising a plurality of antenna elements; and a processor to cause the UE to: establish a communication connection with a network entity; the UE is caused to transmit to the network entity at least one of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) capability indicator, a beam switching timing capability indicator, or a cross-carrier scheduling capability indicator.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of a Chinese patent application that enters the Chinese national phase of a PCT application with an international filing date of May 15, 2020, a national application number of 202080100584.3, and an invention title of "User Equipment Capability Signaling Enhancement". Technical Field

[0002] Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communication, including techniques for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement. Background Art

[0003] This section is intended to introduce to the reader various aspects of the art that may be relevant to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and / or claimed hereinafter. This discussion is considered to be helpful in providing background information to the reader to facilitate a better understanding of various aspects of the present disclosure. Therefore, it should be understood that these statements made in this section are not intended to admit prior art.

[0004] Various electrical devices use wireless communication systems to exchange data and / or form communication networks. For example, laptop computers, mobile phones, and other similar devices may have wireless network adapters that can connect to cellular networks, wireless Ethernet networks, Bluetooth networks, etc. In some devices, the wireless communication system may employ a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna setup, which may include an array of discrete antennas to access radio frequency (RF) channels. Astute management of the antenna and device configuration can facilitate effective signal transmission and power utilization. Summary of the Invention

[0005] Embodiments relate to techniques for implementing full-power transmission in a user equipment (UE). Embodiments of the user equipment (UE) include: an antenna array that includes a plurality of antenna elements; and a processor that causes the UE to: establish a communication connection with a network entity; cause the UE to transmit to the network entity at least one of: a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) capability indicator, a beam switching timing capability indicator, or a cross-carrier scheduling capability indicator. Brief Description of the Drawings

[0006] A detailed description is provided with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0007] Figure 1 is an advanced schematic block diagram illustration of various components in a 3GPP NR (e.g., 5G) network environment that can be used to implement user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to various examples discussed herein.

[0008] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of operations in a method for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0009] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of parameter settings for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0010] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of parameter settings for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0011] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of a network system for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0012] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of a system for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0013] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of a system for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0014] Figure 8 It is a schematic diagram of infrastructure equipment for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0015] Figure 9 It is a schematic diagram of a platform for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0016] Figure 10 It is a schematic diagram of a baseband circuit for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0017] Figure 11 It is a schematic diagram of various protocol functions for implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment.

[0018] Figure 12 It is a schematic diagram of a component capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium, and this component can be used to implement user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment. Detailed implementation manners

[0019] The following detailed implementation manners relate to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of illustration rather than limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, technologies, etc., so as to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of each implementation manner. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art who have benefited from the present disclosure that various aspects of each implementation manner may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of various implementation manners with unnecessary details. For the purposes of this document, the phrase “A or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0020] In addition, various devices can be used to perform various aspects of the examples, such as integrated semiconductor circuits (“hardware”), computer-readable instructions organized into one or more programs (“software”), or some combination of hardware and software. For the purposes of the present disclosure, the mention of “logic” shall mean hardware, software, or some combination thereof.

[0021] Throughout the specification, the mention of “one implementation manner” or “implementation manner” means that the specific features, structures, or characteristics described in connection with the implementation manner are included in at least one implementation manner. Thus, the phrases “in one implementation manner” or “in an implementation manner” that appear throughout the specification do not necessarily refer to the same implementation manner. In addition, the specific features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more implementation manners. Additionally, the term “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration”. Any implementation manner described herein as “exemplary” is not to be construed as necessarily being preferred or superior to other implementation manners.

[0022] The various operations may be described sequentially as a number of discrete operations in a manner that is most helpful for understanding the claimed subject matter. However, the order of the description should not be construed as implying that these operations necessarily depend on the order. Specifically, these operations are not necessarily to be performed in the order presented. The operations may be performed in an order different from that of the implementation manner. In additional implementation manners, various additional operations may be performed and / or the operations described may be omitted.

[0023] Reference will be made to Figures 1 to 10 the network architectures, devices, and methods described below to describe other details and technologies. Figure 1 is an advanced schematic block diagram illustration of components in a 3GPP NR (or 5G) network environment 100 that can be used to implement coordinated IP packet filtering in a communication network.

[0024] Reference Figure 1, in some examples, network 100 includes one or more access and mobility management function / user plane function (AMF / UPF) devices 110A, 110B, one or more gNBs 120A, 120B, and one or more ng-eNBs 120C, 120D. The AMF / UPF devices 110A, 110B are communicatively coupled to the gNBs 120A, 120B and the ng-eNBs 120C, 120D via an NG interface. The gNBs 120A, 120B and the ng-eNBs 120C, 120D are communicatively coupled to each other via an Xn interface. One or more user equipments (UEs) 130A, 130B are capable of establishing a communication connection with one or more of the gNBs 120A, 120B or the ng-eNBs 120C, 120D. A detailed description of the wireless network and the UE is provided below.

[0025] In some examples, the wireless network 100 may be implemented by establishing a radio frequency (RF) connection between electronic devices, and the wireless network may include or be communicatively coupled to one or more cellular networks (e.g., 4G standards such as Long Term Evolution or LTE, 5G standards such as New Radio or 5G NR) and / or connection networks (e.g., IEEE 802.3 or WiFi, Bluetooth). To establish a wireless RF connection, the UEs 130A, 130B may include an RF communication system, which may include a transmission and reception circuit, and the transmission and reception circuit is coupled to an antenna array including one or more antennas. The circuit may include a transceiver module, which may perform encoding / decoding and modulation / demodulation tasks, as well as digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversion. The transceiver module may be coupled to the antenna via a front-end module (FEM) or an RF head, which may provide filtering and / or power amplification capabilities to the RF communication system. The RF head circuit may be coupled to the antenna array. The transceiver circuit and / or the RF head circuit may generate an RF signal to drive the antenna array and / or decode a signal received by the antenna array. Examples of the UE are discussed in more detail below.

[0026] The subject matter described herein relates to enhancing the capability signaling of a user equipment (UE). In some examples, the subject matter described herein provides UE capability signaling enhancements in the following areas: (1) multi-user (MU) CSI enhanced capability reporting; (2) aperiodic (AP) CSI-RS beam switching timing capability reporting; and cross-carrier scheduling (CCS)-related capability signaling.

[0027] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of operations in a method of implementing user equipment capability signaling enhancement according to an embodiment. In some examples, the operations may be implemented between a UE (e.g., UEs 130A, 130B) and a network element (e.g., gNBs 120A, 120B or ng-eNBs 120C, 120D).Figure 2 The operations depicted enable the UE to provide enhanced signaling of capabilities for features including multi-user (MU) channel state information (CSI) capabilities, aperiodic channel state information reference signal (AP-CSI-RS) capabilities, and cross-carrier scheduling (CCS) capabilities. The network element may transmit these instructions to the EU, and the EU may use the reports to configure the EU and one or more network elements.

[0028] Reference Figure 2 , at operations 210 and 215, the UE and the network element establish a communication connection, respectively. At operation 220, the UE transmits a CSI-RS capability indicator, a beam switching capability indicator, and a CCS capability indicator to the network element. At operation 225, the network element receives the CSI-RS capability indicator, the beam switching capability indicator, and the CCS capability indicator transmitted by the UE. Subsequently, the network element may use one or more of the CSI-RS capability indicator, the beam switching capability indicator, and the CCS capability indicator to configure the UE and / or one or more network elements. The various indicators are described in more detail below.

[0029] In a first set of examples, MU-CSI enhanced capability reporting is provided. For each codebook type used to configure the UE, the UE may indicate to the network entity a list of triples (e.g., supportedCSI-RS-ResourceList). Each triple SupportedCSI-RS-Resource contains a set of three parameters: (1) the maximum number of ports per CSI-RS resource, (2) the maximum total number of CSI-RS resources, and (3) the total maximum number of ports, as follows. In some examples, a maximum list of 7 triples may be reported.

[0030] SupportedCSI-RS-Resource::=SEQUENCE{

[0031] maxNumberTxPortsPerResource ENUMERATED{p2,p4,p8,p12,p16,p24,p32},

[0032] maxNumberResourcePerBand INTEGER(1..64),

[0033] totalNumberTxPortsPerBand INTEGER(2..256)

[0034] }

[0035] Reference Figure 3 and Figure 4, in some examples, eight different parameter settings are defined for CSI feedback. The UE may be forced to support parameter settings 1 - 6, while parameter settings 7 and 8 are optional. In some examples, for each triple, the UE is allowed to indicate the list of supported parameter settings. In all signaled triples, the UE must indicate parameter settings 1 - 6 at least once for each parameter setting.

[0036] In some examples, for each triple, the UE indicates the maximum number of beams (L) it supports, and the maximum number of beams supported can be selected from the set {2, 4, 6}. The UE supports all parameter settings that include a number of beams (L) less than or equal to the maximum L signaled. For example, referring to Figure 3 , L = 2 in parameter settings 1 and 2, while L = 4 in parameter settings 3, 4, 5, and 6, and L = 6 in parameter settings 7 and 8.

[0037] In some examples, the UE indicates the list of supported parameter settings for the maximum number of ports per CSI resource. The number of ports can be selected from a set of ports including {p2, p4, p8, p12, p16, p24, p32}.

[0038] In some examples, the UE indicates the maximum number of beams (L) it supports, selected from the set {2, 4, 6}, for the maximum number of ports per CSI resource, and the UE is allowed to indicate. The UE supports all parameter settings that include a number of beams (L) less than or equal to the maximum number of beams (L) signaled. Referring to Figure 3 , L = 2 in parameter settings 1 and 2, L = 4 in parameter settings 3, 4, 5, and 6, and L = 6 in parameter settings 7 and 8. In some examples, the UE reports a list of maximum Ls, mapped one - to - one to the possible number of ports for CSI - RS resources, where the ports are selected from a list of ports including {p2, p4, p8, p12, p16, p24, p32}.

[0039] In another example, for triple - related capability reporting, the UE may indicate the triples per band in the bands where the UE transmits and / or receives, and / or may report the triples per band combination (BC). In another example, the UE may indicate a separate list of triples for each codebook type, which can be indicated by the UE using a parameter with R = 1 to indicate one PMI sub - band per CSI sub - band, or using a parameter with R = 2 to indicate two PMI sub - bands per CSI sub - band. For each triple for which the UE indicates that it can support two PMI sub - bands per CSI sub - band (i.e., R = 2), the UE must also support one PMI sub - band per CSI sub - band (i.e., R = 1) for the same triple.

[0040] In another example, for a list of triplets where the UE reports that it can support one PMI sub-band per CSI sub-band (i.e., R = 1), the UE can transmit a bitmap to indicate whether the UE supports the corresponding triplets with two PMI sub-bands per CSI sub-band (i.e., R = 2). In some examples, the indicator can reside in a specific bit in the bitmap. For example, if the indicator at the n-th bit in the bitmap is set to a value of 1, it means that for the n-th triplet reported in the triplet list, the UE also supports two PMI sub-bands per CSI sub-band (i.e., R = 2). In contrast, if the indicator at the n-th bit in the bitmap is set to a value of 0, it means that for the n-th triplet reported in the triplet list, the UE does not support two PMI sub-bands per CSI sub-band (i.e., R = 2).

[0041] In a second set of examples, an AP-CSI-RS beam switching timing capability report is provided. In some existing protocols, the UE can report the following capabilities:

[0042] beamSwitchTiming SEQUENCE{

[0043] scs-60kHz ENUMERATED{sym14,sym28,sym48,sym224,sym336}OPTIONAL,

[0044] scs-120kHz ENUMERATED{sym14,sym28,sym48,sym224,sym336}OPTIONAL

[0045] } OPTIONAL,

[0046] When, for example, a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resource for receive (Rx) beam scanning is configured with repetitions turned on, the UE is required to report 224 symbols or 336 symbols for this AP-CSI-RS. For all other NZP-CSI-RS resources, it is assumed that the UE requires 48 symbols.

[0047] In one example, the UE can indicate a separate beamSwitchTiming value based on the UE's operating mode. For example, when operating in accordance with a first set of protocols (e.g., Release 15 NR), the UE can indicate a first beamSwitchTiming value, and when operating in accordance with a second set of protocols (e.g., Release 16 NR), the UE can indicate a second value. The second value should be greater than or equal to the first value.

[0048] In another example, when the UE indicates a beamSwitchTiming value of 224 symbols or 336 symbols, and when (e.g., for Rx beam scanning) the NZP-CSI-RS resource is configured with repeated on, the UE is required for 224 symbols or 336 symbols for which the AP-CSI-RS is reported. For all other NZP-CSI-RS resources, the network assumes that the UE requires the capabilities as indicated by the first beamSwitchTiming value, which can be less than 48 symbols. If the UE does not transmit a beamSwitchTiming indicator, a value of 336 symbols or a value of 48 symbols shall be assumed.

[0049] In a third set of examples, the UE report may transmit one or more indicators to report cross-carrier scheduling (CCS) related capabilities. In some examples, the indicators may have different solutions to provide different degrees of flexibility in reporting capabilities. In a first solution, the indicator may include a first subcarrier spacing (SCS) indicator indicating whether the first subcarrier spacing value associated with a first carrier and the second subcarrier spacing value associated with a second carrier are equal.

[0050] In a second solution, the indicator may include a first subcarrier spacing (SCS) indicator indicating whether the first subcarrier spacing value associated with a first carrier and the second subcarrier spacing value associated with a second carrier are equal; and a second SCS indicator set to a first value for indicating that a small SCS cell will schedule a large SCS cell or a second value for indicating that a large SCS cell will schedule a small SCS cell.

[0051] In a third solution, the cross-carrier scheduling capability indicator includes a frequency range (FR) indicator that can be set to one of the following: a first value for indicating that an FR1 cell will schedule an FR1 cell, a second value for indicating that an FR1 cell will schedule an FR2 cell, a third value for indicating that an FR2 cell will schedule an FR1 cell, or a fourth value for indicating that an FR2 cell will schedule an FR2 cell.

[0052] In a fourth solution, the cross-carrier scheduling capability indicator implementation includes cross-carrier scheduling between frequency ranges of the following frequencies: 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz for FR1, 60 kHz for FR2, and 120 kHz.

[0053] In another example, for a CCS with different parameter sets, the UE may indicate the capabilities related to Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring. In one example, the cross-carrier scheduling capability indicator includes a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring indicator, which can be set to one of the following: a first value for indicating that PDCCH monitoring will be performed at the start of a time slot, a second value for indicating that PDCCH monitoring can be performed at any time. For example, the indicator can be set to the first value for basic PDCCH monitoring that indicates a single PDCCH monitoring occasion at the start of a time slot. The indicator can be set to the second value for PDCCH monitoring occasions based on a time span (e.g., pdcch-MonitoringAnyOccasions = withDCI-gap). The indicator can be set to the third value for PDCCH monitoring occasions based on a time span (e.g., pdcch-MonitoringAnyOccasionsWithSpanGap = set1, set2, set3), where set1 = (7,3), set2 = (4,3) and (7,3), and set3 = (2,2) and (4,3) and (7,3).

[0054] In another example, the cross-carrier scheduling capability indicator includes a Downlink (DL) unicast Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicator, which indicates the number of DCIs that the UE can decode during PDCCH monitoring. For a CCS with different parameter sets, for each PDCCH monitoring-related capability, the UE may indicate the number of unicast DCIs that the UE can decode in each monitoring occasion. It can be indicated separately as the DL unicast DCI number and the UL unicast DL number. It can be indicated as the total DCI unicast number including DL unicast DCI and UL unicast DL. It can be indicated as a combined list of {DL unicast DCI number, UL unicast DCI number}.

[0055] Systems and specific implementations

[0056] Figure 5 An exemplary architecture of a system 500 of a network according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an exemplary system 500 operating in conjunction with the LTE system standard and the 5G or NR system standard provided in 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this regard, and the embodiments can be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.).

[0057] As Figure 5As shown, system 500 includes UE 501a and UE 501b (collectively referred to as "multiple UEs 501" or "UE 501"). In this example, UE 501 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronic devices, mobile phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computing devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDT), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine electronic control units (ECU), electronic / engine electronic control modules (ECM), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" home appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, etc.

[0058] In some embodiments, any one of the UEs 501 can be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via a PLMN, ProSe, or D2D communication, a sensor network, or an IoT network. The M2M or MTC data exchange can be machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE can execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connection to the IoT network. In some of these embodiments, the UE 501 can be an NB-IoT UE 501. NB-IoT uses a physical layer optimized for extremely low power consumption (e.g., full carrier BW of 180 kHz, subcarrier spacing can be 3.75 kHz or 15 kHz) to provide access to network services. Multiple E-UTRA functions are not used for NB-IoT, and support from RAN nodes 511 and UE 501 that use only NB-IoT is not required. Examples of such E-UTRA functions can include inter-RAT mobility, handover, measurement reporting, public warning function, GBR, CSG, support for HeNB, relay, carrier aggregation, dual connectivity, NAICS, MBMS, real-time services, interference avoidance for in-device coexistence, RAN-assisted WLAN interworking, sidelink communication / discovery, MDT, emergency call, CS fallback, self-configuration / self-optimization, and so on. For NB-IoT operation, the UE501 operates in the DL using 12 subcarriers with a subcarrier BW of 15 kHz, and in the UL using a single subcarrier with a subcarrier BW of 3.75 kHz or 15 kHz, or using 3, 6, or 12 subcarriers with a subcarrier BW of 15 kHz in the DL.

[0059] In various embodiments, the UE 501 can be an MF UE 501. The MF UE 501 is a (uniquely) LTE-based UE 501 operating in unlicensed spectrum. This unlicensed spectrum is defined in the MF specification provided by the MulteFire forum and can include, for example, 1.9 GHz (Japan), 3.5 GHz, and 5 GHz. MulteFire is closely aligned with 3GPP standards and builds on elements of the 3GPP specifications for LAA / eLAA to enhance standard LTE to operate in global unlicensed spectrum. In some embodiments, LBT can be implemented to coexist with other unlicensed spectrum networks such as WiFi, other LAA networks, etc. In various embodiments, some or all of the UE 501 can be NB-IoT UE 501s operating according to MF. In such embodiments, these UE 501s can be referred to as "MF NB-IoT UE 501s". However, unless otherwise stated, the term "NB-IoT UE 501" can refer to "MF UE 501" or "MF and NB-IoT UE 501s". Thus, the terms "NB-IoT UE 501", "MF UE 501", and "MF NB-IoT UE 501" can be used interchangeably throughout this disclosure.

[0060] The UE 501 can be configured to be communicatively coupled to, for example, the RAN 510. In an embodiment, the RAN 510 can be an NG RAN or 5G RAN, E-UTRAN, MF RAN, or a legacy RAN such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN", etc. can refer to the RAN 510 operating in an NR or 5G system 500, while the term "E-UTRAN", etc. can refer to the RAN 510 operating in an LTE or 4G system 500, and the term "MF RAN", etc. refers to the RAN 510 operating in an MF system 100. The UE 501 utilizes connections (or channels) 503 and 504, each connection including a physical communication interface or layer (discussed further in detail below). Connections 103 and 104 can include several different physical DL channels and several different physical UL channels. By way of example, the physical DL channels include PDSCH, PMCH, PDCCH, EPDCCH, MPDCCH, R-PDCCH, SPDCCH, PBCH, PCFICH, PHICH, NPBCH, NPDCCH, NPDSCH, and / or any other physical DL channel mentioned herein. For example, the physical UL channels include PRACH, PUSCH, PUCCH, SPUCCH, NPRACH, NPUSCH, and / or any other physical UL channel mentioned herein.

[0061] In this example, the connections 503 and 504 are shown as air interfaces to enable communication coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, an NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE 501 may directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 505. The ProSe interface 505 may alternatively be referred to as the SL interface 505 and may include one or more physical and / or logical channels, including but not limited to the PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0062] The UE 501b is shown as being configured to access an AP 506 (also referred to as a “WLAN node 506,” “WLAN 506,” “WLAN terminal 506,” “WT 506,” etc.) via a connection 507. The connection 507 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP 506 will include a wireless fidelity router. In this example, the shown AP 506 is connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 501b, the RAN 510, and the AP 506 may be configured to utilize LWA operations and / or LWIP operations. LWA operations may involve a UE 501b in the RRC_CONNECTED state configured by RAN nodes 511a-b to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operations may involve the UE 501b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., the connection 507) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over the connection 507. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0063] The RAN 510 includes one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 511a and 511b (collectively referred to as "multiple RAN nodes 511" or "RAN nodes 511") that enable connections 503 and 504. As used herein, terms such as "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functionality for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, MF-AP, TRxP, or TRP, etc., and may include a terrestrial station (e.g., a land access point) or a satellite station that provides coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, terms such as "NGRAN node", etc. may refer to a RAN node 511 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 500, while terms such as "E-UTRAN node", etc. may refer to a RAN node 511 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 500. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 511 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macro cell base station and / or a low-power (LP) base station for providing a femto cell, a pico cell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, a smaller user capacity, or a higher BW compared to a macro cell.

[0064] In some embodiments, all or part of the multiple RAN nodes 511 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer, as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN function partitioning such as PDCP partitioning, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and other L2 protocol entities are operated by the respective RAN nodes 511; MAC / PHY partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by the respective RAN nodes 511; or "lower PHY" partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and the upper part of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower part of the PHY layer is operated by the respective RAN nodes 511. This virtualization framework allows the idle processor cores of the multiple RAN nodes 511 to execute other virtualized applications. In some specific implementations, a separate RAN node 511 may represent a separate gNB-DU connected to a gNB-CU via a separate F1 interface ( Figure 5 not shown). In these specific implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, for example Figure 8), and the gNB-CU can be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 510 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 511 can be a next-generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations to the UE 501 and is connected to the 5GC via an NG interface (discussed below) (e.g., Figure 7 CN 720). In the MF specific implementation, the MF-AP 511 is an entity that provides MulteFire radio services and can be similar to the eNB 511 in the 3GPP architecture. Each MF-AP 511 includes or provides one or more MF cells.

[0065] In the V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 511 can be or act as an RSU. The term "road side unit" or "RSU" can refer to any traffic infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSU can be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where the RSU implemented in or by a UE can be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by an eNB can be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by a gNB can be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side, which provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 501 (vUE 501). The RSU can also include an internal data storage circuit for storing intersection map geometries, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU can operate in the 5.9 GHz direct short range communication (DSRC) frequency band to provide extremely low-latency communication required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. In addition or alternatively, the RSU can operate in the cellular V2X frequency band to provide the aforementioned low-latency communication and other cellular communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU can operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz frequency band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communication. Some or all of the computing device and the radio frequency circuit of the RSU can be encapsulated in a weather-resistant package suitable for outdoor installation and can include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or a backhaul network.

[0066] Any one of the plurality of RAN nodes 511 can be the termination point of the air interface protocol and can be the first contact point for a plurality of UEs 501. In some embodiments, any one of the plurality of RAN nodes 511 can perform various logical functions of the RAN 510, including but not limited to the functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0067] In an embodiment, the UEs 501 can be configured to communicate with each other or with any one of the AN nodes in the RAN nodes 511 over a multi-carrier communication channel using OFDM communication signals according to various communication technologies, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication technology (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication technology (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. The OFDM signal can include a plurality of orthogonal sub-carriers.

[0068] Downlink transmissions and uplink transmissions can be organized into frames having a duration of 10 ms, where each frame includes ten 1 ms sub-frames. The slot duration is 14 symbols with normal CP and 12 symbols with extended CP, and time scaling as a function of the sub-carrier spacing used such that there is always an integer number of slots in a sub-frame. In an LTE implementation, the DL resource grid can be used for DL transmissions from any RAN node 511 to the UE 501, and UL transmissions from the UE 501 to the RAN node 511 can utilize a suitable UL resource grid in a similar manner. These resource grids can refer to time-frequency grids and indicate the physical resources in the DL or UL in each slot. Each column and each row of the DL resource grid correspond to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM sub-carrier, respectively, and each column and each row of the UL resource grid correspond to an SC-FDMA symbol and an SC-FDMA sub-carrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in the radio frame. The resource grid includes a plurality of RBs, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to the REs. In the frequency domain, this can represent the smallest amount of resources that can be currently allocated. Each RB includes a set of REs. An RE is the smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid. Each RE is uniquely identified by an index pair (k, l) in the slot, where k = 0,..., and l = 0,..., are the indices in the frequency domain and the time domain, respectively. The RE(k, l) on antenna port p corresponds to a complex value An antenna port is defined such that the channel over which a symbol on the antenna port is transmitted can be inferred from the channel over which another symbol on the same antenna port is transmitted. There is a resource grid for each antenna port. The set of antenna ports supported depends on the reference signal configuration in the cell, and these aspects are discussed in more detail in 3GPP TS 36.211.

[0069] In the NR / 5G implementation, DL and UL transmissions are organized into frames with a duration of 10 ms, each duration including ten 1 ms subframes. The number of consecutive OFDM symbols in each subframe is Each frame is divided into two equal-sized half-frames of five subframes each, with half-frame 0 including subframes 0 - 4 and half-frame 1 including subframes 5 - 9. There is a set of frames in UL and a set of frames in DL on a carrier. The uplink frame number i for transmission from the UE should start before the start of the corresponding downlink frame at the UE given by 3GPP TS 38.213 TA,offset T TA =(N TA +N TA,offset )T c . For a subcarrier spacing configuration μ, the time slots are numbered in ascending order within a subframe as and in ascending order within a frame as There are consecutive OFDM symbols in a time slot, where depends on the cyclic prefix given in Tables 4.3.2 - 1 and 4.3.2 - 2 of 3GPP TS38.211. The start of a time slot in a subframe is aligned in time with the start of the OFDM symbol in the same subframe. The OFDM symbols in a time slot can be classified as "downlink", "flexible", or "uplink", where downlink transmissions occur only in "downlink" or "flexible" symbols, and the UE 501 transmits only in "uplink" or "flexible" symbols.

[0070] For each parameter and carrier, a resource grid of subcarriers and symbols is defined, starting at a common indicated by higher layer signaling. There is a set of resource grids for each transmission direction (i.e., uplink or downlink), where the subscript x is set to DL for downlink and x is set to UL for uplink. For a given antenna port p, subcarrier spacing configuration μ, and transmission direction (i.e., downlink or uplink), there is a resource grid.

[0071] An RB is defined as A set of consecutive sub - carriers. In the frequency domain with sub - carrier spacing configuration μ, the common RBs are numbered upwards from 0. The center of sub - carrier 0 of the common resource block 0 with sub - carrier spacing configuration μ coincides with "Point A". The numbering of common resource blocks in the frequency domain The relationship with the resource element (k, l) for sub - carrier spacing configuration μ is given by where k is defined relative to Point A such that k = 0 corresponds to the sub - carrier centered at Point A. Point A serves as a common reference point for the resource block grid and is obtained from offsetToPointA for the PCell downlink, where offsetToPointA represents the frequency offset between Point A and the lowest sub - carrier of the lowest resource block, which has a sub - carrier spacing provided by the higher - layer parameter subCarrierSpacingCommon and overlaps with the SS / PBCH block used by the UE for initial cell selection, expressed in resource blocks, assuming a sub - carrier spacing of 15 kHz for FR1 and 60 kHz for FR2; and absoluteFrequencyPointA for all other cases, where absoluteFrequencyPointA represents the frequency position of Point A as represented in the ARFCN.

[0072] The PRBs with sub - carrier configuration μ are defined within the BWP and numbered from 0 to where i is the number of BWPs. The physical resource blocks in BWPi and the common The relationship between them is given by where is the common RB, where the BWP starts relative to the common RB 0. The VRBs are defined within the BWP and numbered from 0 to where i is the number of BWPs.

[0073] Each element in the resource grid for antenna port p and sub - carrier spacing configuration μ is called an RE and is uniquely identified by (k, l) p,μ where k is the index in the frequency domain and l refers to the symbol position relative to a certain reference point in the time domain. The resource element (k, l) p,μ corresponds to the physical resource and the complex - valued An antenna port is defined such that the channel on which the symbol is transmitted on an antenna port can be inferred from the channel on which another symbol is transmitted on the same antenna port. If the large - scale properties of the channel on which the symbol is transmitted on one antenna port can be inferred from the channel on which the symbol is transmitted on another antenna port, then these two antenna ports are considered quasi - co - located. The large - scale properties include one or more of delay spread, Doppler spread, Doppler shift, average gain, average delay, and spatial Rx parameters.

[0074] A BWP is a subset of contiguous common resource blocks defined in subclause 4.4.4.3 of 3GPP TS 38.211 for a given set of parameters in BWPi. The starting position i and the number of resource blocks in the BWP shall satisfy and respectively The configuration of BWP is described in clause 12 of 3GPP TS 38.213. UE 501 can be configured to have up to four BWPs in DL, with a single DL BWP being active at a given time. It is not expected that UE 501 receives PDSCH, PDCCH or CSI-RS (except for RRM) outside the active BWP. UE 501 can be configured to have up to four BWPs in UL, with a single UL BWP being active at a given time. If UE 501 is configured with supplementary UL, UE 501 can be configured with up to four additional BWPs in supplementary UL, where a single supplementary UL BWP is active at a given time. UE 501 does not transmit PUSCH or PUCCH outside the active BWP, and for the active cell, UE does not transmit SRS outside the active BWP.

[0075] An NB is defined as six non-overlapping contiguous PRBs in the frequency domain. The total number of DL NBs in the DL transmission BW configured in the cell is given by In the case of narrowband n NB including the PRB index the NBs are numbered in ascending order of the number of PRBs

[0076] If then a wideband is defined as four non-overlapping narrowbands in the frequency domain. The total number of UL widebands in the UL transmission bandwidth configured in the cell is given by and the widebands are numbered in ascending order of the number of narrowbands where wideband n WB is composed of narrowband indices 4n WB +i, where i = 0, 1,..., 3. If then and a single wideband is composed of one or more non-overlapping narrowbands.

[0077] There are several different physical channels and physical signals transmitted using RBs and / or individual REs. A physical channel corresponds to a set of REs carrying information from a higher layer. Physical UL channels can include PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH, and / or any other physical UL channels discussed herein, and physical DL channels can include PDSCH, PBCH, PDCCH, and / or any other physical DL channels discussed herein. Physical signals are used by the physical layer (e.g., Figure 11 PHY 1110), but do not carry information from a higher layer. Physical UL signals can include DMRS, PTRS, SRS, and / or any other physical UL signals discussed herein, and physical DL signals can include DMRS, PTRS, CSI-RS, PSS, SSS, and / or any other physical DL signals discussed herein.

[0078] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to multiple UEs 501. Typically, DL scheduling (allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 501 within a cell) can be performed at any of the RAN nodes 511 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the multiple UEs 501. Downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for each of the multiple UEs 501 (e.g., allocated to). The PDCCH uses CCEs to transmit control information (e.g., DCI), and a set of CCEs can be referred to as a "control region". The control channel is formed by the aggregation of one or more CCEs, where different coding rates of the control channel are achieved by aggregating different numbers of CCEs. The CCEs are numbered from 0 to N CCE,k -1, where N CCE,k-1 is the number of CCEs in the control region of subframe k. Before being mapped to REs, PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruples and then arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical REs, called REGs. Four QoS symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and the channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L = 1, 2, 4, or 8 in LTE, L = 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 in NR). UE 501 monitors a set of PDCCH candidates on one or more active serving cells configured by higher layer signaling for control information (e.g., DCI), where monitoring means attempting to decode each of the PDCCHs (or PDCCH candidates) in the set according to all monitored DCI formats (e.g., DCI formats 0 to 6-2 as discussed in section 5.3.3 of 3GPP TS 38.212, DCI formats 0_0 to 2_3 as discussed in section 7.3 of 3GPP TS 38.212, etc.). UE 501 monitors (or attempts to decode) the corresponding set of PDCCH candidates in one or more configured monitoring occasions according to the corresponding search space configuration. DCI transmits DL, UL, or SL scheduling information, a request for an aperiodic CQI report, LAA common information, a notification of an MCCH change, a UL power control command for one cell and / or one RNTI, a notification for a set of UE 501 about the slot format, a notification for a set of UEs about PRBs and OFDM symbols (where a UE can assume no transmission is intended for the UE), a TPC command for PUCCH and PUSCH, and / or a TPC command for PUCCH and PUSCH. The DCI encoding steps are discussed in 3GPP TS 38.212.

[0079] Some embodiments can use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments can utilize the EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs can be used to transmit the EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE can correspond to nine sets including four physical resource elements, called EREGs. In some cases, an ECCE can have a different number of EREGs.

[0080] As described above, the PDCCH can be used to schedule DL transmissions on the PDSCH and UL transmissions on the PUSCH. Among them, the DCI on the PDCCH specifically includes a downlink allocation, which at least contains the modulation and coding format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the DL-SCH; and / or an uplink scheduling grant, which at least contains the modulation and coding format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the UL-SCH. In addition to scheduling, the PDCCH can be used to activate and deactivate configured PUSCH transmissions with configured grants; activate and deactivate PDSCH semi-persistent transmissions; notify one or more UEs 501 of the time slot format; notify one or more UEs 501 of the PRBs and OFDM symbols, where the UE 501 can assume that no transmission is intended for the UE; transmit TPC commands for the PUCCH and PUSCH; transmit one or more TPC commands for SRS transmission by one or more UEs 501; switch the active BWP of the UE 501; and initiate a random access process.

[0081] In a specific NR implementation, the UE 501 monitors (or attempts to decode) a corresponding set of PDCCH candidates in one or more configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured CORESETs according to the corresponding search space configuration. A CORESET can include a set of PRBs with a duration of 1 to 3 OFDM symbols. The CORESET can additionally or alternatively include in the frequency domain and symbols in the time domain. The CORESET includes six REGs numbered in ascending order in a time-first manner, where a REG is equal to one RB during one OFDM symbol. The UE 501 can be configured with multiple CORESETs, where each CORESET is only associated with one CCE-to-REG mapping. Interleaved and non-interleaved CCE-to-REG mappings are supported in the CORESET. Each REG carrying the PDCCH carries its own DMRS.

[0082] According to various embodiments, the UE 501 and the RAN node 511 transmit data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) through a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum can include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum can include the 5 GHz band.

[0083] To operate in unlicensed spectrum, the UE 501 and the RAN node 511 may operate using the LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these embodiments, the UE 501 and the RAN node 511 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmission in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to the Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

[0084] LBT is a mechanism by which devices (e.g., UE 501, RAN node 511, etc.) sense the medium (e.g., channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is sensed as idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed as unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which uses at least ED to determine whether there are other signals on the channel to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy on the expected transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy with a predefined or configured threshold.

[0085] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 501, AP 506, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS, which exponentially increases in the event of a collision and is reset to the minimum value upon successful transmission. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA / CA of WLAN. In some embodiments, the LBT process for DL or UL transmission bursts (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions) may have a variable-length LAA contention window between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values of the LAA's CWS. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and the MCOT (e.g., transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0086] The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, for DL and UL, the number of aggregated carriers can be different, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, the individual CCs can have different bandwidths from other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the BW of each CC are typically the same for DL and UL.

[0087] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide the individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells can be different, for example, because the CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell can provide the PCC for both UL and DL and can handle activities related to RRC and NAS. The other serving cells are called SCell, and each SCell can provide an individual SCC for both UL and DL. SCCs can be added and removed as needed, while changing the PCC may require the UE 501 to go through a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCell can operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCell"), and the LAA SCell is assisted by the PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE can receive UL authorization on the configured LAA SCell, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0088] The RAN nodes 511 can be configured to communicate with each other via the interface 512. In an embodiment where the system 500 is an LTE system (e.g., when the CN 520 is as Figure 6When the EPC in it is 620, the interface 512 can be the X2 interface 512. The X2 interface can be defined between two or more RAN nodes 511 (such as two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 520, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 520. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface can include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U can provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted through the X2 interface, and can be used to convey information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U can provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information about successfully delivering PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 501 in order for user data; information about PDCP PDUs not delivered to the UE 501; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and so on. The X2-C can provide access mobility functions within LTE, including context transfer from the source eNB to the target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions. In an implementation where the system 100 is an MF system (such as when the CN 520 is the NHCN 520), the interface 512 can be the X2 interface 512. The X2 interface can be defined between two or more RAN nodes 511 (such as two or more MF-APs, etc.) connected to the NHCN 520, and / or between two MF-APs connected to the NHCN 520. In these implementations, the X2 interface can operate in the same or a similar manner as previously discussed.

[0089] When the system 500 is a 5G or NR system (such as when the CN 520 is as Figure 7In an embodiment of the 5GC 720, the interface 512 may be the Xn interface 512. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 511 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 520, between a RAN node 511 (e.g., gNB) connected to the 5GC 520 and an eNB, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 520. In some specific embodiments, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and traffic control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; the mobility support for the UE 501 in the connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing the UE mobility in the connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 511. This mobility support may include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 511 to a new (target) serving RAN node 511; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 511 and the new (target) serving RAN node 511. The protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer for carrying user plane PDUs on top of the UDP and / or IP layer. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn application protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific embodiments, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0090] RAN 510 is shown as communicatively coupled to a core network - in this embodiment, communicatively coupled to CN 520. CN 520 may include a plurality of network elements 522 that are configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / users (e.g., users of UE 501) connected to CN 520 via RAN 510. The components of CN 520 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes and include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the above network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN 520 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 520 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources that include a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, an NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0091] Generally, application server 530 may be an element that provides an application that uses IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). Application server 530 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for UE 501 via EPC 520 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0092] In an embodiment, CN 520 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 520", etc.), and RAN 510 may be connected to CN 520 via NG interface 513. In an embodiment, NG interface 513 may be divided into two parts: the NG user plane (NG-U) interface 514 that carries traffic data between RAN node 511 and UPF; and the S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 515 that is a signaling interface between RAN node 511 and AMF. Refer to Figure 7 Embodiments where CN 520 is 5GC 520 are discussed in more detail.

[0093] In an embodiment, CN 520 can be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 520" etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 520 can be an EPC. In the case where CN 520 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 520" etc.), RAN 510 can be connected to CN 520 via the S1 interface 513. In an embodiment, the S1 interface 513 can be divided into two parts: the S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 514, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 511 and the S-GW; and the S1-MME interface 515, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 511 and the MME.

[0094] In an embodiment where CN 520 is an MF NHCN 520, one or more network elements 522 can include or operate one or more NH-MMEs, local AAA proxies, NH-GWs, and / or other similar MF NHCN elements. The NH-MME provides functions similar to those of the MME in the EPC 520. The local AAA proxy is an AAA proxy that is part of the NHN, and the NHN provides the AAA functions required for interworking with the PSP AAA and the 3GPP AAA. The PSP AAA is an AAA server (or server pool) that uses non-USIM credentials associated with the PSP and can be inside or outside the NHN, and the 3GPP AAA is discussed in more detail in 3GPP TS23.402. The NH-GW provides functions similar to those of the combined S-GW / P-GW for non-EPC routed PDN connections. For EPC routed PDN connections, the NHN-GW provides functions similar to those of the S-GW previously discussed in the interaction with the MF-AP via the S1 interface 513 and is similar to the TWAG in the interaction with the PLMN PDN-GW via the S2a interface. In some embodiments, the MF AP 511 can be connected to the previously discussed EPC 520. Additionally, RAN 510 (referred to as "MF RAN 510" etc.) can be connected to NHCN 520 via the S1 interface 513. In these embodiments, the S1 interface 513 can be divided into two parts: the S1 interface 514, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 511 (e.g., "MF-AP 511") and the NH-GW; and the S1-MME-N interface 515, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 511 and the NH-MME. The S1-U interface 514 and the S1-MME-N interface 515 have the same or similar functions as the S1-U interface 514 and the S1-MME interface 515 of the EPC 520 discussed herein.

[0095] Figure 6FIG. 0 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a system 600 including a first CN 620 according to various embodiments. In this example, the system 600 may implement the LTE standard, where CN 620 is an EPC 620 corresponding to Figure 5 CN 520. Additionally, UE 601 may be the same as or similar to Figure 5 UE 501, and E-UTRAN 610 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to Figure 5 RAN 510 and may include the RAN nodes 511 discussed previously. CN 620 may include an MME 621, an S-GW 622, a P-GW 623, an HSS 624, and an SGSN 625.

[0096] Functionally, MME 621 may be similar to the control plane of a traditional SGSN and may implement MM functions to keep track of the current location of UE 601. MME 621 may perform various MM procedures to manage aspects of mobility in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as "EPS MM" or "EMM" in the E-UTRAN system) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc. for maintaining knowledge of the current location of UE 601, providing user identity confidentiality to the user / subscriber, and / or performing other similar services. Each UE 601 and MME 621 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and when the attachment process is successfully completed, an MM context may be established in UE 601 and MME 621. The MM context may be a data structure or database object storing MM-related information of UE 601. MME 621 may be coupled to HSS 624 via the S6a reference point, to SGSN 625 via the S3 reference point, and to S-GW 622 via the S11 reference point.

[0097] SGSN 625 may be a node that serves UE 601 by tracking the location of individual UE 601 and performing security functions. Additionally, SGSN 625 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G / 3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 621; handling of the UE 601 time zone function as specified by MME 621; and MME selection for handover to the E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between MME 621 and SGSN 625 may be enabled for user and bearer information exchange for 3GPP indirect access network mobility in the idle state and / or active state.

[0098] The HSS 624 may include a database for network users, which includes subscription-related information for supporting network entities to process communication sessions. The EPC 620 may include one or several HSS 624s, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the equipment, the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 624 can provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing solutions, location dependency, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 624 and the MME 621 can enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing users to access the EPC 620 between the HSS 624 and the MME 621.

[0099] The S-GW 622 may terminate the S1 interface 513 ( Figure 6 the "S1-U" in ) towards the RAN 610 and route data packets between the RAN 610 and the EPC 620. Additionally, the S-GW 622 may be a local mobile anchor for inter-RAN node handover and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and enforcement of certain policies. The S11 reference point between the S-GW622 and the MME 621 can provide a control plane between the MME 621 and the S-GW 622. The S-GW 622 may be coupled to the P-GW 623 via the S5 reference point.

[0100] The P-GW 623 may terminate the SGi interface towards the PDN 630. The P-GW 623 may route data packets between the EPC 620 and an external network such as a network including an application server 530 (alternatively referred to as "AF") via an IP interface 525 (see, for example, Figure 5 ). In an embodiment, the P-GW 623 may be communicatively coupled to an application server ( Figure 5 ) via an IP communication interface 525 (see, for example, Figure 5 the application server 530 of or Figure 6in the PDN 630). The S5 reference point between the P-GW 623 and the S-GW 622 can provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 623 and the S-GW 622. Due to the mobility of the UE 601 and whether the S-GW 622 needs to be connected to a non-collocated P-GW 623 for the required PDN connectivity, the S5 reference point can also be used for S-GW 622 relocation. The P-GW 623 may also include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (such as a PCEF (not shown)). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 623 and the packet data network (PDN) 630 can be an external public, private PDN of the operator or an internal operator packet data network, for example, for providing IMS services. The P-GW 623 can be coupled to the PCRF 626 via the Gx reference point.

[0101] The PCRF 626 is the policy and charging control element of the EPC 620. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 626 in the home public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with the Internet protocol connection access network (IP-CAN) session of the UE 601. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of the UE 601: the home PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and the visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in the visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). The PCRF 626 can be communicatively coupled to the application server 630 via the P-GW 623. The application server 630 can send a signal to notify the PCRF 626 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate QoS and charging parameters. The PCRF 626 can configure the rule to a PCEF (not shown) with appropriate TFT and QCI, and start QoS and charging as specified by the application server 630. The Gx reference point between the PCRF 626 and the P-GW 623 can allow the transmission of QoS policies and charging rules from the PCRF 626 to the PCEF in the P-GW 623. The Rx reference point can reside between the PDN 630 (or "AF 630") and the PCRF 626.

[0102] Figure 7Shows the architecture of a system 700 including a second CN 720 according to various embodiments. The system 700 is shown to include a UE 701, which may be the same as or similar to the previously discussed UE 501 and UE 601; a (R)AN 710, which may be the same as or similar to the previously discussed RAN 510 and RAN 610, and which may include the previously discussed RAN node 511; and a DN 703, which may be, for example, a carrier service, Internet access, or a third-party service; and a 5GC 720. The 5GC 720 may include an AUSF 722; an AMF 721; an SMF 724; a NEF 723; a PCF 726; an NRF 725; a UDM 727; an AF 728; a UPF 702; and an NSSF 729.

[0103] The UPF 702 may act as an anchor point for mobility within and between RATs, an external PDU session point for interconnecting with the DN 703, and a branching point for supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 702 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform the user plane part of policy rules, lawful interception of packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 702 may include an uplink classifier for supporting routing traffic flows to a data network. The DN 703 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The DN 703 may include or be similar to the previously discussed application server 530. The UPF 702 may interact with the SMF 724 via the N4 reference point between the SMF 724 and the UPF 702.

[0104] The AUSF 722 may store data for authenticating the UE 701 and handle authentication-related functions. The AUSF 722 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 722 may communicate with the AMF 721 via the N12 reference point between the AMF 721 and the AUSF 722; and may communicate with the UDM 727 via the N13 reference point between the UDM 727 and the AUSF 722. Additionally, the AUSF 722 may present an interface based on the Nausf service.

[0105] The AMF 721 can be responsible for registration management (e.g., responsible for registering the UE 701, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 721 can be the termination point of the N11 reference point between the AMF 721 and the SMF 724. The AMF 721 can provide transmission for the SM messages between the UE 701 and the SMF 724 and act as a transparent proxy for routing the SM messages. The AMF 721 can also provide transmission for the SMS messages between the UE 701 and the SMSF ( Figure 7 not shown in the figure). The AMF 721 can act as the SEAF, which can include interactions with the AUSF 722 and the UE 701 and receive the intermediate key established due to the UE 701 authentication process. In the case of using USIM-based authentication, the AMF 721 can retrieve the security material from the AUSF 722. The AMF 721 can also include the SCM function, which receives the key for deriving the access network-specific key from the SEA. In addition, the AMF 721 can be the termination point of the RAN CP interface, which can include or be the N2 reference point between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721; and the AMF 721 can be the termination point of the NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0106] The AMF 721 can also support NAS signaling with the UE 701 through the N3 IWF interface. The N3IWF can be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3IWF can be the termination point of the N2 interface between the (R)AN 710 of the control plane and the AMF 721, and can be the termination point of the N3 reference point between the (R)AN 710 of the user plane and the UPF 702. Therefore, the AMF 721 can process the N2 signaling for the PDU session and QoS from the SMF 724 and the AMF 721, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnels, mark the N3 user plane packets on the uplink, and perform the QoS corresponding to the N3 packet marking, taking into account the QoS requirements associated with such markings received through the N2. The N3IWF can also relay the uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 701 and the AMF 721 via the N1 reference point between the UE 701 and the AMF 721, and relay the uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 701 and the UPF 702. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE 701. The AMF 721 can present an interface based on the Namf service and can be the termination point of the N14 reference point between two AMF 721s and the N17 reference point between the AMF 721 and the 5G-EIR ( Figure 7 not shown).

[0107] The UE 701 may need to register with the AMF 721 to receive network services. The RM is used to register the UE 701 with the network (e.g., the AMF 721) or deregister the UE, and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., the AMF 721). The UE 701 may operate in the RM-REGISTERED state or the RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, the UE 701 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in the AMF 721 does not hold the valid location or routing information of the UE 701, so the AMF 721 cannot reach the UE 701. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 701 is registered with the network, and the UE context in the AMF 721 may hold the valid location or routing information of the UE 701, so the AMF 721 can reach the UE 701. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 701 may execute a mobility registration update procedure, execute a periodic registration update procedure triggered by the expiration of a periodic update timer (e.g., to notify the network that the UE 701 is still active), and execute a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

[0108] The AMF 721 may store one or more RM contexts for the UE 701, where each RM context is associated with a specific access to the network. The RM context can be a data structure, a database object, etc., which indicates or stores, in particular, the registration status and the periodic update timer for each access type. The AMF 721 may also store a 5GC MM context that can be the same as or similar to the previously discussed (E)MM context. In various embodiments, the AMF 721 may store the CE mode B restriction parameters of the UE 701 in the associated MM context or RM context. The AMF 721 may also derive values from the UE usage setting parameters that have been stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context) when needed.

[0109] CM can be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 701 and the AMF 721 via the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 701 and the CN 720, and includes a signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., an RRC connection for non-3GPP access or a UE-N3IWF connection) and an N2 connection of the UE 701 between the AN (e.g., the RAN 710) and the AMF 721. The UE 701 can operate in one of two CM states (CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode). When the UE 701 operates in the CM-IDLE state / mode, the UE 701 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 721 via the N1 interface, and there may be an (R)AN 710 signaling connection for the UE 701 (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connections). When the UE 701 operates in the CM-CONNECTED state / mode, the UE 701 may have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 721 via the N1 interface, and there may be an (R)AN 710 signaling connection for the UE 701 (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connections). Establishing an N2 connection between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721 may cause the UE 701 to transition from the CM-IDLE mode to the CM-CONNECTED mode, and when the N2 signaling between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721 is released, the UE 701 may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode.

[0110] The SMF 724 may be responsible for session management (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including the maintenance of tunnels between the UPF and the AN node); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of the UPF function; configuration of the UPF traffic steering to route traffic to the correct destination; termination of the interface towards the policy control function; the policy enforcement and the control part of QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and the interface with the LI system); termination of the SM part of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiation of AN-specific SM information sent via the AMF to the AN through N2; and determination of the SSC mode of the session. Session management may refer to the management of PDU sessions, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the PDU exchange between the UE 701 identified by a data network name (DNN) and a data network (DN) 703. A PDU session may be established upon request by the UE 701 using NAS SM signaling exchanged between the UE 701 and the SMF 724 via the N1 reference point, modified upon request by the UE 701 and the 5GC 720, and released upon request by the UE 701 and the 5GC 720. When requested from an application server, the 5GC 720 may trigger a specific application in the UE 701. In response to receiving the trigger message, the UE 701 may pass the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in the UE 701. The identified applications in the UE 701 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. The SMF 724 may check whether the UE 701 request complies with the user subscription information associated with the UE 701. In this regard, the SMF 724 may retrieve and / or request to receive an update notification on the subscription data at the SMF 724 level from the UDM 727.

[0111] The SMF 724 may include the following roaming functions: handling local enforcement to apply the QoS SLA (VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful interception (for SM events and the interface with the LI system, in the VPLMN); and supporting the interaction with an external DN to transmit signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication via the external DN. In a roaming scenario, the N16 reference point between two SMF 724s may be included in the system 700, which may be between another SMF 724 in the visited network and the SMF 724 in the home network. Additionally, the SMF 724 may present an interface based on the Nsmf service.

[0112] The NEF 723 can provide means for securely exposing the services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions to third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 728), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 723 can authenticate, authorize, and / or restrict the AF. The NEF 723 can also transform the information exchanged with the AF 728 and the information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 723 can transform between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 723 can also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on the exposure capabilities of other network functions. This information can be stored at the NEF 723 as structured data, or stored at the data storage NF using a standardized interface. Then, the stored information can be re-exposed by the NEF 723 to other NFs and AFs, and / or used for other purposes such as analysis. Additionally, the NEF 723 can present an interface based on Nnef services.

[0113] The NRF 725 can support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information on the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. The NRF 725 also maintains information on available NF instances and the services they support. As used herein, terms such as "instantiation" etc. can refer to the creation of an instance, and an "instance" can refer to a specific occurrence of an object, which can occur, for example, during the execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 725 can present an interface based on Nnrf services.

[0114] The PCF 726 can provide control plane functions for executing their policy rules, and can also support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. The PCF 726 can also implement the FE to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM 727. The PCF 726 can communicate with the AMF 721 via the N15 reference point between the PCF 726 and the AMF 721, which can include the PCF 726 in the visited network and the AMF 721 in the case of a roaming scenario. The PCF 726 can communicate with the AF 728 via the N5 reference point between the PCF 726 and the AF 728; and communicate with the SMF 724 via the N7 reference point between the PCF 726 and the SMF 724. The system 700 and / or the CN 720 can also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 726 (in the home network) and the PCF 726 in the visited network. Additionally, the PCF 726 can present an interface based on Npcf services.

[0115] The UDM 727 can process subscription-related information to support the handling of communication sessions by network entities and can store the subscription data of the UE 701. For example, subscription data can be transmitted between the UDM 727 and the AMF via the N8 reference point between the UDM 727 and the AMF 721. The UDM 727 can include two parts: the Application FE and the UDR ( Figure 7 the FE and the UDR are not shown). The UDR can store the subscription data and policy data of the UDM 727 and the PCF 726, and / or the structured data for exposure and the application data of the NEF 723 (including the PFD for application detection, the application request information of multiple UEs 701). The Nudr service-based interface can be presented by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 727, the PCF 726, and the NEF 723 to access a specific set of the stored data, and to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM can include the UDM-FE, which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. In different transactions, several different front-ends can serve the same user. The UDM-FE accesses the subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. The UDR can interact with the SMF 724 via the N10 reference point between the UDM 727 and the SMF 724. The UDM 727 can also support SMS management, where the SMS-FE implements similar application logic as previously discussed. Additionally, the UDM727 can present a Nudm service-based interface.

[0116] The AF 728 can provide the impact of the application on traffic routing, provide access to the NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. The NCE can be a mechanism that allows the 5GC 720 and the AF 728 to provide information to each other via the NEF 723, which can be used for edge computing implementations. In such implementations, network operators and third-party services can be hosted near the access point of the attached UE 701 to achieve efficient service delivery by reducing the end-to-end latency and the load on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC can select the UPF 702 near the UE 701 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 702 to the DN 703 via the N6 interface. This can be based on the UE subscription data, the UE location, and the information provided by the AF 728. In this way, the AF 728 can affect the UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator deployment, when the AF 728 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow the AF 728 to directly interact with the relevant NF. Additionally, the AF 728 can present a Naf service-based interface.

[0117] The NSSF 729 selects a set of network slice instances that can serve the UE 701. If needed, the NSSF 729 can also determine the allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAI. The NSSF 729 can also determine, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 725, a set of AMFs or a list of candidate AMFs 721 for serving the UE 701. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 701 can be triggered by the AMF 721, where the UE 701 registers by interacting with the NSSF 729, which can cause a change in the AMF 721. The NSSF 729 can interact with the AMF 721 via the N22 reference point between the AMF 721 and the NSSF 729; and can communicate with another NSSF 729 in the visited network via the N31 reference point ( Figure 7 not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 729 can expose an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0118] As previously discussed, the CN 720 can include an SMSF, which can be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification and relaying SM messages to / from the UE 701 to / from other entities such as the SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS router. The SMS can also interact with the AMF 721 and the UDM 727 for a notification procedure for which the UE 701 can be used for SMS transmission (e.g., setting the UE unreachable flag and notifying the UDM 727 when the UE 701 is available for SMS).

[0119] The CN 520 can also include Figure 7 other elements not shown, such as data storage systems / architectures, 5G-EIR, SEPP, etc. The data storage system can include SDSF, UDSF, etc. Any NF can store unstructured data into the UDSF (e.g., UE context) or retrieve it from the UDSF via the N18 reference point between any NF and the UDSF ( Figure 7 not shown). A single NF can share the UDSF for storing its corresponding unstructured data, or each NF can have its own UDSF located at or near the single NF. Additionally, the UDSF can expose an Nudsf service-based interface ( Figure 7 not shown). The 5G-EIR can be an NF that checks the status of the PEI to determine whether to blacklist a specific piece of equipment / entity from the network; and the SEPP can be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

[0120] Additionally, there can be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between NF services in the NF; however, for clarity, Figure 7These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one example, CN 720 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 621) and an AMF 721 to enable interworking between CN 720 and CN 620. Other example interfaces / reference points may include an interface based on N5g-EIR services presented by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between an NRF in a visited network and an NRF in a home network; and an N31 reference point between an NSSF in a visited network and an NSSF in a home network.

[0121] Figure 8 An example of infrastructure equipment 800 according to some embodiments is shown. Infrastructure equipment 800 (or "system 800") may be implemented as a base station, a radio headend, a RAN node (such as the RAN nodes 511 and / or AP 506 shown and described previously), an application server 530, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, system 800 may be implemented in or by a UE.

[0122] System 800 includes: an application circuit 805, a baseband circuit 810, one or more radio frequency front-end modules (RFEMs) 815, a memory circuit 820, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 825, a power triple circuit 830, a network controller circuit 835, a network interface connector 840, a satellite positioning circuit 845, and a user interface 850. In some embodiments, device 800 may include additional elements, such as, for example, a memory / storage device, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, the following components may be included in more than one device. For example, the circuits may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other similar implementations.

[0123] The application circuit 805 includes circuits such as, but not limited to: one or more processors (processor cores), a cache memory, and one or more of the following: a low-dropout regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, I 2C or a general-purpose programmable serial interface module, a real-time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval timers and watchdog timers, general-purpose input / output (I / O or IO), a memory card controller such as a Secure Digital (SD) Multimedia Card (MMC) or the like, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, a Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interface, and a Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 805 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage element to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 800. In some embodiments, the memory / storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0124] The processor of the application circuit 805 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 805 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to the various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 805 may include one or more Intel or processors; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processors, Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or processors; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium (TM), Inc., and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior P-class processors; and so on. In some embodiments, the system 800 may not utilize the application circuit 805 and, instead, may include a dedicated processor / controller to process, for example, IP data received from an EPC or 5GC.

[0125] In some specific embodiments, the application circuit 805 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable system on chips (PSoCs); and so on. In such specific embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 805 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 805 may include memory units (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), flash memories, static memories (e.g., static random access memories (SRAMs), antifuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs), etc.

[0126] The baseband circuit 810 may be implemented as, for example, a soldered-in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits, a single-packaged integrated circuit soldered to the main circuit board, or a multi-chip module that includes two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic components of the baseband circuit 810 are discussed below with reference to Figure 10 the discussion of the various hardware electronic components of the baseband circuit 810.

[0127] The user interface circuit 850 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 800 or a peripheral component interface, and the peripheral component interface is designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the system 800. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., reset buttons), one or more indicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0128] The radio frequency front-end module (RFEM) 815 may include a millimeter-wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some specific embodiments, the one or more sub-millimeter-wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter-wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, below Figure 10Antenna array 10111), and RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative embodiment, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 815 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0129] The memory circuit 820 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory including a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as a "flash memory"), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with and The memory circuit 820 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0130] The PMIC 825 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 830 may provide power extracted from a network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 800 using a single cable.

[0131] The network controller circuit 835 may provide connectivity to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. A physical connection may be used to provide a network connection to / from the infrastructure equipment 800 via a network interface connector 840, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 835 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 835 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0132] The positioning circuit 845 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by a positioning network of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, the Global Navigation System (GLONASS) of Russia, the Galileo system of the European Union, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System of China, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., for navigation using the Indian Constellation (NAVIC), the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan, the Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) of France, etc.). The positioning circuit 845 may include various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 845 may include a Microtechnology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a primary timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 845 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 810 and / or the RFEM 815 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 845 may also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit 805, which may use this data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 511, etc.).

[0133] Figure 8 The components shown may communicate with each other using an interface circuit, which may include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended ISA (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended (PCIx), PCI Express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus, e.g., used in an SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems may be included, such as I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface, and power bus, etc.

[0134] Figure 9 An example of a platform 900 (or “device 900”) according to various embodiments is shown. In an embodiment, the computer platform 900 may be adapted to be used as a UE 501, 601, 701, an application server 530, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform 900 may include any combination of the components shown in the example. The components of the platform 900 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions of ICs, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof adapted within the computer platform 900, or as components otherwise incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. Figure 9The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of computer platform 900. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the shown components may occur in other specific implementations.

[0135] Application circuitry 905 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and an LDO, an interrupt controller, a serial interface (such as SPI), I 2 C or a general-purpose programmable serial interface module, an RTC, timers (including interval timers and watchdog timers), general-purpose I / O, a memory card controller (such as an SD MMC or similar controller), a USB interface, a MIPI interface, and a JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of application circuitry 905 may be coupled to or may include memory / storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage elements to enable various applications or operating systems to run on system 900. In some specific implementations, the memory / storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0136] The processor 805 of the application circuitry may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, a multi-threaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 805 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to the various embodiments herein.

[0137] As an example, the processor of application circuitry 905 may include a processor based on Architecture Core TM such as, for example, Quark TM 、Atom TM 、i3, i5, i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another such processor available from a company in Santa Clara, California The processor of application circuitry 905 may also be one or more of the following: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) A processor or an accelerated processing unit (APU); from the A5 - A9 processors from Inc., the Snapdragon from TM Technologies, Inc., the Texas Instruments Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP) TM processor; MIPS - based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as MIPS Warrior M - class, Warrior I - class, and Warrior P - class processors; ARM - based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as ARM Cortex - A, Cortex - R, and Cortex - M series processors; etc. In some specific embodiments, the application circuitry 905 can be part of a system - on - a - chip (SoC), where the application circuitry 905 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as the Edison from Corporation) or the Galileo TM or Galileo TM SoC board.

[0138] Additionally or alternatively, the application circuitry 905 can include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more field - programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high - capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuitry 905 can include logic blocks or logic architectures, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuitry 905 can include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read - only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read - only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random - access memory (SRAM), antifuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in look - up tables (LUTs), etc.

[0139] The baseband circuitry 910 can be implemented as, for example, a soldered - in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits, a single - package integrated circuit soldered to the main circuit board, or a multi - chip module that contains two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic components of the baseband circuitry 910 are discussed below with reference to Figure 10 discussed.

[0140] The RFEM 915 may include a millimeter-wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some embodiments, the one or more sub-millimeter-wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter-wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, antenna array 1011 below Figure 10 ), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative embodiments, the radio functions of both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 915 that combines millimeter-wave antennas and sub-millimeter-wave.

[0141] The memory circuit 920 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a given amount of system memory. For example, the memory circuit 920 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, which includes random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), which includes high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly known as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 920 may be developed according to Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) low-power double data rate (LPDDR)-based designs such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 920 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a soldered-in package integrated circuit, a single die package (SDP), a dual die package (DDP), or a quad die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, and / or soldered to a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In low-power embodiments, the memory circuit 920 may be on-chip memory or registers associated with the application circuit 905. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 920 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may particularly include solid state disk drives (SSDDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), micro HDDs, resistive change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, etc. For example, the computer platform 900 may incorporate 3D cross-point (XPOINT) memory from and .

[0142] The removable memory circuit 923 may include devices, circuits, enclosures / housings, ports, or sockets, etc., for coupling a portable data storage device to the platform 900. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD Picture Cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical discs, external HDDs, etc.

[0143] The platform 900 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 900. External devices connected to the platform 900 via this interface circuitry include the sensor circuit 921 and the electromechanical component (EMC) 922, as well as a removable memory device coupled to the removable memory circuit 923.

[0144] The sensor circuit 921 includes devices, modules, or subsystems aimed at detecting events or changes in its environment and sending information (sensor data) about the detected events to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors particularly include: Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and / or magnetometers; Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) or Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS) including 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and / or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors; barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detectors, etc.), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers; microphones or other similar audio capture devices; etc.

[0145] The EMC 922 includes devices, modules, or subsystems aimed at enabling the platform 900 to change its state, position, and / or orientation or move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, the EMC 922 may be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of the platform 900 to indicate the current state of the EMC 922. Examples of the EMC 922 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and / or solid-state relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and / or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, the platform 900 is configured to operate one or more EMC 922 based on one or more captured events and / or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and / or various clients.

[0146] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit can connect the platform 900 to the positioning circuit 945. The positioning circuit 945 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by the positioning network of GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) can include GPS of the United States, GLONASS of Russia, Galileo system of the European Union, Beidou Navigation Satellite System of China, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, QZSS of Japan, DORIS of France, etc.). The positioning circuit 945 includes various hardware components (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 945 can include a micro PNT IC that uses a primary timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 945 can also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 810 and / or the RFEM 915 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 945 can also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit 905, which can use this data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (e.g., radio base stations) for turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0147] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit can connect the platform 900 to the near field communication (NFC) circuit 940. The NFC circuit 940 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, where magnetic field sensing is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 940 and an NFC-enabled device external to the platform 900 (e.g., an "NFC contact point"). The NFC circuit 940 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller can be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 940 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack can be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware can be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit short-range RF signals. The RF signals can power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 940, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 940 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smart phone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) near the platform 900.

[0148] The drive circuit 946 may include software elements and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 900. The drive circuit 946 may include various drivers, allowing other components of the platform 900 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present within or connected to the platform 900. For example, the drive circuit 946 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touchscreen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touchscreen interface of the platform 900, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 921 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 921, an EMC driver for obtaining the actuator position of the EMC 922 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 922, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0149] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 925 (also referred to as "power management circuit 925") may manage the power supplied to various components of the platform 900. Specifically, relative to the baseband circuit 910, the PMIC 925 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When the platform 900 is capable of being powered by a battery 930, e.g., when the device is included in the UEs 501, 601, 701, the PMIC 925 is typically included.

[0150] In some embodiments, the PMIC 925 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 900. For example, if the platform 900 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform remains connected to a RAN node because it anticipates receiving traffic soon, after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 900 may power down for short intervals, thus saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period, the platform 900 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the device disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The platform 900 enters a very low power state and performs paging, where the device wakes up periodically again to listen for the network and then powers down again. The platform 900 may not receive data while in this state; to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may make the device unavailable to the network for times exceeding the paging interval (ranging from seconds to hours). During this period, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and may be completely powered down. Any data sent during this period will incur significant latency, and it is assumed that the latency is acceptable.

[0151] The battery 930 can power the platform 900. However, in some examples, the platform 900 can be installed in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to the power grid. The battery 930 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some specific implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 930 can be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[0152] In some specific implementations, the battery 930 can be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS can be included in the platform 900 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 930. The BMS can be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 930, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery 930 to provide fault prediction. The BMS can transmit information about the battery 930 to the application circuit 905 or other components of the platform 900. The BMS can also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 905 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 930 or the current from the battery 930. The battery parameters can be used to determine actions that the platform 900 can perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0153] A power block or other power source coupled to the power grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 930. In some examples, the power block XS30 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to wirelessly obtain power, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 900. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of the battery 930 and thus on the current required. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standard published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium.

[0154] The user interface circuit 950 includes various input / output (I / O) devices that are present within or connected to the platform 900, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform 900 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to enable interaction with peripheral components of the platform 900. The user interface circuit 950 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. The input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, particularly including one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise communicating information such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information. The output device circuitry can include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, particularly including one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary state indicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs))) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as a display device or a touchscreen (e.g., liquid crystal display (LCD), LED display, quantum dot display, projector, etc.), where the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. is generated or produced by the operation of the platform 900. The output device circuitry can also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, etc. In some embodiments, the sensor circuit 921 can be used as input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs can be used as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing haptic feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit can be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, and the NFC circuit includes an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interface can include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0155] Although not shown, the components of the platform 900 can communicate with each other using suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technologies, which can include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, time-triggered protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX can be a proprietary bus / IX, e.g., used in a system-on-chip (SoC)-based system. Other bus / IX systems can be included, such as 2 I2C interfaces, SPI interfaces, point-to-point interfaces, and power buses, etc.

[0156] Figure 10 Exemplary components of a baseband circuit 100 and a radio frequency front-end module (RFEM) 1015 are shown in accordance with various embodiments. The baseband circuit 1010 corresponds respectively to Figure 8 the baseband circuit 810 andFigure 9 The baseband circuit 910. The RFEM 1015 corresponds respectively to Figure 8 the RFEM 815 of Figure 9 and the RFEM 915 of

[0157] The baseband circuit 1010 includes circuitry and / or control logic components that are configured to perform various radio / network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 1006. The radio control functions can include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuit 1010 can include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuitry of the baseband circuit 1010 can include convolutional, tail-biting convolutional, turbo, Viterbi, or low density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. Embodiments of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions are not limited to these examples and can include other suitable functions in other embodiments. The baseband circuit 1010 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 1006 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 1006. The baseband circuit 1010 is configured to connect to the application circuits 805 / 905 (see Figure 8 and Figure 9 ) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuit 1006. The baseband circuit 1010 can process various radio control functions.

[0158] The aforementioned circuits and / or control logic components of the baseband circuit 1010 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 1004A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 1004B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 1004C, or some other baseband processors 1004D for other existing generations, generations under development or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., the sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 1004A-1004D may be included in a module stored in the memory 1004G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 1004E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 1004A-1004D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA, ASIC, etc.) loaded with an appropriate bitstream or logic block stored in a corresponding memory unit. In various embodiments, the memory 1004G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which, when executed by the CPU 1004E (or other baseband processor), will enable the CPU 1004E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuit 1010, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of RTOS may include: Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided TM , by Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided TM , by Mentor Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Express Provided by ThreadX TM ,Depend on FreeRTOS and REX OS provided by Open Kernel (OK) OKL4 is provided, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuit 1010 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 1004F. The audio DSP 1004F includes elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.

[0159] In some embodiments, each of processors 1004A - 1004E includes a respective memory interface to send data to / from memory 1004G. Baseband circuitry 1010 may also include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling to other circuits / devices, such as an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to baseband circuitry 1010; an application circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from application circuitry 805 / 905 of Figures 8 to 10 ; an RF circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from RF circuitry 1006 of Figure 10 ; a wireless hardware connection interface for sending data to / receiving data from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near - field communication (NFC) components, low - power components, components, etc.); and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to / receiving power or control signals from PMIC 925.

[0160] In an alternative embodiment (which may be combined with the above - described embodiments), baseband circuitry 1010 includes one or more digital baseband systems that are coupled to each other via an interconnection subsystem and to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed - signal baseband subsystem via another interconnection subsystem. Each of the interconnection subsystems may include a bus system, point - to - point connectors, a network - on - chip (NOC) architecture, and / or some other suitable bus or interconnection technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, voice processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog - to - digital converter circuitry and digital - to - analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and / or other similar components. In one aspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry 1010 may include protocol processing circuitry having one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and / or radio - frequency circuitry (e.g., radio front - end module 1015).

[0161] Although Figure 10Not shown, but in some embodiments, baseband circuit 1010 includes various processing devices (e.g., a "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuitry") for operating one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices for implementing PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry operates or implements various protocol layers / entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, when baseband circuit 1010 and / or RF circuit 1006 is part of a millimeter wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and / or 5G / NR protocol entities. In the first example, the protocol processing circuitry will operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, when baseband circuit 1010 and / or RF circuit 1006 is part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In the second example, the protocol processing circuitry will operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 1004G) for storing program code and data for operating the protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing the program code and performing various operations using the data. Baseband circuit 1010 may also support radio communication for more than one wireless protocol.

[0162] The various hardware elements of baseband circuit 1010 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a soldered-in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single-packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module that includes two or more ICs. In one example, the components of baseband circuit 1010 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuit 1010 and RF circuit 1006 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system-on-chip (SOC) or a system-in-package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuit 1010 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to RF circuit 1006 (or multiple instances of RF circuit 1006). In yet another example, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuit 1010 and application circuits 805 / 905 may be implemented together as separate SoCs (e.g., a "multi-chip package") mounted on the same circuit board.

[0163] In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1010 may provide communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1010 may support communication with E-UTRAN or other WMAN, WLAN, WPAN. Embodiments in which baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to support radio communication of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0164] RF circuitry 1006 may enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, RF circuitry 1006 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 1006 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry for downconverting an RF signal received from FEM circuitry 1008 and providing a baseband signal to baseband circuitry 1010. RF circuitry 1006 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry for upconverting a baseband signal provided by baseband circuitry 1010 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to FEM circuitry 1008.

[0165] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuitry 1006 may include mixer circuitry 1006a, amplifier circuitry 1006b, and filter circuitry 1006c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 1006 may include filter circuitry 1006c and mixer circuitry 1006a. RF circuitry 1006 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1006d that is used to synthesize frequencies for use by mixer circuitry 1006a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1006a of the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert an RF signal received from FEM circuitry 1008 based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1006d. Amplifier circuitry 1006b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and filter circuitry 1006c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1010 for further processing. In some embodiments, although not required, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1006a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

[0166] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1006a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1006d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 1008. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuit 1010 and may be filtered by the filter circuit 1006c.

[0167] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1006a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1006a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and quadrature up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1006a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1006a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1006a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1006a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1006a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1006a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0168] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 1006 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 1010 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuit 1006.

[0169] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals of each spectrum, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

[0170] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1006d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard since other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 1006d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0171] The synthesizer circuit 1006d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on a frequency input and a frequency divider control input for use by the mixer circuit 1006a of the RF circuit 1006. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1006d may be a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0172] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1010 or the application circuitry 805 / 905 according to the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application circuitry 805 / 905.

[0173] The synthesizer circuitry 1006d of the RF circuitry 1006 may include a divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N + 1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide a VCO period into Nd equal phase bins, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO period.

[0174] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and may be used with an in-phase / quadrature (IQ) generator and a divider circuit to generate multiple signals having multiple different phases relative to each other at that carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the local oscillator frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0175] The FEM circuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on an RF signal received from the antenna array 1011, amplify the received signal, and provide an amplified version of the received signal to the RF circuitry 1006 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 1008 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify a transmit signal provided by the RF circuitry 1006 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in the antenna array 1011. In various embodiments, amplification through the transmit or receive signal path may be accomplished only in the RF circuitry 1006, only in the FEM circuitry 1008, or in both the RF circuitry 1006 and the FEM circuitry 1008.

[0176] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 1008 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operations. The FEM circuit 1008 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 1008 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 1006). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 1008 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 1006), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 1011.

[0177] The antenna array 1011 includes one or more antenna elements, each antenna element being configured to convert an electrical signal into a radio wave to travel through the air and convert the received radio wave into an electrical signal. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 1010 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which will be amplified and transmitted via an antenna element of the antenna array 1011 that includes one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may form various arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 1011 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 1011 may be formed as a patch of metal foil in various shapes (e.g., a patch antenna), and may be coupled to the RF circuit 1006 and / or the FEM circuit 1008 using a metal transmission line or the like.

[0178] The processors of the application circuit 805 / 905 and the baseband circuit 1010 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 1010 may be used to execute layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, either individually or in combination, while the processor of the application circuit 805 / 905 may utilize the data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further execute layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include the RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include the MAC layer, the RLC layer, and the PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include the PHY layer of the UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0179] Figure 11 Various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device are shown. Specifically, Figure 11Includes arrangement 1100 showing the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. The following description is provided for various protocol layers / entities operating in conjunction with 5G / NR system standards and LTE system standards, Figure 11 but Figure 11 some or all aspects of which may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0180] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 1100 may include one or more of PHY 1110, MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140, SDAP 1147, RRC 1155, and NAS layer 1157. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points capable of providing communication between two or more protocol layers (e.g., Figure 11 items 1159, 1156, 1150, 1149, 1145, 1135, 1125, and 1115 in

[0181] PHY 1110 may transmit and receive physical layer signals 1105, which may be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 1105 may include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 1110 may also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 1155). PHY 1110 may further perform error detection on transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transport channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In an embodiment, an instance of PHY 1110 may process requests from an instance of MAC 1120 via one or more PHY-SAPs 1115 and provide indications thereto. According to some embodiments, requests and indications transmitted via PHY-SAP 1115 may include one or more transport channels.

[0182] An instance of MAC 1120 can process requests from an instance of RLC 1130 via one or more MAC-SAPs 1125 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via MAC-SAP 1125 can include one or more logical channels. MAC 1120 can perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplex MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto a TB to be delivered to PHY 1110 via a transport channel, demultiplex MAC SDUs from a TB delivered from PHY 1110 via a transport channel onto one or more logical channels, multiplex MAC SDUs onto a TB, schedule information reporting, perform error correction via HARQ, and perform logical channel prioritization.

[0183] An instance of RLC 1130 can process requests from an instance of PDCP 1140 via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 1135 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via RLC-SAP 1135 can include one or more RLC channels. RLC 1130 can operate in multiple operation modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 1130 can perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction via automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 1130 can also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reordering of RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detection of duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discarding of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detection of protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0184] An instance of PDCP 1140 can process requests from an instance of RRC 1155 and / or an instance of SDAP 1147 via one or more packet data convergence protocol service points (PDCP-SAPs) 1145 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via PDCP-SAP 1145 can include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 1140 can perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain a PDCP sequence number (SN), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs upon lower layer re-establishment, eliminate duplication of lower layer SDUs upon re-establishment of the lower layer for radio bearers mapped to RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discarding, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0185] Instances of SDAP 1147 can process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAPs 1149 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via SDAP-SAP 1149 can include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 1147 can map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and can also mark QFIs in DL packets and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 1147 can be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, the NG-RAN 510 can control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflection mapping or explicit mapping). For reflection mapping, the SDAP 1147 of the UE 501 can monitor the QFI of the DL packets of each DRB, and can apply the same mapping to the packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP 1147 of the UE 501 can map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow that corresponds to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of that DRB. To implement reflection mapping, the NG-RAN 710 can mark DL packets with the QoS flow ID via the Uu interface. Explicit mapping can involve the RRC 1155 configuring the SDAP 1147 with an explicit mapping rule of QoS flows to DRBs, which can be stored and followed by the SDAP 1147. In an embodiment, SDAP 1147 can be used only in NR implementations and not in LTE implementations.

[0186] The RRC 1155 can configure aspects of one or more protocol layers via one or more management service access points (M-SAPs), and the one or more protocol layers can include one or more instances of PHY 1110, MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140, and SDAP 1147. In an embodiment, an instance of the RRC 1155 can process requests from one or more NAS entities 1157 and provide indications thereto via one or more RRC-SAPs 1156. The main services and functions of the RRC 1155 can include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in the MIB or SIB related to the NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of the RRC connection between the UE 501 and the RAN 510 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, mobility between RATs, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. These MIBs and SIBs can include one or more IEs, each of which can include individual data fields or data structures.

[0187] NAS 1157 can form the top layer of the control plane between the UE 501 and the AMF 721. NAS 1157 can support the mobility and session management procedures of the UE 501 to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE 501 and the P-GW in the LTE system.

[0188] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of the arrangement 1100 can be implemented in the UE 501, the RAN node 511, the AMF 721 in the NR implementation or the MME 621 in the LTE implementation, the UPF 702 in the NR implementation or the S-GW 622 and the P-GW 623 in the LTE implementation, etc., for the control plane or user plane communication protocol stack between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that can be implemented in one or more of the UE 501, the gNB 511, the AMF 721, etc., can communicate with the corresponding peer protocol entities that can be implemented in another device or on another device (performing such communication using the services of the corresponding lower layer protocol entities). In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of the gNB 511 can host the RRC 1155, the SDAP 1147, and the PDCP 1140 that control one or more gNB-DU operations of the gNB, and each gNB-DU of the gNB 511 can host the RLC 1130, the MAC 1120, and the PHY 1110 of the gNB 511.

[0189] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack can include, in order from the top layer to the bottom layer, NAS 1157, RRC 1155, PDCP 1140, RLC 1130, MAC 1120, and PHY 1110. In this example, the upper layer 1160 can be built on top of NAS 1157, which includes an IP layer 1161, an SCTP 1162, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1163.

[0190] In the NR implementation, the AP 1163 can be the NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 1163 for the NG interface 513 defined between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 721, or the AP 1163 can be the Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 1163 for the Xn interface 512 defined between two or more RAN nodes 511.

[0191] The NG-AP 1163 can support the functions of the NG interface 513 and may include an elementary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP can be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 721. The NG-AP 1163 services can include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 501) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 721). These services can include functions that include but are not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 511 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 721 to establish, modify, and / or release the UE context in the AMF 721 and the NG-RAN node 511; a mobility function for the UE 501 in the ECM-CONNECTED mode, for in-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transmission function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 501 and the AMF 721; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 721 and the UE 501; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message sending function for providing a means to transmit a warning message via the NG interface or cancel the ongoing broadcast of a warning message; a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 511 via the CN 520; and / or other similar functions.

[0192] The XnAP 1163 can support the functions of the Xn interface 512 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures can include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 511 (or E-UTRAN 610), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transmission procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures can include procedures that are not related to a specific UE 501, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0193] In an LTE implementation, AP 1163 can be the S1 Application Protocol layer (S1-AP) 1163 for the S1 interface 513 defined between the E-UTRAN node 511 and the MME, or AP 1163 can be the X2 Application Protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 1163 for the X2 interface 512 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 511.

[0194] The S1 Application Protocol layer (S1-AP) 1163 can support the functions of the S1 interface, and similar to the previously discussed NG-AP, S1-AP can include S1-AP EPs. The S1-AP EP can be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 511 and the MME 621 within the LTE CN 520. The services provided by S1-AP 1163 can include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0195] X2AP 1163 can support the functions of the X2 interface 512 and can include X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. The X2AP basic mobility procedures can include procedures for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 520, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transmission procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedures can include procedures that are not related to a specific UE 501, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0196] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 1162 can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in an NR implementation, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in an LTE implementation). SCTP 1162 can ensure the reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 511 and the AMF 721 / MME 621 partially based on the IP protocol supported by IP 1161. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 1161 can be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 1161 can use point-to-point transmission to deliver and transfer PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 511 can include communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the L2 and L1 layers of the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0197] In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, SDAP 1147, PDCP 1140, RLC 1130, MAC 1120, and PHY 1110. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 501, RAN node 511, and UPF 702 in an NR implementation, or between S-GW 622 and P-GW 623 in an LTE implementation. In this example, upper layer 1151 may be built on top of SDAP 1147 and may include User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and IP Security layer (UDP / IP) 1152, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the user plane layer (GTP-U) 1153, and User Plane PDU layer (UPPDU) 1163.

[0198] The transport network layer 1154 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of IP transport, and GTP-U 1153 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 1152 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the "internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets in any one of, for example, IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

[0199] GTP-U 1153 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the user data being transmitted may be packets in any one of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats. UDP / IP 1152 may provide a checksum for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication for selected data flows. RAN node 511 and S-GW 622 may exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including L1 layer (e.g., PHY 1110), L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140, and / or SDAP 1147), UDP / IP layer 1152, and GTP-U 1153 using the S1-U interface. S-GW 622 and P-GW 623 may exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including L1 layer, L2 layer, UDP / IP layer 1152, and GTP-U 1153 using the S5 / S8a interface. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support the mobility and session management processes of UE 501 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 501 and P-GW 623.

[0200] In addition, although Figure 11Not shown, but the application layer may exist above the AP 1163 and / or the transport network layer 1154. The application layer may be a layer where users of the UE 501, the RAN node 511, or other network elements interact with software applications, for example, executed by the application circuit 805 or the application circuit 905, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with the communication system (such as the baseband circuit 1010) of the UE 501 or the RAN node 511. In some specific embodiments, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide the same or similar functions as layers 5 to 7 or parts thereof of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (for example, OSI layer 7 - application layer, OSI layer 6 - presentation layer, and OSI layer 5 - session layer).

[0201] Figure 12 is a block diagram showing components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or a computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 12 shows a schematic diagram of hardware resources 1200, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1210, one or more memory / storage devices 1220, and one or more communication resources 1230, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1240. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1202 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1200.

[0202] The processor 1210 may include, for example, the processor 1212 and the processor 1214. The processor 1210 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0203] The memory / storage device 1220 may include a main memory, a disk memory, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1220 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage devices, etc.

[0204] The communication resource 1230 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1204 or one or more databases 1206 via the network 1208. For example, the communication resource 1230 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or low-power) component, components and other communication components.

[0205] The instructions 1250 may include software, programs, applications, applets, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 1210 to execute any one or more of the method sets discussed herein. The instructions 1250 may reside, in whole or in part, in at least one of the processors 1210 (e.g., within the cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1220, or any suitable combination thereof. Additionally, any portion of the instructions 1250 may be transmitted from any combination of the peripheral devices 1204 or the database 1206 to the hardware resources 1200. Accordingly, the memory of the processor 1210, the memory / storage device 1220, the peripheral devices 1204, and the database 1206 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0206] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more of the operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods described in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuit described above in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. As another example, the circuitry associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples shown in the example section below.

[0207] The term

[0208] For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

[0209] The term "circuit" refers to a circuit or a system of multiple circuits configured to perform a specific function in an electronic device. A circuit or a circuit system can be part of or include one or more hardware components configured to provide the function, such as logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or grouped), and / or memories (shared, dedicated, or grouped), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), system-on-chips (SoCs), system-in-packages (SiPs), multi-chip packages (MCPs), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc. Additionally, the term "circuit" can also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements and program code that functions to execute the program code. Some types of circuits can execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the functions. Such a combination of hardware elements and program code can be referred to as a specific type of circuit.

[0210] As used herein, the term "processor circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes: a circuit capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations or recording, storing, and / or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" can refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating on computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and / or functional procedures. The terms "application circuit" and / or "baseband circuit" can be considered synonymous with the "processor circuit" and can be referred to as the "processor circuit".

[0211] As used herein, the term "memory" and / or "memory circuit" refers to one or more hardware devices for storing data, including random access memory (RAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), phase change random access memory (PRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and / or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), core memory, read-only memory (ROM), disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, or other machine-readable media for storing data. The term "computer-readable medium" can include, but is not limited to, memory, portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other media capable of storing, containing, or carrying instructions or data.

[0212] As used herein, the term "interface circuit" refers to a circuit, a part of such circuit, or a circuit including the circuit that enables information exchange between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, etc.

[0213] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device of a remote user that has radio communication capabilities and can describe network resources in a communication network. In addition, the terms "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous and may be referred to as a client, a mobile phone, a mobile device, a mobile terminal, a user terminal, a mobile unit, a mobile station, a mobile user, a subscriber, a user, a remote station, an access agent, a user agent, a receiver, a radio device, a reconfigurable radio device, a reconfigurable mobile device, etc. In addition, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device including a wireless communication interface.

[0214] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure for providing wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or referred to as a networked computer, networked hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

[0215] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or their components. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to each other. Furthermore, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computer devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to each other and are configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0216] As used herein, terms such as "appliance", "computer appliance", etc. refer to a computer device or computer system having program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or is otherwise dedicated to providing specific computing resources.

[0217] The term "element" refers to an indivisible unit with well-defined boundaries at a given level of abstraction, where the element can be any type of entity, including, for example, one or more devices, systems, controllers, network elements, modules, etc., or a combination thereof.

[0218] The term "device" refers to a physical entity that is embedded within or attached to another physical entity in its vicinity and has the ability to transfer digital information to or from that physical entity.

[0219] The term "entity" refers to different components of an architecture or device, or information transferred as a payload.

[0220] The term "controller" refers to an element or entity that has the ability to affect a physical entity, such as by changing its state or causing the physical entity to move.

[0221] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to physical or virtual devices, physical or virtual components within a computing environment, and / or physical or virtual components within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor / CPU time and / or processor / CPU utilization, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or utilization, power, input / output operations, ports or network sockets, channel / link allocation, throughput, memory utilization, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, etc. "Hardware resources" may refer to computing, storage, and / or network resources provided by physical hardware components. "Virtualized resources" may refer to computing, storage, and / or network resources provided by a virtualization infrastructure to applications, devices, systems, etc. The term "network resource" or "communication resource" may refer to resources that a computer device / system can access via a communication network. The term "system resource" may refer to any kind of shared entity that provides services and may include computing resources and / or network resources. System resources may be regarded as a set of coherent functions, network data objects, or services that can be accessed through a server, where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and can be clearly identified.

[0222] As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium used to transfer data or a data stream. The term "channel" may be synonymous and / or equivalent to "communication channel", "data communication channel", "transmission channel", "data transmission channel", "access channel", "data access channel", "link", "data link", "carrier", "radio frequency carrier", and / or any other similar terms that represent the path or medium through which data is transferred. Additionally, as used herein, the term "link" refers to a connection for transmitting and receiving information between two devices via a RAT.

[0223] As used herein, the term "communication protocol" (wired or wireless) refers to a set of standardized rules or instructions implemented by a communication device and / or system to communicate with other devices and / or systems, including instructions for packing / unpacking data, modulating / demodulating signals, implementing a protocol stack, etc.

[0224] As used herein, the terms "instantiate", "instantiation", etc. refer to the creation of an instance. An "instance" also refers to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0225] The terms "coupled", "communicatively coupled", and derivatives thereof are used herein. The term "coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, may mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements said to be coupled to each other. The term "directly coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements can contact each other by means of communication, including through wires or other interconnecting connections, through wireless communication channels or links, etc.

[0226] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the respective contents of an information element, or a data element that contains the contents.

[0227] The term "admission control" refers to a verification process in a communication system, where a check is performed before establishing a connection to see if the current resources are sufficient for the proposed connection.

[0228] The term "SMTC" refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0229] The term "SSB" refers to an SS / PBCH block.

[0230] The term "primary cell" refers to an MCG cell operating on a primary frequency, where the UE either performs an initial connection establishment procedure or initiates a connection reestablishment procedure.

[0231] The term "primary SCG cell" refers to an SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when reconfiguration is performed using the synchronization process for DC operation.

[0232] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources on top of the special cells of a UE configured with CA.

[0233] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells that includes a PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.

[0234] The term "serving cell" refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED that is not configured with CA / DC, where there is only one serving cell that includes the primary cell.

[0235] The term "serving cell" refers to a cell group that includes the special cell and all secondary cells for a CA-configured UE in RRC_CONNECTED.

[0236] The term "special cell" refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to the PCell.

[0237] In the foregoing specification, the present invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments thereof. However, it will be apparent that various modifications and changes can be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The specific details provided in the description and examples can be used anywhere in one or more embodiments. The various features of different embodiments or examples can be combined differently with some features included and other features excluded to accommodate a variety of different applications. Examples can include a subject matter such as a method, an apparatus for performing the acts of the method, at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the acts of the method, or an action of an apparatus or system performed in accordance with the embodiments and examples described herein. Additionally, the various components described herein can be apparatuses for performing the operations or functions described according to the embodiments.

[0238] The embodiments described herein provide a user equipment (UE) that includes a processor for: configuring the UE to receive one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) using a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam; obtaining downlink control information (DCI) including one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states; and configuring the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam different from the first PDSCH beam at least partially based on the one or more TCI states.

[0239] Other embodiments described herein provide a computer-implemented method that includes: configuring the UE to receive one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) using a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam, obtaining downlink control information (DCI) including one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configuring the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam different from the first PDSCH beam at least partially based on the one or more TCI states.

[0240] Other embodiments described herein provide a non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, configure the processor to: configure a UE to receive one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) using a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam, obtain downlink control information (DCI) including one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and configure the UE to switch from the first PDSCH beam to a second PDSCH beam different from the first PDSCH beam based at least in part on the one or more TCI states.

[0241] In some examples, the UE may be configured to receive one or more repetitions of a transport block (TB) using a second physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam. In some examples, the processor may determine a first PDSCH target coding rate and a first PDSCH duration for a first set of repetitions of a transport block (TB), and a second PDSCH target coding rate and a second PDSCH duration for a second set of repetitions of the transport block (TB). In some examples, the method may determine a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state sequence representing downlink (DL) beam repetitions based on received downlink control information (DCI), wherein one or more individual TCI states in the TCI state sequence represent corresponding downlink (DL) beams, and configure the UE to receive one or more DL transmissions (Tx) via one or more DL channels according to the TCI state sequence.

[0242] In some examples, the processor may configure the UE to receive a first set of downlink transmissions (DL Tx) according to a default repetition, and configure the UE to receive a second set of DL Tx according to one or more repetitions of the TCI state sequence. In some examples, the processor may configure the UE to receive a first set of downlink transmissions (DL Tx) at a first modulation order, a first target coding rate, a first transport block (TB) size, and a first DL channel duration, and configure the UE to receive a second set of downlink transmissions (DL Tx) at a second modulation order, a second target coding rate, a second transport block (TB) size, and a second DL channel duration. The DL Tx has a modulation order, n times the target coding rate, a TB size, and 1 / n of the DL channel duration. In some examples, the second target coding rate is a multiple of the first target coding rate, and the second DL channel duration is a fraction of the first DL channel duration.

[0243] The other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the drawings and from the foregoing detailed description. Thus, the true scope of these embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon studying the drawings, the specification, and the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method, comprising: generating a first beam switching timing capability indicator for operations conforming to a first set of protocols; generating a second beam switching timing capability indicator for operations conforming to a second set of protocols; and generating one or more signals to transmit the first beam switching timing capability indicator and the second beam switching timing capability indicator to a base station.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first beam switching timing capability indicator is used to indicate a first number of symbols for beam switching associated with non-periodic channel state information (CSI)-reference signal (RS) transmission.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the second beam switching timing capability indicator is used to indicate a second number of symbols for beam switching associated with non-periodic CSI-RS transmission.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the second number is greater than or equal to the first number.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the second number of symbols is 224 symbols or 336 symbols.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising: determining whether a user equipment (UE) needs the second number of symbols for non-periodic CSI-RS transmission or a third number of symbols for non-periodic CSI-RS transmission based on whether a CSI-RS resource is configured with repetition enabled, wherein the third number is less than the second number.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second beam switching timing capability indicator is used to indicate a first number of symbols for beam switching associated with non-periodic channel state information (CSI)-reference signal (RS) transmission having a first subcarrier spacing.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the second beam switching timing capability indicator is further used to indicate a second number of symbols for beam switching associated with non-periodic CSI-RS transmission having a second subcarrier spacing.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first set of protocols is associated with a first 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) release, and the second set of protocols is associated with a second 3GPP release.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first 3GPP release is Release 15, and the second 3GPP release is Release 16.

11. An apparatus, the apparatus comprising a processor circuit for: processing one or more signals received from a user equipment (UE), the one or more signals including a first beam switching timing capability indicator for operations conforming to a first set of protocols and a second beam switching timing capability indicator for operations conforming to a second set of protocols.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein: the first beam switching timing capability indicator is used to indicate a first number of symbols for beam switching associated with non-periodic channel state information (CSI)-reference signal (RS) transmission; and The second beam switching timing capability indicator is used to indicate a second number of symbols for beam switching associated with an aperiodic CSI-RS transmission.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the second number is greater than or equal to the first number.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the second number of symbols is 224 symbols or 336 symbols.

15. A method, comprising: establishing a communication connection with a network entity; and generating cross-carrier scheduling (CCS) capability information for transmission to the network entity, the CCS capability information including: a first indicator for indicating whether CCS is supported when the scheduling cell and the scheduled cell have the same subcarrier channel spacing (SCS) value; a second indicator for indicating whether CCS is supported when the SCS value of the scheduling cell is greater than the SCS value of the scheduled cell; or a third indicator for indicating whether CCS is supported when the SCS value of the scheduling cell is less than the SCS value of the scheduled cell.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the CCS capability information includes the first indicator and the second indicator.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the CCS capability information includes the first indicator, the second indicator, and the third indicator.

18. The method according to claim 15, further comprising: providing an indication of the number of unicast downlink control information (DCI) that the UE is capable of decoding per monitoring occasion.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the number of unicast DCI includes the number of uplink unicast DCI or the number of downlink unicast DCI.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein the indication is a first indication, and the number of unicast DCI is the number of downlink unicast DCI, and the method further comprises: providing a second indication of the number of uplink unicast DCI that the UE is capable of decoding per monitoring occasion.

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