Method and apparatus for relay beam configuration in wireless communication system

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. A method performed by a network control relay (NCR) in a communication system is provided. The method includes receiving a configuration of one or more sets of forwarding resources for an access link from a base station via a radio resource control information (RRC) message, and receiving a media access control element (MAC CE) from the base station, the MAC CE indicating a set of forwarding resources of the one or more sets of forwarding resources, where the set of forwarding resources includes at least one forwarding resource, wherein each of the at least one forwarding resource is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and wherein the MAC CE comprises a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of the set of forwarding resources.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a wireless communication system. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for access link beam configuration of a network control repeater in a wireless communication system. Background Art

[0002] The fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication technology defines a wide frequency band, enabling high transmission rates and new services, which can be achieved not only in the "sub-6 gigahertz (GHz)" band such as 3.5 GHz, but also in the "above 6 GHz" band called millimeter wave (mmWave), which includes 28 GHz and 39 GHz. In addition, the implementation of the sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication technology (referred to as the Beyond 5G system) in the terahertz (THz) band (e.g., 95 GHz to 3 THz band) has been considered in order to achieve a transmission rate 50 times faster and an ultra-low latency one-tenth of that of 5G mobile communication technology.

[0003] At the beginning of the development of 5G mobile communication technology, in order to support services and meet the performance requirements related to enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), and massive machine-type communication (mMTC), standardization has been carried out on the following technologies: beamforming and massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) to mitigate radio wave path loss and increase the radio wave transmission distance in millimeter waves; supporting parameter sets for efficient utilization of millimeter wave resources (e.g., operating multiple subcarrier spacings); dynamic operation of time slot formats, supporting multi-beam transmission and broadband initial access technology; definition and operation of BWP; new channel coding methods such as low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes for large data transmission and polar codes for highly reliable transmission of control information; layer 2 (L2) preprocessing; and network slicing for providing dedicated networks dedicated to specific services.

[0004] Considering the services supported by 5G mobile communication technology, there are ongoing discussions about the improvement and performance enhancement of the initial 5G mobile communication technology, and physical layer standardization has been carried out on technologies such as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) to assist in the driving determination of autonomous vehicles based on information about the position and status of vehicles transmitted by the vehicles and to enhance user convenience; new radio unlicensed (NR-U) aimed at system operation compliant with various regulatory requirements in the unlicensed band; new radio (NR) user equipment (UE) power saving; non-terrestrial network (NTN) as UE satellite direct communication to provide coverage in areas where communication with the terrestrial network is not possible; and positioning.

[0005] In addition, the following technologies have been standardized in the air interface architecture / protocol, such as industrial Internet of Things (INT) for supporting new services through interoperability and integration with other industries; integrated access and backhaul (IAB) for providing nodes for network service area expansion by supporting wireless backhaul links and access links in an integrated manner; mobility enhancements including conditional handover and dual active protocol stack (DAPS) handover; and two-step random access for simplifying the random access procedure (two-step random access channel (RACH) for NR). Standardization has also been carried out in the system architecture / services for the 5G baseline architecture for combining network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined network (SDN) technologies (e.g., service-based architecture or service-based interface), and for mobile edge computing (MEC) for receiving UE location-based services.

[0006] With the commercialization of the 5G mobile communication system, exponentially growing connected devices will be connected to the communication network, and thus enhanced functions and performance of the 5G mobile communication system and integrated operation of the connected devices are expected to be necessary. For this purpose, new research related to the following technologies has been put on the agenda: extended reality (XR) for effectively supporting augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), etc.; 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML); AI service support; metaverse service support and drone communication.

[0007] This development of the 5G mobile communication system will not only serve as the basis for developing the following technologies: new waveforms for providing coverage in the terahertz band of 6G mobile communication technology; multi-antenna transmission technologies such as full-dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and massive antennas; metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving the coverage of terahertz band signals; high-dimensional spatial multiplexing technology using orbital angular momentum (OAM); and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), but also serve as the basis for developing the following technologies: full-duplex technology for improving the frequency efficiency of 6G mobile communication technology and enhancing the system network; AI-based communication technology for achieving system optimization by leveraging satellites and artificial intelligence (AI) from the design phase and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; next-generation distributed computing technology for realizing services with complexity exceeding the UE operation capacity limit by utilizing ultra-high-performance communication and computing resources.

[0008] The above information is presented only as background information to facilitate understanding of the present disclosure. It is not determined and no assertion is made as to whether any of the above can be used as prior art with respect to the present disclosure. Summary of the Invention

[0009] [Technical Problem]

[0010] Aspects of the present disclosure are to at least address the above problems and / or disadvantages and to at least provide the advantages described below. Accordingly, one aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a method in which a base station performs an access beam control operation of a network control repeater via control signaling in a wireless communication system.

[0011] Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the following description, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the presented embodiments.

[0012] [Technical Solution]

[0013] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network control repeater (NCR) in a communication system. The method includes receiving, via a radio resource control information (RRC) message from a base station, a configuration of one or more sets of forwarding resources for an access link, and receiving a media access control element (MAC CE) from the base station, the MAC CE indicating one set of forwarding resources among the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein the set of forwarding resources includes at least one forwarding resource, wherein each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and wherein the MAC CE includes a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of the set of forwarding resources.

[0014] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a base station in a communication system. The method includes sending, via a radio resource control information (RRC) message, a configuration of one or more sets of forwarding resources for an access link to a network control repeater (NCR), and sending an MAC CE to the NCR, the MAC CE indicating one set of forwarding resources among the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein the set of forwarding resources includes at least one forwarding resource, wherein each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and wherein the MAC CE includes a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of the set of forwarding resources.

[0015] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network control repeater (NCR) in a communication system. The NCR includes a transceiver, and one or more processors coupled to the transceiver, the one or more processors being configured to receive, via a radio resource control information (RRC) message from a base station, a configuration of one or more sets of forwarding resources for an access link, and receive a media access control element (MAC CE), the MAC CE indicating one set of forwarding resources among the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein the set of forwarding resources includes at least one forwarding resource, wherein each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and wherein the MAC CE includes: a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of the set of forwarding resources.

[0016] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a base station in a communication system is provided. The base station includes a transceiver, and one or more processors coupled to the transceiver and configured to send, via a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, a configuration of one or more sets of forwarding resources for an access link to a Network Control Repeater (NCR), and send a Medium Access Control Element (MAC CE) to the NCR, the Medium Access Control Element (MAC CE) indicating one set of forwarding resources among the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein one set of forwarding resources includes at least one forwarding resource, and each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index. And wherein the MAC CE includes a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of a set of forwarding resources.

[0017] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more computer programs including computer-executable instructions are provided, the computer-executable instructions, when executed by one or more processors of a Network Control Repeater (NCR), cause the NCR to perform operations. The operations include receiving, via a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, a configuration of one or more sets of forwarding resources for an access link from a base station; and receiving from the base station a Medium Access Control Element (MAC CE) indicating one set of forwarding resources among the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein one set of forwarding resources includes at least one forwarding resource, and each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and wherein the MAC CE includes a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of a set of forwarding resources.

[0018] [Advantages of the Invention]

[0019] According to the present disclosure, when a Network Control Repeater is capable of performing access link beam control operations under the control of a base station in a wireless communication system, higher coverage can be expected through adaptive beam configuration of the access link.

[0020] Through the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, other aspects, advantages, and remarkable features of the present disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art. The detailed description discloses various embodiments of the present disclosure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] From the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent, wherein: Figure 1 Shows the time-frequency domain transmission structure of a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) (LTE or Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA)), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), NR, or a similar wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 2 Shows the structure of frames, subframes, and time slots in the fifth generation (5G) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 3 Shows an example of bandwidth part configuration in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 4 Shows the structure of a downlink control channel in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 5 Shows the structure of a downlink control channel in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 6 Shows an example of allocating time domain resources of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 7 Shows an example of allocating time domain resources of the PDSCH in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 8 Shows a method for configuring a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook in an NR system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 9 Shows a method for configuring a dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook in an NR system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 10 Shows an example of transmission and reception associated with an NCR when the NCR performs relay between a base station and a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 11 Shows an example of uplink transmission according to RF chains when the NCR performs relay between a base station and a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 12 Shows an example of an access link beam indication of an NCR in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 13 Shows an example of an access link beam indication of an NCR via MAC-CE in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 14 Shows an example of an access link beam indication of an NCR in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 15 Shows an example of an access link beam indication of an NCR via MAC-CE in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 16 Shows an example of an access link beam indication of an NCR in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 17Shows an example of access link beam indication for NCR via MAC-CE in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 18 Shows an example of access link beam indication for NCR in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 19 Shows an example of a method for access link beam indication for NCR via MAC-CE in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 20 Is a block diagram showing the structure of a UE in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and Figure 21 Is a block diagram showing the structure of a base station in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0022] In all the figures, it should be noted that the same reference numerals are used to describe the same or similar elements, features, and structures. Detailed Description

[0023] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in the understanding, but these are only considered exemplary. Thus, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications can be made to the various embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and structures may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0024] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to their bibliographical meanings, but are used only by the inventors to achieve a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Thus, those skilled in the art should clearly understand that the following description of the various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided only for the purpose of illustration and not for limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0025] It should be understood that the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a component surface" includes reference to one or more such surfaces.

[0026] When describing embodiments, descriptions related to well-known technical content in the technical field to which the present disclosure belongs and not directly related to the present disclosure will be omitted. This omission of unnecessary descriptions aims to prevent obscuring the main idea of the present disclosure and to more clearly convey that main idea.

[0027] In the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted, or shown schematically. In addition, the dimensions of each element do not fully reflect the actual dimensions. In the accompanying drawings, the same or corresponding elements have the same reference numerals.

[0028] Advantages and features of the present disclosure and ways to implement them will be apparent by referring to the embodiments described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth below, but may be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are provided only for fully disclosing the present disclosure and informing those skilled in the art of the scope of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is defined only by the scope of the appended claims. Throughout the specification, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar elements.

[0029] Here, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart and combinations of blocks in the flowchart can be implemented by one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, such that the instructions executed via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device create a means for implementing the functions specified in one or more flowchart blocks. These computer program instructions can also be stored in a computer-usable or computer-readable memory, which can direct the computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including an instruction means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. In addition, the computer program instructions can also be loaded onto the computer or other programmable data processing device, so as to perform a series of operation steps on the computer or other programmable device, thereby generating a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more flowchart blocks.

[0030] Each block of the flowchart may represent a module, segment, or portion of code that includes one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function. It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions recorded in the blocks may occur in sequence. In one example, two blocks shown consecutively may actually be executed substantially simultaneously, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending on the functions involved.

[0031] As used herein, a "unit" refers to a software element or a hardware element that performs a predetermined function, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). A "unit" does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. A "unit" can be configured to be stored in an addressable storage medium or executed by one or more processors. Thus, a "unit" includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, class elements or task elements, processes, functions, attributes, procedures, subroutines, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuits, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and parameters. The elements and functions provided by a "unit" can be combined into a smaller number of elements or "units", or divided into a larger number of elements or "units". In addition, the elements and "units" can be implemented as one or more central processing units (CPUs) within a reproduction device or a secure multimedia card. Further, according to some embodiments, a "unit" can include one or more processors.

[0032] The operating principle of the technical idea of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the technical idea of the present disclosure, when it is determined that the description may make the subject matter of the present disclosure unnecessarily clear, the detailed description of the known functions or configurations incorporated herein will be omitted. The terms to be described below are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the present disclosure and may vary according to the user, the user's intention, or the habit. The definitions of the terms should be based on the content of the entire specification. In the following description, a base station is an entity that allocates resources to a terminal and may be at least one of a gNode B, an eNode B, a Node B, a base station (BS), a radio access unit, a base station controller, and a node on a network. A terminal may include a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smart phone, a computer, or a multimedia system capable of performing a communication function. Examples of the base station and the terminal are not limited thereto. In the following description of the present disclosure, a technique for a terminal to receive broadcast information from a base station in a wireless communication system will be described. The present disclosure relates to a communication technique and a system for integrating Internet of Things (IoT) technology with a fifth generation (5G) communication system, which is designed to support a higher data transmission rate than a fourth generation (4G) system. The present disclosure can be applied to intelligent services (e.g., smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected car, healthcare, digital education, retail business, security and safety-related services, etc.) based on 5G communication technology and IoT-related technology.

[0033] For convenience, terms related to broadcast information, terms related to control information, terms related to communication coverage, terms related to state changes (e.g., events), terms related to network entities, terms related to messages, terms related to device components, etc. are used exemplarily. The present disclosure is not limited to the terms used below, and other terms related to subjects having equivalent technical meanings may be used.

[0034] In the following description, for convenience of description, some terms and names defined in the Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) standard are used. The present disclosure is not limited to these terms and names, and can be applied to systems compliant with other standards in the same way.

[0035] Wireless communication systems are evolving into broadband wireless communication systems for providing high-speed and high-quality packet data services using communication standards and typical voice-based services, such as High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) of 3GPP, LTE (Long Term Evolution or Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA)), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LTE-Pro, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD) of 3GPP2, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.16e, etc.

[0036] In a typical example of a broadband wireless communication system, the LTE system employs an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) scheme in the downlink (DL) and a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) scheme in the uplink (UL). The uplink indicates the radio link through which a User Equipment (UE) (or Mobile Station (MS)) sends data or control signals to a Base Station (BS) (eNode B), and the downlink indicates the radio link through which the base station sends data or control signals to the UE. The multiple access scheme separates the data or control information of each user by allocating and operating time-frequency resources for sending data or control information for each user to avoid overlapping, that is, to establish orthogonality.

[0037] Since the 5G communication system, which is a post-LTE communication system, must freely reflect various needs of users, service providers, etc., it must support services that meet various needs. Services considered in the 5G communication system include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communication, massive machine type communication (mMTC), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), etc.

[0038] According to various embodiments, eMBB is intended to provide a higher data rate than that supported by existing LTE, LTE-A, or LTE-Pro. For example, in a 5G communication system, eMBB must provide a peak data rate of 20 gigabits per second (Gbps) in the downlink and a peak data rate of 10 Gbps for a single base station in the uplink. The 5G communication system must provide an increased user-perceived data rate as well as a maximum data rate to the UE. To meet such requirements, transmission / reception technologies including further enhanced multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission technologies need to be improved. In addition, the data rate required for the 5G communication system can be obtained using a frequency bandwidth greater than 20 megahertz (MHz) in a frequency band of 3 to 6 GHz or 6 GHz or higher, rather than using a transmission bandwidth of up to 20 MHz in a 2 GHz frequency band used in LTE to transmit signals.

[0039] In addition, mMTC is considered to support application services in a 5G communication system, such as the Internet of Things (IoT). To effectively provide the Internet of Things, mMTC has requirements such as supporting the connection of a large number of UEs in a cell, enhancing the coverage of UEs, improving battery life, and reducing the cost of UEs. Since the Internet of Things provides a communication function while being provided to various sensors and various devices, it must support a large number of UEs in a cell (e.g., 1,000,000 UEs / km 2 ). UEs supporting mMTC may require a wider coverage range than those of other services provided by the 5G communication system because the UEs may be located in shadow areas such as the basement of a building, which are not covered by the cell due to the characteristics of the service. UEs supporting mMTC must be configured to be inexpensive and may require a very long battery life because it is difficult to replace the battery of the UE frequently.

[0040] URLLC is a cellular-based mission-critical wireless communication service that can be used for remote control of robots or machines, industrial automation, drones, remote healthcare, emergency alerts, etc. URLLC must provide communication with ultra-low latency and ultra-high reliability. For example, a service supporting URLLC must satisfy an air interface latency of less than 0.5 millisecond (ms), and also requires -5 a packet error rate of 10 or less. For a service supporting URLLC, the 5G system must provide a transmission time interval shorter than that of other services, and also requires a design for allocating a large amount of resources in the frequency band to ensure the reliability of the communication link. The above mMTC, URLLC, and eMBB are only examples of different types of services, and the types of services applicable to the present disclosure are not limited to the above examples.

[0041] The above-described services considered in the 5G communication system must be integrated with each other so as to be provided based on one framework. Each service is preferably integrated into a single system and is controlled and transmitted in the integrated single system, rather than being operated independently, for efficient resource management and control.

[0042] In the following description, the LTE, LTE-A, LTE Pro, or NR system will be described by way of example. However, embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having a similar technical background or channel type. In addition, based on the determination of those skilled in the art, embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems with some modifications without significantly deviating from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0043] 5G System Frame Structure

[0044] Hereinafter, the frame structure of the 5G system will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0045] It should be understood that the blocks in each flowchart and combinations of the flowcharts can be executed by one or more computer programs including instructions. The whole of the one or more computer programs may be stored in a single memory, or the one or more computer programs may be divided into different parts stored in different multiple memories.

[0046] Any function or operation described herein can be processed by one processor or a combination of processors. The one processor or combination of processors is a circuit that performs the processing and includes circuits such as an application processor (AP, e.g., a central processing unit (CPU)), a communication processor (CP, e.g., a modem), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) (e.g., an artificial intelligence (AI) chip), a Wi-Fi chip, a chip, a global positioning system (GPS) chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip, a connectivity chip, a sensor controller, a touch controller, a fingerprint sensor controller, a display driver integrated circuit (IC), an audio CODEC chip, a universal serial bus (USB) controller, a camera controller, an image processing IC, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an integrated circuit (IC), etc.

[0047] Figure 1 The basic structure of time-frequency resources in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0048] Refer to Figure 1, the horizontal axis represents the time domain, and the vertical axis represents the frequency domain. The basic unit of resources in the time-frequency domain is a resource element (RE) 1-01, which can be defined as an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol 1-02 on the time axis and a subcarrier 1-03 on the frequency axis. In the frequency domain, (for example, 12) consecutive REs can form a resource block (RB) 1-04. In one embodiment, multiple OFDM symbols can form a subframe 1-10.

[0049] Figure 2 Shows the structures of frames, subframes, and time slots in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0050] Referring to Figure 2 , a frame 2-00 can include one or more subframes 2-01, and a subframe can include one or more time slots 2-02. In one example, a frame 2-00 can be defined as 10 ms. A subframe 2-01 can be defined as 1 ms, and in this case, a frame 2-00 can include a total of 10 subframes 2-01. A time slot 2-02 or 2-03 can be defined as 14 OFDM symbols (i.e., the number of symbols per time slot ( )) = 14). A subframe 2-01 can include one or more time slots 2-02 and 2-03, and the number of time slots 2-02 and 2-03 for a subframe 2-01 can vary according to the configured value μ of the subcarrier spacing 2-04 or 2-05. Figure 2 The examples show the cases of μ = 0 (2-04) and μ = 1 (2-05) as the configured values of the subcarrier spacing. In the case of μ = 0 (2-04), a subframe 2-01 can include one time slot 2-02, while in the case of μ = 1 (2-05), a subframe 2-01 can include two time slots 2-03. The number of time slots for a subframe ( ) can vary according to the configured value μ of the subcarrier spacing, and the number of time slots for each frame ( ) can vary according to it, and for each configured value μ of the subcarrier spacing, it can be defined as shown in Table 1 below and .

[0051] [Table 1]

[0052] In NR, a component carrier (CC) or serving cell may include up to 250 resource blocks (RBs). In the case where the UE always receives the total serving cell bandwidth (such as in LTE), the power consumption of the UE may be severe. To address this issue, the base station may configure one or more bandwidth parts (BWPs) for the UE, enabling the UE to change the reception area in the cell. In NR, the base station may configure the "initial BWP" for the UE through the master information block (MIB), which is the bandwidth of CORESET #0 (or the common search space (CSS)). Then, the base station may configure the initial BWP (the first BWP) of the UE through RRC signaling and may send a notification of one or more BWP configuration information that can be later indicated by downlink control information (DCI). Thereafter, the base station may send a notification of the BWP ID through DCI, thereby indicating the frequency band to be used by the UE. When the UE fails to receive DCI in the currently allocated BWP for a specific period or longer, the UE returns to the "default BWP" and attempts to receive DCI.

[0053] 5G Bandwidth Part

[0054] Figure 3 An example of the configuration of a bandwidth part (BWP) in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0055] Reference Figure 3 , an example is shown in which the UE bandwidth 3-00 is configured to have two bandwidth parts, namely bandwidth part #13-05 and bandwidth part #23-10. The base station may configure one or more bandwidth parts for the UE and may configure information about each bandwidth part as shown in Table 2 below.

[0056] [Table 2]

[0057] In addition to the configuration information described in Table 2, various parameters related to the bandwidth part may be configured for the UE. For example, the base station may send the above information to the UE through higher layer signaling (such as RRC signaling). At least one of the one or more configured bandwidth parts may be activated. Information about whether the configured bandwidth part is activated may be sent to the UE from the base station semi-statically through RRC signaling or dynamically through a MAC control element (CE) or DCI.

[0058] In one embodiment, before the base station performs radio resource control (RRC) connection through the master information block (MIB), an initial bandwidth part (BWP) for initial access can be configured for the UE. Specifically, the UE can receive configuration information about the control resource set (CORESET) and the search space through which the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) can be transmitted to receive system information, which can correspond to the remaining system information (RMSI) or system information block 1 (SIB1) required for initial access through the MIB in the initial access phase. The control resource set and the search space configured using the MIB can be considered as identities (IDs) "0" respectively.

[0059] For example, the base station can notify the UE through the MIB of the configuration information for control resource set #0, such as frequency allocation information, time allocation information, numbers, etc. In addition, the base station can notify the UE through the MIB of the configuration information about the monitoring period and the timing for control resource set #0 (i.e., the configuration information about search space #0). The UE can regard the frequency domain configured with control resource set #0 obtained from the MIB as the initial bandwidth part for initial access. The identity (ID) of the initial bandwidth part can be considered as 0.

[0060] The configuration of the bandwidth part supported by the next-generation mobile communication system (5G or NR system) can be used for various purposes.

[0061] In an example, when the bandwidth supported by the UE is less than the system bandwidth, the bandwidth supported by the UE can be supported by the configuration of the bandwidth part. In another example, the frequency position of the bandwidth part (configuration information 2) can be configured for the UE in Table 2, so that the UE can send and receive data at a specific frequency position within the system bandwidth.

[0062] As another example, the base station can configure multiple bandwidth parts for the UE to support different parameter sets. For any UE, in order to support the transmission and reception of data using a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz and a subcarrier spacing of 30 kHz, two bandwidth parts can be configured to use a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz and a subcarrier spacing of 30 kHz respectively. In one embodiment, frequency division multiplexing can be performed on different bandwidth parts, and in the case of data transmitted and received using a specific subcarrier spacing, the bandwidth part configured with the corresponding subcarrier spacing can be activated.

[0063] In yet another example, the base station may configure bandwidth parts with different bandwidths for the UE in order to reduce the power consumption of the UE. If the UE supports a very large bandwidth, such as a 100 MHz bandwidth, and always sends and receives data through the corresponding bandwidth, it may result in very high power consumption. In particular, for the UE, monitoring the unnecessary downlink control channel for a large bandwidth of 100 MHz in the absence of traffic is very inefficient in terms of power consumption. The base station may configure a bandwidth part with a relatively small bandwidth, such as a 20 MHz bandwidth part for the UE, in order to reduce the power consumption of the UE. In the absence of traffic, the UE may perform monitoring operations in the 20 MHz bandwidth part, and if data is generated, the UE may use the 100 MHz bandwidth part to send and receive data according to the indication of the base station.

[0064] In the method of configuring the bandwidth part, the UE before RRC connection may receive configuration information about the initial bandwidth part in the initial access phase through the Master Information Block (MIB). Specifically, the UE may receive the configuration of the Control Resource Set (CORESET) of the downlink control channel from the MIB of the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), and the downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling the System Information Block (SIB) can be sent through this downlink control channel. For example, the bandwidth of the control resource set configured through the MIB can be considered as the initial bandwidth part, and the UE may receive the PDSCH, and the SIB is sent through the PDSCH through the configured initial bandwidth part. The initial bandwidth part can be used for Other System Information (OSI), paging, random access, and the reception of the SIB.

[0065] SSB / PBCH

[0066] Hereinafter, the Synchronization Signal (SS) / PBCH Block (SSB) of the next-generation mobile communication system (5G or NR system) will be described.

[0067] The SS / PBCH block may indicate a physical layer channel block including the Primary SS (PSS), Secondary SS (SSS), and PBCH. Specifically, the SS / PBCH block may be defined as follows.

[0068] - PSS: This is a reference signal for downlink time / frequency synchronization and may provide some information about the cell ID.

[0069] SSS: This is a reference for downlink time / frequency synchronization and may provide the remaining information of the cell ID not provided by the PSS. Additionally, this may be used as a reference signal for PBCH demodulation.

[0070] -PBCH: This can provide the basic system information necessary for the transmission and reception of the data channels and control channels of the UE. The basic system information may include control information related to the search space indicating the radio resource mapping information of the control channel, scheduling control information for a separate data channel for transmitting system information, etc.

[0071] SS / PBCH block: The SS / PBCH block can be configured as a combination of PSS, SSS, and PBCH. One or more SS / PBCH blocks can be transmitted within a 5 ms time period, and each transmitted SS / PBCH block can be distinguished by an index.

[0072] In one embodiment, the UE can detect PSS and SSS in the initial access phase and can decode the PBCH. The UE can obtain the MIB from the PBCH and can receive the configuration of control resource set #0 through the MIB. The UE can assume a quasi - co - location (QCL) relationship between the selected SS / PBCH block and the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) transmitted in control resource set #0, thereby monitoring control resource set #0. In another embodiment, the UE can receive system information through the downlink control information transmitted from control resource set #0. The UE can obtain the configuration information related to the random access channel (RACH) necessary for initial access from the received system information. In yet another embodiment, the UE can send a physical RACH (PRACH) to the base station considering the selected SS / PBCH index, and the base station receiving the PRACH can obtain information about the SS / PBCH block index selected by the UE. The base station can identify which block the UE has selected from the corresponding SS / PBCH block and monitor control resource set #0 corresponding (or associated) with the SS / PBCH block selected by the UE.

[0073] PDCCH: DCI

[0074] Hereinafter, the downlink control information (hereinafter referred to as "DCI") in the next - generation mobile communication system (5G or NR system) will be described in detail.

[0075] In the next - generation mobile communication system (5G or NR system), scheduling information regarding uplink data (or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) or downlink data (or physical downlink data channel (PDSCH)) can be sent from the base station to the UE through DCI. For example, the UE can monitor the fallback DCI format and non - fallback DCI format for the PUSCH or PDSCH. The format for the fallback DCI can be configured as a predefined fixed field between the base station and the UE, and the non - fallback DCI format can include configurable fields.

[0076] According to one embodiment, DCI can be transmitted via the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) after channel coding and modulation processing. A Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) can be appended to the payload of the DCI message, and the CRC can be scrambled by a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) corresponding to the identity of the UE. Different RNTIs can scramble the CRC appended to the payload of the DCI message according to the purpose of the DCI message (e.g., transmission of UE-specific data, power control command, random access response, etc.). The RNTI can be included in the CRC calculation process and then transmitted instead of being explicitly transmitted. When receiving a DCI message transmitted via the PDCCH, the UE can use the allocated RNTI to check the CRC. When the CRC check result is correct, the UE can identify that the message has been sent to the UE.

[0077] In one example, the DCI for scheduling the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) for System Information (SI) can be scrambled by the SI-RNTI. The DCI for scheduling the PDSCH for a Random Access Response (RAR) message can be scrambled by the RA-RNTI. In another example, the DCI for scheduling the PDSCH for a paging message can be scrambled by the P-RNTI. The DCI for sending a notification of the Slot Format Indicator (SFI) can be scrambled by the SFI-RNTI. The DCI for sending a notification of Transmit Power Control (TPC) can be scrambled by the TPC-RNTI. The DCI for scheduling the UE-dedicated PDSCH or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) can be scrambled by the Cell RNTI (C-RNTI).

[0078] DCI format 0_0 can be used as a fallback DCI for scheduling the PUSCH, and in this case, the CRC can be scrambled by the C-RNTI. In one embodiment, DCI format 0_0 in which the CRC is scrambled by the C-RNTI can include the information shown in Table 3 below.

[0079] [Table 3]

[0080] DCI format 0_1 can be used as a non-fallback DCI for scheduling the PUSCH, and in this case, the CRC can be scrambled by the C-RNTI. In another embodiment, DCI format 0_1 in which the CRC is scrambled by the C-RNTI can include the information shown in Table 4 below.

[0081] [Table 4]

[0082] DCI format 1_0 can be used as a fallback DCI for scheduling the PDSCH, and in this case, the CRC can be scrambled by the C-RNTI. In another embodiment, DCI format 1_0 in which the CRC is scrambled by the C-RNTI may include the information shown in Table 5 below.

[0083] [Table 5]

[0084] Alternatively, DCI format 1_0 can be used as a DCI to schedule the PDSCH for the RAR message, and the CRC can be scrambled by the RA-RNTI. DCI format 1_0 in which the CRC is scrambled by the C-RNTI may include the information shown in Table 6 below.

[0085] [Table 6]

[0086] DCI format 1_1 can be used as a non-fallback DCI for scheduling the PDSCH, and in this case, the CRC can be scrambled by the C-RNTI. According to one embodiment, DCI format 1_1 in which the CRC is scrambled by the C-RNTI may include the information shown in Table 7 below.

[0087] [Table 7]

[0088] QCL prioritization rules for PDCCH and PDSCH

[0089] Hereinafter, the operations for determining the QCL priority of the PDCCH are described below.

[0090] When the UE operates in carrier aggregation in a single or multiple frequency bands, and there are multiple control resource sets within the activated BWP in a single cell or multiple cells with the same or different QCL-TypeD characteristics at a specific PDCCH monitoring occasion and they overlap in time, the UE can select a specific control resource set according to the QCL priority determination operation and monitor the control resource set with the same QCL-TypeD characteristic as the corresponding control resource set. In an example, when multiple control resource groups overlap in time and only one QCL-TypeD characteristic can be received. At this time, the reference for determining the QCL priority is described below.

[0091] Reference 1. The control resource set connected to the common search space, which has the lowest index, is located in the cell corresponding to the lowest index in the cell including the common search space.

[0092] Reference 2. A control resource set connected to a UE-specific search space having the lowest index is located within a cell corresponding to the lowest index in a cell including the UE-specific search space.

[0093] When the corresponding reference is not satisfied, the following reference is applied. For example, when control resource sets overlap in time within a specific PDCCH monitoring section, if all control resource sets are connected to a UE-specific search space and not connected to a common search space, that is, if Reference 1 is not satisfied, the UE may omit the application of Reference 1 and apply Reference 2.

[0094] When selecting a control resource set by reference, the UE may additionally consider the following two matters regarding the QCL information configured in the control resource set. Initially, when control resource set 1 has CSI-RS 1 as a reference signal with a QCL-TypeD relationship, the reference signal with a QCL-TypeD relationship to CSI-RS 1 is SSB1, and the reference signal of the relationship with a QCL-TypeD relationship to control resource set 2 is SSB1. The UE may consider that the two control resource sets 1 and 2 have different QCL-TypeD characteristics. Thereafter, when control resource set 1 has CSI-RS1 configured in cell 1 as a reference signal with a QCL-TypeD relationship, the reference signal with a QCL-TypeD relationship to CSI-RS1 is SSB1, control resource set 2 has CSI-RS2 configured in cell 2 as a reference signal with a QCL-TypeD relationship, and the reference signal with a QCL-TypeD relationship to CSI-RS2 is SSB1. The UE may consider that the two control resource sets have the same QCL-TypeD characteristics.

[0095] Figure 4 Shows the structure of a downlink control channel in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0096] That is, Figure 4 Shows an example of a basic unit constituting the time and frequency resources of a downlink control channel to be used in 5G according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0097] Refer to Figure 4 , the basic unit of the time and frequency resources constituting the control channel can be defined as a resource element group (REG) 4-03. REG 4-03 can be defined as 1 OFDM symbol 4-01 in the time domain and 1 physical resource block (PRB) 4-02 in the frequency domain, that is, 12 subcarriers. The base station can configure a downlink control channel allocation unit by cascading REG 4-03.

[0098] Refer to Figure 4, assume that the basic unit for allocating the downlink control channel in 5G is the control channel element (CCE) 4-04, and 1 CCE 4-04 can include multiple REGs 4-03. Figure 4 The REG 4-03 shown in Figure 4 can include 12 REs, and if 1 CCE 4-04 includes 6 REGs 4-03, then 1 CCE 4-04 can include 72 REs. When the downlink control resource set is configured, the corresponding area can include multiple CCEs 4-04, and a specific downlink control channel can be mapped to one or more CCEs 4-04 according to the aggregation level (AL) in the control resource set, and then can be transmitted. The CCEs 4-04 in the control resource set are identified by numbers, and the numbers of the CCEs 4-04 can be allocated according to the logical mapping method.

[0099] Figure 4 The basic unit of the downlink control channel shown in Figure 4 , that is, the REG 4-03, can include the REs to which the DCI is mapped and the area to which the DMRS 4-05 is mapped. The DMRS 4-05 is a reference signal for decoding it. Refer to Figure 4 , three DMRSs 4-05 can be transmitted in 1 REG 4-03. In one embodiment, the number of CCEs required to transmit the PDCCH can be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16, depending on the aggregation level (AL), and different numbers of CCEs can be used to achieve link adaptation of the downlink control channel. For example, when AL = L, a downlink control channel can be transmitted through L CCEs.

[0100] The UE needs to detect the signal without knowing the information about the downlink control channel, and for example, a search space indicating a set of CCEs can be defined for blind decoding. The search space is a set of downlink control channel candidates, including the CCEs that the UE must attempt to decode at a given aggregation level. Since there are various aggregation levels, forming a bundle of 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs, the UE can have multiple search spaces. The set of search spaces can be defined as a set of search spaces in all configured aggregation levels.

[0101] The search space can be classified into a common search space and a UE-specific search space. According to another embodiment, a specific UE group or all UEs can check the common search space of the PDCCH to receive cell-common control information, such as for the dynamic scheduling of system information or paging messages.

[0102] The UE can receive PDSCH scheduling assignment information for transmitting the SIB including cell operator information, etc. by checking the common search space of the PDCCH. In the case of the common search space, since a specific UE group or all UEs must receive the PDCCH, the common search space can be defined, for example, as a set of predetermined CCEs. At the same time, the UE can receive scheduling assignment information for the UE-specific PDSCH or PUSCH by checking the UE-specific search space of the PDCCH. The UE-specific search space can be defined specifically by the UE as a function of the UE identifier and various system parameters.

[0103] In 5G, the parameters of the search space for the PDCCH can be configured for the UE by the base station using higher-layer signaling (e.g., SIB, MIB, or RRC signaling). In one example, the base station can configure for the UE the number of PDCCH candidates in each aggregation level L, the periodicity of monitoring the search space, the symbol-based monitoring opportunity within the time slot of the search space, the search space type (common search space or UE-specific search space), the combination of DCI formats and RNTIs to be monitored in the search space, the control resource set index for monitoring the search space, etc. In another example, the above configuration can include the information shown in Table 8 below.

[0104] [Table 8]

[0105] The base station can configure one or more search space sets for the UE based on the configuration information. According to another embodiment, the base station can configure search space set 1 and search space set 2 for the UE, can configure DCI format A scrambled by X-RNTI to be monitored in the common search space in search space set 1, and can configure DCI format B scrambled by Y-RNTI to be monitored in the UE-specific search space in search space set 2.

[0106] According to the configuration information, the common search space or the UE-specific search space can include one or more search space sets. Search space set #1 and search space set #2 can be configured as the common search space, and search space set #3 and search space set #4 can be configured as the UE-specific search space.

[0107] The common search space can be classified into specific types of search space sets according to its purpose. The RNTI to be monitored can be different between the determined types of search space sets. The monitored common search space types, purposes, and RNTIs can be classified as shown in Table 9 below.

[0108] [Table 9]

[0109] Meanwhile, the following combinations of DCI formats and RNTIs can be monitored in the common search space. This disclosure is not limited to the following examples.

[0110] - DCI format 0_0 / 1_0 with CRC scrambled by C-RNTI, CS-RNTI, SP-CSI-RNTI, RA-RNTI, TC-RNTI, P-RNTI, and SI-RNTI

[0111] - DCI format 2_0 with CRC scrambled by SFI-RNTI

[0112] - DCI format 2_1 with CRC scrambled by INT-RNTI

[0113] - DCI format 2_2 with CRC scrambled by TPC-PUSCH-RNTI and TPC-PUCCH-RNTI

[0114] - DCI format 2_3 with CRC scrambled by TPC-SRS-RNTI

[0115] In the UE-specific search space, the following combinations of DCI formats and RNTIs can be monitored. This disclosure is not limited to the following examples.

[0116] DCI format 0_0 / 1_0 with CRC scrambled by C-RNTI, CS-RNTI, and TC-RNTI

[0117] - DCI format 1_0 / 1_1 with CRC scrambled by C-RNTI, CS-RNTI, and TC-RNTI

[0118] The specified RNTIs can follow the following definitions and usages.

[0119] Cell RNTI (C-RNTI) for scheduling UE-specific PDSCH

[0120] Temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI) for scheduling UE-specific PDSCH

[0121] Configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) for scheduling semi-statically configured UE-specific PDSCH

[0122] Random access RNTI for scheduling PDSCH in the random access level

[0123] Paging RNTI (P-RNTI) for scheduling PDSCH

[0124] RNTI (SI-RNTI) for scheduling system information transmission PDSCH

[0125] Interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI) for notifying puncturing on PDSCH

[0126] Transmission power control RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI) for PUSCH indicating power control commands for PUSCH

[0127] Transmission power control RNTI (TPC-PUCCH-RNTI) for PUCCH indicating power control commands for PUCCH

[0128] Transmission power control RNTI (TPC-SRS-RNTI) for SRS indicating power control commands for SRS

[0129] In one embodiment, the above DCI format can be defined as shown in Table 10 below.

[0130] [Table 10]

[0131] Multiple search space sets can be configured using different parameters in 5G (e.g., the parameters in Table 8). In this way, the set of search space sets monitored by the UE can be different each time. For example, in the case where search space set #1 is configured with an X slot period, if search space set #2 is configured with a Y slot period, and if X and Y are different, the UE can monitor search space set #1 and search space set #2 in a specific slot, and can monitor either search space set #1 or search space set #2 in a specific slot.

[0132] If multiple search space sets are configured for the UE, the following conditions can be considered to determine the search space sets to be monitored by the UE.

[0133] (Condition 1: Limiting the maximum number of PDCCH candidates)

[0134] The number of PDCCH candidates that can be monitored in each slot may not exceed M μ .M μ can be defined as the maximum number of PDCCH candidates in each slot in a cell where the subcarrier spacing is configured to 15 × 2 μ kHz, and can be defined as shown in Table 11 below.

[0135] [Table 11]

[0136] (Condition 2: Limiting the maximum number of CCEs)

[0137] The number of CCEs in each time slot that make up the entire search space (where the entire search space may indicate a set of all CCEs corresponding to a combined region of multiple search space sets) may not exceed C μ C μ may be defined as the maximum number of CCEs in each time slot in a cell where the subcarrier spacing is configured to 15 × 2μkHz, and may be defined as shown in Table 12 below.

[0138] [Table 12]

[0139] For ease of explanation, a situation that satisfies Condition 1 and Condition 2 at a specific time may be defined as "Condition A". A situation that does not satisfy Condition A may indicate a situation where at least one of the above Condition 1 and Condition 2 is not satisfied.

[0140] According to the configuration of the search space sets of the base station, Condition A may not be satisfied at a specific time. If Condition A is not satisfied at a specific time, the UE may only select and monitor some of the search space sets configured to satisfy Condition A at the corresponding time, and the base station may send PDCCH to the selected search space sets.

[0141] Some search spaces can be selected from the overall configured search space sets according to the following method.

[0142] Method 1

[0143] In the case where Condition A for the PDCCH is not satisfied at a specific time (time slot), the UE (or the base station) may preferentially select a search space set whose search space type is configured as a common search space from the search space sets existing at the corresponding time, rather than a search space set whose search space type is configured as a UE-specific search space.

[0144] For example, in the case of selecting all search space sets configured as common search spaces (i.e., if Condition A is still satisfied even after selecting all search spaces configured as common search spaces), the UE (or the base station) may select a search space set configured as a UE-specific search space. For another example, in the case where there are multiple search space sets configured as UE-specific search spaces, the search space set with a lower search space set index may have a higher priority. The UE or the base station may select a UE-specific search space set considering the priority within the range where Condition A is satisfied.

[0145] Hereinafter, a method for allocating time and frequency resources for data transmission in NR will be described.

[0146] In addition to the frequency-domain resource candidate allocation indicated by the BWP, the NR system can also provide the following detailed frequency-domain resource allocation (FD-RA) method.

[0147] Figure 5 An example of allocating the frequency-domain resources of the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0148] Figure 5 Three frequency-domain resource allocation methods of type 0 (5-00), type 1 (5-05), and dynamic switching 5-10 are shown, which can be configured by the higher layer in NR.

[0149] Referring to Figure 5 , when the UE is configured by higher layer signaling to use only resource type 0 (indicated by reference numeral 5-00), some downlink control information (DCI) for allocating the PDSCH to the UE has a bitmap of NRBG bits. The conditions for this case will be described later. As shown in Table 13 below, NRBG indicates the number of resource block groups (RBGs) determined according to the size of the BWP indicated by the BWP indicator and the higher layer parameter "rbg-Size", and data is transmitted in the RBGs represented as "1" in the bitmap.

[0150] [Table 13]

[0151] When the UE is configured by higher layer signaling to use only resource type 1 (indicated by reference numeral 5-05), some DCI for allocating the PDSCH to the UE has frequency-domain resource allocation information including bits. The conditions for this case will be described again later. The base station can configure the starting VRB 5-20 and the length 5-25 of the frequency-domain resources allocated starting from it.

[0152] If the UE is configured by higher layer signaling to use resource type 0 and resource type 1 (indicated by reference numeral 5-10), some DCI for allocating the PDSCH to the corresponding UE has frequency-domain resource allocation information, which includes the payload 5-15 for configuring resource type 0 and the larger value 5-35 bits among the payloads 5-20 and 5-25 for configuring resource type 1. The conditions for this case will be described again later. One bit 5-30 can be added to the front part (MSB) of the frequency-domain resource allocation information in the DCI, and bit 0 indicates to use resource type 0, and bit 1 indicates to use resource type 1.

[0153] Hereinafter, a time-domain resource allocation method for a data channel in a next-generation mobile communication system (5G or NR system) will be described.

[0154] In one embodiment, the base station may configure, for the UE, a table of time-domain resource allocation information regarding the downlink data channel (Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)) and the uplink data channel (Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)) through high-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling). A table including up to maxNrofDL-Allocation = 16 entries may be configured for the PDSCH, and a table including up to maxNrofUL-Allocation = 16 entries may be configured for the PUSCH. In one embodiment, the time-domain resource allocation information may include: PDCCH-to-PDSCH slot timing (the time interval in slot units between the time of receiving the PDCCH and the time of transmitting the PDSCH scheduled by the received PDCCH, denoted as K0); PDCCH-to-PUSCH slot timing (the time interval in slot units between the time of receiving the PDCCH and the time of transmitting the PUSCH scheduled by the received PDCCH, denoted as K2); the position and length of the starting symbol for scheduling the PDSCH or PUSCH in a slot; the mapping type of the PDSCH or PUSCH, etc. For example, the base station may notify the UE of the information shown in Table 14 or Table 15 below.

[0155] [Table 14]

[0156] [Table 15]

[0157] For example, the base station may notify the UE of an entry in the table for the above time-domain resource allocation information through L1 signaling (e.g., DCI) (e.g., it may be indicated by the field "Time-domain resource allocation" in the DCI). The UE may obtain the time-domain resource allocation information for the PDSCH or PUSCH based on the DCI received from the base station.

[0158] Figure 6 An example of allocating the time-domain resources of the PDSCH in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0159] Referring to Figure 6 , the base station may indicate the time-domain position of the PDSCH resources based on the following information: the subcarrier spacing (SCS) (μ PDSCH , μ PDCCH ) of the data channel and the control channel indicated by the high layer; the scheduling offset value (K0); the start position 6-00 and its length 6-05 of the OFDM symbols within one slot 6-10 dynamically indicated by the DCI.

[0160] Figure 7 FIG. shows an example of allocating time domain resources according to subcarrier spacing of a data channel and a control channel in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0161] Reference Figure 7 , when the subcarrier spacing of the data channel is the same as that of the control channel (μ PDSCH = μ PDCCH ), the slot numbers of data and control are the same. Therefore, the base station and the UE can identify the occurrence of a scheduling offset according to a predetermined slot offset (K0). When the subcarrier spacing of the data channel is different from that of the control channel (μ PDSCH ≠ μPDCCH) (7-05), the slot numbers of data and control are different from each other. Therefore, the base station and the UE can identify the occurrence of a scheduling offset based on the subcarrier spacing of the PDCCH according to a predetermined slot offset (K0).

[0162] QCL, TCI state

[0163] In a wireless communication system, one or more different antenna ports (or replaced by one or more channels, signals, and combinations thereof, but generally referred to as different antenna ports for convenience in the following description of the present disclosure) can be associated through the quasi-co-location (QCL) configurations shown in Table 16 below. In one example, the TCI state will notify the QCL relationship between the PDCCH (or PDCCH DMRS) and another RS or channel, and the reference antenna port A (reference RS # A) and another destination antenna port B (target RS # B) of the quasi-co-location (QCL) mean that the UE is allowed to apply some or all of the large-scale channel parameters estimated at the antenna port A to the channel measurement from the antenna port B. In another example, it is required that QCL associates different parameters according to conditions. For example, 1) time tracking affected by the average delay and delay spread, 2) frequency tracking affected by the Doppler frequency shift and Doppler spread, 3) radio resource management (RRM) affected by the average gain, and 4) beam management (BM) affected by the spatial parameters. Therefore, NR supports the four types of QCL relationships shown in Table 16 below.

[0164] [Table 16]

[0165] Spatial RX parameters can refer to some or all of various parameters, such as the angle of arrival (AoA), the power angle spectrum (PAS) of the AoA, the angle of departure (AoD), the PAS of the AoD, transmit / receive channel correlation, transmit / receive beamforming, spatial channel correlation, etc.

[0166] The QCL relationship can be configured in the UE through the RRC parameters TCI-state and QCL-Info, as shown in Table 17 below. Referring to Table 17 below, the base station can configure one or more TCI states in the UE and notify the UE of up to two QCL relationships (qc1-Type 1 and qc1-Type 2) of the RS whose ID is the reference TCI state (i.e., the target RS). At this time, each QCL information (QCL-Info) included in the TCI state includes the serving cell index and BWP index of the reference RS indicated by the corresponding QCL information, the type and ID of the reference RS, and the QCL type as shown in Table 16 above.

[0167] [Table 17]

[0168] Method and apparatus for HARQ-ACK feedback transmission

[0169] In another embodiment, the NR system adopts a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) scheme for retransmitting corresponding data in the physical layer when a decoding failure has occurred in the initial transmission. The HARQ scheme means that if the receiver fails to correctly decode the data, the receiver sends information (Negative ACKnowledgment; NACK) to notify the transmitter of the decoding failure to allow the transmitter to retransmit the corresponding data in the physical layer. The receiver combines the data retransmitted by the transmitter with the data that was not decoded previously to improve the data reception performance. Additionally, when the receiver correctly decodes the data, the receiver can send information (ACKnowledgment, ACK) notifying the transmitter of the decoding success to allow the transmitter to send new data.

[0170] In the following, the present disclosure describes a method and an apparatus for transmitting HARQ-ACK feedback for downlink data transmission. Specifically, a method for configuring HARQ-ACK feedback bits when a UE is to send multiple HARQ-ACKs within a time slot through the uplink is described.

[0171] In a wireless communication system, especially in a New Radio (NR) system, a base station may configure one component carrier (CC) or multiple CCs for downlink transmission to a UE. In each CC, downlink transmission and uplink transmission time slots and symbols may be configured. When scheduling a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) as downlink data, at least one of the time slot timing information for PDSCH mapping, the position information of the starting symbol of the PDSCH mapping in the corresponding time slot, and the information on the number of symbols mapped by the PDSCH may be sent through specific bit fields of Downlink Control Information (DCI). For example, when the DCI scheduling the PDSCH is sent in time slot n, and if K0, which is the time slot timing information for PDSCH transmission, indicates 0, the starting symbol position is 0, and the symbol length is 7, the corresponding PDSCH is mapped to seven symbols starting from symbol 0 in time slot n and is sent. After K1 time slots from the start of the transmission of the PDSCH as a downlink data signal, HARQ-ACK feedback is sent from the UE to the base station. The K1 information, which is the timing information for HARQ-ACK transmission, may be sent through DCI, a candidate set of possible K1 values may be delivered via higher layer signaling, and the DCI may indicate one of them.

[0172] When the UE is configured with a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook, the UE may determine the feedback bits (or HARQ-ACK codebook size) to be sent based on a table related to PDSCH mapping including time slot information K0, starting symbol information, symbol number, and length information, and based on the K1 candidate values that are the HARQ-ACK feedback timing information for the PDSCH. The table related to PDSCH mapping including time slot information, starting symbol information, symbol number, and length information may have default values, for example, or may be configured by the base station in the UE.

[0173] In the case where the UE is configured with a dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook, the UE may determine the HARQ-ACK feedback bits (or HARQ-ACK codebook size) to be transmitted by the UE in the time slot for transmitting HARQ-ACK information based on the Downlink Assignment Indicator (DAI) information included in the DCI, where the time slot for transmitting HARQ-ACK information is determined according to the time slot information K0 for PDSCH mapping and the K1 value of the HARQ-ACK feedback timing information for the PDSCH.

[0174] Figure 8 A method for configuring a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook in an NR system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0175] When the number of HARQ-ACK PUCCHs that a UE can transmit in one time slot is limited to 1, when the UE receives a high-layer signal configuring a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook, the UE can receive the PDSCH in the HARQ-ACK codebook in the time slot indicated by the value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator of DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1, or can report HARQ-ACK information for SPS PDSCH release in the time slot. The UE reports the value of the HARQ-ACK information bit as NACK in the HARQ-ACK codebook in the time slot not indicated by the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator field of DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1. When the UE reports HARQ-ACK information for only one SPS PDSCH release or one PDSCH reception among MA,c candidate PDSCH reception situations, and the report is scheduled by DCI format 1_0 including information indicating that the counter DCI field in the Pcell is 1, the UE can determine one HARQ-ACK codebook for SPS PDSCH release or PDSCH reception.

[0176] In addition to the above cases, a HARQ-ACK codebook determination method according to the following method can be adopted.

[0177] When a set of PDSCH reception candidate occasions in serving cell c is MA,c, MA,c can be obtained through the following (Pseudo-code 1) segment.

[0178] (Start of Pseudo-code 1)

[0179] Phase 1: Initialize j to 0, and initialize MA,c to an empty set. Initialize k, which is the HARQ-ACK transmission timing index, to 0.

[0180] Phase 2: Configure R as a set of rows of a table that includes information on the time slot to which the PDSCH is mapped, start symbol information, and information on the number or length of symbols. When the available mapping symbols of the PDSCH indicated by the value R are configured as UL symbols according to the DL and UL configurations configured by high-layer signaling, remove the corresponding rows from R.

[0181] Phase 3-1: The UE receives a unicast PDSCH in one time slot, and when R is not an empty set, add a PDSCH to the set MA,c.

[0182] Phase 3-2: If the UE can receive two or more unicast PDSCHs in one time slot, count the number of PDSCHs that can be allocated in different symbols from the calculated R, and add the counted number of PDSCHs to MA,c.

[0183] Stage 4: Increment k by 1 and restart from Stage 2.

[0184] (End of Pseudo-code 1)

[0185] In Pseudo-code 1, as Figure 8 shown, in order to transmit HARQ-ACK PUCCH in time slot #k 8-08, all time slot candidates in which it is possible to indicate the PDSCH-to-HARQ-ACK timing of time slot #k 8-08 are considered. Refer to Figure 8 , assuming that HARQ-ACK transmission is possible in time slot #k 8-08 through a combination of PDSCH-to-HARQ-ACK timing, the combination of PDSCH-to-HARQ-ACK timing is possible only through PDSCHs scheduled in time slot #n 8-02, time slot #(n + 1) 8-04, and time slot #(n + 2) 8-06. By considering the time domain resource configuration information of the PDSCHs that can be scheduled in each of time slots 8-02, 8-04, and 8-06, and the information indicating whether the symbols in the time slot correspond to the uplink or the downlink, the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be scheduled for each time slot can be derived. In one example, when two PDSCHs can be maximally scheduled in time slot 8-02, three PDSCHs can be maximally scheduled in time slot 8-04, and two PDSCHs can be maximally scheduled in time slot 8-06, the maximum number of PDSCHs including those in the HARQ-ACK codebook transmitted in time slot 8-08 is 7. This is referred to as the cardinality of the HARQ-ACK codebook.

[0186] Figure 9 A method for configuring a dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook in an NR system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0187] In one embodiment, the UE may transmit HARQ-ACK information transmitted in one PUCCH in time slot n based on the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing value for PUCCH transmission of HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH reception or SPS PDSCH release, and K0 which is the transmission time slot position information of the PDSCH scheduled by DCI format 1_0 or 1_1.

[0188] For the above HARQ-ACK information transmission, the UE may determine the HARQ-ACK codebook of the PUCCH transmitted in the time slot determined by the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing and K0 based on the DAI included in the DCI indicating the PDSCH or SPS PDSCH release.

[0189] The DAI is configured by a counter DAI (cCounter DAI) and a total DAI (ttotal DAI). The counter DAI is information indicating the position of HARQ-ACK information in the HARQ-ACK codebook corresponding to the PDSCH scheduled by DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1. The counter DAI value in DCI format 1_0 or 1_1 indicates the cumulative value of the PDSCH reception or SPS PDSCH release scheduled by DCI format 1_0 or 1_1 in a specific cell c. The above cumulative value is configured based on the PDCCH monitoring occasion where the scheduling DCI exists and the serving cell.

[0190] The total DAI is a value indicating the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook. The total DAI value means the total number of PDSCHs or SPS PDSCH releases scheduled at or before the time point of the scheduling DCI. The total DAI is a parameter used when the HARQ-ACK information in the serving cell c in the case of carrier aggregation (CA) also includes the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCHs scheduled in another cell as well as the serving cell c. There is no total DAI parameter in a system operating with a single cell.

[0191] Figure 9 An example of UE operation related to DAI in the case of using a dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook is shown. Figure 9 It is shown that, in the case of configuring two carriers (c) for the UE, when the UE transmits the HARQ-ACK codebook selected based on DAI through the PUCCH 920 in the nth time slot of carrier 0 902, the values of the counter DAI (C-DAI) and the total DAI (T-DAI) indicated by the DCI found in each PDCCH monitoring occasion configured for each carrier are changed. First, in the DCI found at the moment 906 represented by m = 0, each of the C-DAI and the T-DAI represents 1 (as shown by reference numeral 912). In the DCI found at the moment 908 represented by m = 1, each of the C-DAI and the T-DAI represents 2 (as shown by reference numeral 914). In the DCI found at the moment 910 represented by m = 2 (c = 0,902) in carrier 0, the C-DAI represents 3 (as shown by reference numeral 916). In the DCI found at the moment 910 represented by m = 2 (c = 1,904) in carrier 1, the C-DAI represents 4 (as shown by reference numeral 918). If carriers 0 and 1 are scheduled at the same monitoring moment, all the T-DAIs are represented by 4.

[0192] Refer to Figure 8 and Figure 9, determination of operation of a HARQ-ACK codebook in a case where a PUCCH carrying HARQ-ACK information is transmitted in only one time slot. As an example of a method for determining a PUCCH transmission resource in one time slot, when PDSCHs scheduled in different DCIs are multiplexed into one HARQ-ACK codebook and the codebook is transmitted in the same time slot, the PUCCH resource selected for HARQ-ACK transmission is determined to be the PUCCH resource indicated by the PUCCH resource field indicated in the DCI that last schedules the PDSCH. The PUCCH resources indicated by the PUCCH resource fields indicated in the DCIs scheduled before this DCI are ignored.

[0193] Network control repeater

[0194] In a wireless communication system, coverage is a very important factor. Currently, 5G is being commercialized and millimeter waves are also being commercialized, but there is not much actual use due to the limited coverage range. Many operators are looking for ways to provide reliable coverage while being economical. Installing multiple base stations can also be considered, but in this case, due to the high cost, more economical methods have been sought.

[0195] Therefore, the first technology considered is integrated access and backhaul (IAB), which has been studied from Rel-16 to Rel-17. IAB is a relay that does not require a backhaul network connected by wire and relays between a base station and a terminal. Although IAB has performance similar to that of a base station, the increase in cost is a problem. Secondly, a traditional RF repeater can be considered. An RF repeater is the most basic unit of a repeater that amplifies and transmits the received signal. The RF repeater has the advantage of being cheap because it simply amplifies and transmits the received signal, but it cannot actively handle various situations. For example, an RF repeater usually uses an omnidirectional antenna instead of a directional antenna, so beamforming gain cannot be obtained. In addition, an RF repeater is a source of interference because it amplifies and transmits noise even when there is no terminal connected to the RF repeater. IAB and RF repeaters have obvious advantages and disadvantages because they are biased between performance and cost. To increase the coverage range, not only performance but also cost need to be considered, which leads to the need for new terminals or amplifiers.

[0196] In 3GPP Rel-18, research is being conducted on Network-Controlled Repeaters (NCRs), which maintain the simple amplification and transmission operations of RF repeaters but maximize coverage gain by enabling beamforming techniques using adaptive antennas. In order for an NCR to send signals to a terminal in a cell using an adaptive antenna, the NCR should be able to receive control signals from the base station. Therefore, the NCR should be able to detect and decode the control signals of the base station and may have a structure for sending and receiving control signals similar to that of the terminal's control signals. The NCR can basically amplify the signals sent by the base station and send the amplified signals to the terminal, and amplify the signals sent by the terminal and send the amplified signals to the base station. The NCR can simply amplify and send the signals or channels sent and received by the base station and the terminal without detecting or decoding the signals or channels. In this way, the terminal cannot know whether the NCR is involved in the communication between the base station and the terminal. From the terminal's perspective, it is impossible to distinguish between the base station and the NCR, and the NCR can be regarded as the base station. The terminal does not require any additional information or operations for the NCR, so any version of the terminal can support the NCR.

[0197] From the base station's perspective, the NCR can be regarded as a normal terminal. When the NCR is first installed, the NCR can perform an initial access to the base station like a normal terminal, and after establishing a high-layer connection (e.g., an RRC connection), the NCR can receive the configurations that a normal terminal can receive from the base station. After establishing a connection with the base station, the NCR can perform the operations of amplifying and sending signals. From the base station's perspective, it must be known whether the terminal is directly connected to the base station or connected to the base station through the NCR. When the terminal is within the coverage area of the NCR, the terminal can communicate with the base station through the NCR, and the base station can identify the NCR through implementation.

[0198] From the NCR's perspective, regardless of whether the terminal is within the coverage area of the NCR, the NCR can perform the operation of amplifying the signal and sending the amplified signal to the terminal under the control of the base station. The base station knows which terminal is communicating through which NCR, but the NCR does not know. In order to control the NCR, the base station can also use a control signal that plays a similar role to DCI. In this disclosure, for convenience, this control signal will be defined as Supplementary Control Information (SCI). The SCI is not limited to the terms used later in this disclosure, and other terms with equivalent technical meanings can be used, such as Repeater-DCI (R-DCI), Repeater Control Information (RCI), Network-Controlled Repeater Control Information (NCI), etc. The SCI refers to the control channel sent by the base station to control the NCR, and this signal cannot be known to the terminal and can only be recognized by the base station and the NCR.

[0199] Figure 10Shows an example of transmission and reception associated with an NCR when the NCR performs relaying between a base station and a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0200] Referring Figure 10 , shows the operation of an NCR 10-00 that relays communication (e.g., downlink, uplink) between a base station and a UE. The NCR needs a structure capable of transmitting and receiving control signaling of the base station, which can be performed by a network-controlled repeater-mobile terminal (NCR-MT) 10-01. The NCR-MT can receive control signaling from the base station via a control link (C-link) 10-03 and can send feedback to the base station. From the perspective of the base station, the NCR-MT looks like a normal UE and can perform corresponding communication. The base station can control network-controlled repeater forwarding (NCR-Fwd) 10-02, for example, by sending control signaling to the NCR-MT. The NCR-Fwd can be configured only by the basic RF or physical layer and can perform operations of amplifying signals and forwarding the amplified signals to the UE. In the case of the downlink, the NCR-Fwd can receive signals from the base station via a backhaul link 10-04 and then forward the received signals to the UE via an access link 10-05. Since the backhaul link and the C-link are not necessarily physically separate links, the NCR can perform amplification and forwarding and at the same time detect the SCI established by the base station on the C-link to indicate the operation of the NCR. In the case of the uplink, the NCR can receive the uplink signal sent by the UE via the access link 10-05 and perform operations of amplifying and forwarding the uplink signal to the base station via the backhaul link 10-04. At this time, the NCR can send SRS or uplink feedback for SCI or high-layer control to the base station. Assuming that the NCR-MT part of the NCR is the same as the NCR-MT part of a general terminal, it can be reasonably assumed that the NCR itself sends uplink feedback.

[0201] In the downlink, the NCR can detect and receive the SCI from the base station and at the same time amplify the downlink signal and forward the amplified signal to the UE. This operation is possible in the case where the NCR is capable of performing amplification and forwarding operations while detecting the SCI. Since SCI discovery requires low complexity, the NCR may not require additional cost to perform the SCI discovery operation. In the uplink, the operation of the NCR itself sending uplink feedback while amplifying and forwarding the uplink signal of the UE may vary according to the implementation of the NCR.

[0202] Figure 11 Shows an example of uplink transmission according to an RF chain when the NCR performs relaying between a base station and a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0203] ReferringFigure 11 , UE 11-01 can send an uplink signal to base station 11-03 through the relay of NCR 11-02. In Figure 11 , reference numeral "11-00" shows an example of a case where NCR-MT 11-04 and NCR-Fwd 11-05 are each connected to different RF chains 11-06, while reference numeral "11-10" shows an example of a case where NCR-MT and NCR-Fwd are connected to the same RF chain. An RF chain is a functional configuration composed of a single radio link and a series of RF processing elements (i.e., antennas, power amplifiers, mixers) connected like a chain, and is responsible for increasing the frequency and sending the signal through various filters after converting the signal at the digital level into an analog signal. One RF chain is used for one stream. Therefore, in reference numeral "11-00", since the signal sent by the UE in the uplink and amplified and then sent by NCR-Fwd and the signal sent by NCR-MT are sent to the base station through different RF chains, the signals can be sent in different frequency domains at the same time. On the other hand, in reference numeral "11-10", if the signal sent by NCR-Fwd and the signal sent by NCR-MT after being sent and amplified by the UE are considered different streams, the signal sent by NCR-Fwd and the signal sent by NCR-MT cannot be sent simultaneously in the same RF chain.

[0204] The NCR performs signal amplification and forwarding operations under the control of the base station by using the above NCR-MT and NCR-Fwd structures. Since amplification and forwarding are operations that directly amplify the configured bandwidth, noise can also be amplified and forwarded. For example, in the case where multiple NCRs forward signals to the base station in the uplink, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the base station may decrease due to an increase in the noise floor of the base station. In addition, due to the low-cost feature of the NCR, there is a possibility of increasing the adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) due to poor filter performance. Due to the above disadvantages, the base station can turn on or off (ON / OFF) the amplification and forwarding operations of the NCR as needed. In one example, the NCR is defaulted to the OFF state and can be switched to the ON state to perform amplification and forwarding operations when receiving an access link beam indication or when it is configured / indicated to be in the ON state.

[0205] In one embodiment, the access link beam configuration of NCR can be configured by high-layer signaling, such as RRC or operation administration and maintenance (OAM). The mapping relationship between the actual physical access link beam of NCR and the access link beam index (or access link TCI state) used for indication can be configured by the implementation of NCR. Based on the access link beam configuration, NCR can be configured for periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic indication of the access link beam. For periodic indication, the base station can configure (the access link beam index and time resources) one or more pairs, the periodicity, and the subcarrier spacing (SCS) via high-layer signaling. For aperiodic indication, one or more access link beam index fields in the DCI scrambled by the NCR-specific RNTI can indicate the access link beam, and one or more time resource fields can indicate the time resources. The SCS of the aperiodic indication can be the same as the SCS of the DCI. Although there are definitions for periodic and aperiodic access link beam indications, there is no specific definition for semi-persistent indication yet. NCR requires semi-persistent indication to support UE's SPS PDSCH, CG-PUSCH, semi-persistent CSI-RS, and SRS. The following embodiments describe the semi-persistent access link beam indication in detail.

[0206] <First Embodiment: List Index Indication Method>

[0207] The first embodiment describes a method of indicating an access link beam using a semi-persistent method. According to the first embodiment, the base station can configure, via high-layer signaling (such as RRC), multiple lists including one or more forwarding resources in NCR, and can indicate, via MAC-CE or SCI, the lists to be activated / deactivated in one or more of the lists. The forwarding resource here refers to a bundle of access link beam indices (or access link TCI states) and the corresponding time resources. The access link beam index (or access link TCI state) to be used can be configured by the base station via high-layer signaling (such as RRC, OAM) for NCR. The time resources can include at least one of a slot offset, a symbol offset, and a duration in symbols.

[0208] The method according to the first embodiment has the disadvantage of less scheduling flexibility because the base station pre-configures the possible combinations of forwarding resources via high-layer signaling and then indicates the combination of forwarding resources via MAC-CE or SCI. Since the MAC-CE or SCI indicates the forwarding resources in bundles, it has the following advantage: the access link beam can be indicated with a smaller MAC-CE payload or a smaller SCI payload.

[0209] Figure 12 An example related to the semi-persistent access link beam indication of NCR according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0210] Refer to Figure 12 , NCR can receive the configuration of one or more lists 12-01 via the high-layer signaling 12-00. Each list includes one or more forwarding resources 12-02, and the forwarding resources may include a pair of access link beam indexes (or access link TCI states) and time resources. The base station can indicate one of the one or more lists 12-01 via MAC-CE or SCI 12-10. If the base station indicates list 0 via MAC-CE or SCI 12-10, NCR can identify which access link beam is applied to which time resource by referring to the three forwarding resources included in list 0. Referring to the access link beam 12-20, NCR can receive MAC-CE or SCI 12-10, send the corresponding HARQ-ACK via PUCCH 12-21, and apply the access link beam index (or access link TCI state) to each time domain according to the forwarding resources included in list 0. The forwarding resources can indicate that a specific beam is applied to a specific time domain by means of a slot offset, a symbol offset, or a symbol unit duration. The beam indicated by the forwarding resources is dedicated to a single slot and may not indicate a beam beyond the slot boundary. For example, the first forwarding resource of list 0 can be applied to slot 12-22, the second forwarding resource can be applied to slot 12-23, and the last resource can be applied to slot 12-24.

[0211] It is possible to determine whether the indicated forwarding resource is applied to the uplink or the downlink according to the time-division duplex (TDD) mode direction configured by the high-layer signaling. In the example, when slots 12-22 and 12-23 are downlink and slot 12-24 is uplink, NCR can apply access link beam indexes #0 and 1 to the downlink and apply access link beam index #2 to the uplink.

[0212] For the slot offset of the forwarding resources, the slot in which the PUCCH is transmitted can be configured as the reference slot, or the first slot after 3 ms from the transmission of the PUCCH can be configured as the reference.

[0213] It may happen that the time resources of the beam applied by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the time resources of the beam indicated by the periodic or aperiodic access link beam indication method by at least one symbol. In this case, the aperiodic access link beam indication method may have the highest priority, followed by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method, and then the periodic access link beam indication method. In the case where the symbol for which the periodic access link beam indication method applies its beam overlaps with the symbol for which the semi-persistent access link beam indication method applies its beam, the NCR may apply the beam that has already been applied using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method. In the case where the symbol for which the semi-persistent access link beam indication method applies its beam overlaps with the symbol for which the aperiodic access link beam indication method applies its beam, the NCR may apply the beam that has already been applied using the aperiodic access link beam indication method. In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic access link beam indication method (even if it overlaps by at least one symbol), the NCR may apply the access link beam by using at least one of the following methods.

[0214] - Priority method 1

[0215] In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic access link beam indication method (even if it overlaps by at least one symbol), the corresponding symbols may be applied together with the access link beam according to the above priorities. Non-overlapping symbols will be applied together with the access link beam according to each method.

[0216] - Priority method 2

[0217] In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic method (even by at least one symbol), the NCR may ignore the time resources of the lower priority in the corresponding time slot. When the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method is applied to all symbols in time slots 12 - 24, when another beam is indicated to any one symbol in time slots 12 - 24 by the aperiodic method, the time resources of the beam in time slots 12 - 24 indicated by the semi-persistent method may be ignored.

[0218] Hereinafter, the method of configuring the semi-persistent access link beam using MAC-CE or SCI will be described in more detail.

[0219] If the base station performs semi-persistent access link beam indication through MAC-CE, the MAC-CE may include the following fields.

[0220] - Activation / Deactivation

[0221] - List Index

[0222] The NCR can identify whether the MAC-CE beam indication is active or deactivated based on a 1-bit activation / deactivation field. If the indication is "active", the NCR applies the access link beam according to each forwarding resource included in the list, repeating the same every period. If the indication is "deactivated", the NCR deactivates the access link beam from the period after the first time slot that appears 3 ms after transmitting the PUCCH including the HARQ-ACK corresponding to the MAC-CE.

[0223] According to one embodiment, the NCR can receive an indication of one of the lists configured by higher layer signaling through a list index field. The number of bits in the list index field can be determined by the maximum number of lists that can be configured by higher layer signaling. The list index field can be interpreted as at least one of the following methods for interpreting the list index field.

[0224] - List Index Field Interpretation Method 1:

[0225] The list index field can indicate a single list index. In one example, if the maximum number of lists that can be configured for higher layer signaling is 64, then Ceil(LOG2(64)) = 6 bits are required. CEL1 is a function that unconditionally rounds up decimal numbers, and LOG2 is a logarithmic function with a base of 2.

[0226] If the list index field exists and, in addition, the forwarding resource index field exists, the forwarding resource index field can indicate the forwarding resources included in the list indicated by the list index field as a bitmap. For example, if there are four forwarding resources in the specified list, a 4-bit bitmap can be indicated, where each bit corresponds to a forwarding resource.

[0227] - List Index Field Interpretation Method 2:

[0228] The list index field can indicate multiple list indexes as a bitmap. Each bit of the list index field corresponds to a list configured by higher layer signaling. For example, if four lists are configured by higher layer signaling and the list index field has a value of "1001", the NCR knows that the first and last lists have been indicated.

[0229] The periodicity and SCS of the semi-persistent access link beam indication can be configured via higher layer signaling and included in a list. Alternatively, the periodicity and SCS can be included as fields in the MAC-CE. Since the semi-persistent access beam indication in NCR is an amplify-and-forward semi-persistent channel or signal, it would be reasonable to consider the periodicity of the semi-persistent channel or signal as the periodicity of the semi-persistent access link beam indication. The maximum configured number of SPS PDSCH periodicities is determined by the SCS. The periodicity of the SPS-PDSCH configured with 15 kHz SCS has 640 entries ranging from 1 ms to 640 ms, thus requiring 10 bits. Therefore, the field for the periodicity of the semi-persistent access link beam indication can be allocated according to the SCS. The SCS can vary according to the frequency band using NCR. In the case of using NCR in the FR1 band, 15 / 30 kHz SCS is used, while in the case of using NCR in the FR2-1 band, 60 / 120 kHz SCS is used. In the case of using NCR in the FR2-2 band, 120 / 480 / 960 kHz SCS is used. Therefore, according to the frequency band using NCR, one or two bits can be allocated to the SCS field.

[0230] Figure 13 An example of a method for access link beam indication for NCR via MAC-CE in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0231] Referring to Figure 13, the reference numeral "13-00" indicates the case where the forwarding resource index field 13-06 does not exist, while the reference numeral "13-10" indicates the case where the forwarding resource index field 13-06 exists. In the case of "13-00", the activation / deactivation field 13-01 is 1 bit, and the NCR can identify beam activation or deactivation based on the activation / deactivation field 13-01. The serving cell ID field 13-02 can indicate the cell for which the NCR performs amplification and transmission operations and has the cell ID applied by the MAC-CE. As an example, the list index field 13-04 is allocated 6 bits. When the list index field is interpreted using list index field interpretation method 1, the NCR can receive an indication of one list out of 64 lists through the list index field 13-04. When the list index field is interpreted using list index field interpretation method 2, the NCR can receive an indication of one or more lists out of six lists through the list index 13-04. The list index field 13-04 can change according to the maximum number of lists configured by the base station. The NCR can apply access link beams by referring to the list configured via higher layer signaling through the list index field and the forwarding resources included in the list. R is a reserved bit and has a value of "0". As an example, the SCS 13-03 has 1 bit for FR1 or FR2-1. In the case of FR1, one of 15 / 30 kHz can be indicated, while in the case of FR2-1, one of 60 / 120 kHz can be indicated. If the NCR operates in the FR2-2 band, the NCR can be allocated 2 bits and can receive an indication of one of 120 / 480 / 960 kHz. The periodicity field 13-05 has 10 bits and 640 entries, as the operation of amplifying and forwarding the SPS-PDSCH of 15 kHz is described as an example. The NCR can receive an indication of the value of one entry out of 640 entries through the periodicity field 13-05 as the periodicity. The number of bits of the periodicity field can be determined by the previously indicated SCS field. If the SCS and the periodicity configuration exist in the list configured via higher layer signaling, the SCS and the periodicity field can have 0 bits in the MAC-CE. If list index field interpretation method 2 is used to interpret the list index field, multiple lists can be indicated, so it is impossible to know one SCS and one periodicity to be used. When list index field interpretation method 2 is used, there will be multiple SCS and periodicity fields. In the case of "13-10", list index field interpretation method 1 is used to interpret the list index field, and the list index field can refer to the forwarding resource index field 13-06 based on the indicated list. For example, if the maximum number of forwarding resources that can be included in the list is 8, the forwarding resource index field has 8 bits, and each bit indicates the forwarding resource included in the list.For example, if the forwarding resource index field has a value of "10001000", this value indicates the first and fifth forwarding resources included in the indicated list. If the forwarding resource index field does not exist, all forwarding resources in the indicated list are used.

[0232] In the case where the base station performs semi-persistent access link beam indication via the SCI, there are at least two possible methods. The first is to have an independent field in the SCI, and the second is to reinterpret the fields of the SCI.

[0233] In the first method, the SCI may include the following fields

[0234] - Activate / Deactivate

[0235] - List Index

[0236] The definitions of the Activate / Deactivate and List Index fields are the same as those of the previously described MAC-CE fields. Whether the SCI includes Periodicity and SCS can be determined according to whether Periodicity and SCS are included in the configuration via higher layer signaling. The first method performs semi-persistent access link beam indication based on independent fields, but its disadvantage is that fields that are not used otherwise are added to the SCI.

[0237] In the second method, the SCI can reinterpret the access link beam index field and the time resource field used for aperiodic access link beam indication as the access link beam index field and the time resource field for semi-persistent access link beam indication. The NCR requires an additional 1-bit Activate / Deactivate field to clearly identify the access link beam index field and the time resource field of the SCI as those for aperiodic or semi-persistent access link beam indication. When the NCR identifies that the SCI is for semi-persistent access link beam indication through the Activate / Deactivate field, the list index can be indicated by reinterpreting the access link beam index field. The NCR can interpret the most significant bit (MSB) of the first access link beam index field as the MSB of the list index, and can interpret the least significant bit (LSB) of the last access link beam index field as the LSB of the list index. In other words, the NCR can derive the list index by reinterpreting all the bits of the access link beam index fields arranged in sequence. Periodicity and SCS can be included in the list via higher layer signaling. The second method has the advantage of reusing existing SCI fields, thus minimizing additional fields. However, if the number of bits in the access link beam index field of the SCI is less than the maximum configured number of the list, there is a disadvantage of indicating only a limited list.

[0238] <Second Embodiment: Resource Index Indication Method>

[0239] The second embodiment describes a method of using a semi-persistent approach to indicate access link beams. According to the second embodiment, the base station may configure one or more forwarding resources in the NCR via higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC), and may indicate the forwarding list to be activated / deactivated in one or more forwarding lists via MAC-CE or SCI. The forwarding resources refer here to a bundle of access link beam indices (or access link TCI states) and the corresponding time resources. In this case, the base station may configure the access link beam indices (or access link TCI states) used for the NCR via higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC, OAM). The time resources may include, for example, at least one of a slot offset, a symbol offset, and a duration in symbols.

[0240] The difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment is that the second embodiment directly performs the forwarding resource indication, while the first embodiment performs the indication in a bundle of forwarding resources. By directly indicating the forwarding resources, the second embodiment allows the base station to have greater flexibility in beam scheduling. The MAC-CE payload or the SCI payload may increase due to the indication of multiple forwarding resources rather than a bundle of resources.

[0241] Figure 14 An example related to semi-persistent access link beam indication for the NCR according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0242] Refer to Figure 14, NCR can receive the configuration of one or more forwarding lists 14-01 via the high-layer signaling 14-00. Each forwarding list may include a pair of access link beam indices (or access link TCI states) and time resources. The base station can indicate one of the one or more lists 14-01 via MAC-CE or SCI 14-10. If the base station indicates the forwarding resource index via MAC-CE or SCI 14-10, NCR can determine which access link beam is applied to which time resource by referring to the corresponding forwarding resource. In the example, if the forwarding resource indices of resources #0, #3, and #6 are indicated via MAC-CE or SCI 14-10, NCR can refer to {access link beam index #0, time resource #0} of resource #0, {access link beam index #3, time resource #3} of resource #3, and {access link beam index #6, time resource #6} of resource #6 to identify the access link beam and its corresponding time resource. Referring to the access link beam 14-20, NCR can receive MAC-CE or SCI 14-10, send the corresponding HARQ-ACK via PUCCH 14-21, and apply the access link beam to each time domain according to the forwarding resource. The forwarding resource includes slot offset, symbol offset, and symbol unit duration. The corresponding time domain corresponds to an access link beam. The beam indicated by the forwarding resource is dedicated to a single slot and does not indicate a beam beyond the slot boundary. For example, resource #0 can be applied to slot 14-22, resource #3 can be applied to slot 14-23, and resource #6 can be applied to slot 14-24.

[0243] It can be determined whether the indicated forwarding resource is applied to the uplink or the downlink according to the TDD mode direction configured by the high-layer signaling. For example, when slots 14-22 and 14-23 are the downlink and slot 14-24 is the uplink, NCR can apply the access link beam indices #0 and 3 to the downlink and apply the access link beam index #6 to the uplink.

[0244] For the slot offset of the forwarding resource, the slot in which the PUCCH is sent can be configured as the reference slot, or the first slot after 3 ms from the transmission of the PUCCH can be configured as the reference.

[0245] It may occur that the time resources of the beam applied by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the time resources of the beam indicated by the periodic or aperiodic access link beam indication method by at least one symbol. The aperiodic access link beam indication method may have the highest priority, followed by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method, and then the periodic access link beam indication method. In the case where the symbols to which the beam is applied using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the symbols to which the beam is applied using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method, the NCR may apply the beam that has already been applied using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method. In the case where the symbols to which the beam is applied using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the symbols to which the beam is applied using the aperiodic access link beam indication method, the NCR may apply the beam that has already been applied using the aperiodic access link beam indication method. In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic access link beam indication method (even if overlapping by at least one symbol), the NCR may apply the access link beam by using at least one of the following methods.

[0246] - Priority method 1

[0247] In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic access link beam indication method (even if overlapping by at least one symbol), the corresponding symbols may be applied together with the access link beam according to the above priorities. Non-overlapping symbols will be applied together with the access link beam according to each method.

[0248] - Priority method 2

[0249] In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic method (even if overlapping by at least one symbol), the NCR may ignore the lower-priority time resources in the corresponding time slot. For example, when the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method is applied to all symbols in time slots 14 - 24, when another beam is indicated to any one symbol in time slots 14 - 24 by the aperiodic method, the time resources of the beam in time slots 14 - 24 indicated by the semi-persistent method may be ignored.

[0250] Hereinafter, the method of configuring the semi-persistent access link beam using MAC-CE or SCI will be described in more detail.

[0251] If the base station performs semi-persistent access link beam indication through MAC-CE, the MAC-CE may include the following fields.

[0252] - Activation / Deactivation

[0253] - Resource ID

[0254] - Periodicity

[0255] - SCS

[0256] The NCR can identify whether the MAC-CE beam indication is activated or deactivated, for example, based on a 1-bit activation / deactivation field. If the indication is "activated", the NCR applies the access link beam according to each forwarding resource included in the list, repeating the same every period. If the indication is "deactivated", the NCR deactivates the access link beam starting from the period after the first time slot that appears 3 ms after transmitting the PUCCH including the HARQ-ACK corresponding to the MAC-CE.

[0257] The NCR can receive an indication of the forwarding resources configured by the higher layer signaling through the resource ID field. The resource ID field can be interpreted as at least one of the following methods.

[0258] Resource ID field interpretation method 1:

[0259] A resource ID field can indicate one of the resource IDs configured by the higher layer signaling. The number of bits in the resource ID field can be determined according to the maximum number of forwarding resources that can be configured by the higher layer signaling. If the maximum number of forwarding resources that can be configured by the higher layer signaling is 256, Ceil(LOG2(256)) = 8 bits are required. In this case, ceil is a function that unconditionally rounds up decimals, and log2 is the logarithm function with base 2. If multiple resource IDs are indicated, multiple resource ID fields can be allocated.

[0260] To allocate multiple resource ID fields, the NCR needs to clearly know the number of fields. The resource quantity field allows the NCR to know how many forwarding resources are indicated to the MAC-CE. If the quantity of resources has a value of N, N forwarding resources can be indicated.

[0261] Resource ID field interpretation method 2:

[0262] In one embodiment, a resource ID field can indicate one or several of the resource IDs configured by the higher layer signaling as a bitmap. The number of bits in the resource ID field can be determined by the maximum number of forwarding resources that can be configured by the higher layer signaling. For example, if the maximum number of forwarding resources that can be configured by the higher layer signaling is 256, 256 bits are required. Each bit of the bitmap will be able to indicate a forwarding resource.

[0263] The periodicity and SCS fields of the semi-persistent access link beam indication can indicate the periodicity and SCS of the indicated beam. Since the semi-persistent access beam indication of NCR is an amplify-and-forward semi-persistent channel or signal, it would be reasonable to consider the periodicity of the semi-persistent channel or signal as the periodicity of the semi-persistent access link beam indication. The maximum number of configured SPS PDSCH periodicities is determined by the SCS. The periodicity of the SPS-PDSCH configured with a 15 kHz SCS has 640 entries ranging from 1 ms to 640 ms, thus requiring 10 bits. Therefore, the field for the periodicity of the semi-persistent access link beam indication can be allocated according to the SCS. The SCS can vary according to the frequency band using NCR. In the case of using NCR in the FR1 band, an SCS of 15 / 30 kHz is used, while in the case of using NCR in the FR2-1 band, an SCS of 60 / 120 kHz is used. In the case of using NCR in the FR2-2 band, an SCS of 120 / 480 / 960 kHz is used. Therefore, according to the frequency band using NCR, the SCS field can be allocated one or two bits.

[0264] Figure 15 An example of a method for access link beam indication for NCR via MAC-CE in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0265] Refer to Figure 15, the reference numeral "15-00" indicates a case depending on the resource ID field interpretation method 1, while the reference numeral "15-10" indicates a case depending on the resource ID field interpretation method 2. In the case of "15-00", the activation / deactivation field 15-01 is 1 bit, and the NCR can identify beam activation or deactivation based on the activation / deactivation field 15-01. The serving cell ID field 15-02 can indicate the cell for which the NCR performs the amplification and transmission operations and has the cell ID applied by the MAC-CE. As an example, the SCS 15-03 has 1 bit for FR1 or FR2-1. In the case of FR1, one of 15 / 30 kHz can be indicated, while in the case of FR2-1, one of 60 / 120 kHz can be indicated. If the NCR operates in the FR2-2 band, the NCR can be assigned 2 bits and can receive an indication of one of 120 / 480 / 960 kHz. R is a reserved bit and has a value of 0. The periodicity field 15-04 has 640 entries of 10 bits because, as an example, the operation of amplifying and forwarding the SPS-PDSCH at 15 kHz is described. The NCR can receive an indication of the value of one of the 640 entries in the periodicity field 15-04 as the periodicity. The number of bits of the periodicity field can be determined by the previously indicated SCS field. In one example, the resource number 15-05 is 3 bits and allows the allocation of up to 8 forwarding resources. As an example, the resource ID 15-06 or 15-07 has 8 bits because the maximum number that can be configured by the higher layer signaling is 256 entries. These fields can vary according to the maximum number of forwarding resources configured by the base station. The first field 15-06 always exists, and the last field 15-07 can change according to the value of the resource number 15-05. The NCR can apply the access link beam by referring to the forwarding resource corresponding to the resource ID. In the case of "15-10", the NCR can obtain the indicated number of forwarding resources by referring to the value of the resource ID field 15-08, so the resource field number is not required. As an example, if 8 forwarding resources are configured by the higher layer signaling, the resource ID field 15-08 has 8 bits, and each bit indicates one forwarding resource. For example, when the resource ID field has the value "10001000", it indicates the first and fifth forwarding resources among the forwarding resources configured by the signaling.

[0266] In the case where the base station performs semi-persistent access link beam indication through the SCI, there are at least two possible methods. The first is to have an independent field in the SCI, and the second is to reinterpret the fields of the SCI.

[0267] In the first method, the SCI can include the following fields

[0268] - Activation / Deactivation

[0269] - Resource Index

[0270] - Periodicity

[0271] - SCS

[0272] The definitions of the activate / deactivate and resource ID fields are the same as those of the MAC-CE fields described previously. The resource index field may have one or more fields, each indicating a resource index. The first method performs semi-persistent access link beam indication based on independent fields, but its disadvantage is adding unused fields to the SCI otherwise.

[0273] In the second method, the SCI can reinterpret the access link beam index field and time resource field for non-periodic access link beam indication as the access link beam index field and time resource field for semi-persistent access link beam indication. The NCR requires an additional 1-bit activate / deactivate field to clearly identify which fields of the access link beam index field and time resource field of the SCI are for non-periodic or semi-persistent access link beam indication. When the NCR identifies through the activate / deactivate field that the SCI is for semi-persistent access link beam indication, the forwarding resource indication can be indicated by reinterpreting the access link beam index field. For example, the NCR can interpret the most significant bit (MSB) of the first access link beam index field as the MSB, and can interpret the least significant bit (LSB) of the last access link beam index field as the LSB. The NCR can derive the forwarding resource index by reinterpreting all bits of the access link beam index fields arranged in order. Specifically, the first X bits indicate the number of forwarding resources, and each forwarding resource index can be identified by making the remaining bits other than the bits corresponding to periodicity and SCS equal to the number of forwarding resources. The NCR can learn the X bits through higher layer signaling. The second method has the advantage of reusing existing SCI fields, thus minimizing additional fields. If the number of bits in the access link beam index field of the SCI is less than the maximum configured number of forwarding resources, there is a disadvantage of only indicating a limited number of forwarding resources.

[0274] <Third Embodiment: Time Resource Index Indication Method>

[0275] The third embodiment describes a method for indicating an access link beam using a semi-persistent method. According to the third embodiment, the base station may configure multiple lists including one or more time resources in the NCR via high-layer signaling (e.g., RRC), and may indicate the list to be activated / deactivated to the NCR via MAC-CE or SCI. In addition, the base station may indicate an access link beam index (or access link TCI state) corresponding to the time resources included in the list via MAC-CE or SCI. The time resources indicate a time resource bundle, such as a slot offset, a symbol offset, and a symbol length. The access link beam index used may be configured by the base station via high-layer signaling (e.g., RRC, OAM) for the NCR.

[0276] The difference between the first embodiment and the third embodiment is that the first embodiment performs the indication in the forwarding resource bundle, while the third embodiment divides the forwarding resources into a beam index (or access link TCI state) and time resources, indicates the time resources in a bundle, and directly indicates the beam index (or access link TCI state). The third embodiment allows the base station to have greater flexibility in scheduling beams by directly indicating the beam index (or access link TCI state). Since the beam index (or access link TCI state) is not included in the bundle, the MAC-CE payload or SCI payload may increase.

[0277] Figure 16 An example related to semi-persistent access link beam indication for the NCR according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0278] Refer to Figure 16, NCR can receive the configuration of one or more lists 16-01 via high-layer signaling 16-00. Each list includes one or more time resources 16-02. If the base station indicates list 0 via MAC-CE or SCI 16-10, NCR can identify the beam index to which the time resource will be applied by referring to three time resources in list 0. Additionally, the beam index corresponding to the time resource can be indicated via MAC-CE or SCI 16-10. Regarding the access link beam 16-20, NCR can receive MAC-CE or SCI 16-10, send the corresponding HARQ-ACK via PUCCH 16-21, and apply the access link beam to each time domain according to the time resources included in list 0. The access link beam index (or access link TCI state) can refer to the access link beam index (or access link TCI state) indicated by MAC-CE or SCI 16-10. NCR can identify the beam to be applied in the corresponding time domain by combining the time resources obtained from list 0 and the access link beam index (or access link TCI state). The beam corresponding to the time resource is dedicated to the time slot and does not indicate the beam beyond the time slot boundary. The first resource in list 0 is applied to time slot 16-22, the second resource is applied to time slot 16-23, and the last resource is applied to time slot 16-24.

[0279] It can be determined whether the indicated forwarding resource is applied to the uplink or the downlink according to the TDD mode direction configured by high-layer signaling. For example, when time slots 16-22 and 16-23 are the downlink and time slot 16-24 is the uplink, NCR can apply access link beam indices #0 and 1 to the downlink and apply access link beam index #2 to the uplink.

[0280] For the time slot offset of the forwarding resource, the time slot in which PUCCH is sent can be configured as the reference time slot, or the first time slot after 3 ms from the transmission of PUCCH can be configured as the reference.

[0281] It may occur that the time resources of the beam applied by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the time resources of the beam indicated by the periodic or aperiodic access link beam indication method by at least one symbol. In this case, the aperiodic access link beam indication method may have the highest priority, followed by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method, and then the periodic access link beam indication method. In one example, in the case where the symbol to which the periodic access link beam indication method applies its beam overlaps with the symbol to which the semi-persistent access link beam indication method applies its beam, the NCR may apply the beam that has already been applied using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method. In another example, in the case where the symbol to which the semi-persistent access link beam indication method applies its beam overlaps with the symbol to which the aperiodic access link beam indication method applies its beam, the NCR may apply the beam that has already been applied using the aperiodic access link beam indication method. In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic access link beam indication method (even if it overlaps by at least one symbol), the NCR may apply the access link beam by using at least one of the following methods.

[0282] - Priority method 1

[0283] In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic access link beam indication method (even if it overlaps by at least one symbol), the corresponding symbols may be applied together with the access link beam according to the above priorities. Non-overlapping symbols, for example, will be applied together with the access link beam according to each method.

[0284] - Priority method 2

[0285] In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic method (even if it overlaps by at least one symbol), the NCR may ignore the time resources of the lower priority in the corresponding time slot. When the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method is applied to all symbols in time slots 16 - 24, when another beam is indicated to any one symbol in time slots 16 - 24 by the aperiodic method, the time resources of the beam in time slots 16 - 24 indicated by the semi-persistent method may be ignored.

[0286] Hereinafter, the method of configuring the semi-persistent access link beam using MAC-CE or SCI will be described in more detail.

[0287] If the base station performs semi-persistent access link beam indication through MAC-CE, the MAC-CE may include the following fields.

[0288] - Activation / Deactivation

[0289] - Time-domain Resource List Index

[0290] - Beam Index

[0291] The NCR can identify whether the MAC-CE beam indication is activated or deactivated based on a 1-bit activation / deactivation field. If the indication is "activated", the NCR applies the access link beam according to each time resource included in the list, repeating the same every period. If the indication is "deactivated", the NCR deactivates the access link beam from the period after the first time slot that appears 3 ms after transmitting the PUCCH including the HARQ-ACK corresponding to the MAC-CE.

[0292] The NCR can receive an indication of the time resources configured by higher layer signaling through the time-domain resource index field. The number of bits in the list index field can be determined according to the maximum number of lists that can be configured by higher layer signaling. If the maximum number of lists that can be configured by higher layer signaling is 64, Ceil(LOG2(64)) = 6 bits are required. In this case, ceil is a function that unconditionally rounds up the decimal part, and log2 is the logarithm function with base 2. If there is a time-domain resource index field and there is also a forwarding resource index field, the forwarding resource index field can indicate the time resources included in the list indicated by the time-domain resource index field as a bitmap. If there are four time resources in the indicated list, a 4-bit bitmap can be indicated, with each bit corresponding to a time resource.

[0293] The NCR can identify the access link beam index (or access link TCI state) to be applied in the time-domain resources indicated in the time-domain resource index field by referring to one or more beam index fields. The NCR expects at least one beam index field to exist. If the forwarding resource index field does not exist, the NCR can expect the number of beam index fields to be equal to the number of time resources included in the time-domain resource index field. If the forwarding resource index field exists, the NCR can expect the number of beam index fields to be equal to the number of time resources indicated by the forwarding resource index field. The indicated time resources can correspond one-to-one in sequence to the access link beam index (or access link TCI state).

[0294] The periodicity and SCS of semi-persistent access link beam indication can be configured by higher layer signaling and included in a list. Alternatively, the periodicity and SCS of semi-persistent access link beam indication can be included in a field in the MAC-CE. Since the semi-persistent access beam indication in NCR is an amplify-and-forward semi-persistent channel or signal, it would be reasonable to consider the periodicity of the semi-persistent channel or signal as the periodicity of the semi-persistent access link beam indication. In one example, the maximum number of configured SPS PDSCH periodicities is determined by the SCS. The period of the SPS-PDSCH configured with 15 kHz SCS has 640 entries ranging from 1 ms to 640 ms, thus requiring 10 bits. Therefore, a field for the periodicity of semi-persistent access link beam indication can be allocated according to the SCS. The SCS can vary according to the frequency band using NCR. In the case of using NCR in the FR1 band, an SCS of 15 / 30 kHz is used, while in the case of using NCR in the FR2-1 band, an SCS of 60 / 120 kHz is used. In the case of using NCR in the FR2-2 band, an SCS of 120 / 480 / 960 kHz is used. Therefore, according to the frequency band using NCR, the SCS field can be allocated one or two bits.

[0295] Figure 17 An example of a method for access link beam indication for NCR via MAC-CE in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0296] Refer to Figure 17, the reference numeral "17-00" indicates the case where there is no forwarding resource index field 17-08, while the reference numeral "17-10" indicates the case where there is a forwarding resource index field 17-08. In the case of "17-00", the activation / deactivation field 17-01 is 1 bit, and the NCR can identify beam activation or deactivation based on the activation / deactivation field 17-01. The serving cell ID field 17-02 can indicate the cell for which the NCR performs amplification and transmission operations and which has the cell ID applied by the MAC-CE. As an example, a 6-bit time-domain resource list index field 17-04 has been allocated and can receive an indication of one of 64 lists. The time-domain resource list index field 17-04 can change, for example, according to the maximum number of time-domain resource lists configured by the base station. The NCR can apply the access link beam by referring to the time-domain resource list configured via higher layer signaling through the time-domain resource list index field and the time resources included in the list. R is a reserved bit and has a value of "0". As an example, the SCS 17-03 has 1 bit for FR1 or FR2-1. In the case of FR1, one of 15 / 30 kHz can be indicated, while in the case of FR2-1, one of 60 / 120 kHz can be indicated. If the NCR operates in the FR2-2 band, the NCR can be allocated 2 bits and can receive an indication of one of 120 / 480 / 960 kHz. The periodicity field 17-05 has 10 bits and 640 entries because, as an example, the operation of amplifying and forwarding the SPS-PDSCH of 15 kHz is described. The NCR can receive an indication of the value of one of the 640 entries as the periodicity. The number of bits of the periodicity field can be determined by the previously indicated SCS field. If the SCS and periodicity configurations are present in the list configured via higher layer signaling, the SCS and periodicity fields can be absent. The beam index fields 17-06 and 17-07 indicate the access link beam index (or access link TCI state) corresponding to the indicated time-domain resource list. "n", that is, the number of the beam index field 17-07, is expected to be equal to the number of time resources. In the case of "17-10", if there is a forwarding resource index field 17-08, all or only some of the time resources in the list indicated by the time-domain resource list index can be referred to. For example, if the maximum number of time resources that can be included in the list is 8, the forwarding resource index field has 8 bits, each bit indicating a time resource included in the time-domain resource list. For another example, if the forwarding resource index field has a value of "10001000", this value indicates the first and fifth time resources included in the indicated list. The number N of the beam index fields is expected to be equal to the number of time resources indicated by the forwarding resource index field. If the forwarding resource index field does not exist, it can be seen that all the time resources of the indicated list are used.

[0297] In the case where the base station performs semi-persistent access link beam indication via the SCI, there are at least two possible methods. The first is to have an independent field in the SCI, and the second is to reinterpret the fields of the SCI.

[0298] In the first method, the SCI may include the following fields

[0299] - Activate / Deactivate

[0300] - Time domain resource list index

[0301] - Beam index

[0302] The definitions of the Activate / Deactivate, time domain resource list index, and beam index fields are the same as those of the previously described MAC-CE fields. Whether the SCI includes periodicity and SCS can be determined according to whether they are included in the configuration via higher layer signaling. The first method performs semi-persistent access link beam indication based on independent fields, but its disadvantage is that it adds fields that are not used otherwise to the SCI.

[0303] In the second method, the SCI can reinterpret the access link beam index field and the time resource field used for aperiodic access link beam indication as the access link beam index field and the time resource field for semi-persistent access link beam indication. The NCR requires an additional 1-bit Activate / Deactivate field to clearly identify that the access link beam index field and the time resource field of the SCI are those for aperiodic or semi-persistent access link beam indication. When the NCR identifies via the Activate / Deactivate field that the SCI is for semi-persistent access link beam indication, the time resource field of the SCI indicates the time domain resource list index. In addition, the beam index fields of the SCI can each indicate the access link beam corresponding to the indicated time resource included in the time domain resource list. Periodicity and SCS will be included in the list via higher layer signaling. The second method has the advantage of reusing existing SCI fields, thus minimizing additional fields. If the number of bits in the access link beam index field of the SCI is less than the maximum configured number of time resources, there is a disadvantage of only indicating a limited number of time resources.

[0304] <Fourth Embodiment: Resource Indication Method>

[0305] In the fourth embodiment, a method of indicating an access link beam in a semi-persistent manner will be described. According to the fourth embodiment, the base station may indicate the access link beam and the corresponding time resources via MAC-CE. At this time, the base station may configure the access link beam index (or access link TCI state) used for NCR through higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC, OAM). The time resources include slot offset, symbol offset, and duration in symbols.

[0306] The difference between the first embodiment and the fourth embodiment is that the first embodiment indicates the access link beam and the corresponding time resources in a bundle, while the fourth embodiment directly indicates the access link beam and the corresponding time resources. The fourth embodiment allows the base station to more flexibly schedule the beam by directly indicating the resources via MAC-CE. However, since multiple resources rather than a resource bundle are indicated, the MAC-CE payload may increase.

[0307] Figure 18 An example related to semi-persistent access link beam indication for NCR according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0308] Referring to Figure 18 , if the base station indicates the forwarding resource 18-11 via MAC-CE 18-10, the NCR may identify which access link beam is applied to which time resource by referring to the forwarding resource. For example, if {access link beam index #0, time resource #0}, {access link beam index #1, time resource #1}, and {access link beam index #2, time resource #2} are indicated via MAC-CE18-10, the NCR may identify the corresponding access link beam and time resource. Referring to the access link beam 18-20, the NCR may receive MAC-CE 18-10, send the corresponding HARQ-ACK thereof via PUCCH 18-21, and apply the access link beam to each time domain according to the forwarding resource 18-11. The time domain corresponds to an access link beam index (or access link TCI state). The beam indicated by the forwarding resource is dedicated to a single slot and does not indicate a beam beyond the slot boundary. In the example, the first forwarding resource (access link beam index #0, time resource #0) may be applied to slot 18-22, the second forwarding resource (access link beam index #1, time resource #1) may be applied to slot 18-23, and the third forwarding resource (access link beam index #2, time resource #2) may be applied to slot 18-24.

[0309] The indicated forwarding resources can be determined to be applied to the uplink or the downlink according to the TDD mode direction configured by the high-layer signaling. When time slots 18-22 and 18-23 are the downlink and time slot 18-24 is the uplink, the NCR can apply access link beam indices #0 and 1 to the downlink and apply access link beam index #2 to the uplink.

[0310] For the time slot offset of the forwarding resources, the time slot in which the PUCCH is transmitted can be configured as the reference time slot, or the first time slot after 3 ms from the transmission of the PUCCH can be configured as the reference.

[0311] There may be a situation where the time resources of the beam applied by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the time resources of the beam indicated by the periodic or aperiodic access link beam indication method by at least one symbol. The aperiodic access link beam indication method can have the highest priority, followed by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method, and then the periodic access link beam indication method. For an example, in the case where the symbols applied by the beam using the periodic access link beam indication method overlap with the symbols applied by the beam using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method, the NCR can apply the beam that has been applied using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method. As another example, in the case where the symbols to which the beam is applied using the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the symbols to which the beam is applied using the aperiodic access link beam indication method, the NCR can use the aperiodic access link beam indication method to apply the beam. In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent access link beam indication method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic access link beam indication method (even by at least one symbol), the NCR can apply the access link beam by using at least one of the following methods.

[0312] - Priority method 1

[0313] In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic access link beam indication method (even by at least one symbol), the corresponding symbols can be applied together with the access link beam according to the above priorities. The non-overlapping symbols will be applied together with the access link beam according to each method.

[0314] - Priority method 2

[0315] In the case where the time resources of the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method overlap with the time resources of the beam of the periodic / aperiodic method (even if overlapping by at least one symbol), the NCR may ignore the lower-priority time resources in the corresponding time slot. When the beam indicated by the semi-persistent method is applied to all symbols in time slots 18 - 24, when another beam is indicated to any one symbol in time slots 18 - 24 by the aperiodic method, the time resources of the beam in time slots 18 - 24 indicated by the semi-persistent method may be ignored.

[0316] Hereinafter, a method of configuring a semi-persistent access link beam using MAC-CE will be described in more detail.

[0317] If the base station performs semi-persistent access link beam indication through MAC-CE, the MAC-CE may include the following fields.

[0318] - Activate / Deactivate

[0319] - Number of Resources

[0320] - Time Slot Offset

[0321] - SLIV

[0322] - Beam Index

[0323] - Periodicity

[0324] - SCS

[0325] The NCR can identify whether the MAC-CE beam indication is activated or deactivated based on, for example, a 1-bit activate / deactivate field. If "activate" is indicated, the NCR applies the access link beam according to each forwarding resource included in the list, repeating the same every period. If "deactivate" is indicated, the NCR deactivates the access link beam from the period after the first time slot that appears 3 ms after sending the PUCCH including the HARQ-ACK corresponding to the MAC-CE.

[0326] To indicate multiple forwarding resources, the NCR needs to clearly know the number of forwarding resources. The number of resources field allows the NCR to know how many forwarding resources are indicated for the MAC-CE. If the number of resources has a value of N, N forwarding resources can be indicated.

[0327] The time slot offset field indicates the time slot to which the access link beam will be applied. The reference time slot can be the time slot in which the PUCCH including the HARQ-ACK corresponding to the MAC-CE has been sent, or can be the first time slot 3 ms after sending the PUCCH.

[0328] The SLIV field indicates the start and duration of the symbols to which the access link beam will be applied. The SLIV can be calculated in the same way as the SLIV used for regular data transmission.

[0329] The beam index field indicates, for example, the access link beam index (or access link TCI state) to be applied in the time resources indicated by the slot offset and the SLIV field.

[0330] The periodicity and SCS fields of the semi-persistent access link beam indication can indicate the periodicity and SCS of the indicated beam. Since the semi-persistent access beam indication of NCR is an amplify-and-forward semi-persistent channel or signal, it would be reasonable to consider the periodicity of the semi-persistent channel or signal as the periodicity of the semi-persistent access link beam indication. For example, the maximum number of configured SPS-PDSCH periodicities is determined by the SCS. The periodicity of the SPS-PDSCH configured with a 15 kHz SCS has 640 entries ranging from 1 ms to 640 ms, thus requiring 10 bits. Thus, the field for the periodicity of the semi-persistent access link beam indication can be allocated according to the SCS. The SCS can vary according to the band using NCR. In the case of using NCR in the FR1 band, an SCS of 15 / 30 kHz is used, while in the case of using NCR in the FR2-1 band, an SCS of 60 / 120 kHz is used. In the case of using NCR in the FR2-2 band, an SCS of 120 / 480 / 960 kHz is used. Therefore, depending on the band using NCR, the SCS field can be allocated one or two bits.

[0331] Figure 19 An example of a method for access link beam indication for NCR via MAC-CE in a semi-persistent method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0332] Refer to Figure 19, the activation / deactivation field 19-01 is 1 bit, and the NCR can identify beam activation or deactivation based on the activation / deactivation field 19-01. The serving cell ID field 19-02 can indicate the cell for which the NCR performs amplification and transmission operations and has the cell ID applied by the MAC-CE. As an example, the SCS 19-03 has 1 bit for FR1 or FR2-1. In the case of FR1, one of 15 / 30 kHz can be indicated, while in the case of FR2-1, one of 60 / 120 kHz can be indicated. If the NCR operates in the FR2-2 band, the NCR can be assigned 2 bits and can receive an indication of one of 120 / 480 / 960 kHz. R is a reserved bit and has a value of 0. The periodicity field 19-04 has 640 entries with 10 bits, as the operation of amplifying and forwarding the SPS-PDSCH of 15 kHz is described as an example. The NCR can receive an indication of the value of one of the 640 entries in the periodicity field 19-04 as the periodicity. The number of bits of the periodicity field can be determined by the previously indicated SCS field. In one example, the resource number field 19-05 is 3 bits and can allocate up to 8 forwarding resources. The slot offset field 19-06, the SLIV field 19-07, and the beam index field 19-08 configure a forwarding resource. For example, the slot offset field can be assigned 8 bits, assuming it is configured from 0 to 128, similar to the PDSCH. Assuming the SLIV field is configured from 0 to 127, the SLIV field can also be assigned 7 bits, similar to the PDSCH. The beam index field can be determined according to the maximum number of access link beam indices (or access link TCI states) that can be received by the NCR. The NCR can know a forwarding resource by referring to all the slot offset, SLIV, and beam index fields. The number N of forwarding resources is expected to be equal to the value of the resource number field.

[0333] Figure 20 is a block diagram showing the structure of a UE in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0334] Referring Figure 20 , the UE may include a UE receiver 20-00, a UE transmitter 20-10, and a UE processor (controller) 20-05.

[0335] For example, since from the perspective of the base station, the NCR relayed between the UE and the base station may appear as a terminal, Figure 20 the UE of

[0336] The UE receiver 20-00 and the UE transmitter 20-10 can be referred to as a transceiver. The UE receiver 20-00, the UE transmitter 20-10, and the UE processor 20-05 can operate according to the communication method of the UE described above. However, the components of the UE are not limited to the above examples. The UE may include more components (e.g., a memory, etc.) or fewer components than those described above. In addition, the UE receiver 20-00, the UE transmitter 20-10, and the UE processor 20-05 can be implemented in the form of a single chip.

[0337] The UE receiver 20-00 and the UE transmitter 20-10 (or transceiver) can send signals to and receive signals from the base station. The signals can include control information and data. The transceiver can include an RF transmitter for upconverting and amplifying the transmitted signal, and an RF receiver for low-noise amplifying the received signal and downconverting. This is merely an example of a transceiver, and the components of the transceiver are not limited to the RF transmitter and the RF receiver.

[0338] In addition, the transceiver can receive a signal through a wireless channel, output the signal to the UE processor 20-05, and send the signal output from the UE processor 20-05 through the wireless channel.

[0339] A memory (not shown) can store programs and data required for the operation of the UE. Additionally, the memory can store control information or data included in the signals obtained from the UE. The memory can include storage media such as ROM, RAM, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, and a DVD, or a combination of storage media.

[0340] The UE processor 20-05 can control a series of processes such that the UE can operate according to the above embodiments of the present disclosure. The UE processor 20-05 can be implemented as a controller or one or more processors.

[0341] Figure 21 is a block diagram showing the structure of a base station in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0342] Reference Figure 21 , the base station can include a base station receiver 21-00, a base station transmitter 21-10, and a base station processor (controller) 21-05.

[0343] For example, since from the perspective of the UE, the NCR relayed between the UE and the base station can appear as a base station, so Figure 21 the base station of

[0344] The base station receiver 21-00 and the base station transmitter 21-10 can be referred to as transceivers. The base station receiver 21-00, the base station transmitter 21-10, and the base station processor 21-05 can operate according to the communication method of the base station described above. The components of the base station are not limited to the above examples. For example, the base station may include more components (such as a memory, etc.) or fewer components than the above components. In addition, the base station receiver 21-00, the base station transmitter 21-10, and the base station processor 21-05 can be implemented in the form of a single chip.

[0345] The base station receiver 21-00 and the base station transmitter 21-10 (or transceivers) can send signals to the UE and receive signals from the UE. The signals can include control information and data. The transceiver can include an RF transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the transmitted signal, and an RF receiver for low-noise amplifying the received signal and down-converting. However, this is only an embodiment of the transceiver, and the components of the transceiver are not limited to the RF transmitter and the RF receiver.

[0346] In addition, the transceiver can receive a signal through a radio channel, output the signal to the base station processor 21-05, and send the signal output from the base station processor 21-05 through the radio channel.

[0347] The memory (not shown) can store programs and data required for the operation of the base station. In addition, the memory can store control information or data included in the signals obtained from the base station. The memory can include storage media such as ROM, RAM, hard disk, CD-ROM, and DVD, or a combination of storage media.

[0348] The base station processor 21-05 can control a series of processes so that the base station operates according to the above embodiments of the present disclosure. The base station processor 21-05 can be implemented as a controller or one or more processors.

[0349] In the drawings describing the methods of the present disclosure, the described order does not always correspond to the order of performing the steps of each method, and the order relationship between the steps can be changed or the steps can be performed in parallel.

[0350] Alternatively, in the drawings describing the methods of the present disclosure, some elements may be omitted, and only some elements may be included therein without departing from the basic spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

[0351] In addition, in the methods of the present disclosure, part or all of the content of each embodiment can be combined and implemented without departing from the essence of the present disclosure.

[0352] Although not elaborated here, it is also possible to use a method including a separate table or information including at least one element included in the tables presented in the present disclosure.

[0353] Although the present disclosure has been shown and described with reference to various embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art will understand that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A method performed by a network control repeater NCR in a communication system, the method comprising: Receiving, via a radio resource control information RRC message from a base station, a configuration of one or more forwarding resource sets for an access link; And Receiving, from the base station, a media access control element MAC CE indicating a forwarding resource set among the one or more forwarding resource sets, Wherein the forwarding resource set includes at least one forwarding resource, Wherein each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and Wherein the MAC CE includes a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of the forwarding resource set.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The time resource is defined based on a slot offset, a symbol offset, and a duration in terms of the number of symbols.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein The configuration includes the periodicity and subcarrier spacing of the forwarding resource set.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Transmitting, in a slot, a physical uplink control channel PUCCH including hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement HARQ-ACK information associated with the MAC CE; Wherein the forwarding resource set is activated or deactivated based on a first slot 3 ms after the slot in which the PUCCH including the HARQ-ACK information associated with the MAC CE is transmitted.

5. The method according to claim 1, Among them, The configuration includes an index of the one or more forwarding resource sets, Wherein the MAC CE includes a field for indicating an index of the forwarding resource set among the indices of the one or more forwarding resource sets, and Wherein the size of the field is defined based on the maximum number of the one or more forwarding resource sets.

6. A method performed by a base station in a communication system, the method comprising: Sending, via a radio resource control information RRC message, a configuration of one or more forwarding resource sets for an access link to a network control repeater NCR; And Sending to the NCR a media access control element MAC CE indicating a forwarding resource set among the one or more forwarding resources, Wherein the forwarding resource includes at least one forwarding resource, Wherein each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and Wherein the MAC CE includes a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of the forwarding resource set.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein, The time resource is defined based on a slot offset, a symbol offset, and a duration in terms of the number of symbols.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein The configuration includes the periodicity and subcarrier spacing of the forwarding resource set.

9. The method according to claim 6, further comprising: Receiving, in a slot, a physical uplink control channel PUCCH including hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement HARQ-ACK information associated with the MAC CE, Wherein the forwarding resource set is activated or deactivated based on a first slot 3 ms after the slot in which the PUCCH including the HARQ-ACK information associated with the MAC CE is received.

10. The method according to claim 6, Among them, The configuration includes an index of the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein the MAC CE includes a field for indicating an index of the set of forwarding resources in the index of the one or more sets of forwarding resources, and wherein a size of the field is defined based on a maximum number of the one or more sets of forwarding resources.

11. A network control repeater (NCR) in a communication system, the NCR comprising: a transceiver; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transceiver and configured to: receive, via a radio resource control (RRC) message, a configuration of one or more sets of forwarding resources for an access link from a base station, and receive, from the base station, a media access control element (MAC CE) indicating a set of forwarding resources among the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein the set of forwarding resources includes at least one forwarding resource, wherein each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and wherein the MAC CE includes a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of the set of forwarding resources.

12. The NCR according to claim 11, wherein, The time resource is defined based on a slot offset, a symbol offset, and a duration in number of symbols, and wherein the configuration includes a periodicity and a subcarrier spacing of the set of forwarding resources.

13. The NCR according to claim 11, Among them, the one or more processors further configured to: control to transmit, in a slot, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) including hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information associated with the MAC CE, wherein the set of forwarding resources is activated or deactivated based on a first slot that is 3 ms after the slot in which the PUCCH including the HARQ-ACK information associated with the MAC CE is transmitted.

14. The NCR according to claim 11, Among them, the configuration includes an index of the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein the MAC CE includes a field for indicating an index of the set of forwarding resources in the index of the one or more sets of forwarding resources, and wherein a size of the field is defined based on a maximum number of the one or more sets of forwarding resources.

15. A base station in a communication system, the base station comprising: a transceiver; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transceiver and configured to: send, via a radio resource control (RRC) message, a configuration of one or more sets of forwarding resources for an access link to a network control repeater (NCR); and send to the NCR a media access control element (MAC CE) indicating a set of forwarding resources among the one or more sets of forwarding resources, wherein the forwarding resources include at least one forwarding resource, wherein each of the at least one forwarding resources is associated with a time resource and a beam index, and wherein the MAC CE includes a bit field indicating activation or deactivation of the set of forwarding resources.

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